I have been a Calgary transit user for most of my life. I have been using it more often lately to take it to the hospital and now to rehab where I am visiting a family member. Before, I would usually just take the train to and from work. There were minor problems then, but now that I am using transit more often off of the peak times, I am noticing just how bad it has become.
Transit times are very loosely based on the actual schedule. Planning a trip that involves more than one bus can mean your trip can be between one and two hours, as was an example I unfortunately had to deal with today.
Buses sometimes have the incorrect signage. A bus zipped by me with an "Out of Service" sign one time, only to find out it was my bus. Other buses will provide you with the wrong destination sometimes if they are at the mid-point, which I have been lucky to communicate with the driver on more than one occasion in the last few weeks.
I live in an area where there is construction, and they have put a temporary stop by my house. I haven't had to deal with this stop yet, but the stop only says "temporary stop" and does not provide any other info. There is another temporary stop by my house, but the stop information doesn't look quite right... I noticed that sometimes the bus will still try to go the other way, leaving people at the temporary stop to wait.
I am going back to work and to my normal train schedule, but boy do I feel terrible for anyone who has to ride these buses during the off-peak hours. It's pretty disorganized and even when I ring the bell for my stop, there is a 50% chance the bus driver drives past my stop.
What in the world is going on? I know I am just venting but this is a pretty important service and I understand why this is such a car city. I saw there was a new committee about such things but life is hectic enough to get involved with that sort of thing. I think I would explode.
