Oftentimes, I will get out to the stop and look down the street, only to see a bus way off in the distance. It went by 2 minutes before I got there. Now, that was either the previous bus 15 minutes late or the next bus 15 minutes early. But which one? Since I can’t exactly do anything else, I sit down to wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

I’ve waited over an hour before for a bus that’s supposed to run every 15 minutes. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s not uncommon to end up waiting 15-30 minutes past when the schedule says the bus should be there.

If you’re trying to get somewhere, the “helpful” Valley Metro trip planner may say the trip will take an hour but you should definitely plan for at least half an hour extra.

For this deplorable service, we are currently supposed to pay $2.50 a day. Not too bad, still cheaper than a car. If you work 5 days a week, that’s $50. A 31 day pass is $45, so that’s not much of a savings unless you ride the bus at least 6 days a week.

In July, however, they are going to raise the rates to $1.75 for a one-way pass or $3.50 for an all day pass. This is just crazy! They aren’t providing better service, but they’re raising the rates anyway. The real insult, however, is that you’ll now be required to pay $5.25 if you buy your pass on the bus. I have been to Las Vegas their all day passes cost $5. Valley Metro doesn’t provide anywhere near the same level of service.

For one, buses along the strip come every 15 minutes, at the most. And times when there are a bazillion people that will be wanting to use the bus to get from casino to casino? Every seven minutes. Seven! We’re lucky if we can get fifteen, with half an hour being more common and an hour between buses not unheard of.

Now, I know that the Phoenix area probably doesn’t have the potential ridership of Las Vegas, but would it kill them to at least give us decent service for our money?

I almost forgot… They say they’re raising rates to make up for sagging revenue. I can tell you the real reason their revenue’s sagging, poor service or not. But I’ll save that particular rant until next time.