As of March 6th, the TTC has raised the price of adult bus fare to $2.50. A fare hike has long been predicted, and honestly I’m surprised it took this long before it actually happened.

Bulk ticket prices have also gone up, but not by much. Previously, a set of 10 tickets cost $19. It’s no been upped to an even $20, meaning that I no longer get that lone loonie back when I buy a set. No matter, $2 for a ticket is somewhat reasonable. People can still use the old tickets, as long as they slip a dime in with a ticket to cover the difference. I personally still have a lone ticket, so I can use that next time I have to take the bus.

It takes two tickets for me to get to work due to the whole fare zone business when I cross the border. So, knowing that I’ll have to take the bus tomrrow, I ventured out during this past lunch hour to the city border. I can’t get TTC tickets outside of the city. As much as it’s a bit of an irritant, it makes sense.

So, I went to a mall at the city border. I wasn’t really sure where the nearest ticket vendor was, so I just wandered around until I spotted a counter that sold tickets. When I asked the lady for a set of 10, she looked at me and said that she didn’t have any tickets. I wasn’t expecting that repsonse, so I guess I had this confused/dumbfounded look. She explained that the old tickets were no longer available (I understand), and the new tickets weren’t distributed out yet. I asked here if there was another place that sold tickets, and she said she wasn’t sure. The way she was talking about it, it led me to believe that the new tickets hadn’t yet been distributed out ot the majority of the 1200 authorized vendors across the city. All I could say was, “that’s just silly.” She replied, “that’s what I’ve been syaing all day.”

Now, I fully expect that tickets will be available at the subway stations. I have no reason to believe otherwise. However, the new fares went into effect on Sunday. It’s already the day after, so it should be reasonable for me to believe that new tickets would have been delivered to most, if not all, authorized vendors. Maybe it’s just my luck for choosing the one vendor that didn’t yet receive tickets, but, still…it almost seems a bit lazy on the part of the TTC. It’s not fair for me to say that though, because I still haven’t checked out other vendors.

It’s mildly irritating, but I guess I’ll have to take the long route to work tomorrow, having to make a stop at the Scarborough Town Centre, and adding about an hour to my commute.

So much has been trying my patience since I woke up this morning. Despite all this, I’m feeling kind of mellow.

Last night, it started snowing in the GTA. By this morning, there was a very large pile to be cleaned up. My mom woke me up at 6 to shovel the driveway for her because she didn’t want to risk getting stuck in the driveway. Fair enough. Someone has to do it eventually. I cleared a path for her to get the car out, but she drove partly over the unshovelled driveway anyway. No big deal. When I went to shovel the rest of the driveway, I had much trouble clearing the tracks that were caused by the car running over the loosely packed snow. Not only that, but there were also tracks created when my father went to work the night before. The tracks were frozen solid. Whatever. About an hour later, I cleared it all and headed inside. My sweater was soaked with sweat.

It was 7, and I was exhausted. I figured that there was no way I would make the 730 bus, I decided to take the time to relax, possibly getting the 750. After a while of sitting, I got even lazier and decided to just get the 820, so that I’d have time to shower.

By 8, I was running all over the house trying to get my things together. I was scrambling to find my tuque, but it was nowhere to be found. I gave up after a while thinking that I might miss the bus if I kept looking. Besides, I thought I wouldn’t be out in the blowing snow for very long.

There were already a few people at the bus stop by the time I got there at about 810. We all waited patiently for the bus to come around the corner. Then 820 came. A snow plow which was clearing the sidewalks was approaching, so we all stepped onto the deep snowbanks to allow it to do its job. 830 came. The snow plow came back and was going the other way. Still no bus. Five minutes later, the snow plow passed by again. Still no bus. Eventually, another group of people came to the bus stop. They were presumably waiting for the next bus and not the 820. Due to the weather conditions, I think it was totally forgivable for the bus to be a few minutes late. Regardless, it was still a bit too late for my liking. I could have easily found my tuque and been a whole lot warmer in that time spent waiting. As the bus turned the corner into our sights, there was a bit communal sigh of relief. When we spotted a second bus right behind–the on-time one, some of us became a bit miffed.

As I moved towards the middle of the bus, it must have slipped on ice because it suddenly lurched, throwing many people forward, myself included. There was a big “WHOA!” from the passengers, which were mostly high school students heading to class. A hadn’t yet grabbed onto a pole properly at the time, so I bumped into this guy in front of me. Things returned to normal for a second, but before I could grab on, the bus lurched again, causing another “WHOA!” followed by the laughter of many young teenage girls. Once again, I ran into the guy. I was in no mood to apologize, but we made eye contact acknowledging the craptastic driving skills of the driver. I finally grabbed onto the pole. but not before the bus lurched again.

This time, the driver felt the need to defend himself. “Listen, I cannot step on the gas and brake at the same time! The bus is doing this all by itself!” To be fair, the road conditions were rotten, but still.

The bus arrived at my stop pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it had to stop behind another bus in the process of loading/unloading. We had to climb a rather large snowbank to get to the sidewalk. There was much hesitation from a large group of people. I just decided to go for it, even if it meant being thigh high in snow. Luckily, the snowbank was well packed, so climbing over it wasn’t too bad. I had to laugh at the situation afterwards.

I waited about 10 minutes before the connecting bus came around. I spotted the “39E EXPRESS” sign and got on with a whole other bunch of people. As it tried to turn a tight corner, the bus got stuck in the snow midturn. It took a minute before the driver got traction again. The trouble was that due to other cars, the bus couldn’t make the wide turn necessary. Oh, how rotten. There was a whole pile of other buses behind us waiting for us to turn.

As the bus travelled along Finch, I noticed that there were very few people getting on the bus. Some people refused to get on. I thought it was strange, but figured that there might be a regular 39 bus behind us. Whatever. I thought luck was going my way. When we got to Warden, I fully expected a smooth ride to my stop. After Warden, the 39E makes only two major stops before the station, one of which is my stop. So, I was a bit surprised when the bus made an unexpected stop at a minor street. Alarms started going off in my head. I looked around the bus, and it seemed almost empty. Usually the 39E is quite packed. I suddenly feared that I boarded the 139E instead of the 39E. My fear was confirmed when the bus went on the highway to head to subway station farther south than where I wanted to go. Whatever. I knew I was going to be late anyway, so I didn’t let it bother me.

At Don Mills station, I waited at the 25 platform, waiting for the next 25D to show up. After a long wait, a 25 showed up and loaded/unloaded in front of me. I spotted a 25D at the opposite end of the bus bay area. It was unloading passengers. Now, I’ve seen this before. Drivers might sometimes unload passengers at a different bay, but always stopped at their proper location to pick up new pasengers. Soon, the 25D started moving forward, the 25 wasn’t getting out of the way, so a group of us thought it would stop right behind. When it started moving past, a group of us started running for the bus. Unfortunately, it just kept of motoring along. As it circled the station, we held hope that it might come around again and stop at the proper bay. However, like a bunch of chumps, it just went up the ramp and left the station. That’s when I started cursing.

Listen, it doesn’t matter if buses are late. It’s understandable in this weather. However, a bus totally passing passengers who’ve been waiting for a long time is bloody inexcusable. It’s not like the 25D comes frequently either.

We waited until about 945 before another 25D came. This time, we all rushed to meet the bus. We weren’t taking any more chances. Luckily, the driver was crazy and sped along the slick roads as if he was trying to play catch up. In the end, I arrived at work at about 1045. I probably could have arrived earlier if I had waited for my father to come back from work and took the van. Whatever. All I know is that I’m at work, warm, and getting drier.