Caveat Metro Riders

Luckily it was rather warm this morning because I would have been highly unamused had it been cold out. This was the first morning commute on the new Metro time table and it ended up being a comedy.

I take the 38 and, in the infinite wisdom of the Metro planners, every other bus now goes down John Nolen Drive instead of Wilson Street, presumably to get to Broom a minute faster. I don't think that any of the schedules for route 38 buses has actually changed, it's just that the bus I had been taking now bypasses Wilson so I am taking the previous one. Well, it seems that the bus drivers took the Brewers/Packers/Badgers trifecta of losses pretty hard and had to drink their sorrows away because they were late.

My co-rider Carol and I boarded the bus which came a bit after 6:30. I settled into a magazine and about a block later I hear my name called. Looking up, I see Carol up at the front. "We're on the wrong bus," she calls back to me. We'd accidentally boarded the previous bus which was running late. So we found ourselves on the corner for a while and we're eventually joined by Mike. The next bus pulled up about 10 minutes later. I asked the driver, who said he had gotten out of the garage late, if he went down John Nolen. He had to look at a sheet, which didn't bode particularly well for us. That it was one that would go up Wilson was moot since we'd get off at Blount and hoof it if it weren't so as not to be too late for work. And man, was he trying to make up time. Jenifer Street denizens would have missed the bus going by their homes if they'd blinked at the wrong time.

It'd be nice to get something on the marquees of the buses or with that friendly voice to let us know which bus is going up Wilson and which down John Nolen. Until then, let the rider beware.