Calgary Public Transit II

[You Need A Thneed]

Apparently, the south LRT will be fully open tomorrow.

[kora]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Apparently, the south LRT will be fully open tomorrow.

Yup, it's open. I found out the hard way, waiting for a bus that didn't come. Can't believe it was done so quickly.

[mersar]

Yep. Sounds like there were lots that were taken by surprise this morning. Made worse by the fact the ticket machines at several stations (both Stampede and a couple downtown) are still signed as out of order so some that heard the news and went to the stations thought that it was delayed until later.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by kora

Yup, it's open. I found out the hard way, waiting for a bus that didn't come. Can't believe it was done so quickly.

Amazing work by CT to get this up and running. Very impressed.

[Govertical]

I am very impressed as well, oh and Chinook now has a platform

[lubicon]

Pedestrian bridges over Crowchild at the new Tuscany Station are now in place. They are supposed to be starting work on the Park and Ride areas (both in Tuscany and RRRO) this month as well.

[ByeByeBaby]

The Herald has a good article about the C-Train repairs:

Three tunnels were flooded between downtown and Chinook station: the one near City Hall was filled with 20 million litres, and the one by Cemetery Hill had five million litres of river inundation. Crews had to shovel out more than a foot of muck once the tunnels were pumped out.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/CTrain+back+track/8612053/story.html#ixzz2Y64mxiJU

[RicoLance21]

I can hardly wait to see all these features in Calgary. These will change a lot of how we see public transit, and I think it should have been in place long ago.

http://video.shorelinebeacon.com/search/...ilot-program-ready-to-roll/2540488849001

[TransitSupporter]

Originally Posted by RicoLance21

I can hardly wait to see all these features in Calgary. These will change a lot of how we see public transit, and I think it should have been in place long ago.

http://video.shorelinebeacon.com/search/...ilot-program-ready-to-roll/2540488849001

Couldn't agree more!

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by TransitSupporter

Couldn't agree more!

I get the feeling that Calgary Transit takes a very operationally focused point of view. It seems compared to other organization in the city, and other transit ones as well, that they are constantly treading water. They don't do alot of the take a step back and reevaluate kind of thing on new improvements.

The Smart Cards are a good example, somehow the seem to focused on the day-to-day to try stuff like this. Even minor tweaks to routes that could drastically improve effectiveness and reliability seem to take the back-burner.

IMO

[Wooster]

Realtime info for the entire bus system will be available in Calgary for 2014.

As for smartcards - it was back to the drawing board after the last connect card issues. Nevertheless, it's a bit of a blessing in disguise as the newest technology is a great leap forward, so the product, in the end, will be much better than we would have otherwise had. But, it takes some more time to procure.

[srperrycgy]

Originally Posted by Wooster

Realtime info for the entire bus system will be available in Calgary for 2014.

Ahhh ok, so that's what I saw the other day then. Onboard #8198 there was an LED Sign bar in place of the regular "Next Stop" sign at the front of the bus. Also, there were two white LED lights that seemed to flash at a random interval.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by Wooster

Realtime info for the entire bus system will be available in Calgary for 2014.

Does "for 2014" mean by the start of 2014, by the end of 2014, IN 2014 at some point? Can you be more specific?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by MasterG

I get the feeling that Calgary Transit takes a very operationally focused point of view.
[snip]

Even minor tweaks to routes that could drastically improve effectiveness and reliability seem to take the back-burner.

Agreed. They seem to focus entirely on "break-fix" as opposed to "build it and they will come." Two classic examples with the 151 express route:

First is that we have 3 buses in the morning; all 3 are packed. Always at least 10 people standing; if not 20. The buses leave at about 6:00, 6:30 and 6:45. We have asked about getting a 4th bus at 6:15, and they say the ridership levels don't support adding a bus. I have mentioned that maybe some more people would take the bus if they didn't have to stand. I also mentioned the 6:30 bus doesn't make it downtown consistantly for 7:30 ( a common start time.) Their response is they look at the first stop.

