The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Innsertnamehere]

Peel LRT (which by that I think you mean the Hurontario LRT) is still awaiting funding, which is currently planned to come from the transit taxes which will be put in front of the Ontario legislature before spring 2014.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by nname

Calgary have the new West LRT, thus for the increase in ridership. It is now getting really close to the peak level in 2008.

Vancouver had a fare increase on Jan 1st, that would lower ridership at least in the first half of this year.

It is normal for a decrease in ridership this year though, due to having one less day (Feb. 29), and Easter long weekend span from the end of March to April (instead of fully in April last year). In BC, there's the new Family Day long weekend in February too. From TransLink's stat, just February alone, ridership dipped as much as 16%...

I appreciate that Calgary opened it's CTrain West line and Vancouver's fare increase sure didn't help but that is still a whopper of a decline. In terms of days of the year well that effects every transit system in the country.

The extra one day holiday would effect it slightly negatively but not near that much. I don't know if Victoria had a fare increase or not but that is a really big decline in ridership especially from a medium size city that usually enjoys above average ridership levels.

[logan5]

His post would indicate that there were at least 3 less work days compared to last year, in addition to the fare hike.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Last I heard was the KW lrt is starting construction this year. I think the one in Peel is on hold? Not certain though.

Prep work is beginning this year but the contract will only be awarded later this year, with work on the K-W LRT (the "Ion") itself to begin in 2014. Completion of LRT and the multi-modal transit hub in Kitchener slated for 2017.

[OwenChurch]

That's great news for KW! That area has a great future ahead of it, even better if they can slow the sprawl. I am a bit surprised about Hurontario to be honest. I figured that would have been a done deal considering the population in the region and the claims that the Hurontario bus route is one of the busiest in North America.



Thanks for the updates gang!

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I appreciate that Calgary opened it's CTrain West line and Vancouver's fare increase sure didn't help but that is still a whopper of a decline. In terms of days of the year well that effects every transit system in the country.

The extra one day holiday would effect it slightly negatively but not near that much. I don't know if Victoria had a fare increase or not but that is a really big decline in ridership especially from a medium size city that usually enjoys above average ridership levels.

Fare increases do not always produce ridership decreases, if the increase is met with improved service.

Vancouver has been doing their stupid bus optimization, which has resulted in reducing already dismal suburban bus service to even more dismal service levels in many areas of the region. Maybe this is having more of a negative effect than thought.

Vancouver basically has no money for transit service expansion, and so this optimization is the only thing they are doing. However the leaders there seem to not understand that optimization does not work when you only run buses every 30-60 minutes. It works in Toronto, because shifting bus service by a minute or two on bus routes that operate every 5 minutes, does not make the transit service unattractive. But optimizing low frequency bus routes just makes transit a last report option.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by OwenChurch

That's great news for KW! That area has a great future ahead of it, even better if they can slow the sprawl. I am a bit surprised about Hurontario to be honest. I figured that would have been a done deal considering the population in the region and the claims that the Hurontario bus route is one of the busiest in North America.



Thanks for the updates gang!

They're certainly trying to slow the sprawl (in Waterloo's case there's little choice as they are pretty much built out to the municipal boundaries), but the OMB seems committed to sabotaging the plan by obliging the Region to make far more land available for greenfield development than the Region wants - to the tune of 1,200 hectares vs 85 hectares to accommodate growth for the next 20 years!). The matter is now before the courts, but unless the Province puts the unelected OMB out of its misery (fat chance!), I don't hold out a great deal of hope.

[nname]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

Fare increases do not always produce ridership decreases, if the increase is met with improved service.

Vancouver has been doing their stupid bus optimization, which has resulted in reducing already dismal suburban bus service to even more dismal service levels in many areas of the region. Maybe this is having more of a negative effect than thought.

Vancouver basically has no money for transit service expansion, and so this optimization is the only thing they are doing. However the leaders there seem to not understand that optimization does not work when you only run buses every 30-60 minutes. It works in Toronto, because shifting bus service by a minute or two on bus routes that operate every 5 minutes, does not make the transit service unattractive. But optimizing low frequency bus routes just makes transit a last report option.

The last 2 fare increases for TransLink was on Jan 2008 and followed by a smaller one on Apr 2010. Its hard to tell what's the effect on the 2010 one since it was affected by the Olympics. But for the first quarter of 2008 increase, ridership dropped 4% in the first quarter. keep in mind that TransLink was in the middle of expansion mode at that time, plus the fact that there's an extra day in February that somewhat offset the ridership drop. By the second quarter, ridership already break even, followed by the increase for 3rd and 4th quarter result in a net gain in ridership for that year.

