As I’ve mentioned in past posts, public transportation is social. I’ve known bus riders who celebrated birthdays (with cake) on board, who met and fell in love, who seemingly share their life stories or simply a small part of their day with each other.
So it’s only right that Community Transit jumped on the social media band wagon early, launching our Facebook page in fall 2008. Government pages don’t have “friends,” but more than 850 people “like” us. Actually, we know many more of you like us, so check out our page! We have some interesting discussions there, with hot topics including service changes and Double Talls, the replacement fleet of double decker buses.
We have three dozen videos posted on our YouTube channel. The most popular one is “How to Ride Swift.” You certainly don’t need to watch to ride, but it’s a great introduction to bus rapid transit.
We started this blog about one year ago with a post titled “Proposed Service Changes -- Let's Chat!” That topic still holds the record for most comments, 55.
Community Transit is encouraging the public to “Join the Conversation” with us on Facebook, the Community Transit blog and YouTube. Customers can comment on transit-related topics on any of these social media spaces and join the ongoing dialogue.
Of course, social media comments are different than our official “customer comments,” which should always go through Customer Information at (425) 353-RIDE (7433) or riders@commtrans.org. Comments submitted to Customer Information are entered in our system, sent to the appropriate departments and tracked as a matter of public record.
Comments submitted through social media are public, too – in the sense that anyone can read them and respond. That’s what a conversation is all about.
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Well, since CT is encouraging the public to join the conversation, why is CT not going to explain more about why the Double Talls are still not put into the service? What actual problems is CT facing? Most of Seattleites have been looking forward to Double Talls coming out for the service; however, CT doesn't give the public more information about the current situation of the buses, even though CT reported in the blog before that the buses have arrived and CT is doing something regarding the "Buy America" thing. I think that's not enough. I hope CT can tell more things about what difficulties CT is facing.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, SLO Transit in CA ordered a double decker bus later than CT ordered but SLO's one has been in service over half year. Why can SLO put the new bus into the service so quick but CT can't? It is so weird.
Regarding the "Buy America" thing, here's an excerpt from the blog post "Where are those Double Talls?:"
ReplyDelete"This new build process for ADL (manufacturer Alexander Dennis) created some new issues with the buses, from working with new subcontractors to manufacturing at a U.S. plant. Some of these issues are still being resolved to meet Community Transit’s high standards."
In other words, the buses needed some additional work by the manufacturer before Community Transit would accept them as complete. That work has taken longer than we, or the public, had hoped.
Good news, though. We sent a few Double Talls over to our Kasch Park Base this week for final prep and training to go into commuter service next week.
I talked to someone at ct last week and she said the reason is that the buses had 100's of problems on each one, adl shipped over pieces and were not put together well by the subcontractors in u.s...
ReplyDelete