The next thing is mentioning that the express buses (102, 103, 117, 133 and 151) should not take the long way through Quarry Park. They currently take this route instead of taking this shorter route. The shorter route is 1.3 km shorter, and had about 4 fewer traffic signals. (Including a hard left turn at a 2 way stop.)

I just don't understand the thinking. I know Transit opperates on a loss; and I would say the express buses even more so seeing as they are a 1-way service. However the reason for Transit is to get people moved around effectively.

[MalcolmTucker]

For 151, would deploying that 3 bus capacity on a community circulator to connect up with the BRT be better? Because until we have robot buses, those are your options. 10 people standing isn't full.

[ken0042]

You tell that to the people who are standing.

I know of a few people who no longer take the bus because of having to stand each and every day. So 3/4 of the passangers are from the first 1/3 of the route. The people towards the end of the residential part of the route are finding other options; including driving themselves.

And the feeder buses to the BRT would work if the BRT was actually "rapid." We all know that would take the SETway being built.

So now you are left with trying to justify the SETway with low ridership. Instead of CT listening to its customers as to what they could do to increase ridership, they are employing the same policies over and over.

Most people who work downtown and live in the suburbs have other means of getting downtown. It isn't 100% about the cost; it also has to be convenient. So if I'm looking at $100 per month to force my way onto a crowded bus or $400 per month to drive and park, I'll pay the $400 most of the time.

[MalcolmTucker]

I wonder once the ring road is up and ready, and 4 car trains are in, how long routes like the 151 will last.

Yeah it sucks to stand, but unless you're going to increase the subsidy or fares by a lot (it hasn't been unheard of to have surcharges on express routes) it ain't going to change.

[ken0042]

I would say it probably also isn't the first 10 people that are standing that are that uncomfortable. There are enough places like near the doors that are good; enough that some people choose those spots over taking one of the last seats.

I don't see 4 car trains and the ring road doing anything to the SE express routes. My house is 10km away from the nearest C-train station. And even with that there still isn't parking available at Sommerset after 6:30 am. The ring road might even help the routes. If Deerfoot isn't stop and go maybe the later buses will also go up Deerfoot; saving time and I would assume fuel.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by ken0042

The next thing is mentioning that the express buses (102, 103, 117, 133 and 151) should not take the long way through Quarry Park. They currently take this route instead of taking this shorter route. The shorter route is 1.3 km shorter, and had about 4 fewer traffic signals. (Including a hard left turn at a 2 way stop.)

At least part of the idea here is to serve the activity centres, of which the ever-growing Quarry Park area is one, and to develop the ridership patterns along the future LRT route, which will have a stop at Quarry Park. It's the same idea behind buses like the circle route going through MRU instead of taking "quicker" bypasses of it. Not everyone that takes those routes are stopping at MRU.

Originally Posted by ken0042

I just don't understand the thinking. I know Transit opperates on a loss; and I would say the express buses even more so seeing as they are a 1-way service. However the reason for Transit is to get people moved around effectively.

This is where the land use/transit marriage falls apart, because the residential and commercial areas that form the deep SE (Douglasdale all the way south to 22X) are, no easy way to put this, a fucking abomination.

The transit solutions to this area, are, by the very nature of the way this area was built and where it sits geographically with respect to other areas of the city, extremely difficult. To get effective service to, from and within the Greater(e) Mackenzie Towne Area(e) is inherently more expensive per rider/capita than any other area of the city, and significantly so. I think people there should be or made to be aware of the fact that if you live there, transit is probably going to suck, and for it not to suck, you will either be ponying up money or be (in the tradition of everything else in the area) leeching off the rest of the city to do so.

[Wooster]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

Does "for 2014" mean by the start of 2014, by the end of 2014, IN 2014 at some point? Can you be more specific?

implementation throughout 2014, with completion by the end of that year.