Calgary Public Transit - Discussion

[SebC]

And that's why all transit information should be handled by Google.

[stampsx2]

No, no, no. According to the transit announcement it was due to weather conditions.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I tried Calgary Transits new website today. According to it, may bus arrives at 'error on page'. Which city is my address? Seriously CALGARY Transit?

Honest question. For a city the size of Calgary, and the transit system it has, is there a worse transit webpage out there?

They've said they upgrade. Upgrade what exactly?

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Honest question. For a city the size of Calgary, and the transit system it has, is there a worse transit webpage out there?

They've said they upgrade. Upgrade what exactly?

Icons. They also added Bing Maps to the trip planner that allows you to pick an origin OR a destination. If you pick both it freezes the map and creates errors. As long as you are planning on not leaving somewhere or going somewhere, the page works fine.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Honest question. For a city the size of Calgary, and the transit system it has, is there a worse transit webpage out there?

They've said they upgrade. Upgrade what exactly?

A better webpage would in this case honestly be no webpage. Then at least you wouldn't go to the page, and try to use it.

[polak]

I HATE Calgary Transit.

- How can trains be full at the FIRST station? I get on at Somerset and every train around 7 is usually standing room only before even leaving that station. That is absolutely ridiculous. I don't understand how people past anderson get to work in the morning because it sure as hell isn't by train. You have one or two brave and annoying souls who try and squeeze on but most are left in the cold.

- How are there sooooo many delays? I think there have been 3 delays during rush hour in the last 3 days.

- They missed the boat on this one, but they should have built and additional line adjacent to all of their current lines for express trains that only stop at the busiest stations. These could also be used when there are delays on the main line.

- Why do trains stop exactly when clubs have their curfew? Is that too avoid drunks on the train? Seems like it would be a great way to cut down on drinking and driving.

- Why the hell did they only build a parkade for Canyon Meadows station? There is a 500+ person wait list for reserved parking at the major stations and all the unreserved parking in full by 6 am yet they only build surface lots at those stations.

- Old cars need to go. Who is the moron who engineered that thing? Doors that open to the inside of the train??????? Seats that face each other? So that I can rub knees with the person infront?

I wish that I worked at an office located literally any where else in the city, so I could drive. I don't care how long my commute is, I prefer to drive. Bah.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by polak

I HATE Calgary Transit.

- How can trains be full at the FIRST station? I get on at Somerset and every train around 7 is usually standing room only before even leaving that station. That is absolutely ridiculous. I don't understand how people past anderson get to work in the morning because it sure as hell isn't by train. You have one or two brave and annoying souls who try and squeeze on but most are left in the cold.

There's lots of people living down there, with essentially two way to get out of the area - Driving on McLeod, or take the train. Both are packed. Capacity increase for the train is coming, and hopefully another practical road out of the area is coming too (SW ring road)

Originally Posted by polak

- How are there sooooo many delays? I think there have been 3 delays during rush hour in the last 3 days.

Delays happen. Delays happen to vehicles too, probably every bit as often.

Originally Posted by polak

- They missed the boat on this one, but they should have built and additional line adjacent to all of their current lines for express trains that only stop at the busiest stations. These could also be used when there are delays on the main line.

This would cost billions of dollars.

Originally Posted by polak

- Why do trains stop exactly when clubs have their curfew? Is that too avoid drunks on the train? Seems like it would be a great way to cut down on drinking and driving.

It costs money to have empty trains running.

Originally Posted by polak

- Why the hell did they only build a parkade for Canyon Meadows station? There is a 500+ person wait list for reserved parking at the major stations and all the unreserved parking in full by 6 am yet they only build surface lots at those stations.

It costs significantly more money to build parking structures.

Originally Posted by polak

- Old cars need to go. Who is the moron who engineered that thing? Doors that open to the inside of the train??????? Seats that face each other? So that I can rub knees with the person infront?

Replacement is starting to happen, but at $4 million per car, it will take a while.

[polak]

I know that my suggestions didn't take cost into mind. I was sort of venting my anger and listing what I think would need to change for good service.

[Maccalus]

Originally Posted by polak

I HATE Calgary Transit.

- How can trains be full at the FIRST station? I get on at Somerset and every train around 7 is usually standing room only before even leaving that station. That is absolutely ridiculous. I don't understand how people past anderson get to work in the morning because it sure as hell isn't by train. You have one or two brave and annoying souls who try and squeeze on but most are left in the cold.

- How are there sooooo many delays? I think there have been 3 delays during rush hour in the last 3 days.

- They missed the boat on this one, but they should have built and additional line adjacent to all of their current lines for express trains that only stop at the busiest stations. These could also be used when there are delays on the main line.

- Why do trains stop exactly when clubs have their curfew? Is that too avoid drunks on the train? Seems like it would be a great way to cut down on drinking and driving.

- Why the hell did they only build a parkade for Canyon Meadows station? There is a 500+ person wait list for reserved parking at the major stations and all the unreserved parking in full by 6 am yet they only build surface lots at those stations.

- Old cars need to go. Who is the moron who engineered that thing? Doors that open to the inside of the train??????? Seats that face each other? So that I can rub knees with the person infront?

I wish that I worked at an office located literally any where else in the city, so I could drive. I don't care how long my commute is, I prefer to drive. Bah.

I will respond based on my years of experience riding the train to the university from Somerset.

1. You would be surprised how many trains are not completely full by the time they get to downtown. Yes some trains are full leaving somerset, but even the very next train can have seats available all the way to anderson. I have even riden on some in the 7-7:30 range that have seats all the way downtown. It is just following a completely full train.

2. There are delays no matter your method of transportation. If I had to bet, the train experiences far fewer delays than a large number of driving routes in this city (eg. Crowchild or Deerfoot).

