TR Snippet- How not to buy a ticket and other bus stuff

 I had planned this trip so as not to depend much on the buses because everything was so new.  I wanted the routes and procedures to be sorted out before I tried too much and to see how the new ACE would work.


I liked the ACE route.  I rode it Saturday night and found it fast, easy to board, uncrowded.  I like seeing the times lit up right at the stop.

I learned the Deuce is still going downtown as well.  Folks were just too confused by the new route.  I don't know if it goes up to Palace Station or not yet.  I'll have to find that out.


I also learned that the upcharge when used on the ACE is only good for 2 hours.  So seniors cannot bypass the full 24 fare unless they only have one ride on ACE after buying a general market pass for $2.  The Deuce takes a $1 upcharge for each ride.


Well, here are my bus trips:

Finally, one day I was headed for M casino, using the Deuce and then the free shuttle from the Fashion Show Mall.

I should have started in front of Paris and used the ACE, but I walked North and ended at a Deuce stop North of Flamingo.

There was a machine there, but it was a Deuce machine. I put my senior ID in the slot. It did not read it, but printed up these instructions:

"Push your card all the way in."

So I did.

That was a mistake. The Deuce machines are only for credit cards. They don't bring up senior reduced rates. My card was stuck.

After a while a bus came and I told the driver. It took a while for her to call, but finally she said it would be three hours before they came to open the machine and even then I could not get my ID back until I went downtown.

Amazing. My photo is on the card.

Since I was going downtown the next day to stay, I just cancelled all plans for the M and went to the Venetian to play poker and lose $475.

It just was not my day.

The next day I went to the Downtown DTC. I expected a hassle, but they had my card right there in a box full of other cards which had been lost as well, perhaps many of them in the Deuce machines.

Well, a good lesson.

The following day I walked down Freemont and turned the corner at Neonopolis to catch the ACE at the stop where I used to catch the Deuce.

This time my bus ticket machine skills were fine. I had the right machine. It took my senior card and rejected it on the first try, but I turned it around and then it was fine. Once validated I was able to pick my fare. I choose the 3 day senior citizen fare ALL ACCESS fare because it is just fifty cents more than the 24 hour full price ALL ACCESS fare. They is no senior deal on that rate.

In the past I had used machines at the DTC and found them almost impossible to read, but these new machines are large print and clear. Very easy.

Once my fare was selected, I could then put in my charge card and pay for it. The process was easy. It is nice not to have to always be checking to see that I have the correct change.

The first bus was the C LINE. I was surprised to see it at this stop and I'll pass on that information. Certainly, by the time I go back to Vegas, the new DTC will have changed routes again, but for now it is easy enough to board this bus here and hit the strip at Fashion Show Mall. After that it head out??

I liked the ACE bus, but for me it still felt like a bus and not as much like a train. I rode to Paris, walked down Flamingo to the Westin to play a matchplay coupon, and then took the Flamingo bus to go to the meet at the Palms. It was all quick and easy.

Coming back on the Flamingo bus we were held up by an accident around where the expressway and Flamingo meet. Annoying, but I was happy again not to be driving.

At Paris I just missed one ACE, so I went in to use the restroom. Such wonderful little French sinks!

Coming out I saw an ACE pull in and here is the cool thing about this bus. I just hustled and jumped on the back door. Unlike the other buses, there are three doors to board and no ticket to show.

It was uncrowded on this Saturday. Some young tourists jumped on with not tickets to head to Casino Royale and we passengers explained the system to them, so they got off around Wynn to buy a ticket and head back on the Deuce.

I liked the comfortable back seats. These are very different than bus seats.

One local was talking about the buses. He was beginning to chart when it was likely to encounter a ticket inspector. To the tourists he said that they could just watch to see if the uniformed inspectors got on the bus and exit the rear door. From this fellow and another I got the idea that some locals would look for loopholes in the inspection process. He said that he did not expect inspectors at that time of night on a Saturday.

I had encountered three security people on my ride out and I got to witness how the process worked. During the ride from downtown one checked us all. One woman had a pass that was probably incorrectly stamped at her workplace and he questioned it, let her go, then asked to see it again when a more knowledgeable inspector came on the bus. I can see that since a machine no longer reads the tickets there will be such problems and perhaps eventually they will issue some hand held electronics to read bar codes on tickets.

While I rode I talked to a local next to me. He was annoyed that the location where he once bought his monthly pass no longer sold them. The only way to get them was to do to one location. I told him that he could buy them through the mail, but that would mean he would have to pay ahead of time and he was another fellow living paycheck to paycheck. Well, I said, you will only have to do that one time and he agreed.

He told me that he and others had gone down to the bus company and protested this change. He hoped that it would solve the problem.

While they were there, they also argued that only tourists should pay fares. Fares should be free for those who were going to work. Ironically, the tourists who has hopped without a ticket on the ACE on Saturday night said that the buses should be free for tourists.

I did not ask whether in their cities the city bus was free. I suspect it cost more than Vegas buses cost.

But once again I was reminded that everyone feels that in some way their class should be accommodated.

Perhaps, I should not talk since my class of seniors does get great accommodation, but I also think that there is a time for celebration around these new buses and there needs to be some of that as well.

One of the three inspectors had done a short rant on seniors who get too many privileges. It annoyed me because I had asked him what the upcharge price was, $2 or $3. I had heard $2 but thought I saw $3 on the machine.

"I know about life," I told him. "What I was asking was about the upcharge." He said nothing, but one of the other security guys said that it was $2 and that is what the website says as well.

Later when I told about getting my senior ID stuck in the machine, he was interested and did not treat me like a joke.

Along with these two security fellows was a security girl.  She was telling a story of a woman who was on the ACE with the wrong ticket and who had her purse snatched.  She accused the guard of taking her purse and it annoyed the guard.  So she was told to leave the bus and pay the upcharge.  She had a $2 senior ticket like mine.  The girl seemed to indicate that she would have gotten the woman to her destination for no extra charge except that the woman verbally abused her.  There is a lesson in this.  For the most part the officers will accommodate during this learning period.