I saw this message on the No. 27 Austintown Loop WRTA bus front message board yesterday.
Bus is Full, Another Bus Follows
Man does this raise some questions, mainly what did that message actually mean?
Did it mean that the next regularly scheduled bus would show up a half hour later, or did it mean "Another Bus" would show up before that one?
If the "Another Bus" was going to (or supposed to) show up before the next bus, how was the dispatcher notified quick enough to make that happen?
Did the "Another Bus" drive the whole route or just drive straight to the first stop where the "message" was needed?
How many spare busses are just sitting around doing nothing? How many spare drivers?
What was happening in Austintown that increased the number of riders trying to get there?
Was it a one time thing or will this be the new normal?
Those questions are for anyone that knows but this one is for jay:
Did you see if the bus was full?
If it wasn't then maybe we have a lazy driver that was in a hurry or maybe the bus door quit working.
This is what I think happened.
The Austintown Loop bus is a small van-type bus.
The No.27 Austintown Loop bus heads east on Mahoning Avenue from Meridian Road. It probably had several passengers already and then picked up more at the Mahoning Plaza bus shelter.
The No.9 Austintown bus was also heading east on Mahoning about two minutes later. This bus will then pick up the people the Loop Bus could not carry.
Most riders will take the first bus to drive past heading east to downtown Youngstown. I've done this several times last year.
Well now it makes more sense to me. Thanks for that
The Austintown Loop bus in supposed to pass the Mahoning Plaza at 14 minutes after the hour every other inbound trip.
The inbound 9-Austintown bus passes the Mahoning Plaza about 20 minutes after the hour.