Apparently MBTA Buses Can Be Invisible
tracy — Thu, 05/26/2005 - 08:29
So I've been having serious problems with the one bus that I normally take to get home from work in the evening. Pretty much at least once a week since I started this job in February, the Route 558 5:45 bus out of Riverside has been a no-show. So far this week, it's happened at least twice. Now, I'm actually fairly chill about it (well except for the time that two buses didn't show up during a snowstorm and freezing weather, but that's another story. Here is the timetable for that bus run:
| Riverside | Central Square Waltham | Newton Corner | Downtown Boston |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:45 | 6:05 | 6:19 | 6:34 |
According to their website, the bus is supposed to get to me around 6:15 or so. So normally I leave the office around 5:45, I have a two minute walk, so I'm at the bus stop by 5:50 at the latest. And I followed this pattern yesterday. But the 5:45 bus never passed me.
When a bus finally did arrive, I asked him which bus he was and he told me the 6:20. I told him that the bus before him never showed up and he responded with "Well I saw him go out on my way in, you must have missed him". I tried to explain to him that, well, that was not really possible. He of course took offense basically saying that I was calling him a liar. But I wasn't. I completely believe that he saw the 558 bus. I am just convinced that for some reason that bus does not always make it's complete route. Another bus driver once told me that if no one was on the bus shortly after leaving Riverside, that the bus will, at times, just get on the Pike and go into Boston. In addition, since the route seems to be an overtime route, there is no assigned bus driver. I don't have to tell you the number of times a passenger on the bus has had to tell the driver the route. If this happened last night and no passenger was on the bus, it is entirely conceivable that the driver didn't make the left onto California St and just went up Bridge St instead (I was waiting on Chapel).
Fortunately, this is my last week of having to take that route and next week I'll be going the other way which seems a bit more consistent. Well I guess you could call the 558 inbound at that time consistent, consistently MIA.
