Riders treated poorly

I commute from Monroe to downtown Seattle on Community Transit route 424. One of my big concerns in considering work in downtown Seattle was the commute. I am very dependent on route 424 to get me to and from work.

The other evening, I was standing between Union and Pike on Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle waiting for my bus; it is supposed to arrive at my stop at 4:42 pm. It is usually late, but by 5:05 I and others were becoming concerned. A car pulled up, a man got out and asked us if we are waiting for the 424. We all answered yes. He informed us that the bus was cancelled. He was unable to give us any information, told us to catch a bus to Everett, got in the car and took off, leaving us stranded.

We found out sometime later that someone had called in a bomb threat to all buses going to and from Monroe. While I realize the seriousness of this and that Community Transit did the right thing with canceling the buses, they should have done a better job of making sure that their customers, who depend on the buses to get to and from work, are taken care of.

The inconvenience is just a small part of this nightmare; they should have made sure that we made it to our destinations safely. We had no idea which bus to take to Everett, when they would be coming by – we were wondering if we were at the right stop. I had to make three phone calls on my cell phone to finally find out what was going on and what we should do. Two of the people I spoke with were very rude to me. We finally made it to Everett, and when we arrived there, the Community Transit people still had no idea how to get us to Monroe.

After the incident with the bomb threat on the Metro bus on Highway 520 recently, all transit companies need to develop a plan for dealing with these situations. Community Transit did a very poor job in handling this situation. They need to get their act together and be better prepared for events like this in the future.

Gold Bar