Dis-Connex-ion

The last time I used to use the Connex-ion Buses on a weekly basis was back in 2008, during my university days. I’ve taken it a couple of times since then, and I used to enjoy sitting in a comfortable chair on the hour and a half/ two hours of the Tripoli/Beirut (and vice versa) roads, listening to music or catching up on my reading. That is, until last week…

Last week, a friend and I decided to go to Beirut, so we of course resorted to Connex-ion. When we arrived at the station at 9:00AM, it was packed with more people than could be seated in one bus! I looked outside at the driveway to see that it was empty, where were the buses? We went to get tickets and the cashier told us that one of the buses had broken down on the way, and it wasn’t going to arrive for another 20 minutes. But we couldn’t take the 20 minutes one since it was already jam packed. We had to wait another 20 minutes on top of the 20 minutes for the second bus to arrive! 60 minutes later, the promised 40 minutes bus arrived. An hour later!

And then numbers! They used to have seat numbers! Now, it’s on a first get on the bus, first get seated wherever you want basis! There was a girl who got a ticket and decided to wait till the boarding chaos was over before she would get on the bus, and when she did, there wasn’t a single seat left! “But I have a ticket!” she protested, “You didn’t get on the bus on time” the driver rudely remarked!

I thought Connex-ion must have been having an off day that day, and they weren’t usually like this (at least not back when I used to use it). But I was wrong! On Wednesday, my cousins and I decided to head to Kaslik for some shopping. So we called the station to ask what time the bus was leaving. In 20 minutes, we were told. So we got there in 15 minutes also to find it as crowded as ever. We couldn’t leave till the second bus arrived another 40 minutes later!

Then to put the icing on the cake, yesterday, I went to see a friend in Beirut, and on the way back, the motor blew. TWICE! The poor driver (respectable as ever, I felt so sorry for him) had to stop and some of us got out for him to open the motor compartment and pour cold water on it to cool down. After that, he had to continue driving at a speed I could beat while walking. It took us three full hours to get from Beirut to Tripoli (without major Traffic!) Here’s a picture I snapped while basking in the sun at the station we stopped at…

I don’t want to be all hating on the Connex-ion, but its standards have recently become comparable to $h!+. I sincerely hope something is done about this because it used to be a good company, organized, punctual, respectable, and one I used to look forward to using as a means of transportation… in the mean time, its just a means of Dis-Connex-ion!