Translink WTF!?

Let me start off by saying that I'm a big fan of public transit.

Despite the cost, I think the Canada Line and the Olympic Line are necessary for our city to grow.

But, that being said, I was about 30 seconds from giving up on transit this morning and hopping into my car.

Now, I honestly don't mind waiting for the bus.

Sure, it sucks watching your bus speed away, as you sprint in vein towards where it use to be, but if that's the worst thing that happens to me in the course of the day, I'm probably not doing too bad.

So, this of course happened to me this morning, but seeing as I take the express bus to get to the Canada Line, I figured I wouldn't have to wait too long.

During the morning rush the bus usually comes along every five minutes or so, as advertised.

Although, today I would not be so fortunate.

The first bus that sped past my bus stop was "Sorry, Not In Service."

The next bus, which was "In Service", sped past the stop because it was crammed full of people and unable to stop and pick up anyone from the increasingly growing line of transit commuters waiting at the bus stop.

For the next ten minutes, I waited in the cold, watching and hoping that the growing backlog of people at other bus stops that preceded mine wouldn't cause another bus to pass by our humble bus stop without picking anyone up.

At the 12 minute mark I began to give up on my bus ever arriving.

I gave the bus two minutes to show before I got into my car and drove myself to school.

The bus came before the two minutes were up, about three-quarters full.

So, having missed my bus, it took about 20 minutes for the next one to show up.

Standing near the rear doors, staring out the window, watching the city whiz by, I couldn't help but wonder that if this is how transit deals with a regular morning rush-hour situation, what will it be like when road closures for the Olympics force people who don't normally take the bus, to have to take the bus?

How will transit cope with the increase of riders when the world comes to Vancouver for the Olympics?

After my extended wait for the bus this morning, I'm thinking it will handle all of this rather poorly.

I'm not too sure if I will be riding the bus too often in the weeks to come.

If getting around the city by bus wasn't already hard enough, the Olympics is going to make things harder for sure.