OC Transpo

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I wouldn't have a problem if they had more routes on Albert/Slater (and in fact I think R1 should use Albert/Slater) but I don't seriously think there has been " lost capacity for local transit circulation within the downtown core / Rideau Centre axis".

Queen St is a maximum of 2 blocks away.

I think the problem is loss of connectivity on local bus routes within the downtown core. There is an expectation that the user hop on the C-Line to go one or two stops, which is a real pain.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I wouldn't have a problem if they had more routes on Albert/Slater (and in fact I think R1 should use Albert/Slater) but I don't seriously think there has been " lost capacity for local transit circulation within the downtown core / Rideau Centre axis".

Queen St is a maximum of 2 blocks away.

Especially since route 16 already stops at Tunney's, Bayview and Pimisi, I don't see why there is need for it to stop at Lyon. There could be a stronger argument for Parliament for connections from the East, but as you say, it is at most 2 blocks away. Those who don't want to walk could stay on until Pimisi or just take it all the way to/from Tunney's.


Route 16 Map, OC Transpo

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I wouldn't have a problem if they had more routes on Albert/Slater (and in fact I think R1 should use Albert/Slater) but I don't seriously think there has been " lost capacity for local transit circulation within the downtown core / Rideau Centre axis".

Queen St is a maximum of 2 blocks away.

Queen is a maximum 2 blocks away from Albert or Queen, sure, which means walk distances from further south in the CBD are that much longer.

Bus service on Queen is —.

The reconfiguration of bus routes and stops to connect to LRT takes away connectivity and convenience for short trips within downtown.

There absolutely has been a lot of lost capacity and convenience for short trips in the core.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I think the problem is loss of connectivity on local bus routes within the downtown core. There is an expectation that the user hop on the C-Line to go one or two stops, which is a real pain.

Losses of connectivity, convenience, and speed (either of bus or of overall trip, if you use the LRT instead and have vertical transfer penalties to contend with.)

#DowntownDoesntMove

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Losses of connectivity, convenience, and speed (either of bus or of overall trip, if you use the LRT instead and have vertical transfer penalties to contend with.)

#DowntownDoesntMove

I totally agree with you. There is a serious transfer penalty whether you want to reach the other end of downtown and transfer to another downtown bus route.

There is an obsession to make the C-Line the only convenient transfer downtown, while excluding the needs of downtown residents to travel around other parts of the centre of the city.

[Radster]

Just throwing this in here, as a discussion point, because last I heard OC Transpo is planning on buying some electric busses, right?

I wonder if they look at what cities in other countries are doing, what kind of technology is out there, not just for electric busses, but for electric bus infrastructure. There is an electric bus boom in Poland, has OC Transpo studied that market, for ideas?

https://www.electrive.com/2019/11/21/ekoenergetyka-polska-to-install-chargers-in-warsaw/

[phil235]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I totally agree with you. There is a serious transfer penalty whether you want to reach the other end of downtown and transfer to another downtown bus route.

There is an obsession to make the C-Line the only convenient transfer downtown, while excluding the needs of downtown residents to travel around other parts of the centre of the city.

Yep, this is a significant downgrade for transit users in the central area.

[lrt's friend]

OC Transpo Live
‏

@OCTranspoLive
Nov 24
More
24 Beacon Hill: the trip is cancelled from St-Laurent station at 8:12 to La Vérendrye/Ogilvie at 8:32. The next trip is 60 minutes later.

I know we are short of drivers and buses at the present time, but we need to have some fill-in buses to avoid this sort of situation in the future.

[lrt's friend]

A twitter feed has been issued to explain the purpose and hazards of the yellow posts in the train stations. Apparently, in the last couple of days another lady fell onto the tracks thankfully without major incident.

[TransitZilla]

Looks like R1 routing has been changed to run on Cyrville Rd and an R1 "express" option has been introduced:

R1 Express coming Dec. 2, 2019

O-Train replacement service now includes an Express option. R1 Express buses may be deployed to replace busy parts of Line 1 if the train is not running. R1 Express skips some stations to quickly re-connect you with Line 1 trains. Skipped stations are served by Regular R1 replacement service

https://www.octranspo.com/en/our-service...ervice-types/r1-replacement-bus-service/





Looks like a good improvement in response to the clusterf* that seemed to befall Cryrville station when there were Line 1 issues.

I suspect that in future cases where the train is down between St Laurent and Blair, there will be "express" R1 buses from STL to BLA via the highway, and separate local R1 buses to serve Cyrville.

[Charles5]

Significant improvements to bus service since the #reallybigservicechange on 6 Oct 19.

