Calgary Public Transit II

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Reecemartin

For comparison worth looking at the Viva system in York, probably the standard we should be trying to meet, just not in service frequency. . .

https://youtu.be/D08auGeG6LY

Which aspects specifically are you advocating for? The Great Toronto systems have some inherent differences from ours.

[People.talking]

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but im just curious as to whether the MAX buses will have a different design or not?

[YYCguys]

Watching Global News, I see that the busses are painted/wrapped in the colour corresponding to one of the three new Max routes as well as some cool graphics. I am not sure I would ever utilize the service, but I hope it works to the benefit of the users, including frequency, routing, traffic, etc!

[CrossedTheTracks]

My understanding is... the special wrap is just a few buses. In general, there's no difference in the fleet on these routes. I assume they'll be much more likely to have articulated buses than most other routes, but that's it.

[milomilo]

It would be pretty silly to have a dedicated fleet for each line when they're all just normal buses.

[joe498]

So it seems we are inevitably heading back to three car trains: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/old-ctrains-replacing-budget-calgary-1.4908527

What a waste of money upgrading all the stations to four car length when we are just going back to three cars anyways.

[Jaspertf]

Originally Posted by joe498

So it seems we are inevitably heading back to three car trains: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/old-ctrains-replacing-budget-calgary-1.4908527

What a waste of money upgrading all the stations to four car length when we are just going back to three cars anyways.

So it is as I predicted unfortunately.
Just to repost.

"Not too sure if this has been brought up before, but after a couple of news reports over the summer I decided to do some research.

As the new BRT routes now start coming on line, all Calgary Transit funding now prioritizes the Green Line. Although the Green Line was primarily advertised to relieve congestion on Center St north, the south section is the first phase to get built.
The parking lot at Anderson station is going to be re-developed into a Transit Orientated District, a review of the parking there showed that about 50% of people parking there lived in the area of McKenzie Town, where the first phase of the Green Line terminates, so when the Green Line is built pressure will be relieved from the Red Line south. I commute into the downtown on the Red Line south, and the 4-car trains are packed, I also notice that all the current lines are packed in rush hour.

As the U2 LRT cars breakdown, they are not going to be repaired but retired and used for spares to keep other U2s on the road until they need more spares, and so on and so on as the parts are no longer manufactured. The U2s are on average over 35 years old.

So here's the thing:
There are currently 78 U2s, 72 SD160s, 37 SD160NGs, and there will be a total of 63 S200s. That creates a total of 61 4-car trains.
Eliminating the U2s, you get either 42 4-car trains or 57 3-car trains.
If all Transit funding in Calgary is to be dedicated to the Green Line, which could take almost 10 years to complete just phase 1, Calgary Transit is going to hit a massive problem.
A lot of the U2s are reaching the end of their operable life, the U2s in Calgary could even now be the oldest rolling stock in active commuter service in the developed world, 27 of the U2s are 37 years old! Very shortly the number of 4-car trains are going to be reduced, if you thought commuting in Calgary was starting to get unbearable with 4-car trains, in the next few years it is going to get worse.

Quick note on headway, 5 mins between trains is the closest they will get, and only in perfect conditions. The traffic lights downtown cycle 45 seconds each way, therefore in the downtown corridor the absolute max is 1.5 mins, but the lights aren't sequenced so one set will always get missed, only rarely can 1 train immediately follow another. The downtown corridor is also shared by the Red and Blue lines, therefore, in general 3 mins between trains downtown leads to 6 mins between trains on each line, sometimes that may go down to 4.5 mins but that is rarely."

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Jaspertf

There are currently 78 U2s, 72 SD160s, 37 SD160NGs, and there will be a total of 63 S200s. That creates a total of 61 4-car trains.
Eliminating the U2s, you get either 42 4-car trains or 57 3-car trains.
If all Transit funding in Calgary is to be dedicated to the Green Line, which could take almost 10 years to complete just phase 1, Calgary Transit is going to hit a massive problem.

Your assumption that there will be no federal and/or provincial funding opportunities for a decade is not a sound assumption IMHO.

[lucx]

Originally Posted by joe498

So it seems we are inevitably heading back to three car trains: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/old-ctrains-replacing-budget-calgary-1.4908527

What a waste of money upgrading all the stations to four car length when we are just going back to three cars anyways.

