BajaNomad - TJ crossing north today a mess

TJ crossing north today a mess

willardguy - 12-10-2012 at 06:14 PM

I dont know how long its been like this but the ready lanes at padre kino are closed. the ready lane at via rapida is backed up south of Independence and the regular lanes back to revolution. this was at 11am.
so I touristed around tj all day then headed back south. looks like tecate or otay!

DENNIS - 12-10-2012 at 06:28 PM

Welcome to the USA, K-Mart Christmas shoppers.

Marla Daily - 12-10-2012 at 06:36 PM

It took my husband more than 6-1/2 hours to cross at Tijuana going north on Thursday, November 29. He got in line at 2:00 PM and crossed after 8:30 PM. He was held at the kiosk for 20 minutes by an incredibly rude customs agent asking question after question; then he checked under the dog beds and under the seat of the king cab. The air pollution was so bad with carbon monoxide, particulate matter and diesel fumes that when Kirk finally got home, he spent the rest of the evening throwing up. It was a BAD crossing!

It was also the first time in 8 years he has crossed at TJ—this because we've been stopped and hassled 3 of the 4 last passes through Tecate. We'll try Tecate again this Wednesday heading south.

willardguy - 12-10-2012 at 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marla Daily
It took my husband more than 6-1/2 hours to cross at Tijuana going north on Thursday, November 29. He got in line at 2:00 PM and crossed after 8:30 PM. He was held at the kiosk for 20 minutes by an incredibly rude customs agent asking question after question; then he checked under the dog beds and under the seat of the king cab. The air pollution was so bad with carbon monoxide, particulate matter and diesel fumes that when Kirk finally got home, he spent the rest of the evening throwing up. It was a BAD crossing!

It was also the first time in 8 years he has crossed at TJ—this beause we've been stopped and hassled 3 of the 4 last passes through Tecate. We'll try Tecate again this Wednesday heading south.

OMG 6 1/2 hours must be some kind of record! anyone beat that??????

Ateo - 12-10-2012 at 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by willardguy
I dont know how long its been like this but the ready lanes at padre kino are closed. the ready lane at via rapida is backed up south of Independence and the regular lanes back to revolution. this was at 11am.
so I touristed around tj all day then headed back south. looks like tecate or otay!

Can you elaborate on the 2 different Ready Lanes (rapida/kino)? I didn't know there were 2 separate Ready Lanes. Thanks, and sorry to hear about this atrocity.

I'm really tempted to never go thru TJ northbound again.

luv2fish - 12-10-2012 at 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by willardguy

Quote:

OMG 6 1/2 hours must be some kind of record! anyone beat that??????

Back in 1985 we once waited 12 1/2 hours it was the most horrific thing.

http://www.customscorruption.com/report/jcarman_16.html

Ateo - 12-10-2012 at 07:18 PM

Has anyone ever been in the line when they've closed the border? Imagine waiting 3 hours just to get to the booth only to have a shooting.

Closed down.

Put it in reverse? Hopefully TJ cops would come in and divert everyone out of there.

I think this happened a few years ago.

Leo - 12-10-2012 at 07:23 PM

4 hours, the week before Easter. No record, but I will never do that again!

willardguy - 12-10-2012 at 07:24 PM

ateo, which ready lane route have you used?

12 1/2 hours! thats gotta be hard to beat!

[Edited on 12-11-2012 by willardguy]

torch - 12-10-2012 at 07:56 PM

the longest for me was 3.5 hrs last summer monday 2pm at otay

durrelllrobert - 12-10-2012 at 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by luv2fish

Quote:

Originally posted by willardguy

Quote:

OMG 6 1/2 hours must be some kind of record! anyone beat that??????

Back in 1985 we once waited 12 1/2 hours it was the most horrific thing.

http://www.customscorruption.com/report/jcarman_16.html

Didn't you run out of gas?

DENNIS - 12-10-2012 at 08:03 PM

Any of you remember Operation Intercept in 1969?? 7 or 8 hours at the border was all the time, thanks to Richard Nixon. Ensenada was like a ghost town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Intercept

willardguy - 12-10-2012 at 08:16 PM

must have been an awful 20 days! :wow:

Ateo - 12-10-2012 at 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by willardguy
ateo, which ready lane route have you used?

12 1/2 hours! thats gotta be hard to beat!

[Edited on 12-11-2012 by willardguy]

That wasn't me with the 12 hours........