From https://www.wheresmybus.ca/?year=2019

Average number of cancelled bus routes by month:
Jan-Mar (winter): 1786
Apr-Sep (spring/summer): 1371
Oct-Nov (fall, new routes): 644

That's a 55% reduction in cancelled bus trips since the implementation of the new routes at the beginning of October. There are currently about 8500 runs per day (weekdays). I don't know how many runs per day prior to the big change, but I suspect it wasn't much different as most routes were simply shortened rather than eliminated, and most cross city runs were split in two. In fact, there may be even more runs per day now than before the change which would make the improvements even more significant percentage wise.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by Charles5

Significant improvements to bus service since the #reallybigservicechange on 6 Oct 19.

From https://www.wheresmybus.ca/?year=2019

Average number of cancelled bus routes by month:
Jan-Mar (winter): 1786
Apr-Sep (spring/summer): 1371
Oct-Nov (fall, new routes): 644

That's a 55% reduction in cancelled bus trips since the implementation of the new routes at the beginning of October. There are currently about 8500 runs per day (weekdays). I don't know how many runs per day prior to the big change, but I suspect it wasn't much different as most routes were simply shortened rather than eliminated, and most cross city runs were split in two. In fact, there may be even more runs per day now than before the change which would make the improvements even more significant percentage wise.

I checked the GTFS data and there were ~8750 trips per weekday prior to the switchover, so there are 2.6% fewer trips now than there were before.

I would guess better bigger factors in the reductions in cancellations come from retiring the most unreliable buses, and the fact that they aren't overworking their available workforce anymore.

[Uhuniau]

Again, this caveat: consider the data source.

[acottawa]

Why wouldn't they run R1 all the way down Ogilve Road? Most users of Cyrville station live North of the station anyway. That is a huge detour.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Why wouldn't they run R1 all the way down Ogilve Road? Most users of Cyrville station live North of the station anyway. That is a huge detour.

I think the bigger issue is people getting let out at Cyrville Station if there is a breakdown. Ogilvie (or even the former R1 stops at Cumings & Cyrville) would probably be fine for people accessing the station locally, but if an entire train is just emptied out there and told to get R1, it's not fair to ask them to walk blocks along roads with narrow sidewalks (or no sidewalks).

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I think the bigger issue is people getting let out at Cyrville Station if there is a breakdown. Ogilvie (or even the former R1 stops at Cumings & Cyrville) would probably be fine for people accessing the station locally, but if an entire train is just emptied out there and told to get R1, it's not fair to ask them to walk blocks along roads with narrow sidewalks (or no sidewalks).

If it is a single stop breakdown then they shouldn't be implementing a parallel service, they should be shuttling people to the next functioning station (at least that is what most transit systems do).

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by acottawa

If it is a single stop breakdown then they shouldn't be implementing a parallel service, they should be shuttling people to the next functioning station (at least that is what most transit systems do).

A couple of weeks ago there were occasions where service was down between St Laurent and Blair.

Along with this new R1 routing, OC also indicated that R1 now has an "express" option. So I suspect what they would do now in this situation is run some buses direct from St Laurent to Blair via the highway, and run other buses down Cyrville to clear that station.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

A couple of weeks ago there were occasions where service was down between St Laurent and Blair.

Along with this new R1 routing, OC also indicated that R1 now has an "express" option. So I suspect what they would do now in this situation is run some buses direct from St Laurent to Blair via the highway, and run other buses down Cyrville to clear that station.

I don't thin that is the actual plan for the R1 "express." AFAIK, it will run from Blair directly to downtown, bypassing all of the other stations, including St. Laurent. If service is only restricted between St Laurent and Blair, only the regular R1 bus would be running as there is no need to run the R1 all the way downtown.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by acottawa

If it is a single stop breakdown then they shouldn't be implementing a parallel service, they should be shuttling people to the next functioning station (at least that is what most transit systems do).

I believe that is what they do. It is just that is the route the bus will use if it did have to travel end to end. In most cases they will only use a segment of it.

Running along Ogilve might be fine for those who are on the bus already, but for those at Cyrville Station, either because the train dropped them off there or because they want to catch the train and didn't know that the line is down, it is a bit much to have them walk to Ogilve. It really is a no win situation.

The best option might be to have the regular R1 not serve Cyrville Station at all, but instead, have a route R1C (when needed) that runs between Blair and St. Laurent along Cyrville. A recorded announcement could be made to tell people to transfer to it. The sign would say Cyrville when departing Blair or St. Laurent and it would say Blair or St. Laurent when departing Cyrville.

The R1 could use either Ogive or the 417/174, which ever is faster at the time, since there would be no intermediary stops.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

A couple of weeks ago there were occasions where service was down between St Laurent and Blair.

Along with this new R1 routing, OC also indicated that R1 now has an "express" option. So I suspect what they would do now in this situation is run some buses direct from St Laurent to Blair via the highway, and run other buses down Cyrville to clear that station.

LRT was down again last night between St Laurent and Blair and I think this is exactly how R1 was implemented: some express service from Blair to St Laurent and other “local” R1 buses stopping at Cyrville.