People Mover closed on Good Friday?

**poobert** · April-09-12, 12:19 PM

Little rant:

Tried to take the wonderful People Mover on Friday [[yes, I actually use it for transit). Closed. Why? Because the Romans may have killed some Jewish guy 2000 years ago on that day.

I mean, COME ON. Does the EL train close on Good Friday? Does BART? The NYC subway?

It was a work day for most people! Not to mention I'm sure a shit ton of people were staying downtown or making a long weekend out of the Opening Day festivities.

Oh...and the STUPID THING DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A DRIVER!

This city is seriously the most back-assward place. I was just running some errands but I know some folks in from an actual functioning Metropolis in town who were baffled by this. I'm glad we never miss a chance to look embarassing and incompetant.

Can we get the state to take over the People Mover at least on Good Friday?

As an aside, I'm not for abolishing religious holidays or becoming some kind of atheist state. I'm a Catholic myself.

**Scottathew** · April-09-12, 12:31 PM

I thought the same thing.

I have no idea why it would be closed. The only thing in my mind I can blame are unions, but I have no factual evidence to do.

**BasementBeat** · April-09-12, 12:32 PM

It was closed? I hope at least for some sort of maintenance. But then again, they usually announce that ahead of time. Pretty silly if it was closed just for Good Friday.

Originally Posted by 48091

I thought the same thing.

I have no idea why it would be closed. The only thing in my mind I can blame are unions, but I have no factual evidence to do.

Hah!

Buy American · April-09-12, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

I thought the same thing.

I have no idea why it would be closed. The only thing in my mind I can blame are unions, but I have no factual evidence to do.

May I ask why you would think the unions would be to blame for the people mover not being in service on Good Friday?

**Kathleen** · April-09-12, 12:48 PM

Strange but true....Good Friday is one of the 13 holidays given to city employees. http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Residents/CityHolidays.aspx

To keep the People Mover up and running that day means paying OT to staff who maintain and monitor the system.

**Lowell** · April-09-12, 12:54 PM

It could have been maintenance. The PM broke down briefly on Opening Day.

**poobert** · April-09-12, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by Kathleen

Strange but true....Good Friday is one of the 13 holidays given to city employees. http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Residents/CityHolidays.aspx

To keep the People Mover up and running that day means paying OT to staff who maintain and monitor the system.

Yeah, I knew the city has that as a holiday. My understanding is that they get Good Friday off since Easter is always on a Sunday [[like if Christmas lands on a Sunday their extra day off gets moved as well).

I would think you could get a skeleton crew together to keep it running...again, I'm not sure where else you'd see such nonsense as a form of transit closed on Good Friday[[maybe the Vatican?). Especially given that, once again, I'm sure plenty of opening day people got hotels and could have used it, and people were probably in from out of town for the holiday weekend. Also it was closed because of Good Friday, not maintenance issues. Let's make the city less user-friendly!

**Detroitnerd** · April-09-12, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

The only thing in my mind I can blame are unions, but I have no factual evidence to do.

That has never stopped anybody from blaming unions before on this forum...

**Gistok** · April-09-12, 01:01 PM

It's been a family tradition to go downtown on Good Friday for lunch at Greektown, and then a ride on the PM, and then to go for a drive around Belle Isle, go to the Conservatory for the Easter Show and take pictures there. We've been doing this for the last 15+ years... but missed this year due to a work conflict [[tradition has been rescheduled for next Saturday).

Anyway... each of the years prior, the PM has been up and running on Good Friday.

**Scottathew** · April-09-12, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by Buy American

May I ask why you would think the unions would be to blame for the people mover not being in service on Good Friday?

Another poster found the answer:

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Residents/CityHolidays.aspx

It's a city holiday. Why does the city have this off? It was bargained for by the unions.

Heck ya! My hunch was right.

Other odd holidays that city employees have bargained for and take off while the rest of the non-unionized world is productive on:

Election Day
Day after Thanksgiving
Christmas' Eve [[in addition to Christmas Day)
New Years' Eve [[in addition to New Years' Day)

**Detroitnerd** · April-09-12, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Another poster found the answer:

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Residents/CityHolidays.aspx

It's a city holiday. Why does the city have this off? It was bargained for by the unions.

Heck ya! My hunch was right.

Other odd holidays that city employees have bargained for and take off while the rest of the non-unionized world is productive on:

Election Day
Day after Thanksgiving
Christmas' Eve [[in addition to Christmas Day)
New Years' Eve [[in addition to New Years' Day)

Sheesh. While you're at it, why don't you blame the unions for the 40-hour work week? That's like 128 hours people spend goofing off and being unproductive. Or shit like paid vacations! They're PAYING workers to be unproductive and go drink beer in the sun! How dare they!

**Wheels** · April-09-12, 02:49 PM

So if I mention MLK Day am I being racist and anti-union?

Geeeez! I love this site.

**eno** · April-09-12, 02:51 PM

That guy the Romans killed 2000 years ago was rumored to be the steward for his local carpenter's union. Figures.

**downtownguy** · April-09-12, 03:18 PM

Funny how many people disparage the PM for being useless, yet when it closes for a day, all of a sudden it becomes so essential! It was posted at the stations well in advance of Good Friday that it would be closed. For what it's worth, it was open on Easter Sunday. Even though the cars are driverless, that doesn't mean it runs for free. Since their subsidy from the city has been in question so much lately, I think they did the right thing by choosing Good Friday over Easter Sunday to close as the Tigers were playing Sunday. Many of the non-unionized and non-religious get Good Friday off, too. It was pretty quiet downtown that day. Frankly, I think they showed good fiscal responsibility by cutting back on one day that ridership probably would have been on the low side.

