Good Morning.

At 2pm today, I'm handing in my resignation. "Cubbie" will be driving his last tours on June 1.


Why?

I have quit before, but it was under duress. COVID was raging, and I saw the writing on the wall. I knew we were going to shut down entirely that winter (20-21) and I wasn't going to collect unemployment.

I came back, and things were going well for a while. But over the last year, things have slowly and steadily gone downhill.

First and foremost - the base is moving. We're in South Boston right now, about 2 miles from our operations downtown. Anything happens, I have additional vehicles and support no more than 20 minutes away from any part of the city.

The new barn and parking is going to be in Malden, MA. It will next be 6 miles from downtown. Which doesn't sound like much, but the only way in our out of "new base" to downtown is down traffic-choked I93. It is bumper-to-bumper traffic in both directions at all hours of the day. In an emergency now, help will be over an hour away.

Many of the trolley drivers are South Shore folks (Living in the suburban area South of Boston.) Many have already quit, and more than a few have told me they will try it to see how it goes, but if it's double or triple the commute, they will be leaving, too.

It is presently a very high-stress and low-reward working situation.

Being in charge of the dispatch team, acting head conductor, lead "script" trainer, and nearly everything else you can name has stretched me as thin as I can possibly get. None of these things are actually paid, of course. In fact, they take money out of my pocket, since I'm not driving tours or making any tips. But those tips have dried up too. We now use a "dynamic pricing" model, which for us means ticket prices go up $10 every two hours all day. I've read reviews where customers call it price gouging, and it's killed afternoon business. Nobody is going to pay $80 for a trolley ticket after 3pm to ride once around the city.

I fight for an evening off for my Scout meetings. I fight for a day off to do Masonic things. Unless I ask for it weeks, or even months in advance - there's no such thing as a weekend off anytime between April and November.

Another of my drivers, who has also left the company, used to say that she would tell her friends at the end of March - "It's season now. See you in November".

This is no way to live.

Most troubling of all is the effect it has had on my marriage. Mrs. TriSec and I will be married 28 years this summer. We've been together for 33 years this December.

We barely speak to each other right now. We're sleeping in separate beds at the moment. She tells me that I am short-tempered, mean, and rude, most of the time now.

This cannot stand.

I essentially rage-quit on Tuesday. Had a big blowup, and did actually slam the dispatch board down on the table and stormed out of the building. When I finally got home - Mrs. Trisec told me "you seem relieved".

I want myself back now, thank you.

I do have another job lined up already. It's with Yankee Bus, a major charter operator here in the Northeast. We operate anywhere between Boston and Washington, DC. The company has all the professional sports team charters. We do significant work with Harvard University as their sole off-campus transport provider. And with the way our public transit system is working, we supplement all the MBTA shuttle service whenever rail lines are shut down for repair work.

It's easier work, better pay, scheduled shifts, and a better work/life balance. This seems like a no-brainer.

I've been there part time all winter; they've been begging me to come full-time. I've also already been training over there, on my SECOND DAY I was teaching a new driver wheelchair operations, and I've worked with other new drivers on learning some shuttle routes. What I am looking forward to having an opportunity to do is the long-distance work. Even when it was good, I would tell Mrs. Cubbie that the only thing I would leave trolleys for would be long-haul. I might even have a chance to see some bloggers in DC at some point in time.

It has been a good ride at times; I told my psychologist friend this past weekend that at one point in time, this job saved me. What it has become now is the polar opposite.