So on the day when I met Greg Dewar a couple of weekends ago, we were both riding the N inbound on a sunny Saturday. It was a fairly busy day and the N was about 20 minutes late (I called 311 to complain while I was waiting). By the time we got into Cole Valley we had stopped for a couple of wheelchairs and had also no doubt picked up a number of cash passengers (being a sunny weekend day and all). Greg and I were in the second car, however, and although there were a few standees it was nothing approaching full.
To my surprise, the operator closed the doors pulled away leaving a dozen or so people standing. He announced, "There's another train right behind us," which means only, "There's another train. Today." And from that point he passed up most of the passengers who would have paid cash, between Cole Valley and the Market Street tunnel - all the while with room for 50-100 passengers in his second car. So I called 311 again.
I was on an inbound N this past Saturday around 11AM - during Outside Lands - and we had the same situation, but with a huge number of cash fares. So when we got to Cole Valley, I started hearing "didididididi shing BEEP! dididididi BEEP! didididid shing BEEP!" faintly over the PA. Apparently the mike was open and I was hearing zillions of cash passengers boarding. Then, after a little delay, people bearing transfers began to trickle into the rear car. Yes, the operator was letting people board and pay, and then asking them to move to the rear car. This repeated for the rest of the surface stops until we entered the tunnel with a full load and hadn't passed up a single passenger.
Almost like he was trying to get everyone where they wanted to go.
Weird, huh?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Cash Passengers the Wrong Way and the Right Way
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7 comments:
The second driver must not have completed his training yet.
They do that a lot it seems. Maybe they need to have a guy taking fares in the 2nd car or something?
There are actually some good operators out there. Glad you found one.
The majority of operators are good, as far as I can tell, although my sense of "majority" varies daily from 50.01% to 90%.
I know a lot of them personally and I can tell you most of them are good people. They have a difficult job. I wouldn't want to do it.
I had a great operator on an inbound T today in the subway. He was announcing all the transfers and attractions at each stop. He even announced why the doors weren't opening at Civic Center (because we were in the station but not at the designated stopping point yet).
I gave him a big thumbs up when I exited at Powell.
They're not all bad. In fact most of them aren't bad.
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