Tell us: Did this Service Change go smoothly, or was it a nightmare?

The service change really didnt affect me to much. I was very thankful for that. But I feel bad for those poor soulds that have to take two and three buses to get to work.
I also feel very badly for the drivers, mechanics and others that lost their jobs because of the buget cuts.
It is truly a pisser when one thinks about the taxes the state has increase on us and their are still making serious cuts.

I went from Fullerton to 500 Anton for a law seminar Wednesday night. The hardest part was poring over the schedule for 45 minutes to figure out routes and connections. I left at 4:00 p. m. for the 47 at the FTC and arrived on time at the seminar at 6:00 p. m. I had to walk the last two blocks, but if I had been better informed, I could have got the 468 (or 4--something) which stopped suddenly past my transfer point on Sunflower bus stop--I jumped up, but then the driver went on--that bus would have left me off in front of the conference site.

Afterwards, I walked about 7 blocks to Bristol and Sunflower to catch the 76 to the 43; home at 11:15. The 76 just missed the 43, so I had to wait 32 minutes for the next bus.

I take the 25 northbound to work each day. I started out in March taking the 6:45 a.m. bus leaving Edinger and Goldenwest. The bus only has 5 or 6 people on it when I get on at McFadden 1 mile away. This takes the driver 2 to 3 minutes most of the time to cover if she is on time to begin with. She is late all the way from that point until I get off on Crescent and Knott. She gets later and later as she goes. She is generally 5 to 10 minutes late everyday.The problem is that as she goes down she picks everybody and there dog up.She has 60 to 70 people on that bus everyday. What is frustrating is that when I asked her why she was late she calls security on me. She also got irritated because I asked her to turn off the heat.
Another thing that makes this bad is that I took the 6 a.m. bus and was at work 40 min. early which I'm not allowed to be there that early but I am. The 6 a.m. bus I took April 1 @ 2 and both days I was the first person on the bus and as I counted there was less than 20 people that got on and off the bus that morning from the time I got on and got off at the same place. Let's not mention that it was dark those mornings and that is hard to cross the street and walk in a neighborhood that is deserted that time of morning.

I've run into more "Standing Room Only" situations when the 47 and 55, northbound & southbound, arrive on Fairview between Baker & Wilson in the middle of the day. I'd hesitate to write it off as Spring Break crowds from local schools as the large majority on the bus didn't appear to be students.

Great service change. A+++++ Would cut again!!!

There is a song similar to that. OCTA is not a smooth operator! Where to start?

Is it the people dashing from 129 to 59 at La Palma & Kraemer?
This used to be unneeded!

Is it the numerous short turns that can leave you stranded in nowhere?
Example route 38 at Kellogg.

How about the bus stop closures due to construction that foul up connections and leave you a half mile away from your stop?
Examples La Palma & Miller, or how about La Palma and Sunkist because on 153 because of troglodyte neighbors.

Overcrowding caused by certain organizations which bring special needs groups on board who appear to be drugged, often semi violent and convulsively freak out causing passengers to flee the bus out of concern for their safety.

Security personnel which apparently were trained by a terrorist organization.

Being stranded for more than an hour because of poor service frequency. Examples transfers to 153, 129 etc. Which were not needed previously. Efficiency of operation is degraded and use of public transit negated!

How did they ever get to be #1? Certainly does not speak well of public transit in the U.S.A. lately

Tony

I have only seen a few busses grouped together, mainly on Line 57. Bus books are still available on many busses weeks after the change took effect. However, there are NO bus books available a satellite locations such as C.S.U.F. Titan Student Union, and public libraries. I suspect the books were reserved for bus distribution only. I have noticed significant crowding on many lines. I have also noted bike racks are full when normally they are not. O.C.T.A. might consider installing bike racks that hold 3 bikes rather than 2 bikes. They tested 3 bike racks several years ago. They decided against installing them.

