C. Fowler
1/5
With the influx of students this year, all of the pressure cracks in this service have nearly given way leading one step closer to the collapse of regular safe and reliable service.
There have been several occasions where I have been put in the hands of chance for an Overflow bus to arrive when I’ve been waved away by a driver with a bus brimming with students, and many more times I have been left to wait half an hour to an hour outside for the next bus when nothing shows up as scheduled, the next bus being just as likely to possess another overabundance of students at any given time which will then be emptied and overstuffed again with the surplus of students that continued to gather and wait at their stop without any other transportation options available to them.
Despite the Charter and Overflow buses existing to remedy the issues with the overabundance of dependent students, they are rarely utilized at prime times to deal with the many dozens of students by going ahead of the regular buses as they should be. Students are also not able to rely on the presence of these buses and therefore rarely make any effort to recognize them when they are made available at the transit station unless told to transfer over by the drivers to prevent the over-stuffing of regular route buses.
In addition to these route conflicts, the manager of this station does not consider allergies to wasp stings to be of any significant importance as the annual infestations in summer and autumn have worsened over the years because of broken trash cans that have still not been fixed with new lids or reliable replacements after over 2 years of sending requests to their business email and even bringing up the problem to the manager in person. I cannot use any routes that require me to stand outside at the station because I am guaranteed to encounter aggressive yellowjackets multiple times which are lured by the open trash and the potted flower displays.
The MyRideNBT app is inconsistent with tracking buses and often loses track of them entirely until the next bus begins on the route, leaving potential riders with an estimate based on optimal outcomes which are often not realistic and sometimes misleading as there have been multiple occasions where I have been told I have missed an untracked bus only for them to pass by 10-15 minutes late after I decide to walk several kilometers instead.
The transit station has updated their hours, but not online, to 8:30am to 6pm Monday to Friday which allows people working 9 to 5 jobs to get their exclusive services from the station after work. At least one member of security staff is readily available onsite most of the time, but there are still unstable people being allowed to loiter inside and around the premises along with the regular homeless occupation, most of whom act in ways that lead to an uncomfortable and tense atmosphere despite giving them the benefit of the doubt.
My complaints do not reflect on the remaining drivers of North Bay Transit, because the majority of these drivers, while overworked, are still well mannered and friendly to well behaved passengers. Most if not all conflict that happens on the bus is caused by repeated reminders to students to move to the back and make space for more people, students who don’t get their passes ready in advance causing blockages, or when people don’t clear spaces for people with handicaps. All things considered, bus drivers are dealing with too much and I completely understand why some faces old and new have left entirely while the banner on the front of the bus continues to disruptively advertise 3 screens worth of info for more to fill their place.
If not for the enduring generosity and patience of the drivers of NBT I would have abandoned this service years ago. Big things need to change from management here, especially before they can begin to justify another fare raise this year.
