Halifax Transit - Page 98

Dmajackson · #**1941** Posted **Jun 23, 2020, 1:09 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone123

A lot of people downtown get around on foot so that has worked out okay. But as the city grows this strategy won't work as well. Young Street or Quinpool to downtown is not really walkable for example. Thankfully the city seems to have identified Robie as a future transit corridor.

The tenders for construction of transit priority measures on Robie Street (Quinpool - Young), Young Street (Robie - Bayers), and Bayers Road (Romans - Connaught) are going to Regional Council tomorrow for approval for budget increase. If approved construction will begin within three weeks.

Querce · #**1942** Posted **Jul 3, 2020, 6:05 PM**

Highlights from the 2019/2020 Q3 (October-December) Halifax Transit Report in front of council next week:

Recommendation for electronic fare methods coming in 2020/2021 Q1 (I think this means by the end of June). They say it's on target to be implemented in 2020/21.

Boardings were up 6.8% from this quarter last year, revenue up 12.6% (8.7% of the revenue increase is due to the fare increase)

Transit priority measure for Portland Street being designed for 2020/21

On-time performance (up to 1 minute early or 3 minutes late) up 2% year-over-year, to 79%

atbw · #**1943** Posted **Jul 3, 2020, 8:08 PM**

Construction on Bayers Road is underway for the addition of bus lanes and a multi-use path. https://www.halifax.ca/home/news/bay...construction-9

MolteN · #**1944** Posted **Jul 5, 2020, 7:13 PM**

I'm happy the city seems to be waking up to the reality that we're growing faster than expected. And we need to build a more robust rapid transit network. Maybe in due time local bus stops can be upgraded to sheltered stations to promote usage. Hopefully the ferries won't be restricted by harbour traffic. I'm excited at the idea of EV buses. The novaBus LFSE can fit anywhere from 70 - 120 people if it's articulated. More park and ride stations on the suburbs to encourage usage. Even if parking or lanes for cars need to go away.

atbw · #**1945** Posted **Jul 7, 2020, 12:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolteN

I'm happy the city seems to be waking up to the reality that we're growing faster than expected. And we need to build a more robust rapid transit network. Maybe in due time local bus stops can be upgraded to sheltered stations to promote usage. Hopefully the ferries won't be restricted by harbour traffic. I'm excited at the idea of EV buses. The novaBus LFSE can fit anywhere from 70 - 120 people if it's articulated. More park and ride stations on the suburbs to encourage usage. Even if parking or lanes for cars need to go away.

I'm sure you've seen but some of these bus lanes are going to be integrated into the BRT network with enhanced stops and something like 60-70% dedicated lanes. I'm honstly a fan of BRT vs commuter rail based on the area BRT can serve and how the ROW can be upgraded to LRT in the future.

swimmer_spe · #**1946** Posted **Jul 7, 2020, 11:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by atbw

I'm sure you've seen but some of these bus lanes are going to be integrated into the BRT network with enhanced stops and something like 60-70% dedicated lanes. I'm honstly a fan of BRT vs commuter rail based on the area BRT can serve and how the ROW can be upgraded to LRT in the future.

Those are 2 different uses. It is like comparing cargo ships and tricycles. Now, BRT/LRT/Subway is a good comparison amongst them.

someone123 · #**1947** Posted **Jul 7, 2020, 11:57 PM**

I think that in metro Halifax the transit discussion was too focused on suburban areas like Bedford or areas even farther out along the rail line that would not be able to generate much ridership relative to the amount of investment required. Investment on the peninsula will be much more efficient.

Halifax is also sorely missing "backbone" corridors to serve the main areas and facilitate transfers with suburban routes and the commuter rail line would not have served that purpose very well.

MolteN · #**1948** Posted **Jul 9, 2020, 6:07 PM**

The problem with Halifax is our geographic layout. Even if we used the existing railcut owned by CN rail for handling freight right now. It would be inefficient in the sense that it'll only be useful for people along the 102 corridor. And we can't guarantee a consistent schedule considering freight WILL have the priority.

If Halifax wanted to seek a european style light rail system to efficient serve the needs of the city today and for the future. It would largely need to be completely grade seperated via elevation or tunneling in certain sections to achieve the needs required. Problem is this would a multi billion dollar mega project.

The 750 million the city is asking from the federal and provincial government would make a pretty robust BRT network that can easily be expanded on. It's not perfect, but much better than what we've got now

swimmer_spe · #**1949** Posted **Jul 9, 2020, 11:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolteN

The problem with Halifax is our geographic layout. Even if we used the existing railcut owned by CN rail for handling freight right now. It would be inefficient in the sense that it'll only be useful for people along the 102 corridor. And we can't guarantee a consistent schedule considering freight WILL have the priority.

If Halifax wanted to seek a european style light rail system to efficient serve the needs of the city today and for the future. It would largely need to be completely grade seperated via elevation or tunneling in certain sections to achieve the needs required. Problem is this would a multi billion dollar mega project.

The 750 million the city is asking from the federal and provincial government would make a pretty robust BRT network that can easily be expanded on. It's not perfect, but much better than what we've got now

Most of those run through the street.

Dmajackson · #**1950** Posted **Jul 10, 2020, 2:15 AM**

(photo by me)

YOWetal · #**1951** Posted **Jul 10, 2020, 6:30 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolteN

The problem with Halifax is our geographic layout. Even if we used the existing railcut owned by CN rail for handling freight right now. It would be inefficient in the sense that it'll only be useful for people along the 102 corridor. And we can't guarantee a consistent schedule considering freight WILL have the priority.

