Well, Translink gets a huge thumbs down.

Last night, I discovered not only a shortcut to the park ‘n ride, but also that there is an ‘express’ service from the park ‘n ride to the Skytrain station. That should merit an exclamation point and it would have… if tonight’s fiasco hadn’t happened.

This morning, I caught the express and was at work in what amounted to an hour’s absolutely painless transit door to door.

This evening, I arrived at the Skytrain station just in time to see my express bus drive away. It was a half hour wait to the next one, so I had to decide if I should schlep the two blocks to catch the local. I decided that if I was going to spend an extra half hour getting home, I preferred to stand outside and get some fresh air.

Five minutes before the next express was due, it showed up, dumped off its passengers, and sped off with a ‘sorry, not in service’ sign. The bus that we were expecting at 5:15 never showed up.

The next bus arrived right on time, a full hour after I saw the first one speed away.

As I wrote to the transit company, this is inexcusable for a so-called ‘express’ service.

I’ve got three round-trips left, so I’ll use the express in the morning and the local in the evening… while I investigate my parking options at work.

It’s such a shame that the day ended this way because until 5:15, it had been a good one. Work was so nice, just like it was at the job from which I’m taking my leave; with no clock watching and no micromanaging, not to mention that my new manager showed up this morning with some books for me to read about living and cooking on boats, figuring that the info would translate well to living and cooking on an RV. How thoughtful! Oh, and I got my first pay cheque!!!!!!

Thank goodness I have access to a hot tub tonight; I’m still frozen solid from waiting at that dang bus stop!