From: fixmetro
Subject: silver line MIA
Date: November 30, 2011 22:50:38 PST
To: customerrelations@metro.net
Cc: boardsecretary@metro.net
The northbound silver line bus that is supposed to stop at harbor freeway station at 9:33 pm never came (nov 30, 2011). I was there from about 9:14 to about 9:50, at which point I checked nextbus and it said the next northbound bus was 20 minutes out. I gave up and went green-blue-red to union station instead. This is not the first time this has happened. Metro has basically eliminated every other freeway bus that connects union station to the green line. If your sole remaining line is unreliable, it sends the message that you don't care about your customers.
If your drivers can't be bothered to actually make their runs or if your managers can't assure that they do, I'm sure there are plenty of qualified unemployed people out there who could happily switch places and do a better job.
I take metro by choice. I could drive to and from work in about 1/4 of the time it takes me on metro, and snafus like this make that ratio even worse. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe part of your mission is to reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles on the road (ie, to attract and retain customers like me). Treating your customers as if they are stuck with you and have no other choices will pretty much guarantee that your only remaining customers are stuck with you because they have no other choices.
Anyway, I'll be holding my breath, waiting to hear back from you about why there was no bus tonight and about how you are going to ensure that this doesn't happen again.