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I am writing a personal blog, and there, I want to describe the bus system of the city that I live in now. Bus system does not work on the schedule. They usually arrive sooner to later than the announced time.

Is "an unorganized transporatation system" a proper way to describe it?

I feel it does not communicate the meaning well.

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    "The bus service is unreliable"? Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 12:39
  • [This makes your question idiomatic: The buses do not run on time or on schedule.]
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 15:58
  • No, it isn't. I am sure the entire system cannot be said to be disorganized. They merely have a schedule/scheduling problem.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 16:00
  • If a bus arrives before its schedule, then waits at the station until it is scheduled to depart, is it a problem? Also, depending on the degree of accuracy you require, nearly always the bus will arrive either before or after the exact time on the schedule, at least by some tiny amount. So you may want to include some indicator of how far away from the schedule they are.
    – BillOnne
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 17:10

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"Unorganised" would imply that it is not at all organised, which is probably not true - transport networks have a great deal of structure and organisation. You appear to be making a comment on the quality of its organisation rather than a complete absence of it.

What I think you mean to say is that it is 'disorganised', meaning "badly planned and without order". You could also say it is 'badly organised', 'poorly run', or perhaps 'mismanaged'.

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  • I think your right about the quality of organization. I wanted to comment on the poor planning rather than emphazining on the lack of planning.
    – mo adib
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 15:41
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An alternative is unpunctual. Lexico defines this as "not happening or doing something at the agreed or proper time." It's the opposite of punctual.

Lexico's examples show the word can be use of people and of transport systems. One of its examples is:

The trains into Tbilisi were notoriously unpunctual.

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  • Unpunctual conveys the meaning. Isn't it too formal for a blog?
    – mo adib
    Commented Jul 5, 2022 at 0:36
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Were the buses always late then you could have used something like "delay-prone". However, given that the buses appear to arrive early as often as they do late, that's no good.

The problem is, you may be asking too much of any single adjective to explain that early-or-late aspect. Instead, perhaps you could use the generic, "unpredictable" and then expand a little to make it clear that the unpredictability is in terms of time versus schedule (as opposed to the buses arriving perfectly on time but at entirely wrong destinations, or frequently being hijacked by giant squirrels).

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