Matthew H Fish
Lead Service Attendant
- Joined
- May 28, 2019
- Messages
- 499
Yesterday, I took my first intercity bus transit trip since before the pandemic. It was on a small bus route between Corvallis, Oregon and Newport, Oregon. Before 2017, this was cross-ticketed with Amtrak and would have been scheduled as trip 8575. Now, it is a "local" bus service operated by the two adjoining counties for the two towns, 50 miles apart. It costs 10 dollars, each way.
I showed up at the bus stop too early---and looked at my schedule and saw it was printed in 2018. There was another schedule posted there, with the time changed by a few minutes. I was worried, but another passenger (the only other passenger), who showed up a little after me told me the schedule had been changed. The bus was leaving 20 minutes after I got there. But still, once I was on board, it was a nice trip over the coast range to Newport. Of course, I wore a mask, as did everyone on the bus, and it seemed fairly risk free---sharing a small space with 2 people for an hour doesn't seem any less risky than sharing a grocery store with possibly hundreds of people for 20 minutes. Anyway, so it was good to get away. The only problem was that once I was in Newport, I realized after looking at a schedule that I had picked up off the bus that the return trip was two hours earlier---shifted from 5:30 PM to 3:20 PM, which greatly curtailed my activities in town.
The biggest problem when I ready to board the bus was that there was an indigent, seemingly mentally disabled man on the bus who had no fare. I paid his fare ($7), which was not that great of a problem, but on the trip back, he kept on taking off his mask. I know it can be hard, and once or twice is understandable, but he didn't seem to take it seriously. Also, he might have had some disabilities going on, but he also might have just been drunk. This can often be a problem on these types of bus trips. It was very annoying to me.
So, two take-aways from this: first, while I approve of high-capacity, high-technology rail solutions, those rail lines are going to depend greatly on lots of bus lines that take people to their final destination. Sadly, in the US, the idea of taking a bus is seen as somehow a "last resort", and the schedules are often impractical for tourism or business travel. Also, sadly, many of the people who ride the bus are not going to make the ride easy for other passengers. There needs to be a cultural change in how people view bus riding before it becomes part of an integrated transportation network.
Also, riding the bus with someone who was non-compliant about masks made me think maybe I have returned to travelling too soon. It is annoying that people can't follow what are some simple, necessary rules to make travel easier and safer for all of us.
So, while I can't fault the bus itself--- I can see why people wouldn't want to take a trip like this.
I showed up at the bus stop too early---and looked at my schedule and saw it was printed in 2018. There was another schedule posted there, with the time changed by a few minutes. I was worried, but another passenger (the only other passenger), who showed up a little after me told me the schedule had been changed. The bus was leaving 20 minutes after I got there. But still, once I was on board, it was a nice trip over the coast range to Newport. Of course, I wore a mask, as did everyone on the bus, and it seemed fairly risk free---sharing a small space with 2 people for an hour doesn't seem any less risky than sharing a grocery store with possibly hundreds of people for 20 minutes. Anyway, so it was good to get away. The only problem was that once I was in Newport, I realized after looking at a schedule that I had picked up off the bus that the return trip was two hours earlier---shifted from 5:30 PM to 3:20 PM, which greatly curtailed my activities in town.
The biggest problem when I ready to board the bus was that there was an indigent, seemingly mentally disabled man on the bus who had no fare. I paid his fare ($7), which was not that great of a problem, but on the trip back, he kept on taking off his mask. I know it can be hard, and once or twice is understandable, but he didn't seem to take it seriously. Also, he might have had some disabilities going on, but he also might have just been drunk. This can often be a problem on these types of bus trips. It was very annoying to me.
So, two take-aways from this: first, while I approve of high-capacity, high-technology rail solutions, those rail lines are going to depend greatly on lots of bus lines that take people to their final destination. Sadly, in the US, the idea of taking a bus is seen as somehow a "last resort", and the schedules are often impractical for tourism or business travel. Also, sadly, many of the people who ride the bus are not going to make the ride easy for other passengers. There needs to be a cultural change in how people view bus riding before it becomes part of an integrated transportation network.
Also, riding the bus with someone who was non-compliant about masks made me think maybe I have returned to travelling too soon. It is annoying that people can't follow what are some simple, necessary rules to make travel easier and safer for all of us.
So, while I can't fault the bus itself--- I can see why people wouldn't want to take a trip like this.