**Scottathew** · April-09-12, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Sheesh. While you're at it, why don't you blame the unions for the 40-hour work week? That's like 128 hours people spend goofing off and being unproductive. Or shit like paid vacations! They're PAYING workers to be unproductive and go drink beer in the sun! How dare they!

Unions get credit for the good things too! Without unions our world would be much different. However, they're no longer relevant, as a matter of fact, they now hurt the American economy.

What we need is for labor in other countries to unionize so their labor can become more expensive. However, their labor pools are so large that it simply won't work at this time.

**Detroitnerd** · April-09-12, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Unions get credit for the good things too! Without unions our world would be much different. However, they're no longer relevant, as a matter of fact, they now hurt the American economy.

What we need is for labor in other countries to unionize so their labor can become more expensive. However, their labor pools are so large that it simply won't work at this time.

Thank you for this glimpse into your mind. I'm due back on planet Earth now ...

**Trumpeteer** · April-09-12, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Another poster found the answer:

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Residents/CityHolidays.aspx

It's a city holiday. Why does the city have this off? It was bargained for by the unions.

Heck ya! My hunch was right.

Other odd holidays that city employees have bargained for and take off while the rest of the non-unionized world is productive on:

Election Day
Day after Thanksgiving
Christmas' Eve [[in addition to Christmas Day)
New Years' Eve [[in addition to New Years' Day)

I have three of those four off and have for 37 years and am NOT in a union.

SteveJ · April-09-12, 04:06 PM

Yup, most people have those days off. It sounds like 48091 might be working in a sweat shop for minimum wage and wants to bring all of us with decent jobs down with him.

**Roq** · April-09-12, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by 48091

Other odd holidays that city employees have bargained for and take off while the rest of the non-unionized world is productive on:

Election Day
Day after Thanksgiving
Christmas' Eve [[in addition to Christmas Day)
New Years' Eve [[in addition to New Years' Day)

I'm a white collar worker and I get all but Election Day off.

**gazhekwe** · April-09-12, 04:12 PM

How is it that unions are irrelevant? What would stop employers from eradicating as many worker friendly things as they can without some watchdog to keep an eye on things? Just look how pensions are being attacked now. Pensions were considered an essential part of compensation, a way to attract and maintain a good, well-prepared workforce. Large employers felt they had to compete for the best workers, and the benefits were added to sweeten the pot.

Recently, GM management was given a pay freeze connected to the bailout, and they expressed the fear that this would cause them to not be able to attract the best candidates for these high paid positions. I see that as a vestige of the way things were for all large employees throughout their workforce, not just for the top dogs. What changed really?
--Competition for jobs increased as jobs got scarcer, removing the need for incentives like good benefits. This is being spread and beat into our heads by the employers, mostly.

**jtf1972** · April-09-12, 04:32 PM

I believe the relevant argument here should not be whether the PM should be in operation on Good Friday, but why the operation of the PM should be any different than the DDOT bus system.

I highly doubt they just shut the bus system down due to a holiday.

All public transit should be operated by the same authority and have inter-connectivity.

We might even save a couple of bucks by not having to have two complete management systems.

SteveJ · April-09-12, 06:26 PM

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...-57813577.html

**EastsideAl** · April-09-12, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by SteveJ

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...-57813577.html

Thank you SteveJ for posting that link, which states that the PM was closed on Good Friday and Easter for guideway maintenance work, and open on the Saturday between in order to provide service for the Wings game.

Actually, it's pretty smart, and fiscally responsible, to schedule the maintenance on 2 days that are likely to see light usage, and for which OT would have to be paid. I too would prefer that the PM could run every day, but we have to get our savings where we can find them right now, and do what maintenance we can. Anyway, it's certainly more important overall to the people of the city to keep the buses running on those days.

Originally Posted by 48091

Unions get credit for the good things too! Without unions our world would be much different. However, they're no longer relevant, as a matter of fact, they now hurt the American economy.

Sometimes words almost fail... We've had 30 years of a concerted war against working class Americans, real dollar wages for non-executives have stagnated and then fallen since 1980 [[at the same time that productivity has risen), and someone still actually believes some Reaganite crap like this...? Unbelievable.

**antongast** · April-09-12, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by jtf1972

I highly doubt they just shut the bus system down due to a holiday.

No, but they run a Sunday schedule on some holidays regardless of the actual day of the week the holiday falls on, which means that routes like the Russell and the Southfield don't run at all on those days.

**poobert** · April-09-12, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by downtownguy

Funny how many people disparage the PM for being useless, yet when it closes for a day, all of a sudden it becomes so essential!

While small and non-essential, I like the People Mover for what it is. I've never said it is useless, and while it is extremely limited, if you spend a lot of time downtown like I do, it is very useful if you know how to use it. I also use it because I make a point to use the junky transit we have available. I'm not a transit expert and I don't know how other cities maintain theirs - however as it has been pointed out countless times on this forum, you can find reliable transit in most major population centers in the world, but, again, not here. I would still say closing the entire system for an entire day seems idiotic and frankly makes it more unreliable to the user.
Anecdotal, yes, but the two folks I talked to - one with family in from Austin and the other a Detroit resident - also tried vainly to use the system to find it was closed and also found it baffling. Normally you don't have to scour the internet for press releases to use transit in other cities, either. Here you practically need to study the three stupid systems for a lifetime to figure it out.
Maybe I'm wrong. Next Thursday is Yom Hashoah. Has anyone seen a press release that's shutting down the system for that holiday before I take for granted that the system would be running at all? ANZAC day is coming up, too. Better keep my eyes peeled.