I usually do ready lane that is over by the 2 new high-rise towers. I have no idea what the street names are. Sorry.

Ateo - 12-10-2012 at 08:25 PM

I must add that the border wait is directly related to our lame ass drug policy in the USA. Another complication of having the whole "thing" wrong.

Pescador - 12-10-2012 at 08:28 PM

We crossed just an hour before you and made it in right at three hours. The web said that it was 2 hours at Tecate, so that did not make sense. They only had 6 lanes open and there was so much traffic that they could not handle it all. Imagine what it must be like for the police and businesses in Tijuana to have to deal with this mess. I used to think that TSA was the most inept government group, but the Border Patrol must run a close second. One of the guys in the booth in front of us could not input the information correctly in the computer so we had the slowest lane in the whole mess and then watching the guys prescreening the cars and watching the dog work and they were laughing at the poor suckers who were stuck in traffic for so long.
I'm sorry but if private enterprise had this contract they could screen faster, more effectively, and keep every one happy in the process. Nobody is tied to performance so it is just too bad that it takes so long to get across.

brewer - 12-11-2012 at 02:35 PM

I crossed Tecate yesterday, 12/10. 2:45 wait, then 15 min. more in secondary. This was at 1:30. The military was letting all the semi's through and making the cars wait. WTF happened to Tecate crossing? We crossed on the Mon. after Thanksgiving and had two cars in front of us. Like the old days. I'll have to look into a Sentri pass, but I heard you can't go through with a camper on.

On top of the above, heads up on the military check point no. of San Felipe. The guy tore my camper apart. Took out half my load, went through my cusions, had me pop my camper up, looked in my air cleaner, went through the front and opened anything he could find. This all took about 30 min.

A 7 1/2 hour drive took me 11 hours. It was a long day. Oh well.

redhilltown - 12-13-2012 at 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pescador
We crossed just an hour before you and made it in right at three hours. The web said that it was 2 hours at Tecate, so that did not make sense. They only had 6 lanes open and there was so much traffic that they could not handle it all. Imagine what it must be like for the police and businesses in Tijuana to have to deal with this mess. I used to think that TSA was the most inept government group, but the Border Patrol must run a close second. One of the guys in the booth in front of us could not input the information correctly in the computer so we had the slowest lane in the whole mess and then watching the guys prescreening the cars and watching the dog work and they were laughing at the poor suckers who were stuck in traffic for so long.
I'm sorry but if private enterprise had this contract they could screen faster, more effectively, and keep every one happy in the process. Nobody is tied to performance so it is just too bad that it takes so long to get across.

Just wondering but what would be the financial brass ring for "private enterprise"? Would their profits be measured in how many cars and how fast? How happy the people were? The amount of terrorists caught? A percentage of the drugs found? I would LOVE some changes--dont get me wrong--but a profit incentive for moving people from one country to another safely?

Mula - 12-13-2012 at 06:48 AM

I've only always had a 2 hour or less wait going north crossing at TJ.

But I always wondered about facilities (bathrooms) if the wait were more.
No bathrooms anyway and a heck of a lot of people in that line.

And you know, if private enterprise had had concession - they would HAVE to install public banos.

DENNIS - 12-13-2012 at 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mula

And you know, if private enterprise had had concession - they would HAVE to install public banos.

It's Mexico, the land where "Have to" doesn't exist.

Pescador - 12-13-2012 at 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by redhilltown

Just wondering but what would be the financial brass ring for "private enterprise"? Would their profits be measured in how many cars and how fast? How happy the people were? The amount of terrorists caught? A percentage of the drugs found? I would LOVE some changes--dont get me wrong--but a profit incentive for moving people from one country to another safely?

Yeah, I am not sure what the reward would be, but I do know that San Ysidro has a budget that is very large, but there is no incentive to do things faster, no incentive to greet people in a warm and sincere manner, no customer satisfaction, and certainly no accountability.

One time at a Target store the lines really became very long and the store manager and several workers went along and handed out little goodies and apologized for the long delay. Only in my wildest imagination would I ever expect anything like that from a government employee.

But I suspect that if the government would have awarded a contract to a private company with annual review and criteria of effeciency and customer satisfaction, then the results might be a whole lot different.

DENNIS - 12-13-2012 at 08:59 AM

The idea of farming out Homeland Security to private enterprise doesn't even sit well with me.
I'd rather see the borders militarized.

zoesterone - 12-13-2012 at 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
Welcome to the USA, K-Mart Christmas shoppers.

