The worst public transit service you will probably ever have the displeasure of using. I have been using Metrobus for years and some things will never change.
Drivers leaving stops before scheduled time just to pull off at a Tim Hortons and run in for a coffee, ending up 10 minutes late in the process; drivers leaving the Village 6 or 7 minutes past scheduled time while smoking/talking around the front of the buses; drivers getting aggressive and grunting at customers that dare ask a simple question; complete apathy from the call centre staff to any problem; drivers swearing and mocking "rude" passengers they had a few hours earlier to each other; drivers closing the bus doors at the Village in pouring rain/snow and going inside for a coffee leaving 10 passengers waiting to board in the cold outside the bus...I could go on forever.
Metrobus is an essential service for many of us in St. John's, and it is a deplorable one at that. Most of the transit service problems stem from the drivers themselves. The routes are oddly designed, many go from point C to D on the way from A to B and thus increase transit time dramatically, but they are manageable if the drivers actually did their job.
Anyone who lived in St. John's at the time will never forget the bus strike a few winters ago where the drivers went on strike at the old Freshwater Rd depot for a long period of time, stranding the working public, students, and seniors in the coldest, harshest months of the year so they could get their already extremely generous compensation increased even further in collective bargaining.
Big changes are needed at Metrobus. These changes will never happen. read more