OCTranspo, I hate you.

Last two days I had to take a bus. Last time I did so was in July. Experience is just as shitty as ever – buses come either 5 minutes early, or 10 minutes late, so you miss them if you trust the schedule.

Some time in the summer I bought 10 bus tickets, which were in my wallet all this time, so I only noticed today, but OCTranspo hiked fares yet again. Now regular routes are 3$ a ride, express rides are 4$, and bus tickets are 95 cents each. The only way I noticed was because I were standing at the corner of Bronson and Gladstone, waiting for any bus to take me out of there to anywhere where I can get onto a 4 or 7 going to Carleton, and 14 came. As I were about to board, I noticed that 14 is now designated express route, and costs 4$ or 3 bus tickets to board.

Argh.

For that kind of money I’ll walk to Bank st, thank you very much. 4 bucks for 5 block ride.

Of course money grabbing bastards have the gall to claim that “A new fare increase will be introduced December 1, 2005 to help keep pace with inflation and increased operating costs resulting from the rise in fuel prices. Although the cost of taking the bus will increase, transit is still the most economical choice for most people.”

I remember when a bus costed 1.25$. That was less then 10 years ago. That’s inflation of 240% percent over 10 years. If you count the fact that 14 was always a regular bus, not express, that’s inflation of 320%. And not like OC Transpo service is any good – #4 I rode in today smelled of electrical fire, and there was smoke inside. Did I mention it was 10 minutes late?

I am firmy convinced that transit is still the most economical choice for most people that have no other means of getting around. If you have any other means of getting around, please do. Consider that once you paid for your car insurance, and assuming 7km per liter of gas in your car, for the cost of 3$ fare, you can go for 20km where you want and when you want.

My plan to get back home after writing a final in Automata Theory today is to take the free shuttle bus to Ottawa U, and walk from there. Free, healthy, and alot less frustrating.

And I am sure that some economists at OC Transpo are wondering why the company is losing money. All problems started with you, OC Transpo.

Edit: Just looked at the OC Transpo web site[1]. 14 is not designated as an express route. So are the working to rule job acting striking drivers padding their pockets this way now?

[1] Whoever designed that web site needs to go back to Algonqueen colledge and relearn web design 101 and web site functionality 201. And fix up the pages so it won’t load style5.css when you click anywhere on the text. It would help.