Calgary Public Transit II

[mersar]

Yep. The only spot that the red lights seem to be any issue is the short stretch along 9th street. Though since moving 8th Street station a block to the east even that spot isn't as bad anymore.

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by freeweed

To be fair, most of the C-Trains "stops" for red lights coincide with stations. I notice when I ride through downtown that the lights are timed pretty well on 7th Ave, so that the train stops at a station, deals with boardings etc, and then pulls away when the light turns green. It usually makes it to the next station without stopping.

A red light might add a few seconds to a "stop", but nothing compared to the delays caused by morons standing in the doorway, holding doors for their friends, guys who forget you can't fit a bike on a packed train, etc.

In short: stopping for red lights on the LRT seems like a complete non-issue in actual practice.

Yeah, when I was in university and commuting by C-Train it always seemed that the delays downtown were not as a result of red lights (trains pulled out of each station when the light turned green) but because of idiots holding the doors open.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by mersar

Yep. The only spot that the red lights seem to be any issue is the short stretch along 9th street. Though since moving 8th Street station a block to the east even that spot isn't as bad anymore.

Yeah I've kinda noticed that too. I wonder if that was a planned effect, or just a happy accident.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[Koolfire]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Here's an editorial in today's Herald re: cuts to service hours.

Link

Let's put that into perspective. 90 people per day *365 roughly equals 32850. So we dropped off about a sixth in growth. Still growing pretty fast.

[Mazrim]

They should take the example of other places and realize that when you're losing money, cutting routes is only going to make you lose more money. You have to improve service to make money. Oh well.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ Not really, since cost recovery for bus routes is pretty low. Have to temper that with high recovery from LRT since buses feed so much of the LRT traffic.

In Toronto adding service has reduced system cost recovery from 85% to ~65% in ten years.

[Mazrim]

Ah, my mistake. I guess increased bus ridership does not equal more money in that sense.

[lubicon]

Are they going to cut service from current levels, or are they cutting back on some of the growth plans they had.

Big Difference.

[mersar]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Are they going to cut service from current levels, or are they cutting back on some of the growth plans they had.

Big Difference.

Likely the latter rather then the former, as even after all the recent cuts theres still over a hundred thousand new hours of service being added if I am correct (the initial addition was over 200,000 I believe, but its been cut back a couple times)

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[srperrycgy]

West LRT Bus Service Revisions:

http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/west_lrt_service_summary_2010.html

The 69th Street Terminal will be closed for WLRT construction. Routes are revised to terminate at Sirocco.

[xAnderblaze]

It would be pretty cool if that street car that they just brought back to Heritage park that travels to the parking lot went all the way to heritage station. Approx how much would that cost additionally?

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[frinkprof]

Nevermind.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by xAnderblaze

It would be pretty cool if that street car that they just brought back to Heritage park that travels to the parking lot went all the way to heritage station. Approx how much would that cost additionally?

$10 million a km plus utility relocation cost, land for and construction of a substation, and another piece or two of rolling stock. While it would be cool, ridership would likely be awful.

Now a collector modern street car (or low floor LRT with lets say 600m stop spacing) running from lets say this route might be worth it as a feeder to Heritage, but you would need to really plan good land use.



It would eventually connect the two southern LRT lines and more than a couple employment nodes. It would certainly set up the auto mall to gradually develop into a suburban office node over time. Full route runs ~9 km. Not sure whether it would be more beneficial to run Rocky View - Heritage or Heritage - Auto Mall as the first phase, with the last phase connecting to the SE LRT sometime after it is done. If you were really diligent about scope creep and cost control (ie: design the track beds for operational speeds of 60 kph and the lightest rolling stock that is viable rather than making it extra future proof) it could work.

Unless there is a trunk sewer or water main under heritage to the extent that it is hard to either be on the other side of the road or in the median to avoid it. Would also need to figure out if it is realistic to run tracks on the west shoulder of 14th St, there are signs marking it as a crude pipeline route, but the pipe could be providing only just much less than in the 80s considering the changes in the refining industry in Alberta.

[srperrycgy]

Interesting idea. The route should run into Deerfoot Meadows instead of running on Heritage. More potential ridership.

Anyway, just a bit of transit geek trivia for your Tuesday; The CTrain turns 29 today.