For many years now, I’ve ridden the Route 18 bus downtown to work. It’s not a bad experience, although I didn’t care for the service reduction in 2012, that reduced the frequency of buses from every 15 minutes in the morning to every 20 minutes.

Typically I will my apartment at 8:45 AM, and head to catch the bus around 8:52 AM. I actually don’t need that much time going to the bus stop, but I like to be early, as I’m normally running late. The bus then takes about 25 minutes to get downtown, reaching it around 9:15 AM. I usually open up my laptop and blog on the bus most mornings, which makes the time go by fast.

Starting this past February, CDTA started offering later Route 719 service in the morning. It was quite nice being able to catch an “express” bus to work. Not that it actually saved much time — it got my to work at 9:10 AM, and usually was at the bus stop sometime between 8:50 – 8:55 AM.

The thing was, I didn’t really need to get to work earlier. I usually work late and miss my lunch as things get busy, so I really don’t need the extra five minutes at work to make my hours for the day. The earlier bus was also much more inconsistent time wise — sometimes it ran very early, and sometimes very late, due to coming all the way from Altamont.

Theoretically, the bus was calmer and nicer, being almost empty and going for a smooth ride on the freeway. Maybe the Delmar Bypass is more scenic than Delaware Avenue. But if I’m blogging on the bus, do I really look out the window much? Not really.

And the fact is, the later Route 719 almost had no passengers. Many mornings, coming from Altamont, there was nobody on the bus — but it still ran, consuming a gallon of diesel every 4-5 miles, and using an expensive driver and bus that could be better used on a higher traffic route.

So while I somewhat miss the later Route 719 bus in the morning, I’ve kind of made peace with taking the local again. It’s silly for them to run a bus all the way out to Altamont at this late hour, if on many days nobody rides it, and I’m the first passenger.