Halifax Transit

[Keith P.]

They can run buses to goddam Porters Lake, but are unable to cope with a scheduled event in the downtown. Last night's Parade of Lights was a transit disaster. Lineups to get on the ferry stretched for blocks, and Transit made no attempt to adjust service to carry the load. On buses there were reports of 90-minute waits. This is unacceptable. The event is scheduled well in advance in conjunction with HRM. It is no secret that many people attending use Transit to get to and from the event. How can MT drop the ball so badly? This is beyond ridiculous, and it is no wonder that anything to do with MT carries such a stigma in this town. Widen the roads and shut down the place!!

(That last sentence is only partially in jest. But MT needs to be blown up and restructured, because they cannot seem to ever provide good service.)

[alps]

Yeah, I think it's a shame people don't demand better of Metro Transit. I'm continually amazed at the level of transit service here in Hong Kong, that something like a three hour delay on a subway line with several alternatives is an unprecedented calamity, and the transit operator is made to answer for it. During big events there seems to be a lot of cooperation between transport agencies, the police, and organizers...everything seems so well-run. Dunno anything about the workings of Metro Transit but it seems like we could use more pride in providing a reliable service...

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

(That last sentence is only partially in jest. But MT needs to be blown up and restructured, because they cannot seem to ever provide good service.)

Is there any real incentive for MT's management to provide good service to the city? Apparently their salaries are not public record and most of the decisions made seem to be ad hoc and based on piecemeal council decisions. It doesn't seem like a good setup at all.

Here in the Vancouver area there is a transit authority responsible for transit and bridges. They are not perfect, but they seem constantly focused on building new improvements and they manage to get a steady stream of provincial and federal dollars.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here in the Vancouver area there is a transit authority responsible for transit and bridges. They are not perfect, but they seem constantly focused on building new improvements and they manage to get a steady stream of provincial and federal dollars.

That kind of structure means that there wouldn't be bus service in places like Porters Lake, since only politicians would be pushing for something that makes so little sense. So I doubt we will ever see that here.

And the inability of MT to offer anything even approaching DECENT (not good, just decent) service makes me view the calls for light rail or streetcars or whatever the transportation flavor of the day may be as just more money down the drain, since they would run it and they cannot run anything well.

[halifaxboyns]

I read some of the comments in the Coast article that Someone123 posted - I don't know if posting the salary of directors and managers is necessarily part of the solution and I don't say that easily as I'm a union member but thanks to OT and a our high pay, I'd likely have to disclose my salary. I think it's deeply personal - but then again, when you are at Director/Manager/General Manager level you are a significant part of the operation of a city.

I agree with Keith - it is incredibly sad when any transit authority fails to provide adequate service for an event such as the parade. Calgary Transit does it without thinking, as does ETS (Edmonton Transit) which impresses me. For a few hours leading up to a hockey/football game, both transit services increase frequency on the lines which service the venues (in Calgary's case the NW/SW line - obviously Edmonton only has the one line for now). They then go back to normal service shortly after the start of the game and leading up to the end and then back up to additional frequency for 2 hours after. It only makes sense! If you are going to promote alternate transportation, public transit should do that without thinking.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

That kind of structure means that there wouldn't be bus service in places like Porters Lake, since only politicians would be pushing for something that makes so little sense. So I doubt we will ever see that here.

And the inability of MT to offer anything even approaching DECENT (not good, just decent) service makes me view the calls for light rail or streetcars or whatever the transportation flavor of the day may be as just more money down the drain, since they would run it and they cannot run anything well.

The current MT folk have certainly had more than enough chances to prove that they can get this right, and to my eye have spectacularly failed to do anything other than slowly fall farther and farther behind in meeting the transit needs of the city.

I don't see light rail etc as a flavour of the day, but rather the way of the future (or actually the way of the present in most forward-thinking cities). I do agree though that MT cannot, as currently operated, ever hope to propose little less manage such a system.

I have long argued that, much like the system mentioned by Someone123, that this city needs a transit authority that is vested with the authority to think and act broadly when it comes to transit solutions. The current piecemeal system where each player makes decisions (about new highways, new bridges, new mass transit) as if they exist in a vacuum and don't interact is pure insanity.

