Letters | Why buses are filthy

I'M A SEPTA bus operator, and I'd just like to tell Ms. Perkins, who wrote about filthy buses, that 95 percent of them that come out in the morning have been cleaned overnight, inside and out, and yet, after one trip, there are coffee cups stuffed between the seats, newspapers left on the seats or floor, McDonald's bags and containers on the floor, and let's not forget the junk-food wrappers and plastic Hug juice containers that are rolling down the aisle from the schoolkids.

Also, some buses that provide service during the morning rush have been in service all night, so the urine smell and all the other unpleasantries you find are courtesy of the riding public. The operators don't sit in the passenger seats, so please don't blame us for the filth you must ride in because we did not create it.

Your fellow riders are responsible for the dirty bus ride you must endure. We operators do not always have time for "housekeeping" between trips, and frankly we should not have to clean up behind people who refuse to follow the rules of "No eating and drinking on the bus."

The next time you decide that the bus driver "doesn't care," maybe you should look around at all your fellow riders and see just how much they care as they break the rules and then leave the trash behind. We are so often told to "just drive the bus" whenever we ask someone to follow the rules, yet when we do exactly that, we don't care. You can't have it both ways.

Vanessa Kirby, Clifton Heights

A nay on Xmas Carol

I was very disappointed in Carol Towarnicky's op-ed on the War on Christmas.

The world in which she lives is certainly not in this city, nor does she represent those who live here. Someone more grounded and rational would be better for a paper that used to stand for something.

Coryell Barlow, Philadelphia