Was the Sentri lane moving well, or was it a big hold up, too?

bajaguy - 12-13-2012 at 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
The idea of farming out Homeland Security to private enterprise doesn't even sit well with me.
I'd rather see the borders militarized.

I'm with you on that one.

And I don't get all the complaining about wait times. Get a SENTRI and be done with it.

BajaKurtis - 12-14-2012 at 11:21 PM

Dec 5th, Wednesday, 10:45am, North at Otay, took 3.5 hours.

The Ready Lane was moving fast, it was 2 lanes dumping into 7 open ready lane booths. We messed up and couldnt get over in time for the ready lane. BUT, we didn't even realize it was the ready lane. The line was way longer to start, but saw a few cars from earlier, moving a easily 3x the speed of us. Driving pas SY that morning looked super bad, hence trying Otay.

Our buddies, crossed the day before, Dec 4th, about 4pm, for a 4 hour wait, northbound at San Ysidro.

This is not a good sign that week days are taking this long...

brewer - 12-15-2012 at 12:06 AM

Yes. Not a good sign. Any reasons?

acadist - 12-15-2012 at 03:59 AM

2 weeks ago on Friday afternoon took me 3 hours, putting me in SD rush hour traffic....poor planning on my part.

acadist - 12-15-2012 at 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pescador
I used to think that TSA was the most inept government group, but the Border Patrol must run a close second.

TSA is just our version of Mexico :lol:

pappy - 12-16-2012 at 09:39 AM

around 1988 we took a van load of us newbie teachers to ensenada to do some collaborating with local teachers. on way back as we headed up that last grade before dropping into tj(along the fence)we hit a parking lot of traffic. thought perhaps it was just an accident and it would soon get rolloing again. quite some time later we crestd the top of that grade only to see the line of cars stretched out before us. it was a snake of autos all the way to the border. i didn't think it could get that bad-but it was...talk about a wasted day...

Pescador - 12-16-2012 at 04:40 PM

Today I did my first crossing going south, into Mexico, at the new San Ysidro crossing. I sure wish the US Border Patrol would go to the same school and training that the new Mexican Aduana patrol has gone to. Our inspector was friendly but firm and explained what I could and could not bring. We had our car so loaded that I could not stick a hand between the roof and the junk. I was totally freaked out thinking that I might get unloaded and each individual item checked. The agent in charge was very cordial, welcomed me to Mexico (and actually made me believe that she meant it) and then had me pull into secondary. Before that we were greeted by numerous people showing me which lane to get into and smiling as they helped me get through the "Maze". Then she asked if I knew how to get south on the Playas road and showed me the sign and suggesting that I stay on the right hand side to make my turn.

We were both amazed at how it made us feel to enter Mexico. My guess is that they are getting the instructions and information from the top down and are instructed to do their job in an effecient manner but do it with a warm and friendly smile.

willardguy - 12-16-2012 at 04:49 PM

did they ding ya for anything you were bringing in?

EnsenadaDr - 12-16-2012 at 04:57 PM

I am on "the other side" (no, not deceased, in the USA). I crossed the Sentri on Thursday night to San Diego at 10:30 PM, and it was very smooth. I came across last night at around the same time and about 300 ft. up to the border were those concrete barriers placed in pairs all the way down the road so that it took up 2 or 3 lanes. On the right, there were 6 ft barriers so you could not see the tiendas or the pedestrian lanes, and a sign said pardon the inconvenience, it's for the improvement and the New Chapparal. I didn't remember the concrete barriers there on Thursday. It took about 20 minutes to pass the Sentri, whereas Thursday Night there was no wait. I don't understand why they are doing this now, there are no workers; maybe to discourage shoppers from crossing the border and shop local Mexico businesses. Who knows?

KASHEYDOG - 12-16-2012 at 06:12 PM

I went through San Ysidro this evening (Sunday) @ 5:20 PM. Sentri lane had 6 lines open and I waited 12 minutes....... Regular and pedestrian lanes were both 3 hours. Ready lane was 2 1/2 hours......... God, I love my Sentri pass..........

EnsenadaDr - 12-16-2012 at 06:26 PM

It is not. When I got mine renewed (I have had it over 10 years) a few years back, it was mostly Hispanics (Mexicans) and their families. I was given the third degree about my US paychecks, and I don't know how they verify income in Mexico for Mexican citizens, but they could have very easily contacted the hospital I worked for.