A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

[mulad]

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Google had gotten a bunch of transit providers to adopt a common format for sharing schedule information (GTFS), and many places have that and the format has been generalized so many apps now use it. Metro Transit provides standard schedule information, so a lot of apps can use it. However, as far as I know, the predicted arrival time info (based off of GPS trackers on the buses and trains) is only provided in a homebrew format that's specific to Metro Transit, and only a relatively small number of apps support that (unless things have changed recently...?).

[Anondson]

I believe he's saying that Apple Maps has transit info for many major cities in the US, but not yet the Twin Cities. Because cities in the US home brew quite a bit each transit agency data has to be customized into the new Apple Maps app transit info.

[intercomnut]

Rode the A-Line by the State Fair today.

They actually modified the bus announcements to say the NB Como stop was closed and the next stop is at Midway Parkway. That was nice.

The temporary stop had a NexTrip sign installed. And I'd imagine they brought in temporary TVMs and Go-To Card validators. Can anyone confirm that?

[talindsay]

I rode the A Line for the first time today with my family, helping my daughter learn how to use the system by herself. The improvements are really nice, and northbound, the service was great. The State Fair was *REALLY* messing with southbound service though - we waited well over 30 minutes for a bus at Snelling and University, and the NexTrip board kept adjusting the wrong way.

One thing we learned was that the NexTrip system clearly makes programmatic adjustments according to the light cycles: when the bus approached University Ave, it changed to "Due", but when the light turned red without the bus making it even close to the signal, it immediately switched to "2 minutes". When the light turned green again, the sign switched again to "Due", and when the bus again, this time only barely, didn't make it through, it switched back to "2 minutes". On the third cycle it switched to "Due" and the bus finally made the signal, and as the bus arrived, our bus disappeared from the NexTrip sign. So clearly it's not just following GPS, it also appears to know what the lights are doing so it can tell that it won't be moving for two minutes.

This is the first time I've seen live NexTrip information displayed for a bus like this, and in some ways it's neat to see that the system is smart enough to adjust for what happens, but it's incredibly disheartening to see the time constantly going up. When we got there the sign said "15 minutes" for the next bus (ten minute schedule, mind), and it would come down a few minutes but then jump back up a bit - presumably each time the bus hit a light. It's depressing.

The Fair is just a bit over a week so I guess it doesn't make sense to design a system around it, but it was still surprising how the Fair can just destroy service like this. It demonstrates a problem with the "BRT" branding, no matter what kind of conditionals you put on it - even in its first week the Green Line didn't have anything like what we saw today on the A Line southbound.

[amiller92]

The temporary stop had a NexTrip sign installed. And I'd imagine they brought in temporary TVMs and Go-To Card validators. Can anyone confirm that?

Don't know, because I stupidly walked the other way up Snelling to try to find the stop and ended up all they way up at Hoyt. Some "A Line That Way" signage by the main gate would have been useful.

Or I could have done a wee bit more research before heading out.

[jebr]

There were TVMs and Go-To card validators at the Midway stop. I used it on Friday.

There's been a ton of bunching this week during peak periods. There really should be some backup buses available at the endpoints to at least ensure buses are leaving the endpoints every 10 minutes. There were times on Friday where at least the NexTrip screens were showing a 20-30 minute wait for an A Line in the middle of the afternoon.

[Qhaberl]

How has the number of boardings on the A-line been? I have been curious to see how many people would go to the state fair via the A-line.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HiawathaGuy]

I tried to take the A Line to the State Fair last Friday afternoon. The NexTrip sign at 3:51pm showed the next 4 southbound buses not arriving for nearly a half hour (when service is supposed to be every 10 min). Worse, the times just kept moving later until we left.


I posted this image to Metro Transit's Twitter feed.

I called Metro Transit to inquire around what was happening, and why they weren't updating customers via the monitors or via audio announcements. This has always been my gripe with them - they consistently failed for years on the Blue Line. Thankfully that's improved - but DO NOT try and sell me a "LRT-like" service, but then treat it like a regular bus. Anyhow, the guy who answered my call at the customer service line simply said, "well, the State Fair is going on, causing a lot of delays". How assinine is that excuse?! It's not like they didn't know about that... ugh. There was ZERO communication.

So we took the next Blue Line train back to our station, walked home and took our car to the Ford Plant free park & ride. That bus, still beat the first A Line bus back into St. Paul from the 46th Street Station! I could not believe the amount of people just waiting at every station we passed along Ford Parkway & Snelling. What an epic fail.

[DanPatchToget]

I took the A Line to the State Fair on Thursday and Sunday. Thursday I was waiting at the 46th Street Station, a bus approached and the driver said the next bus will be in service. The next bus comes and we get on, and just as we were leaving a third A Line bus is behind us and honks the horn and we stop blocking the way for other buses trying to get through. The driver on our bus chats with the driver of the third bus for a little bit and then they switch buses. A minute later the driver tells us to get on the third A Line bus. This while process took 5-6 minutes when the bus should've left right away.

However, other than that it was fine and I didn't notice anything wrong with NexTrip (though I wasn't paying attention). I saved a little bit of money over the express bus, and if the A Line bus had departed on time last Thursday I would've beat the express bus (my parents took the express, so I took the Blue Line and A Line to see which would get to the State Fair first).

"DO NOT try and sell me a "LRT-like" service, but then treat it like a regular bus". Agreed. Unless the bus is on a dedicated lane it isn't light rail type service. I still like it, but I don't like people branding it as a light rail type service.

