Testy driver orders rider off the bus
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | April 15, 2007
It was late at night last week and Bill of South Boston had just landed at Logan International Airport after a working vacation out West. He was loaded down with luggage and tired when he boarded an MBTA Silver Line bus for the quick trip to his home near Silver Line Way.
The driver was in a hurry to get through the Ted Williams Tunnel, driving, Bill estimates, at least 60 miles per hour. And when he exited the tunnel in South Boston, he took a left instead of a right, headed away from the Silver Line's tunnel entrance and Bill's stop.
"By the time we were on Melcher, I figured out he was going straight to South Station," Bill wrote. "I called out, 'Hey, aren't you going to Silver Line Way?' "
That's when the driver got testy, Bill said. He slammed the brakes and opened the doors.
"He immediately pulled over and screamed ' Get the [expletive] out ' repeatedly," Bill wrote. "I protested , and he started to swear about passengers, the T -- and told me to get out again."
Bill said the driver had stopped the bus in the middle of Summer Street. The only other passenger put his head down and stayed mum, Bill said.
So Bill gathered his two pieces of luggage and his carry-on and walked a mile back to Silver Line Way at 1 a.m. in 30-degree temperatures.
"He actually had the nerve to then say that if I stayed and rode to South Station there were plenty of cabs," Bill wrote. "I wanted nothing to do with him and left."
Bill called MBTA customer service the next morning, requesting a letter of apology and his fare refunded. "The lady took notes and was very nice but said it would be several days before anyone would get back to me."
Bill then wrote to Starts & Stops, and our jaw dropped.
MBTA officials would not identify the 50-year-old bus driver. But they said he had been hired as a part-time bus operator in July 2003 and promoted to full-time in May 2005.
After an interview with his supervisor, he was disciplined for unprofessional conduct with what is called "5 and Final" -- a five-day suspension without pay and a warning that the next level of discipline, for any rules violation, will be termination. He was also required to undergo anger management counseling, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.
Bill followed up on Friday.
"My expectations of the T were already so low before this incident that I really don't expect anything more than a grudging willingness to answer pointed questions in a brusque manner," he wrote. "I am also in a service business. If we were this slow to respond to an egregious customer complaint, we could expect to lose the customer. Unfortunately, there's only one T."
