Why Can't The MTA Get It's Act Together?

Yesterday - Friday - I made two longer than normal trips via the MTA. A bus ride to the Valley and a subway/bus ride to Beverly Hills. And each trip showed the MTA at it weakest when it comes to its employees.

Worst was my trip on the subway. When I got off the North Hollywood train at Western to transfer to the 720 bus line, I found a large key ring on a Disneyland key chain with the name... Veronica... I think... complete with car keys and a clicker - lying on one of the seating areas. I tried to call security on the phone but it did not work. I then tried a second phone and I finally reached a polite, helpful person who suggested I give it to the next westbound train.

So I waited for the Wilshire Western train, ran up to the driver and just as I reached him - he slammed shut his window. And when I knocked on his window and held up the keys to show them to him, he refused to look at me and looked straight ahead for a considerable amount of time before he pulled out.

Then I tried a second train heading to Union Station and that driver finally took the keys, but only after giving me a lot of attitude for bothering him.

And earlier in the day, I was on a bus where the driver could not even tell his passengers which streets he stopped on on the way out and on the way back another driver slammed on the brakes every time he stopped, almost throwing us out of the seats more than once, and missed stops even after people had rung for the stops and then when he stopped, he often couldn't get the bus more than six feet from the curb.

And the MTA wonders why people would rather drive in Los Angeles...