I have been using the OCTA busses for the past four years, mainly to get to work. Over the past month I've made it to work on time on only a handful of occasions. I take the 43 South towards Newport and 19th, and I board the bus at the stop between Baker and Adams (it's technically at Harbor and Ponderosa). I work at eleven near Triangle square; I typically end up waiting at my bus stop from about 10:30am to at least 10:55am on weekdays! Sometimes it's well over a half an hour. I sit in quiet dismay and try to put off calling my boss for as long as possible, while at least two busses pass by going in the opposite direction. Often there are two busses that arrive at my stop almost simultaneously when my bus finally gets to me.
There was one occasion where I sat at that bus stop for FIFTY MINUTES, wondering where the heck the bus was. I started talking to the woman who was also at the stop, and she said she'd been waiting to catch the 10:25 am bus but it had never showed up. After waiting for what seemed like forever, she asked to use my phone. She ended up having her son come to pick us up, and he took us both to our separate jobs! The bus was just a small speck in the distance when he pulled up to the curb. I opted to get in the car with total strangers to get to work fifteen minutes late, instead of the half hour (at minimum) that it would have been if I'd gotten on the bus, since it was so friggin' late.
This same bus used to come every fifteen to twenty minutes, like clockwork. The 43 runs along Harbor Boulevard and stays pretty busy, from my observations. Also, the bus leaves from Newport and 19th heading northbound at fairly regular increments. It would appear that along the way, the busses get further and further behind schedule..so maybe this same thing is happening to people trying to board the northbound 43 as it gets closer to Fullerton. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I know it never used to happen like this before, not to this degree.
Also, I'm not sure what happened, but for a few days now I've been trying to text OCTAGO (628246) for the bus times and the service seems to be malfunctioning; it may just be my phone but somehow I doubt that, since my phone works just fine.
I'm frustrated and saddened at these inefficiencies; I've been using public transportation because getting a car is not a realistic option for me financially at the moment, but if this craziness continues I'm going to have to cash out my meager college fund and buy some beat-down war-horse clunker-car to get me back and forth before I get fired from my job for being late.
For a while there, before all of these budget cuts, things were looking good for Southern California's public transportation. It made sense to have more efficient public transportation anyway, what with gas prices shooting through the roof and fewer people being able to afford to be zooming around in a car all the time. It was even a feasible option for those who ride the bus for the purposes of aiding the "Green" movement. I personally like being able to forego the car in favor of being a little kinder to the ozone. But Jesus Christ, not if it's going to cost me my job. Not if I have to wait for thirty, forty, FIFTY minutes for a bus that's supposed to come every twenty minutes. I'm poor as hell, so I need that job. Ideally, I'd like to spend my college money on college. So far, though, it's not looking good.
I appreciate that there are still any busses at all and I'm very thankful to be able to get to work, even if it is fifteen minutes late. But it's really backwards to make things less efficient for people who are already living around or below the poverty level. It would make much more sense to increast the efficiency of our public transportation, so that more people would ride the busses and fewer cars would be jacking up the atmosphere from behind the Orange Curtain, and people like me wouldn't have to worry about whether or not they have to quit school just to appropriate funds for alternative transportation since the busses suck now.

Northbound 55 (bus #2145) arrived 4/12, 12:50 pm, at Harbor & Wilson, Costa Mesa, standing room only with 20+ people waiting to board.

Also your time posts on the page never "Sprung Forward." I now show 1:27 p.m.

If you guys have any photos of the conditions you're facing, I'd like to assemble them together. Just leave a comment here — I think this blog system asks for your email address but won't show it to the public — so I can contact you.
These details are amazing. Wait for a post in a few days...

I have to take two buses to get to work, from Anaheim to Brea daily, it is Bus 43 and Bus 143. The first few days seemed to be nightmare. I was observing everyone becoming very nervous and on edge, but the thing that really stood out was the 4 supervisers OCTA had standing out there who looked more confused than the passengers themselves. I also realize that the bus drivers are under tremendous pressure about time and fear of losing their jobs, but come on OCTA, doesn't it make more sense to have your drivers observe the buses in front of them and just wait 5 more minutes at the main crossstreets. They has been over a half dozen of times where I missed my transfer by 1-2 minutes, and that doesn't account for paying cash customers who just missed it with me and decided to walk. Now I realize OCTA is cash strapped and blaming the State Of California for not the proper incentives, but it seems to me your loosing on an average of 1000's of dollars daily and multiply that by 365 and you have your budget, just for letting those passengers wat another 20 minutes.

Do a search on You Tube for OCTA BUS RIDE. There is a bit of stuff there. Warning. Taking photos and making movies on the bus can get you into serious trouble with some transit agencies. I don't think OCTA does this but be careful! Send them to the forum and post it on you tube if you can. Quality of video is important so do 420p if you can.

Tony

Going to Brea Mall will never be the same. Also forget about riding on weekends. Good one OCTA

OK. My complaint is not that significant...

I used to be able to depend on the morning southbound 43 to get me from Ball & Harbor to East Shuttle & Harbor (just in front of Disneyland) to catch the 83. Though it was almost always a mad rush to get from the eastbound 46 to the southbound 43, most every morning it was quite possible to do this. Now with the schedule changes made to the 43, I have not once caught the 43 since March 14, 2010. Route 46 on Ball Rd has limited runs as is (I can either catch a 4:52am or 5:42am bus to eventually get to the 83 so I can make it to work on time. The 4:52am 46 makes no sense for my schedule, and the 6:12am 46 route is cutting it way too close to be to work on time. And due to the 43 schedule changes, the moment the 46 arrives at Ball & Harbor, the southbound 43 has already arrived, and pulled away from its stop, making it impossible to catch with any realistic expectation.

So what am I to do? I could rely on the octa.net JustClick tool to recommend alternate routes, which in my experience has proven to be unreliable. Or just walk from one stop to the next. Walking turns out to be the most reliable alternative. Yes, I can use the exercise, and I do not really mind very much. The point is, however, that I should be able to rely on OCTA to reliably transport me to my destination without resorting to walking and forgoing bus service. I hate to imagine how persons who cannot walk are impacted.

Thank you OCTA for making your service less dependable. My doctor thanks you for the extra exercise I am getting.

On weekends, this bus came every hour thanks to the budget restraints it comes every hour and a half which means I have to get to work sometimes 45 minutes early or be very, very late!