Good work on this interesting story.

You missed reporting on the real cost of this overtime - the increase in lifetime pension we are going to be paying these drivers. An actuary could easily help you calculate that amount. It must be enormous. Please have a follow up story.

Good work on this interesting story.

You missed reporting on the real cost of this overtime - the increase in lifetime pension we are going to be paying these drivers. An actuary could easily help you calculate that amount. It must be enormous. Please have a follow up story.

If, instead of having one employee who works lots of overtime, you had two employees who work no overtime, you would have to pay two smaller pensions instead of one larger pension. I'd bet one larger pension is cheaper.

I just want to let all those with questions about Overtime at Metro or other Transit Agency to know that it is now easy to find Operators or drivers that can pass background investigations or pass the alcohol and drug test. Our agency can have 500 candidates and only 10 can make the cut and out of those 10 folks. Six will quit before being on the job two years because of the low starting wage and be duty 10-12 long hours just to get 8 hours of pay.

The reporter doing this story would not last as a driver, now, what is it worth to go to work to have assalts,drunks, other going ons and all this while keeping the public safe. The reporter I guess had a slow day with Palin and decided to go after hard blue collar workers. Should I or anyone else feel bad about making a living? No, I suggest doing stories on over paid CEO's and Jamie Dimon whos idea of the perfect employee is one that has little or now benefits, works only part time and has nothing to look forward too. I have several years safe driving, many safety awards, helped a passanger after he was assualted, had a passenger vomit over three seats (drunk), no how much is that worth? OT is cheaper then hiring more drivers and cost effective. But that's lost in the drama of King5 needing a news story I guess.

"You missed reporting on the real cost of this overtime - the increase in lifetime pension we are going to be paying these drivers. An actuary could easily help you calculate that amount. It must be enormous. Please have a follow up story."

The follow up story is that most of these drivers pass away shortly after retirement. Working long hours in a stressful environment, not to mention lack of exercise and poor diet attributed to working on the road, will do that.

A better place to look into saving Metro dollars is management. The drivers who make so much overtime are working for their money. Someone has to take the passengers home. Metro has a long history of being top heavy in managers. If Metro were truely interested in saving payroll, instead of looking at drivers, they should look at all the non-represented employees (managers). Metro could probably lay off 100-150 Managers and the system would not even notice they were gone. Just think how much money Metro could save. 100 employees at $75,000 to $110,00 plus their benefits. The cost of the benefits is supposedly 1/3 of the yearly salary. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY. Of course, you will never get a manager to lay off a manager. No wait. The general manager of Community Transit did. She saved CT a lot of money.

I think this reporter totally misrepresented mtro drivers. As a full-time metro operator I have been assulted,spit on,cussed out, and everything else the public wants to throw out at us while we are keeping the public safe and getting people home. This reporter did not do any research about the other 1000+ operators that do not work overtime at all or very little O.T not counting our part-time operators who aren't even able to really work 80hours every 2 weeks, instead in my opinion she throwing the blame at us drivers and making a generalization that isn't true for the majority of us. Aren't we entitled to get payed for the work we do? with gas increasing and more people hopping on the bus who's gonna drive then to their homes or work? We play a vital role in this city and it would be nice to get a little respect and credit for our hard work instead of being told were making too much O.T as if we can help it, if thats what keeps the city moving isn't that whats really important? Instead of blamming us for the budget crisis why doesn't she do a report on the many many people who ride the bus that don't pay their fare? It just seems to me that were an easy target for this reporter, and she needs to gather all her facts before throwing the blame around.

I watched the story with fear as I knew it would make drivers like me look bad. Then I thought of the continuous search for more drivers and the never ending new students graduating from class coming into the work force. If it was so easy everyone would be doing it as a career. We earn our money and any overtime is filling a need. Okay, some drivers do fill the need more often but that's because are willing. A lot of drivers will not do any extra hours no matter what. I know maybe we can cut overtime by cancelling trips! I think the reporter needs to ride on one of the more rough routes like the 7, 358 or 174 at the back of the bus at 10pm and ask themselves how much is it worth to have a driver who is willing and able to take on the daily challenges of making the big bucks.

WEATHER FORCASTERS ARE COSTING US MONEY BOTH IN METRO OVERTIME AND DAMAGE TO OUR ROADS!!

One of the things leading to the rise in costs for metro can be attributed to poor choices in listening to local weather forcasters such as Rich Marriot, Steve Pool, Jeff Rehner, and many more. When driving in on clear roads today from Redmond, I noticed every bus had chains on. This costs Metro overtime hours for maint. staff to get these on and off. And should I mention the roads are already in dire need of repair and repaving..... Do innacurate weather forcasts help with Metro's budget problems.... No!

Weather forcasters are costing taxpayers money in both metro overtime and damage to our roads!

One of the things leading to the rise in costs for metro can be attributed to poor choices in listening to local weather forcasters such as Rich Marriot, Steve Pool, Jeff Rehner, and many more. When driving in on clear roads today from Redmond, I noticed every bus had chains on. This costs Metro overtime hours for maintainence staff to get these on and off. And should I mention the roads are already in dire need of repair and repaving..... Do innacurate weather forcasts help with Metro's budget problems.... No!

Bus drivers have an extremely tough job. I did not watch this story; but as a passenger; they must drive in the snow, deal with passengers; deal with an overcrowded bus. Probably some analysts could help in the areas where they could improve. Perhaps more efficient buses; better scheduling could help.