Calgary Public Transit - Discussion

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Keep in mind that 22x and 52nd Street are currently under major construction. Perhaps the Deerfoot to McKenzie Towne route is temporary to bypass that?

If it is temporary, then I can understand a little bit.

Isnt there a way from Auburn Bay through to Mahogany and 52nd? if there isn't there should be.

Originally Posted by ken0042

Sorry- to clarify the plan for now is for the BRT to actually still stop at the current McKenzie Towne station. The reason it is taking Deerfoot is that 52nd street isn't complete south of Mohagany.

So taking the 3rd exit on the circle and then SB on 52nd and stopping at the current stop location?

[ken0042]

^^ Yes, I believe so.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

I also believe all the express buses should be express! When they leave which ever community they are in they should not stop until they get around the downtown core.

I'm not to sure if it would work in the South but I've always been a fan of Shoulder Bus Lanes on motorways. Basically, the bus picks up passengers on a local route in the community and then takes the shoulder lanes on Deerfoot and Memorial into to the Core.

[frinkprof]

There was a meeting today of the standing policy committee on Transportation and Transit. One of the agenda items was a presentation of the Calgary Transit Business Plan Update.

Here's the report: http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sire...2095556865.PDF

with attachments (which are shorter and probably more illustrative of what is upcoming, if you don't have time to read everything)

http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sire...2095559470.PDF (Attach 1)

http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sire...2095602450.PDF (Attach 2)

http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sire...2083847291.PDF (Attach 3)

The first two are the best tie to what will happen to service.

Basically, during budget deliberations all City departments were asked a couple months ago to find efficiences (aka, generally make cuts to service). Calgary Transit came back with cuts that amount to a loss of 37 000 annual transit hours, and some other changes were made (such as use of shuttles in place of big bus on some routes). Meanwhile, The City of Calgary's own overall guiding document, the Calgary Transportation Plan (well, one of them, the other being the Municipal Development Plan) as well as the 2020 Sustainability Direction, actually call for there to be an addition of 80 000 annual transit hours in each of 2012, 2013, 2014.

These cuts are detailed in attachment 2.

Some of the big ones include:

- Route 302 will operate as a community shuttle bus during off-peak times
- Cancellation of first and last trips of the day on each LRT line
- Route 92/96 McKenzie Towne/Douglasdale reduced frequencies during mid day
- Route 305 off-peak service cut altogether
- Several other community feeder routes are having their offpeak service cut altogether or reduced drastically

There's also some other items on the list such as the route 300 Airport BRT now being added to the transit budget whereas it was paid for under a different program until now (innovation fund).

----------

During the same budget deliberations, a separate process led to $1M over each of the next 3 years being added to the transit operational budget. This money was provided in order to fund items in Transit's "wishlist" of unfunded items for those 3 years. The items that will be funded (and there are several others that will remain unfunded) are detailed in attachment 1.

Some of the things that will be funded by this "extra" $1M include:

- Service extension of route 302 to South Hospital
- Improvements to some mainline routes during midday such as the routes 2, 6, 72, 73.
- Investment in a "service reliability" program that will study and implement changes to scheduling to ensure more schedule adherence, especially in peak periods

There are several items on the 3-year "wishlist" which remain unfunded, including:

- Introduction of service to a bunch of new areas such as Walden, Stoney Industrial, New Brighton, Mahogany, Springbank Hill, etc.
- Improving service (including new BRT routes) to Mount Royal University
- Improving service to all routes currently feeding into South LRT line, such as adding trips during the late PM rush and very early AM rush, etc.

---------------

The third attachment goes over some statistics which show the correlation between ridership and employment, population growth and growth in service hours.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Route 302 will operate as a community shuttle bus during off-peak times

What exactly does that mean? Shuttle people to/from where?

One of the great things about the 302 is that I can go home mid-day if I need to; or use it to get to a Flames game.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by ken0042

What exactly does that mean? Shuttle people to/from where?

Same route, different type of bus - a community shuttle bus.

[SebC]

LOL...

Route: 45 Abbeydale / Applewood
Action: Reduce weekend frequency from 30 to 45 minutes
Mitigation: Monitor ridership and reverse change if passengers are left
behind on a regular basis.

So if customers have to wait 45 minutes for the next bus, but only on an irregular basis, that's okay?

The cancellation of the last LRTs of the day really sucks. If anything they should be extending service past 2AM, considering the new drunk driving law and the overall shortage of cabs. At least on Friday and Saturday nights.

Also, third attachment link is broken.

[frinkprof]

^Should work now hopefully.

[ken0042]

That makes sense about the community shuttle bus. I noticed on Sundays they have already change it to be a regular length bus.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by ken0042

That makes sense about the community shuttle bus. I noticed on Sundays they have already change it to be a regular length bus.

