Worst and best!!!

LandoverDivision · November 06, 2008, 10:33:42 AM

True. I love Ride On, but in my opinion, I don't consider them the best. Speaking of Ride On, I have to get some interior videos, and pics of them soon.

WES · November 06, 2008, 02:34:31 PM

Quote from: landoverdivision on November 06, 2008, 10:07:15 AM
Ride On isn't always up-to-date with technology. That's why you see messed up buses still on the streets. For those of you who said Ride On was the best, ARE YOU SERIOUS? I have absolutly no beef with Ride On, but do they have trains? NO!

There are reasons why RIDE ON is so liked over systems like WMATA and here they are.

1)If there any routes that have a frequency of more than 30 minutes, let me know because practically all of their routes have less than 30 minutes--even during non rush hours, Saturdays and Sundays.

2)Yes some buses are ready for the scrap heap but in order to replace a bus with another bus, you need money to do that and since RIDE ON can't self support itself, they have to depend on the Feds and Montgomery County(which BTW-is having money problems) and when the money isn't there, buses can't be bought. And as of yet they don't do midlife overhauls and to a sense there may not be a need for such since they don't do quite the heavy haul service WMATA does. Compared to some other T/As their buses are in pretty good shape.

3)Up until now they have among the best fleet variety of any transit system other than WMATA, in this area.

4)RIDE ON has been the first in many areas, in this area. To name a few are --The first to low floor buses--the first to buy alternative fueled buses (namely CNGs)--the first to put bike racks on buses--the first AND only T/A in this area to have practically all of their routes running every 30 minutes or less--the first to have a paint scheme that isn't a line and their name across it AND the first to be smart enough to realize that WMATA wasn't meeting their constituents' needs and therefore RIDE ON was created(though that was more Montgomery County).

Is RIDE ON perfect no, is any T/A perfect NO. But would you tell me that you would take WMATA over RIDE ON, I would say you need to ride RIDE ON more. Let's just say right now if you were in Damascus waiting for a 90 to come from RIDE ON your wait would only be 30 minutes. Now try waiting at Fair Oaks Mall, for a 2B to come and your wait is 1 hour.

LandoverDivision · November 06, 2008, 02:51:20 PM

I mean WES, I know where you're coming from, but don't get me wrong here. I love Ride On I have absolutly no beef with them what so ever. What I was saying was Since Ride On is a county system and just has buses while WMATA hs trains and buses, then they aren't at WMATA's level yet.

WMATAGMOAGH · November 06, 2008, 05:16:14 PM

Quote from: landoverdivision on November 06, 2008, 02:51:20 PM
I mean WES, I know where you're coming from, but don't get me wrong here. I love Ride On I have absolutly no beef with them what so ever. What I was saying was Since Ride On is a county system and just has buses while WMATA hs trains and buses, then they aren't at WMATA's level yet.

You are trying to compare apples to oranges it seems...

WES · November 06, 2008, 08:31:28 PM

Ride On will never be WMATA, because mainly any rail project will be done by WMATA. And I am not WMATA is bad, compared to other large T/As WMATA is probably one of the better ones, but I opinion is RIDE ON has many advantages over WMATA. And as for the point that RIDE ON's buses are old, let's remember that WMATA is currently running 18 year old Flxibles and in the past have ran 30+ year old GM new looks, 20+ RTSs and Flxible New Looks. Every agency at one point will have old buses because of financial issues.

Everyone has their opinion, some will think WMATA is better than RIDE ON and some will think RIDE ON is better than WMATA.

RailBus63 · November 07, 2008, 09:25:37 AM

Quote from: WES on October 09, 2008, 12:04:05 PM
Number one practically all of their routes were ones that WMATA had and all they did was just "redesigned" those routes. Can anyone name me a FFX Connector route, other than the 621 that wasn't stolen from WMATA.

FFX's routes weren't 'stolen' from WMATA - the county exercised their right to take this service over directly.

QuoteP.S. Is it me or would FFX County been better off being with WMATA. With all of these service disruptions because of labor issues, the way their pay rate is going they could equal to WMATA's overtime and or cost FFX County as much as it did to give the money to WMATA. It is also odd that other local T/As don't have this problem but FFX Connector.

2007 operating cost per vehicle revenue hour (per the FTA's National Transit Database) -

WMATA bus - $138.97
Fairfax Connector - $78.47

I'm not completely defending FFX here - Tristan's posts indicate that they have some serious work to do - but I would have a hard time recommending that WMATA should operate this service, especially given the fact that Metrobus has such a poor reputation itself.