[John21]

I took the A line on Friday afternoon, also getting on at 46th Street Station. The bus pulled up a little bit late, we all started getting on as another A line bus pulled up behind it. We were told the 2nd bus would be leaving first and we should board that one. So we all get on that one and the driver mentions how busy the fair is and shuts off the bus and goes on break or something. Driver of the first bus finally comes back and says she thought the other bus would be leaving sooner but she was wrong, so we all got back on her bus. It was smooth sailing for a while after that until about Randolph when the bus really began getting crowded. It was well packed by University. Then obviously a big backup by Como because of the fair.
I also took it home from the fair at midnight and not everyone managed to get on, not enough room. If I go again, I'll just take the express bus from downtown. Live and learn. I'm sure it's great when the fair isn't going on.

[mattaudio]

Seriously, why can't we just toll northbound Snelling near the train track/causeway segment, in order to keep traffic flowing smoothly during the fair. Transit benefit side effect.

[RailBaronYarr]

There's something to be said for the railroad tracks (and yard) being a major grid breaker. We talk about how bad freeway trenches are, but between Rice and 280 (not-inclusive of either), there are 5 ped/bike crossings and 13 other bridges/underpasses for all types of users over I-94. The railroad, has just 6 road bridges and 2 ped/bike crossings (one of which is the transitway which isn't exactly north-south). Anyway, yeah fair traffic is part of the problem. But distributing traffic originating south of the railroad to points north (and I'd argue this even includes people south of 94 trying to get north to 36 to hit up 35W and 35E) is difficult with so few crossing points. A lot of it ends up on Snelling for a reason, which sucks for everyone.

[mulad]

I know I had some frustrations with Metro Transit back when I lived over by Como Park and the fairgrounds. From what I could tell, Metro Transit doesn't really do anything to improve local bus service during the fair. Ideally, they would bump up service frequency on all of the routes that go near the fair (The 3, 61, 84, and A Line get closest, though the 67 and 83 also run nearby), but they seem to just hope for the best and run normal service.

For the most part, it hadn't been a big problem for me, though -- I would sometimes take the bus (3A) in the morning when it was too early for the traffic to be bad. I think part of route 3 between highway 280 and Cleveland or Snelling would sometimes be replaced by a special "3F" ("fair") route, and the normal 3A / 3B buses would run on Energy Park to try to avoid the congestion on Como Avenue. I'm not sure if they still do that or not.

One of my coworkers, who probably could have taken the A Line or 84 without much trouble, drove out of Minneapolis to a park-and-ride (in Roseville, I think) to get to the fair. I wonder how many other central metro residents do that. It's hard to blame them when the local service is overloaded or fighting a losing battle against traffic congestion, though.

The A Line + 84 is now frequent enough that they should just ditch the regular schedules during the fair and just try to maintain the headways between runs. Better to have the buses running a bit slower end-to-end than trying to make up lost time and ending up with them bunched together.

[FISHMANPET]

Kinda bugs me that MetroTransit says "take local transit to get to the fair!" but don't improve that transit so people who may be infrequent riders or have never ridden before get a terrible experience.

I kinda don't think they realize that the service they provide is itself a marketing opportunity that they're not only missing, but actively harming themselves with.

[EOst]

I think part of route 3 between highway 280 and Cleveland or Snelling would sometimes be replaced by a special "3F" ("fair") route, and the normal 3A / 3B buses would run on Energy Park to try to avoid the congestion on Como Avenue. I'm not sure if they still do that or not.

Nope. The 3's been a nightmare all week.

[VAStationDude]

I rode my bike by a couple a line pylons this morning and there was definitely a warning about state fair delays in the nextrip screen.

I would be curious if increasing frequency in any significant way is even possible. Between the 960 & revenue neutral state fair express buses running 16 hours a day i wouldn't be shocked if their driver pool is pretty well maxed out.

I really doubt infrequent riders would be turned off by crowded and slow buses. Everyone who has visited the fair knows getting there is a shit show. Infrequent riders keep coming back to special event metro service even with full trains and long waits. Also most people don't enjoy bitching constantly.

[jebr]

A lot of it ends up on Snelling for a reason, which sucks for everyone.

The industrial park in Midway makes anything west of Snelling and east of Prior Avenue (or even Transfer Road) pretty much inaccessible from the west without a crazy detour onto University. The only reasonable route for most of that traffic is along Snelling. The other bridges generally have a street grid on both sides so it's not a huge detour to use one of those bridges, but Snelling is critical for easy access to much of Midway. (I'm actually trying to figure out the best way to get around there and get to the yard waste site on Pierce Butler route from the Rosedale area during the fair. I usually just take Snelling but might take 280 to Energy Park and then loop up on Snelling and back over.)

[Tcmetro]

The 3 used to skip the fairgrounds, and a "3F" shuttle ran between Snelling and 280, IIRC. From the service alerts, it looks like the 3 is now continuing down Como, but skipping a few minor stops in the vicinity of the fairgrounds.

[intercomnut]

I find the evening headways on the A Line kind of interesting:

Northbound (46th St Station)

• Weekdays: 10 min until 7:20, 20 min until 10:20, ~30 min until close
• Weekends: 10 min until 7:30, 15 min until 10:15, ~30 min until close

Southbound (Rosedale)

• Weekdays: 10 min until 8:15, ~20 min until 11, 30 min until close
• Weekends: 10 min until 8, 15 min until 10:30, 30 min until close

Any ideas for why frequency is so much better on weekends? Is there a lot of weekend night life along the corridor?

[Tcmetro]

I would imagine that there are more service workers in the corridor, especially at Rosedale and Harmar. That being said, they should have a reduced frequency on Sunday evenings if that is the case, as many service industries close earlier.