Case Date:

2/16/2024

I boarded your bus #1372 at about 7:22 AM heading East on the #3 route this morning, February 16, 2024. I noticed the strong presence of diesel exhaust fumes on the bus & notified the driver. He informed me that that was just the way it is. I told him that I ood not think that we passengers are supposed to be breathing exhaust fumes. He said that it is a normal part of the regenerative process. I explained to him that we are not supposed to be breathing in exhaust fumes. I asked him if he should radio the issue in to dispatch. He explained that there was nothing that he could do about it, that it was a normal part of the regenerative process. When I arrived home & called dispatch, I was told the same thing. Tehn when I was still concerned that this was not supposed to be happening, she passed me onto her boss. I then was also connected to a man in dispatch. He too told me that it was a normal part of the regenerative process. I then asked him, so, you are supposed to be breathing in exhaust fumes while on the bus? Only then did he say that he would have maintenance take a look at it. However, I have heard this before & they have in the past disregarded this concern & let the bus run with exhaust fumes. I do not beleive that we tax-paying citizens should have to put up with busses gassing us like we are in a WWII Natzi Contentration camp getting gassed becouse our lives do not matter. There is never an excuse to expose a passengers to this and in fact, upon being notified by a passenger, the driver should have to pull the bus over, empty the bus of passengers to prevent carbon monoxide poisening & have us wait for a bus replacement or for the issue to get fixed, before reboarding a bus. I have sent a letter to the EPA about this going on for 20-years as I can recall & treating pasengers this way, as though we should not have an issue with disel-exhaust fumes being inhaled into out lungs while riding as a passenger.

Case Date:

2/19/2024

I regret having to reach out to you regarding this bus #1372.  I boarded this bus on the East route of Route 3 this morning at approximately 7:22 AM on February 19, 2024.  I was informed by Mike Clark of Bloomington Transportation who is the operating manager, that the heater was working on that previous checked bus. Yet the heater is either not on, broken or the driver does not knbow how or desire to turn on the heater for the passenger. Furhter more, she informed me that the door heater was on, but that they do not work on some of the buses, as was the case on this bus this morning. There is no need to make passengers suffer like this.  The bus was NOT cold because of opening & closing the doors as MIke Clark previously suggested when I wrote to him regarding this bus.  The heat was simply not coming out of the overhead vents, there was only cold at the vents & the poles for holding onto were cold as well, indicating it had not been on for some time.  The dispatch operator's boss informed me begrudgingly that the bus was in fact bus #1372.  Since the dispatch operator could not be bothered to assist the driver in operating the heater that was alleged to be operating properly according to Mike Clark, I am forced to issue this complaint to the you the City of Bloomington government for heat on the buses in the Winter to be turned on & operating properly for the buses that do not have a heating system functioning or for the bus drivers who feel that we do not need the heat in the Winter. Sincerely, Timothy MacKLenzie