Holiday Schedules Revisited

I mentioned in an earlier post that the older daughter once nearly got stuck without a bus to take to school because of the observance of New Year's Day and the Sunday/Holiday schedules for the day as a result.

As I'm writing this, it's five days out from Memorial Day, and buses (and trains, presumably) will be running under the same schedule. Odds are good that the older daughter doesn't need to go to school that day (I suspect most college campuses are closed).

I, on the other hand, may have to go into work, at least for a while, on Memorial Day (such is the glamorous life of working in the IT industry, and for a small company to boot). I'm hoping that it won't be necessary, but planning ahead for the possibility.

I digress: If I have to go in, that's gonna be a bit of a pickle for me.

My normal commute is to take the line that comes closest to my house (within a couple of blocks) to one of the larger train-stations on the line. There are three such along the route, and one at each end. From there, it's one train-ride downtown, and a walk of a couple blocks to get to the office. Even if my normal morning bus runs late for some reason, I'd be able to catch the next train after a 15-minute wait.

On the Sunday/Holiday schedule, though, that first bus doesn't even go to that train-station. It doesn't even go as far along that part of the route to get to my normal bus-stop. The only "reasonably" quick way I can find to get to the same train line (at the next large station along it's route) is to take my normal route in the other direction, then transfer to another bus to get to that station. From there it's pretty much business as usual, at least. Getting to the bus isn't going to be horrible either, but it's maybe a quarter-hour walk as opposed to a three-minute one, and the tipple effect of different times and routes means that I'll be spending close to 2½ hours commuting if it comes to that.

And buses only run once an hour on the Sunday/Holiday schedule. Hopefully I won't miss the first train, because it looks like it'll be running every ½-hour, and the window to get from the bus to the train may be pretty tight.

On further reflection, it seems to me that my house is right on the edge of a black hole for public transit service on weekends (well, Sundays, at any rate) and holidays.

What's wrong with this picture?

Working in downtown Denver means that, often, you're never too far from the 16th street mall shuttles. That, in turn, means that it's a relatively quick jaunt to most anywhere else downtown, provided that the shuttles aren't too packed to hop on to.

I took a break today around lunchtime to go to a place called City Pop. They do popcorn and various candies, including a nice variety of sourball candies (orange, cherry, grape, watermelon and green apple flavors at a minimum). It's just a bit further than I'd like to walk if I want to be able to leave for home at a good time, so I took the shuttle both ways.

That's when I saw this sign:

What's wrong with this picture?

Taken from the inside of the shuttle.

Crises on trains...

This morning's ride was somewhat eventful. A passenger's phone started burning at one of the stops. A Samsung,for anyone who's interested.

The reactions of fellow passengers was mixed and interesting. Some bolted, most just got out of the immediate vicinity. The train stayed at the station for a few minutes while the smoke cleared.

Had it happened while the train was in motion, I find myself wondering how things would've played out though. Or, for that matter, if it'd been a "real" fire. That prompted me to look for and ask about the emergency buttons on the train.

For reference, on the Denver RTD light rail trains, they're over the doors.

Not just a flat tire after all…

While waiting for the train this morning, I noticed one of the mountain-route line's buses had what looked like a flat. On closer examination, it turned out that it wasn't just flat — it was off the rim!

Two questions came to mind:

1. How are flats (let alone something like this) actually dealt with on a running line?
2. Does the driver have any notification in the cabin when something this drastic happens?

I know buses can be towed — I've even seen it happen once or twice. But with an active (and in this case, express) line, what's the fallback? There will be people waiting, presumably, for that bus, and it's not going anywhere with this tire.

I gather, from talking briefly with a rider from that bus, that there's either no notification, or that it's easily missed. That rider mentioned that the driver said they didn't know when it happened… It's, admittedly, a jump to a conclusion, but it feels like a pretty safe jump to me…

What happens when a bus is REALLY late?

The evening bus tonight was running a full schedule-interval late. This particular route runs, like many here, on a 30-minute cycle, and was basically 30 minutes behind. There's some communication available between buses, judging by side chatter overheard, so at least it's not a complete vacuum from that perspective.

Setting aside the why's and wherefores of what happened to delay it so much, the dance of buses with the same station/stop at a busy location must be something of a logistical challenge. Maybe even a nightmare.

It's interesting to note how varied the passenger reactions are, though... A lot of grumpiness and complaining from people who don't seem to get that public transit isn't 100% reliable. A fair amount of histrionics (thigh- slapping, loud comparisons with other vehicles leaving on schedule, etc.). I suspect that there'll be a fair few complaints lodged, but what the driver could've done differently has probably not even crossed the critic's minds.

Still, I'll get home about on time, so I count that as a win.

Public transport and chaos theory

This last week, I've not been able to catch the train that I've caught for the last... six weeks, I think it's been. I've puzzled over why that would be the case, and my best guess is that a recent change in drivers is responsible.

The driver that's been the regular for most of that time has apparently moved on to another route, or has been sick for several days. He had the knack of getting the morning bus to the train station with a few seconds, up to a minute, to spare, which gave just enough time to get off the bus and onto the train almost without fail.

The newer drivers, for whatever reason, haven't managed that trick yet. Maybe there's an "upstream"delay contributing to it as well, I have no way of knowing. In any event, I've had to wait for the "next" train every day so far this week.

I can't decide if this is a good thing or not yet. On one hand, I'm not having to run too catch the train in at all. On the other hand, I have to wait for maybe 15 minutes to catch my train.

All (apparently) due to a change in drivers. One little change, with a disproportionate impact.

Chaos theory at work in daily life...