[Hali87]

From the original 2006 Regional Plan:

Land use planning and development decisions rest primarily with HRM, but the resulting transportation demands from such activity can have significant impacts on all agencies involved in transportation operations. Discussions between HRM and the Province have resulted in agreement that a strategic committee of key regional transportation stakeholders be created, called the Strategic Joint Regional Transportation Planning Committee, that could deal effectively with coordinating transportation network management and settlement patterns. Road maintenance issues will also be included as part of the mandate for this committee. Through this committee, HRM will coordinate strategic planning of the regional transportation system in support of implementing this Plan. HRM intends to prioritize capital projects and integrate settlement patterns and environmental concerns with transportation planning to create a sustainable region.
It is recognized that a portion of HRM's existing and expanded road network will be part of the provincial and national highway system. Although HRM will participate in the planning of those roadways through the Strategic Joint Regional Transportation Planning Committee, their construction and maintenance will remain the responsibility of the senior levels of government.

T-5 HRM shall establish a Strategic Joint Regional Transportation Planning Committee to implement the transportation aspects of this Plan and for consistent application of maintenance and traffic controls between HRM and the Province. The Committee shall report to the Standing Advisory Committee as per Policy G-1.

It's not entirely clear what happened with this, or whether it was intended to co-ordinate all transportation-related planning or just the municipal and provincial road networks, but you'd think that Metro Transit would be considered a "key transportation stakeholder". The RP also called for a Transportation Master Plan and Public Transportation Functional Plan, neither of which seem to have been written up and neither of which are mentioned in RP+5.

[Spire]

A good editorial in Spacing Atlantic yesterday:

http://spacing.ca/atlantic/2013/12/12/transit-lets-think-beyond-commuting/

[someone123]

Pretty good article. There is an enormous difference between transit that "just works" and transit that works if you carefully check the schedules and if the stars align. It's not just a matter of the technical availability of a bus stop within a certain distance or the travel times if everything works out.

One important piece the article doesn't seem to touch on much is the fact that it's hard to provide high-frequency service to many different neighbourhoods and employment nodes. If you have a system with X neighbourhoods with people who need to get downtown, you need to serve X routes. If you have X neighbourhoods and employment nodes and people need to get between any pair of them then you need X^2 routes and your available budget per route drops. If Halifax becomes a completely decentralized mess like that then good transit service will be very difficult to provide.

There has to be some kind of focus on key areas, even if some employment is elsewhere, and the transit development has to go hand in hand with land use planning so that the city becomes easier to serve over time instead of harder to serve.

In cities with subways and LRT the highrise condos and office buildings tend to go next to the stops. In Halifax it's all a mess because there are no good transit corridors to plan around. Subways are not practical there but there could at least be some streetcar routes around the peninsula that connect up to MetroLink type service for the suburbs, plus maybe commuter rail if that works out. The streetcar/LRT component is important because there has to be a certain level of permanence to the infrastructure if people and businesses are going to pay a premium to locate near it. There's also a big payoff to having more comfortable, quieter transit.

[Spire]

Metro Transit is recommending to council that the upcoming five-year plan be changed into an opportunity to redesign the entire transit network, with a focus on shorter, higher frequency routes:

http://www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/documents/140108cow4.pdf

Spacing Atlantic has an article which summarizes this development nicely:

http://spacing.ca/atlantic/2014/01/06/transit-first-big-changes-coming-halifax-metro-transit/

This is very exciting: it shows that the public consultations were useful, as the conclusions at the meeting I attended were very much in this vein, and that there's a real appetite among Transit staff for change, which is the sense I get whenever I've talked with them at public meetings, etc. I just hope that Regional Council gets behind this.

[BravoZulu]

Originally Posted by Spire

Metro Transit is recommending to council that the upcoming five-year plan be changed into an opportunity to redesign the entire transit network, with a focus on shorter, higher frequency routes:

I heard about this on the news last night and all I could think was it's about time. I think it's a fantastic idea and as someone who only uses the bus system from time to time when I'm back home it would be a much more user friendly system. I foresee substantial opposition from people who just want to get on a bus and get off at their destination no matter how long that takes. I'm not sure why, but people in Halifax see scared of a transfer.