3. An express train would be an huge expense to save a couple thousand people 10 min. I think the few hundred million it would take for an express line would be better spent on the downtown tunnel and SE leg of the LRT which would better solve your capacity concerns.

4. I don't have a good reason why the trains stop before 2 am besides money. I have a running theory that the taxi lobby has something to do with it.

5. Parkades cost money, they didn't have enough at the time is my guess.

6. The Old LRT cars are going, but people also want 4 car trains. Its hard to have both.

[Rathji]

Tried the new CT website yesterday as well.

Apparently being at all functional was not on the top 10 list of important things they wanted from the development team.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Tried the new CT website yesterday as well.

Apparently being at all functional was not on the top 10 list of important things they wanted from the development team.

Glad I am not the only one having problems using it. I was using obscure web browsers like IE and Chrome.

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Glad I am not the only one having problems using it. I was using obscure web browsers like IE and Chrome.

Wait, Chrome? Obscure?

[worth]

[img]McBain That's The Joke IMG[/img]

[ken0042]

^^ Sarcasm.

Funny thing- I had to re-do my profile on my iPhone so I lost all my settings in the Next Stop app, and had to use CT's website the other day. It actually worked a lot better on my phone than the old one; just in being able to quickly see the timing point schedule.

Maybe I hit the site during that 10 second window when it was working- or maybe somebody optimized it for Safari within iOS.

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by worth

[img]McBain That's The Joke IMG[/img]

Woosh.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Yet another major c train shutdown. Looks like like we're going on one per week.

Calgary transit sucks. Buy a car, use gas, support the Alberta economy.

So i decided to drive to work today because i need a break from all the c-train breakdowns. On my way home, MacLeod is backed up to crawl from 162nd to canyon meadows. Broken down Calgary transit bus blocking the right lane. $&@&.

Ok Calgary transit, you win.

[Youzit]

So I am looking at the transit schedule for the 302 BRT and it says that the transit time from Inglewood to Quarry Park is 25 minutes no matter when I leave - rush hour, Sunday midday, whatever....sounds fishy to me. For those who actually use the 302, what is the real deal here? If I am travelling at 7am or 7:30 AM on a weekday, how long will it take?

And how punctual is it? I have had previous nightmare experiences years ago with the 72/73 on winter days when the bus. Never. Came....Is the 302 bus reliable even on winter days, or does everything go to crap and you end up waiting forever and freezing your buns off in the process?

[ken0042]

It's pretty reliable in the morning. However in the afternoon things change. The only good thing is that because there is a bus every 10 minutes the odds are you won't have to wait long.

However last Tuesday (snow day) those of us who came into work were told to go home early. I went to 5th street to catch the 2:52 bus. Two buses finally arrived at 3:15.

As for the commute time from Inglewood to Quarry Park; that is actually pretty consistant. The only time it is slower is around 5:00-6:00 pm; as there is a 5 minute wait to cross Glenmore.

[Rathji]

Baring breakdown, or obscene weather conditions, the only place on that part of the 302 route that ever has a major delay is the train tracks just south of the Shamrock, but that is pretty rare.

Like Ken mentioned, sometimes it is slow on Ogden Road as it approaches Glenmore, but its only a 2 light wait even in extreme circumstances. The other place on the route that bogs down is sometimes where traffic on 18th Street waits to get onto 24th, but that is at the extreme south end of Quarry Park, and unless you were getting off right at that intersection, it would not impact you in the least.

[tvp2003]

Was tempted to post a new thread (and enjoy the wrath of CP being unleashed on these sprawl-inducing suburbanites), but after a long commute this morning (took 15-20 minutes to go 5 blocks south on Centre Street before I got off on 16 Ave and walked the rest of the way into DT), thought it would be best for everyone's blood pressure to post here instead

Bus route extended to serve far-flung suburb



Transit slow to reach Mahogany, other new communities


...

It means Mark Sawdon’s family no longer has to consider buying a second car, and his wife no longer has to wake their baby daily for a 6:45 a.m. drive to the closest LRT station to get Mark to work.

It’s six weeks early, but he’s already mapped out the new walk to the Mahogany bus stop: 400 metres.

“It would be nice if it was going straight to Somerset (LRT), instead of going through Auburn Bay and Cranston. But the fact is we’re getting a start, and this is great,” said Sawdon, one of 620 new homeowners in the growing community.
...

As car-dominated as Calgary is said to be, transit service emerges as a needed lifeline in those far-flung communities where buses don’t yet reach.

For downtown workers unable to afford sky-high parking or unwilling to arrive at park-and-rides early enough for a spot, how else to get to the office? For tweens or teens, how else to get to school in distant communities?

For many Mahogany students, reaching the buses at McKenzie Towne means walking across Marquis of Lorne Trail, past the muddy ring road construction and a contractor’s “no trespassing” sign.

“It came down to it being a safety issue, not a convenience issue for us,” said Rhian Wight, another Mahogany resident who has led the year-long push for transit.

Her family doesn’t use transit, but their former live-in nanny did.

“If she went out on the weekend, we’d have to go pick her up (at the LRT station) on a Sunday night,” said Wight, who moved in February 2011.

Mahogany homeowners were told that no buses would come until 2014, and then complained to Ald. Shane Keating as the new south hospital received service from two routes, including an express shuttle from McKenzie Towne that zipped right past Mahogany.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/route+e...#ixzz2AiHw9zoS

So who is at fault here? Calgary Transit for not following city guidelines for providing service? Homeowners who buy cheap houses on the outskirts of town and then complain about the lack of amenities (like transit)? Developers/home builders who sell those houses with or without promises (?) of transit development?