If Halifax wanted to seek a european style light rail system to efficient serve the needs of the city today and for the future. It would largely need to be completely grade seperated via elevation or tunneling in certain sections to achieve the needs required. Problem is this would a multi billion dollar mega project.

The 750 million the city is asking from the federal and provincial government would make a pretty robust BRT network that can easily be expanded on. It's not perfect, but much better than what we've got now

The current rail line would make for great park and ride opportunities from several directions which would be great especially for building suburban support. Is there a reason freight can't be forced out of rush hour priority?(ownership of the line aside which is a different story).

If you start at Bayers Lake. A stop where the old Via stop was at former West End Mall which would be a good spot to integrate bus travellers. Stops at the bottom of Dal and St. Marys and exit to a surface with priority from Via Rail station to Purdy's Wharf. This might not be a panacea but could be profitable to run, save on bussing costs and speed up travel to downtown for many. It shouldn't be more than a few hundred million dollars as well with no new grade separation needed.

Querce · #**1952** Posted **Jul 17, 2020, 3:24 PM**

So the Halifax Transit Fare Management Strategy has been released:

Quote:

Halifax Transit recommends the following phased approach for introducing alternative fare payment
options:
1. A mobile ticketing application (utilizing visual validation)
2. Hardware validators that will enable automated validation of the mobile ticketing application
3. A plastic reloadable smart card (that can be utilized by the general public or limited to specific
programs)
4. EMV contactless bank cards

2019-20 Q4 KPI highlights:
Prior to COVID, overall boardings were set to increase 9.9% and revenue was set to increase by 13.2%

Overall, including the impact from COVID, boardings went down 4.5% and revenue went up 9.7%

Dmajackson · #**1953** Posted **Jul 21, 2020, 9:24 PM**

Quote:

Mandatory Masks - Friday, July 24, 2020

In keeping with Public Health order, masks will be mandatory on all Halifax Transit buses and ferries as of Friday, July 24, 2020. Children under two and those with a medical reason for not wearing a mask are exempt. Those who are feeling ill are reminded not use any transit services until their health returns to normal.

As part of a public mask awareness campaign, Halifax Transit staff will be distributing masks at Pop-Up events at select locations across the Municipality. Times and locations will be announced in advance via municipal social media channels.

Capacity Increase - Saturday, August 1, 2020

The mandatory use of masks and the Polycarbonate shields, which are currently being installed, will allow for the safe increase in capacity. Capacity restrictions on buses, Access-a-Buses and Ferries will be lifted as of Saturday, August 1, 2020.

Fare Collection - Saturday, August 1, 2020

Fare collection on buses and ferries will resume on Saturday, August 1 and passengers will be permitted to enter buses through the front door.

Polycarbonate shields, which are currently being installed, will create a physical barrier between Operators and passengers, allowing for the safe reintroduction of fare collection.

March and April passes will be honoured until August 31, 2020. As retailers still have April passes in stock, these can still be purchased and used until the end of August.

...

Halifax Transit Covid-19 Update

alps · #**1954** Posted **Jul 23, 2020, 3:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Querce

So the Halifax Transit Fare Management Strategy has been released:

2019-20 Q4 KPI highlights:
Prior to COVID, overall boardings were set to increase 9.9% and revenue was set to increase by 13.2%

Overall, including the impact from COVID, boardings went down 4.5% and revenue went up 9.7%

I'm excited for the plastic reloadable smart card. The other types of payment systems listed sound good in theory, but in my experience are clumsy in implementation, and will slow down the boarding process.

You get people rushing for the bus and then fumbling to open the ticketing app on their phone, then struggling to get the validator to read the ticket... I see this often with the newer Chinese phone-based payment systems. Meanwhile the read/write process of Hong Kong's Octopus transit card takes between 0.3 to 1 second to complete.

eastcoastal · #**1955** Posted **Jul 23, 2020, 1:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by alps

I'm excited for the plastic reloadable smart card. The other types of payment systems listed sound good in theory, but in my experience are clumsy in implementation, and will slow down the boarding process.

You get people rushing for the bus and then fumbling to open the ticketing app on their phone, then struggling to get the validator to read the ticket...

I have the same reservations about an app-based system that relies on visual confirmation by the driver. Doesn't seem to me like it would make things smoother.

MolteN · #**1956** Posted **Jul 28, 2020, 10:12 PM**

Since the city is committed to BRT here's my two cents

The existing planned BRT lines will be incorporated into the existing rapid transit network. I believe I read earlier that the goal was for the BRT network to have it's own ROW on 60% of the route?

I feel like this is a good mid term goal post to meet, but long term, after the COVID scare and things return to normal, relatively speaking.

But if the trend of transit ridership continues to rise like it was leading up to recently I feel we'll find ourselves in the situation where we'll need bus lanes the most where they don't exist, so a potential phase two could be an expansion to the existing network, putting down more bus lanes and making existing bus stops sheltered.

I've used transit cards in cities such as Washington DC. I feel we should design our system to encourage the usage of a prepaid reloadable transit card with a slightly cheaper fare. But also support VISA debit / credit tap when entering the bus.

The overall long term goal being to have at least 80% of the bus network have features of BRT. Transit priority signals, sheltered stops on dedicated lanes