OVERHEATED... Several Red Arrow routes suffered major delays due to overheating of several buses over the course of today. Reports of delays of nearly 20 minutes were reported on several lines, with the 104 and 111 suffering the brunt of the delays. At least two 104 buses - the 5:05pm West Chester Express and the 5:20pm Newtown Square local - did not run, causing a major overflow crowd on the 5:35pm West Chester Express. There has been an ongoing problem with availability of enough road worthy buses at Red Arrow - which is hardly news by this point. On several occasions, peak hour 104 departures to West Chester have either departed late or have been cancelled due to a lack of available vehicles in the yard at pull-out time. How much longer would it take for SEPTA's Minster of Mis-Information Richard Maloney to deny that there's a bus shortage?

MEANWHILE, DEMOCRACY TAKES A DAY OFF... Someone at SEPTA must have a very interesting sense of fiscal restraint. At today's SEPTA Board meeting, those people who arrived had to be furious when only an agenda - rather than a package including the financial report, updated resolutions, _and_ the agenda - were left. SEPTA's reaction: You snooze, you lose. Never mind the fact that there weren't quite as many people at this month's meetings. Gee, there's nothing like only telling people only half of the story; it's worked for SEPTA almost since the day David Gunn left the company.

To top things off, after arriving for the meeting late and attempting to get on the speaking list, one of the SEPTA Transit Police goons (P/O R Buggy, #102) rather rudely told me that I wasn't going to be able to get on the speaker's list because I was late. Never mind that my 104 bus was one of the many buses that broke down over the course of the day along West Chester Pike and other parts of Red Arrow territory. When I took exception to being denied the right to address the board, I was escored out by Buggy and the rest of Capt. Rodgers' goon squad. Yep, that's democracy under SEPTA Board Chairman/Radio Mogul/Turnpike Commissioner/Land Developer Extraordinaire/All Around Jerk Pasquale T. Deon, Sr. Well, after today, the gloves come off. For those who've been regular readers of this blog: If you thought I had a chip on my shoulder before, then you ain't seen nothing yet...

Goon Squad notwithstanding, SEPTA did pass an interim budget, pending what they expect to be a $41 million windfall from Harrisburg. HA! Don't Fearless Leader, Don Pasquale, and the rest of the idiots at SEPTA understand that neither the Governor nor the Legislature is going to send a blank check for $41 million just because SEPTA whines about being broke? Considering that several people have suggested that SEPTA restructure the way the Regional Rail system is operated (the first step would be firing COO Pat Nowakowski) by re-pairing lines to reduce layover/recovery times at outer terminals, and have also suggested that several bus routes be moved to depots closer to terminals to reduce deadheading, did it ever occur to SEPTA to try those options before acting like one of those low-life panhandlers who annoy the hell out of commuters at Suburban Station and other major terminals?

Yes, as you can see, I am in a very bad mood...