It would be interesting to see what's the effect on ridership when the new Surrey B-Line begins in September and the new Burke Mountain service in December (although too late for the ridership this year)...

[ssiguy]

The number of holidays is not relevant as it happened to every transit agency in the country with the exception of the extra stat which might effect ridership by 1 to 2% over a quarter.

I'm not surprised by Calgary due to it's new CTrain and incredible downtown employment growth in a city which already has the highest concentration of employment in the country. It's called good planning. Funny how people love to make fun of Calgary as being a sprawling, car loving city when in reality it has the best transit system of any city of it's size in NA and it's LRT system is NA's most successful. Funny how the supposed greens on the west coast love to make degrading comments about Alberta's love of cars and lack of environmental concerns but when push comes to shove, it's Calgarians that willing to put their mouth where their transit money is.

I'm really surprised about Victoria, anybody know the cause of such a drop.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

Fare increases do not always produce ridership decreases, if the increase is met with improved service.

Vancouver has been doing their stupid bus optimization, which has resulted in reducing already dismal suburban bus service to even more dismal service levels in many areas of the region. Maybe this is having more of a negative effect than thought.

Vancouver basically has no money for transit service expansion, and so this optimization is the only thing they are doing. However the leaders there seem to not understand that optimization does not work when you only run buses every 30-60 minutes. It works in Toronto, because shifting bus service by a minute or two on bus routes that operate every 5 minutes, does not make the transit service unattractive. But optimizing low frequency bus routes just makes transit a last report option.

While I agree with your comments, Vancouver transportation planning is miles ahead of Toronto. Translink has it's problems and in fighting but the idea of it is a VERY good one and one that Toronto should emulate.

Translink is not a transit agency but rather a transportation agency. It sees transit as part of the equation of moving people and goods but also knows that in order to best get people and goods moving requires an integrated system. It works from the correct assumption that bikes, walking, transit, car/van pools, and highways work at their best when they are built as a system.

Same thing goes for how the Translink sees Vancouver and it's transportation needs as a regional issue and not something that should be fought over like a bunch of squawking kids at a playground.

Translink certainly has it's problem but the premise behind it is an excellent one.

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary Transit's Crowfoot Station. Northwestern Terminus of the 201 Line (until April 2014). It has very nice interior finishes, such as granite and marble patterned flooring, coloured windows, and it's also one of the first stations to extend throughout the platform allowing direct access between the protected stationhouse and the LRT doors.








http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/CTrainCrowfoot.JPG

[renthefinn]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I'm really surprised about Victoria, anybody know the cause of such a drop.

I believe there was some job action at the beginning of the year where the Union wasn't allowing it's members to work overtime, which resulted in many cancelled buses. I don't know all of the details, but it likely affected Victoria's ridership numbers.

[nname]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

The number of holidays is not relevant as it happened to every transit agency in the country with the exception of the extra stat which might effect ridership by 1 to 2% over a quarter.

It is much bigger than just 1 to 2% over a quarter. Just use TTC as an example - their own monthly report, where the ridership are normalized to remove the effect of extra days and holidays like this, shows ridership increase each and every month throughout the quarter, by as much as 3%. But for the "raw" ridership number in the APTA report, it actually shows a 2% drop. And Ontario only got one extra holiday/long weekend compared to the 2 in BC. So I guess its safe to say the number of days and holiday accounts for about 5-6% drop to BC.

[Chadillaccc]

Really great photo of Bloor Station during rush hour.



Rush Hour Delays at Bloor Station by seango, on Flickr

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary Transit to renew electronic fare card efforts

City paid firm $3.5 million before terminating contract last year


Efforts by Calgary Transit to develop an electronic fare card are expected to start again this week after it terminated a contract with a vendor last year, documents obtained by CBC News reveal.

Calgary-based contractor Telvent had designed electronic transit farecards for cities in Mexico, Spain and China — but couldn't get the system to work here.

Full story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/06/16/calgary-transit-electronic-fare-tr.html

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Really great photo of Bloor Station during rush hour.



Rush Hour Delays at Bloor Station by seango, on Flickr

Is that all? Doesn't look very crowded to me at all.

[Chadillaccc]

Look farther down. The area of the photo closest to the photographer is the area people spread out to, the area farther down is the area people bunch up at. Trust me, it get's pretty bad. People are just to stupid to consider that maybe moving down the platform could be a good idea.

[The Chemist]

Meh. Even the crowded sections don't look nearly as bad as stations on the Shanghai Metro at rush hour.

[Chadillaccc]

Uhhh yeah, no shit. We're talking about Toronto. Not Shanghai.

[The Chemist]

Well, that's why I said it didn't look crowded to me, since that's my experience. YMMV.