ACE Train 36: Tip Toe through the Vomit

Over two weeks ago, on the ramp that goes from Diridon Station to the light-rail platform there were four putrid droppings of vomit.  Fortunately they were close to the outside wall.   When I first saw them in the morning going to work, I really did a tip toe dance walking through them.  I don't know how I didn't plow strait into them.  I am sure my shoes didn't escape totally, but I wasn't going to check.  I almost contributed to the vomitous piles, but managed to stay my gag reflexes.  A few days before there had been another such pile in the walkway over the light-rail tracks at the same station.   Such things happen of course.  It appeared someone drank too much, or did too much something to make themselves sick. 

The odd thing about these messes is that no one has ever cleaned them up other than Mother Nature.  I still cannot tell you how long it takes for mother nature to totally clean up such a mess, because there are still signs of the vomit.  Yesterday there was a sprinkle, and I thought maybe it was enough to clean it all up, but you could still see them this morning, and I almost walked into them again.  The vomit is all dry now, and the really moist mess is gone, but still just the residual stuff is bad enough.  I saw the VTA staff cleaning yesterday, but they didn’t clean the ramp, just the platforms.  SO it takes over two weeks for Mother Nature to clean a pile of vomit.  I guess a VTA worker could have done it in a few minutes, but who wants to clean up that astuff.

Ace Train 15: Poor VTA Service

I don't like to talk negative about things, but the VTA (Valley Transportation Authority runs the Light Rail and the buses in Santa Clara County) is getting on my nerves.  When I started the connection between the light rail and the bus 25 worked.  But then they changed the Light Rail schedule.  They now have the light rail, and the bus 25 arriving at the exact same time at the connection I use to make (Fruitdale and the Light Rail.)  It is impossible to get from the Light Rail to the bus stop in 0 seconds, and so I always miss the bus. Besides the bus IS usually early as the driver is more interested in a longer break than picking people up.  (At least it seems that way to me.) The next bus is always late as it is the bus that goes through to De Anza, and they have all the college kids on the bus in addition to the people the earlier bus doesn't pick up.  The connection worked for a while, as there was a driver who would try to accommodate people.  Then the drivers changed, and now it doesn't work at all.  I called to complain after watching the bus drive by and just ignore us (me and other worker at the hospital.) The phone operator would just say, "I wouldn't make that connection."  I guess they thought I should get up a couple hours earlier to take an earlier train from Manteca.  I was lucky to find another connection that works better, by staying on the Light Rail another stop, and taking the bus going up and down Bascom.

However my complaints against VTA go deeper.  I left a bag on the Light Rail.  I realized it within a couple minutes after getting off, but couldn't catch the Light Rail at the next station.  So I called the VTA, to see if I could recover the bag, but also so they knew it was a bag of pillows and not anything to worry about.  The operator was nice.  She called the Light Rail operator and came back on the line and said he had the bag.  Did I want to meet the Light Rail on its return trip or get the bag at lost-and-found.  I had to catch the train so chose to get the bag at lost-and-found.  My mistake.  That was December 29.  I called the next day, and they said it takes longer to get there.  I called the next week, and every couple of days after.  No bag.  They now say they never got the bag, and it is never coming.  There was a gift card to Target in the bag.  I guess the temptation was too great.  I knew when I left the bag, my chances of recovery were slim.  It's just there was that ray of hope, when the VTA phone operator told me they had the bag.  It just doesn't go with the current message, they never had the bag.  Of course they won't let you go through the lost-and-found stuff yourself, so you are left to their whims.

If there were another option, I would be using it.  VTA is a government sponsored monopoly.  They do not have to provide good service, or even be accountable.  So the bottom line, is I continue to use their service, knowing that the service is not good, but for the most part it gets me to and from the train.