Tristan · November 07, 2008, 10:32:59 AM

To shed some light on the labor issues - somehow, Fairfax's first union contract just so happened to exclude a "no-strike" clause that WMATA and other systems have that prevent service disruptions due to labor issues. Usually, the systems that do are either forward-looking or have had long, bloody strikes in the past.

To my knowledge, the other systems have such clauses in place - except at DASH, which is not union at all. There have been at least 4 unionization efforts in the past, the last of which failed because the union pulled out at the last minute (literally: 4:45 PM on the day before the election, 15 minutes before the deadline).

In terms of "work to do", ... nevermind. I thought I was going to post a nice evaluation of strengths and weaknesses and such but I just don't have that sort of charity in me right now. It would take a lot of work to prevent this from becoming a ranting diatribe about county bureaucracy and fiscal tightwadism.

C40LF_2464 · November 12, 2008, 03:18:48 PM

Well i rode on DASH the other day and it was quite nice it was on time and everything i guess ill say THEBUS is my worst probally

LandoverDivision · November 12, 2008, 03:29:18 PM

Quote from: DE40LFR on November 12, 2008, 03:18:48 PM
Well i rode on DASH the other day and it was quite nice it was on time and everything i guess ill say THEBUS is my worst probally

The Bus isn't the worst. Everyone bashes The Bus. But now, I finally realized why they run like they do. So give them a chance. I haven't rode Fairfax Connector, so I can't say they are the worst. I rode DASH for the first time, and they are definitly NOT the wrst. As for Ride On, I'm going to have to ride one of their buses one day. NJ Transit is not the worst either. Along with NYCMTA. I've heard some pretty good things about RTD (Denver). NFTA (Buffalo, NY), I rarely seen buses around in the area I was in. SF Muni sounds pretty good. Along with the transit system in Houston. Now Connect-A-Ride might be one of the worst, but I think they run like they do for the same reason The Bus does. I can't really do a lot of judging because I haven't traveled much.

C40LF_2464 · November 12, 2008, 05:45:41 PM

Well i like THEBUS but i cant say any transit system is the best but ill say um i have nothing to put on my worst list but i feel really stupid now and thinking i shouldve never started this

Tristan · November 12, 2008, 08:18:16 PM

Just because there are reasons doesn't mean that the situation is not as it is. The fact is, PG is getting better but they still have a lot of work to do, and I'm not going to give them brownie points because they don't have enough money or whatever, just like I wouldn't ignore the fact that DASH doesn't have wheelchair lifts because of its facility - it's still an inconvenience that we don't have them, it still makes us less attractive to alternative commuters, and regardless of the reasons, circumstances are in PG that people shy away from their service.

So there's no harm in saying that they just aren't good, and there's no harm in having a discussion on what systems we enjoy the least.

LandoverDivision · November 12, 2008, 08:24:53 PM

Quote from: Tristan on November 12, 2008, 08:18:16 PM
Just because there are reasons doesn't mean that the situation is not as it is. The fact is, PG is getting better but they still have a lot of work to do, and I'm not going to give them brownie points because they don't have enough money or whatever, just like I wouldn't ignore the fact that DASH doesn't have wheelchair lifts because of its facility - it's still an inconvenience that we don't have them, it still makes us less attractive to alternative commuters, and regardless of the reasons, circumstances are in PG that people shy away from their service.

So there's no harm in saying that they just aren't good, and there's no harm in having a discussion on what systems we enjoy the least.

You always puttin' things into a perspective aren't you Tristan?

Tristan · November 12, 2008, 09:49:00 PM

I try - I used to be a Journalism major

WayneNYC · November 12, 2008, 11:31:50 PM

Quote from: DE40LFR on November 12, 2008, 05:45:41 PM
Well i like THEBUS but i cant say any transit system is the best but ill say um i have nothing to put on my worst list but i feel really stupid now and thinking i shouldve never started this

I also think there's nothing wrong with this topic. PG, TheBus has been the butt of our jokes for a long time now. I have to say that they actually seem to be stepping in the right direction. Granted they seem to be baby steps, but it is progress. I was impressed when they got the new Phantoms and look at them now. I'll be really impressed when they decide to venture into weekend and late evening service. Sure the buses will be empty in the beginning, but the riders will come.

Perry · November 13, 2008, 09:52:43 AM

Actually that will probably be their biggest success story. When I worked at PRTC and we initiated Saturday service for OmniLink, it was an instant success and in less than a year we had our projected ridership for three years out. There is pent up demand there in PG and it would be very popular. It's a shame it's taking this long for those who have the control to try and work something out. They've always been the red-headed stepchild even when I grew up in Hyattsville in the 70's and 80's. Bus service was always a joke especially with the old C2 ending at 7 or 8PM, the F8 running even more infrequently than it does now, the F4 not even having Sunday service. I could go on.....

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Worst and best!!!