WORSE THAN FIRST THOUGHT

Apparently, the problems on the 104 on Tuesday night were worse than I originally thought. According to some regular riders of the 11:05pm West Chester to 69 St run (4241 block), a replacement bus never made it to West Chester to cover the 11:05pm trip. Apparently, one of the buses seen heading up West Chester Pike was deadheading to another route, while a second bus which was presumed to be covering 4241 block apparently only made it to Broomall or Newtown Square. This might explain why there weren't as many people who arrived at 69 St on the horribly late 11:12pm run.

Okay, let's assume that the operator arrived at 69 St from West Chester to cover the 10:12pm return trip to West Chester (probably late, since this operator is notoriously late over the course of the entire night). If there was a problem with that bus, even if the operator was 10-15 minutes late getting in, at the very least, there is an obligation to nofify the Control Center that there's a problem with the bus. Even if the problem wasn't reported until arrival at 69 St, it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to get a bus out of the Red Arrow yard to 69 St Terminal proper. Unless of course you're a supervisor who is either (a) ignorant, (b) asleep on the job, or (c) a combination of both, there's no reason not to have a replacement bus ready to cover the 10:12pm departure to West Chester. Even if that bus leaves 10-15 minutes late, there's still no reason not to cover the full run to West Chester and leave several passengers between West Chester and Newtown Square standed in a near monsoon.

Yet, this is the 104 we're dealing with, which is supposed to be one of the major lines out of 69 St, but is almost treated as irrelevant. Of course, I wouldn't expect Fearless Leader or any of the Rotating Resumes at 1234 Market to try and find a solution...

EARLY REPORT ON FRONTIER ROUTE CHANGES

As reported earlier, the 203 will be eliminated next week, due to a combination of the ending of CMAQ funding and hideously low ridership. Also, Saturday service on the 206 will be cut, and the 99 will no longer operate between Royersford and Pottstown, due to the ending of US 202/Section 400 Congestion Mitigation Strategies funding. More changes will be reported as information becomes available.