Following the signs and instructions, Mary Kirkpatrick proceeded to the Wheatley Hall driveway loop, where MBTA buses are supposed to stop to pick up waiting students and employees. The MBTA stop has been relocated there while extensive construction work is performed in the vicinity of the Quinn Administration building.
Mary and others waited for the number 16 bus to Forest Hills.
The number 16 bus appeared and promptly drove right by. It never entered the Wheatley loop, simply passing by all passengers waiting there. The bus never slowed; it zoomed by on the circuit drive surrounding the campus. Several students shouted but the roar of the bus engine drowned them all out.
Not one to take this kind of problem lightly, Mary fired up her cell phone and called the MBTA Customer Support Center to give them a stern talking-to. Apologies, though offered, did not help the situation that night. That was the last number 16 bus that would circle the UMB campus for the night. Thus, what would normally have been a 60 minute trip across town instead took two hours on a cold, blustery night.
For the last several months, Mary has diligently waited for the number 16 bus at Wheatley Hall. While it has come – occasionally – she found it necessary to call the MBTA Customer Support Line three more times to complain about buses that drove by or simply never showed up. Her husband even dispatched a written complaint via the MBTA’s website. Yet the problems persists.
As the mainstream media dwells on various ongoing subway and commuter rail issues, they have forgotten the everyday rider: standing on the cold pavement, dependent on a bus to get to or from work, or to go home on a frigid winter night.
The Wheatley Hall loop is not well lit. It is an uphill walk that can be slippery in the winter, and access can often be compromised due to delivery vehicles. Even the UMB shuttles have issues making the turn in there. So, why was the Wheatley Hall loop was chosen as the place to shunt MBTA passengers? Could these reasons be what is scaring the MBTA buses away? Or is their absence a result of negligence? How can it be that repeated complaints to the MBTA’s customer service department, both written and over the phone, are not producing measurable results? And who at the university decided that Wheatley Hall was the best place for these buses to stop – or not stop, as the case may be?
In any event, and to use a popular transportation phrase, someone is asleep at the switch.
Students that take the UMB shuttle hired by Crystal Transportation wait at the (heated) Student Center. They have access to rest rooms, refreshments, and an ATM. Why can’t the MBTA buses stop there too?
If individual complaints are not making the MBTA bus come to a stop where it is supposed to, can we expect the administration of UMB to take action?
Once again on the evening of March 9th, Mary took a chance on catching an MBTA bus at the Wheatley Hall loop. This time the number 16 once again did not show up on schedule. Fed up and cold, Mary gave up waiting. She boarded a number 8 bus which took her elsewhere to connect to the MBTA subway system.
”I can save a few dollars by taking the number 16 bus. If I take the number 8 or the UMass shuttle to the subway, it more than doubles my fare,” said Mary.