I have been riding the Melrose bus for years to go downtown every two weeks after an appointment. To my utter dismay, I did not find out until after I had boarded the bus one day in December that the route had been changed and it was on its way to Salem. The driver stated after I asked her that the change had been posted. (If so, it wasn’t done very well.)
Why couldn’t the general manger have posted notices of such drastic changes? I was on the bus for an hour and forty minutes. It would have taken me almost three hours to arrive home if I hadn’t gotten off of the bus three blocks from my house.
Since this nightmare, a sign has been posted on the bus informing riders that they can get information on Google about schedules and other bus information. I and many others do not have Internet access at home. A notice in the newspaper could have helped get the word out.
The Melrose route has more riders than the Star Line Trolley yet only runs hourly after its so-called peak while the Trolley runs every ten or fifteen minutes. I wonder why that is?
A former city council member had a caption at the top of his commentary stating that Roanoke continues fixing problems that do not exist. This is what Palmer, the general manager of Valley Metro has done, and he has made more hardship for the riders.
I have voiced my concerns to the city council members, but my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. They haven’t a clue what our citizens are going through.
Sincerely,
Josephine Hutcheson
Roanoke
