Calgary Transit is so horrible. Like, Unbelievable.
First : My closest "Hub" would be McKnight Westwinds Station. Every single time I catch the bus there. EVERY SINGLE TIME, The train is arriving as we pull into the station. just enough time to hope you can make it, but never actually make it. The same can be said for arriving at the station. I usually see 2 or 3 busses leaving just as the train shows up, Mostly the 71, 21, and 100, the 100 being the Airport bus which is widely used because HEY, a lot of people work at the airport.
Second : The station itself has a sound system that plays bird noises to keep other "pest" birds away. cool, whatever, Except one of the speakers is broken or something, and it only plays a really high pitched squeal that rises and lowers in volume constantly. It literally gives me a headache every time I'm there unless I put in headphones and crank it louder than the sound. I've complained about it, but nothing seems to be done.
Third : This station is banana's. If you leave the station and walk along the bus route, you'll see the stop that comes immediately before the train station, and the stop immediately after. If you're waiting at the stop after for your bus, You'll see the 55 and 71 go in, and the 21 and the 85 come out.
If you're at the station, you'll see the 55 come in, and you'll say "Cool, the bus is here" then the driver will go past the stop, pull into a different stop, and change his sign to a different number.
What the fuck? Really? Why not just modify the route? if it's easier for the bus to do one half of the 55, then half of the 85 (or whatever it is, I'm usually too pissed to be paying attention) why not just make the 55 route that route?
4 : Do bus drivers get some sort of twitsted pleasure in making old people stumble and fall on the bus? one or two times in the 15 fucking years I've been using this shitty service would be like "Oh, the dude had to brake because of whatever, or he had to accelerate because of whatever" but DOZENS and DOZENS of times I've seen old people fall on the bus from sudden stops, And especially from hard acceleration right after picking them up.
One time, I was leaving a friends house. They have one of those shitty bus routes (79,80) where they have 4 shuttles, 2 in one direction (79), And 2 in the other (80). They run on a half hour gap, so the route takes a whole hour to drive... but there's only 2 busses on it. I check when the bus is coming, it says in 7 minutes. My friend lives literally right across the street. I go and put my shoes on, say goodbye, and walk out the door, cross the street, and sit at the bench. 25 minutes goes by. I'm pretty choked. Another 10, and a bus finally shows up. I tell the guy he's half an hour late, and say "now there's a good chance I'll have to walk home from the train station, late, on a cold night." The driver fucking chuckled, then told me that it's not possible he's late, and I must have not been paying attention when the other guy drove past. "The stop before this one is the time stop. there's no way he could have been late or early, no way" Except he totally was early, it's the only thing I can think of.
Another time I asked a bus driver where I needed to connect to the 19, and he just said "You should have gotten on the train", slammed on the brakes, made me fall, then KICKED me off the bus to get on the train. Sure, He was right and I fucked up, but what's the need for that? I was just a kid man, wtf.