Having tired of the mostly pointless evening trips to the dead side of downtown on the MAX bus, I decided to sprint after the Casino Cruiser bus last night and give it a try.
Though it was a nice change of scenery, it wasn't any faster. It does its own dance around town, going a few blocks out of its way just to make sure it passes in front of all of the major downtown tourist hotels. I suppose it aims to be a casino shuttle, so this is acceptable.
Sadly, the only people that could have been anything close to tourists was the old couple that couldn't operate the fare box. The rest of the bus was a rag-tag gang that just looked to be riding along.
I always figured that this route served a lot of the workers that kept the casinos running. After listening to some of the conversations, however, it became clear to me that a lot of these people knew each other and a lot of them were going to gamble.
Nobody was at the hotels. The bus filled up at the transfer points from poorer areas of the city. At 10th and Main, a man got on and was recognized by several people who said they had missed him. "I had to give it up for awhile," he said, and he was clearly excited to be back on the road to rock bottom.
This bus is always full. Should the ATA continue to masquerade it as a tourist shuttle or should it start running down Brooklyn, making sure what little money is left in these impoverished neighborhoods is delivered to casino operators as soon as possible?
I don't fault the ATA for operating the route. I am sure I will use it at some point. It is a sad thing to see on your commute home, though.
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2 comments:
Being able to tell organizations we have a casino shuttle from downtown hotels is an important selling point for conventions. It brings money into the city even if it doesn’t directly pay back to the bus company.
It does get a lot of conventioneers form the downtown hotels, when there is a big convention in town. We just haven't had many big conventions lately...
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