Um, they will be reducing 4 car trains as needed, not eliminating them. More cars will be ordered as funding becomes available.

[milomilo]

Perhaps the city was right with its 20 minute frequencies on the MAX lines because the buses don't look very full and the stops all empty? Have the routes been fully changed yet, and how long would it be expected for the lines to achieve good ridership?

[Jaspertf]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Your assumption that there will be no federal and/or provincial funding opportunities for a decade is not a sound assumption IMHO.

Proper
Planning
Preparation
Prevents
P1ss
Poor
Performance

The money will be found, the problem was created to force the Provinces hand. Everything happens for a reason.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Perhaps the city was right with its 20 minute frequencies on the MAX lines because the buses don't look very full and the stops all empty? Have the routes been fully changed yet, and how long would it be expected for the lines to achieve good ridership?

I observed a couple Max Purple busses since the launch and they looked decently full. Driving down 17th Ave SE is fantastic now.

Which ones have low ridership?

[milomilo]

I'm glad that one is being used well, my entirely unscientific observation is the 16th ave one doesn't exactly look packed but hopefully it will get better as people adjust. I agree 17th is a big improvement.

[DoubleK]

I drove down 17th again this morning.

A couple observations:

Is there a reason that buses have to wait for the left turn cycle to complete? I would have expected the buses to go first, doing it this way takes the 'rapid' out of BRT.

It seems odd/confusing for riders to have some busses running in the busway and some running on 17th street itself. I'm assuming this has to do with not wanting buses turning our of the busway, but isn't there a better way?

For example, a rider wishing to transfer to an intersecting route would have to disembark one bus, leave the fancy new heated shelter, wait at a signal at the closest intersection to wait on the side of the road for the next bus. Seems a bit silly to me.

[milomilo]

Agree with all those comments. I'd have thought with a bus only every 20 minutes it shouldn't be a big deal to give it 100% signal priority and I'm similarly confused as to why the other buses aren't using the lanes.

[CTrainDude]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Agree with all those comments. I'd have thought with a bus only every 20 minutes it shouldn't be a big deal to give it 100% signal priority and I'm similarly confused as to why the other buses aren't using the lanes.

The stops on the Transitway are pretty far apart - there needs to be some buses running locally with more frequent stops.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by milomilo

I'm glad that one is being used well, my entirely unscientific observation is the 16th ave one doesn't exactly look packed but hopefully it will get better as people adjust. I agree 17th is a big improvement.

I found myself on the Orange line today and for the bus I was on, which was during an off peak time, it was just one other passenger with me.

I can't see this line not being successful, however, as it is really a very effective and efficient link between large transit user nodes in the NE, and the university and the city's main tertiary hospital.

I suppose a little more marketing, maybe targeting a.) students, b.) hospital staff and c.) passengers using the NE LRT currently switching in DT?

It will happen organically too, but over a pinch extra time.

Over time, I'd also home more visitors to the hospital consider using this route.

[magnetite]

Took a ride on the MAX Purple today. Did the Orange route yesterday. I also took some pictures of the buses, shelters, and other infrastructure.

[Corndogger]

Copper theft caused Tuesday's C-Train outage in northeast Calgary

The service disruption on the northeast leg of the LRT on Tuesday was caused by someone stealing copper wire, says Calgary Transit.

Supt. Brian Whitelaw says the theft affected the current flow on the signaling system, causing a safety issue.

Trains had to be stopped for most of the day while crews made repairs.

"Under the right set of circumstances you can actually have a train near two employees on the tracks and that will actually ground through the nearest source, which could potentially be an employee or it could be anybody standing on the rail at the time, or a first responder," said Whitelaw.

The disruption impacted the last three train stations of the Blue Line, or Route 202, and shuttle buses were used to ferry passengers.

Copper theft is an ongoing problem, said Whitelaw, and the number of cases depends on the price it can fetch.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-transit-copper-theft-repair-outage-1.4934297

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by magnetite

Took a ride on the MAX Purple today. Did the Orange route yesterday. I also took some pictures of the buses, shelters, and other infrastructure.

Thank you for sharing. I was under the impression that the MAX shelters were to be enclosed and/or heated. It didn’t appear to be so in your pictures. Also the live information boards didn’t appear to be transmiting, well, live information. What do you know about that?