After Waterbury was hit by the sudden snowfall at rush hour last Friday, the big news in the paper was the stranding of small children on school buses. I don't know what would have been a better way to handle the problem (shouldn't the bus drivers be trained and equipped with supplies for emergencies strandings?), although I have to agree that it was much better to have the buses pull over than crash.
What I haven't seen covered much in the news is the story of the public trans buses. I heard one person say he waited two hours in the cold for a bus after work before finally giving up and walking a mile or two to get home. Granted, that doesn't make for as wrenching a story as crying toddlers, but I think it bothers me more. The kids on the buses were, presumably, kept warm. The people using CT Transit were stuck out in the cold, and those riders typically include the elderly and small children. At least some of the downtown bus stops have a sort of shelter, but there are few things quite as miserable as standing out in the cold waiting for a bus.
I suppose there's a certain amount of effort to find someone to blame for the transportation mess during the storm, but even after the storm started, most of the weathermen were still saying that it would be an insignificant dusting at worst. For tomorrow's storm, they're going the opposite direction, predicting roughly half a foot of snow. I don't think anyone will be too surprised if all we get is an insignificant dusting.
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