[someone123]

I think they're scared of transfers specifically because they're used to unreliable, low-frequency service. Transfers are okay if buses are on 5 minute frequencies but terrible at 30 minute frequencies.

[hfx_chris]

In addition, a lot of it also has to do with where they're being asked to transfer as well. Terminals like Penhorn or Cobequid are not exactly user friendly, where as Portland Hills or Mumford (and the new Bridge terminal) are much easier to use, feel safer and have proper amenities.

But yes, transferring and waiting 25 minutes because you just missed a route that runs 30 minutes is a pain in the 🞵🞵🞵. Hopefully this would be improved

[IanWatson]

Council okayed Metro Transit going ahead with the new plan!

This is pretty exciting stuff.

[Waye Mason]

http://metronews.ca/news/halifax/903252/...et-complete-start-from-scratch-overhaul/

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1178366-metro-transit-gets-ok-to-draft-new-plan

[halifaxboyns]

This is good news - but this will need a good public engagement process. I was impressed by what PlanSJ (Saint John) did when they were doing their new Municipal Plan - they had a storefront in downtown that people could come into and talk to staff. Not a new idea, but one thought.

They also sent staff to a variety of festivals and public events, which I think is crucial. Have a booth on the waterfront or at the ferry terminals. Have people at the Farmers Markets and various festivals. Heck, even have a booth at the pride festival. They put a bus in the parade anyway - why not? Anything that is going to get people engaged and providing comment.

[BravoZulu]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Council okayed Metro Transit going ahead with the new plan!

This is pretty exciting stuff.

So happy to hear this is moving forward. There is so much potential for improvement it could really change peoples perception of transit. Imagine going from the south end to the northend and then back but not having to know a bus schedule just that if you got to Robie street that a bus ran every 5-7 mins. All you have to do is hop an east west bus or walk depending on how close you are and hop off near your destination. Same for the return, no worrying about schedules.

In all the time I've taken subways or the metro in Montreal I've never know the schedule, just that if the train pulls out as I walk in another one will be by shortly.

Looking forward to a redesigned and user friendly transit system in Halifax!

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by BravoZulu

In all the time I've taken subways or the metro in Montreal I've never know the schedule, just that if the train pulls out as I walk in another one will be by shortly.

Looking forward to a redesigned and user friendly transit system in Halifax!

Hear hear! A good transit system shouldn't require you to know all the route maps. Obviously, outlying areas would be a little more complex, but there's no reason the peninsula shouldn't be set up to have buses run N-S and E-W (or, their rough equivalents) with transfers in between... if you know where you are, and you know where you're going, you should be able to get there instinctively. I've had it explained to me that getting on a bus in HRM feels like entering a black hole - you're not really sure where you're going to end up on the other side.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by BravoZulu

So happy to hear this is moving forward. There is so much potential for improvement it could really change peoples perception of transit. Imagine going from the south end to the northend and then back but not having to know a bus schedule just that if you got to Robie street that a bus ran every 5-7 mins. All you have to do is hop an east west bus or walk depending on how close you are and hop off near your destination. Same for the return, no worrying about schedules.

In all the time I've taken subways or the metro in Montreal I've never know the schedule, just that if the train pulls out as I walk in another one will be by shortly.

Looking forward to a redesigned and user friendly transit system in Halifax!

Likewise with the TTC subway in Toronto.

I hope that Halifax Transit system will be set up in a similar fashion to the Montreal and Toronto subway systems with high frequency routes of every 5 - 7 minutes. The next step would be to start incorporating some Right of Ways in the system to make it a real Bus Rapid Transit system.

[Dmajackson]

The new Woodside Ferry coming into service this Spring will be named the Christopher Stannix.

Winning Name for New Ferry Announced

Monday, January 13, 2014 – Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) and Metro Transit are pleased to announce that residents of HRM have voted for the name Christopher Stannix for the new HRM harbour ferry to increase service on the Woodside/Halifax route. The name is awaiting approval from Transport Canada to be proudly displayed on the new ferry when it comes into service in the spring of 2014.

Master Corporal Stannix was a graduate of Auburn Drive High School and attended Saint Mary’s University. In 2001 he enlisted with the Canadian Armed Forces. In April 2007, he was killed when the vehicle he was in struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. He was 24 years old.

...

Source : HRM Press Release