Yeah, it really does make sense. Last night at 7:30, a full size 302 bus took 5 people down to McKenzie towne. I imagine it is very costly to do that vs a shuttle bus.

[frinkprof]

Here's the information boards being shown at the SETway open houses, in pdf form:

http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/SE...nfo_boards.pdf

I'll be attending the Mackenzie Towne one this evening, but here's some figures I have heard from what has been said at the other open houses, and some of it is confirmed by the information in the pdf:

Looking to spend $400M on the SETway given that there isn't enough funding to build an appreciable portion of the LRT. The transitway will be built on the northern half of the route, not including downtown. It should wipe 20 minutes off a 70 minute trip from the end of the route in Seton. Ridership is low now at 3000 per day, but is expected to ramp up to 15 000 by 2019, with the transitway improvements proposed. Ridership is expected to further increase to 29 000 per day by 2029, at which point a limit will be reached on the effectiveness of the transitway and BRT and it will be necessary to build the LRT, at a further cost of $1.6B.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Does anyone have information (frinkprof) for routes 181/182 to MRU?

When I click here and here and then click to view sheduale information, it brings me.. here

When I select the routes from the menu, it brings up.. nothing.

Have to head down there early tomorrow AM for an hour for something, and would rather take that quickly, then the 20.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Does anyone have information (frinkprof) for routes 181/182 to MRU?

When I click here and here and then click to view sheduale information, it brings me.. here

When I select the routes from the menu, it brings up.. nothing.

Have to head down there early tomorrow AM for an hour for something, and would rather take that quickly, then the 20.

...then take the 20... to where? Just curious. If you're taking the 181 or 182 and then taking the 20 somewhere, there's probably a better routing to wherever it is you're going.

For the schedule information though - that's odd. Honestly, twitter or 403-262-1000 would work. They will tell you the schedule. Might want to tell them the problem with trying to access it through the website too. It's too late today to call the number, but it starts up again early tomorrow, like 6 AM.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

...then take the 20... to where? Just curious. If you're taking the 181 or 182 and then taking the 20 somewhere, there's probably a better routing to wherever it is you're going.

For the schedule information though - that's odd. Honestly, twitter or 403-262-1000 would work. They will tell you the schedule. Might want to tell them the problem with trying to access it through the website too. It's too late today to call the number, but it starts up again early tomorrow, like 6 AM.

The 20 - Heritage to MRU, sorry about that.

[frinkprof]

^Just busting your balls over the than/then transgression.

[frinkprof]

There was a pile driver at the Tuscany Station site the past couple days. It appears construction has begun there.

Interesting fact: If Tuscany Station construction extends into late 2014, there will have been 10 years of continuous LRT extension construction in Calgary. There was a brief period in 2004 between the opening of the Shawnessy/Somerset-Bridlewood extension in June 2004 and the commencement of construction on the McKnight-Westwinds extension.

As a contrast, there was basically no LRT construction in the 1990s. An extension to Brentwood Station opened in 1990, and construction on the Canyon Meadows/Fish Creek-Lacombe extension began in 1999.

[You Need a Thneed]

Hopefully, some more LRT construction can start before the end of 2014 to keep the streak going, although there really isn't any more short extensions required, and all of the big projects upcoming cost more then any money we are likely to get from anywhere before that time.

Maybe we can get a P3 going for the SE to NC line. (fingers really crossed)

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Interesting fact: If Tuscany Station construction extends into late 2014, there will have been 10 years of continuous LRT extension construction in Calgary. There was a brief period in 2004 between the opening of the Shawnessy/Somerset-Bridlewood extension in June 2004 and the commencement of construction on the McKnight-Westwinds extension.

As a contrast, there was basically no LRT construction in the 1990s. An extension to Brentwood Station opened in 1990, and construction on the Canyon Meadows/Fish Creek-Lacombe extension began in 1999.

Let's Duerr!

[frinkprof]

New electrical substations (pictured below) arrived at the Oliver Bowen Maintenance Facility in the northeast in December. They will be used to upgrade and augment the existing substations, most of which are currently located near or as part of stations. Apparently Heritage Station was one of the first to have one of these installed.

This will help to enable the system to operate 4 car trains.





Apparently the catenary (overhead wire) systems will undergo upgrades as well. The new northeast extension and West line will have these upgraded wires when they go into operation and the rest of the system will be retrofitted this year and beyond. It means more weekend maintenance closures but a much more reliable system overall.

Also on the topic of the northeast line extension to Saddletown, I hear it is slated for a September 2012 opening.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Also on the topic of the northeast line extension to Saddletown, I hear it is slated for a September 2012 opening.

I'm trying to decide which is worse- that the easternmost line is named Westwinds, or that we will have a Ctrain line that tourists could easily mistake as being the one that goes to the Saddledome.