Bus Riders Union of Austin, Texas | El Sindicato de Pasajeros

It is going to be a HOT summer. This past Saturday afternoon I rode route 325 which was bus number 7437. It was 97 degrees outside according to the sign at the Dairy Queen at Burnet at Ohlen. The air conditioning on the bus was NOT working. A couple of passengers opened the vents at the request of the driver, but it didn't help much. I called 474-1200 and requested customer service, then told them the bus needed to be swapped and gave them the bus number. One of the problems is route 325 is driven by Veloia, and they don't have enough long buses. I saw a few busses driving around "NOT IS SERVICE", which basically means mechnic on board or driver training. Of course one of those buses could NOT trade out for the route 325 without Air Conditioning due to being operated by a different company.

For those that are not aware, there are THREE companys that drive "Capital Metro" buses. They are:
StarTran (fake company created by Capital Metro - main company
Veolia - drives 440, 383, 392 and a few other routes
First Transit - primarly drives UT shuttle, magnet school, 142

First Transit drove route 325 prior to the current markup, but they lost it to Veolia. Many weekends there was at least one route 325 without the new fair box, so some counts and money were lost.