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| - PAT buses have never been well run. They weren't when I lived there, and they still aren't. I realize that PA has hacked the funding for Port Authority to bits, a shame since so many younger residents have bypassed cars.
This review is for the downtown service center and an incident I had there a few weeks ago, which illustrates how badly organized/run it all is.
I was in town as a visitor for an unpleasant reason (relative in the hospital). I knew from researching that PAT had a one day pass, which is a new thing since I lived there. I went to the Service Center to buy it.
I asked the guy behind the counter for a pass. No, we're not allowed to sell them behind the counter, he said. He pointed to a machine. "That machine will sell you one." It was out of order.
A repairman was trying to fix it. A few other people were also waiting.
The two guys behind the counter were sitting there talking and doing nothing for the ten or so minutes I waited. How on earth that's a good use of their time to not allow them to sell something, I'm not sure.
After ten minutes one of the guys yells out, rudely, "Any reason yinz ain't going down to the machines at the Wood Street station?"Oh hey, thanks, Einstein. Maybe you could have mentioned that NINE minutes earlier.
So a few of us trundle on down to the Wood Street station, about 3-4 blocks away.
You know, of course, what I'm about to say, right?
Those machines were out of order too. Because it's PAT.
So my gripe is personal, because PAT cost me a few hours and almost $40 in Lyft rides, on a day already filled with stress and uncertainty for me, because they couldn't do the most BASIC part of their job.
But my gripe is also general, because I don't understand why, after over 30 years, these folks still cannot seem to get it together. A complete lack of organization, intelligence, foresight.....when you have so many non-drivers and they're all turning to bikes or Lyft because you drove a one car funeral into a ditch? That's really sad.
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