“Hi, are you going to thetford? or is the 727 just running late?”

“Yes, long stratton, ill check the prices”

“oh, no no no, THETford, im going to thetford”

“yes, stratford, thats £15.40″

i started to get a bit frustrated as he was not hearing me at all, as he started listing off every other ‘ford’ but thetford!

“no your not understanding me, thetford…look ill just wait for the 727″

Just as i thought he couldn’t get any stranger he started muttering to himself and came out with this quote

“ahhhh, shakespeares birthday! YOU DONT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE DO YOU!”

:/
i decided 727 or no 727…..i was not willing to put my life in the hands of schizophrenic 696!

Hi, I rode the 696 this morning, it departed East Creek a bit after 7AM, Leonid was the driver.

Yesterday I rode essentially the same bus, I believe Leonid was the same driver. The bus was 90% full by the time I got on, but only 2 people sat in the back row. I attempted to sit in the middle seat of the back road, and a woman put her feet down so I wouldn’t be able to sit there. I sat anyways, and she pulled them back, and told me she has a bad back and needs to lay down, so I have to find another seat. She repeated that I have to move to another row so she can lay down, so I moved to another row.

Back to this morning – The bus was 99% full – 3 seats open in other places, and once again, only two people in the entire back row. Another passenger, and bad-back woman. I went to the back of the bus, sat down in the middle seat of the five, and she started up with her bad back story. Then she said “Oh it’s you, from yesterday.” She told me I had to move, I told her that this isn’t an ambulance and there are no EMT’s on the bus. If she needs a medical transport she should use one, not the public transit system.

She:
1. Told me she pays taxes.
2. Told me I’m a punk.
3. Struck me with her hand.
4. Called me an “asshole”.
5. Called me a “passive-aggressive asshole”.
6. Told me I’m going to “burn in hell”.
7. Laid down across “only” two seats, and had a pushing-kicking tantrum with her bare feet against me.
8. As I exited the bus in downtown Minneapolis, she gave me a vague threat that “what I did today is going to come back to me”.

I’ve been riding SW Transit for 2 years and have generally had nothing but praise for your company, it really is envied by my coworkers who ride other bus systems on our way to downtown Minneapolis. However, I cannot and will not be treated in this fashion again. I did not bring this to the attention of the driver, partly because the bus was underway and partly because I kept thinking the behavior was going to stop, which it didn’t. The woman’s threats to me, if continued, are enough to file a police report over.

Please address this situation one way or another. Either I was in the wrong and your wonderful black buses double as medical transports, or real handicapped needs should be addressed in an appropriate manner and her behavior was severely out of line.