Microsoft giving workers free ride -- with its own bus service

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:

Windows, Office, Xbox, Zune -- and now, a regional bus system.



That's the surprise addition Microsoft Corp. made to its portfolio Thursday, announcing its own bus service -- complete with on-board wireless Internet access -- to shuttle its employees from their neighborhoods around the region to Redmond and back home again.

The 14-bus Microsoft "Connector" system, to debut later this month, was announced as the company unveiled plans to open new offices in Seattle's South Lake Union and Pioneer Square neighborhoods.

At launch, the bus system will handle no more than 1,000 employees a day. That's only a slice of Microsoft's more than 35,000 employees in the region.

But the fact that Microsoft would find it necessary to take such a step added new fuel to the debate over comprehensive regional transportation reform.

Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end of government run transportation.Let's here it for the private sector! Thanks to Lew Rockwell.com for the heads up on this one.