Community Transit

For the amount of price we pay for the community transit, their service is absolutely bad. The bus is always late for 15 — 20 minutes. More often they will not show up until the next bus and all the time their reason when I call them is flat tire.

Today is the worst. 105 is always late but today I have no words for it. I was so pissed omg. They sent someone who doesnt even know the route. He was completely lost. It usually takes 25 minutes for me to get home today it’s an hour. To be honest I’m so disappointed. Worst of the worst ever.

Community Transit is just the worst. They routinely run 10 – 15 minutes late on the 280 route, which is the bus I take to work. It has taken 10+ calls to their customer service line for them to even admit that, yes, there is a problem. I ride this bus 2 – 4 times a week to get to work, and it is constantly making me late. Now when I call their customer service line, they tell me that they are aware of the problem and that there is nothing they can do about it.
Brilliant

There’s a good reason why the «Swift Bus» is know as the «Meth Express».

CT has some real problems.
For example, the ADA training that drivers are getting is not very good admits one of their own staff.
As a disabled person using CT, that riles me. If the training isn’t very good, shouldn’t CT be getting new different training for its drivers?
Believe me, some drivers need it.
CT also has misstated ADA law regarding service animals. Their website states that ALL dogs must be leashed or harnessed. ADA says this is not true. Some service dogs need to be unfettered in order to perform their specific service dog tasks.
CT keeps dropping the customer service ball. And they seem not to care about riders with disabilities of all sorts. They don’t get it. It is not an even playing field for riders with disabilities and rude drivers.
Any complaints, in my experience, that are very legitimate receive a «company answer» that no malfeasance or poor customer service was done? Really? Never? I feel that I could be slammed backside the head by a driver for no reason and «Customer Service» would respond that it was «within policy.» Again, my opinion based on my own experience.
I have heard that the only way to be heard, is to go before the board. I begin to wonder if even that helps.
I, personally, have a service dog, but I agree that muzzling a pet dog is just way beyond necessary. Go by the dog’s behavior. Don’t label all dogs the same.
CT «corporate» needs to evaluate itself big time.
KCMETRO, though dealing with much greater rider/​driver problems, at least has the correct ADA service dog law on its website. They make CT look like it is driving the backwaters of a rural county. You can’t do that anymore.
What is with CT not even being aware of what the ADA law is. It makes for complete distrust of the agency as a whole, and as an agency receiving federal dollars, they have to follow ADA law (and even if they weren’t receiving federal dollars).
Get your act together CT. Admit when your drivers exhibit poor customer service, and for gosh sakes, abide by ADA and give your drivers correct information about it and adequate training. And see that your drivers follow their own rule book regarding customer service.
Not too much to expect.

Now, a lot of us bus riders ride the community transit for a number of reasons in a series of combinations. A) its cheap B) no parking or ticket worries C) safer D) you’re under the disillusion you’re somehow saving the planet from contributing to the traffic/​carbon exhausts.
Now I understand that living in the suburbs is a worthy excuse not to have as MUCH service than places like downtown.
But lately its been like a PUNISHMENT to ride the bus.
The hours are cut, the prices has risen, and there is no Sunday bus.
For those of us who work all week long, this is beyond the beginnings of a serious migraine.
It might as well be called The Occasional Community Transit.
Assuming by the end of the year there’d be only three buses left between the hours of 3pm-​7pm when they FEEL like doing their job.
I’m not seeking outrageous hours or times. I’m seeking maybe one bus an hour to midnight? thats not horribly bad assuming there’d be only one per hour and not every 30 minutes. come on, if youre going to cut everything, at least give a little in another area for those of us who dont have the luxury of living downtown.

Agree with the reviewer who wonders why Swift service is so frequent. Seems to me that they’ve put a lot of eggs into the Swift basket politically and now really really want to see it succeed. I don’t think any corridor in Snohomish County needs service that frequent — especially with the 101 still running every ¹⁵⁄₃₀ minutes.
I actually agree with cutting Sunday service if that much money does indeed to be saved, but is definitely is a downer. Also, the commuter routes don’t seem to be well-​balanced. I was lucky to ride a route (the 416) with mostly-​empty buses most of the time, but it seemed odd that, while we lost some trips during the last round of service cuts, we still have so many while commuter buses to other locales are completely full.
On the plus side, drivers and riders are consistently friendly. I enjoy and don’t get stressed out riding CT buses.

Of all the transit systems in all the worlds… I’m just really disappointed now to be dealing with Community Transit as my first line of defense. I am disappointed with Sunday service being cut. I’m more disappointed that every route has also seemingly been cut more than just Sundays, except for the new Swift «express transit» buses that run north-​south from Everett to the King/​Snohomish County line (and still run with few passengers in each bus). I’m disappointed that many routes have been cut and rerouted, schedules have been cut back and routes have been eliminated at the same time as a fare hike was enacted. The fare hike was rough, but felt more like a slap in the face when it was accompanied by bus routes being cut back more and pushed further away from my house.
Sunday service cuts have really hurt a number of people. I’m fortunate enough to have a bike and car that I can also use for transportation, but I have a coworker who can no longer work Sundays because she doesn’t have the transportation to do so. She’s also now trying to purchase a car because of this and I think that the last thing we need is more people migrating from buses into (mostly) single-​occupant vehicles to add to our traffic. People are stuck without transportation or forced to drive their own vehicles or find rides while the backs of many CT buses advertise it being «Earth Day Every Day» when you ride and cut down on pollution. Well, maybe it’s Earth Day most days…