A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

[acs]

MT must have done another presser on the A line because it's all over the local news. Nothing we already didn't know though. However, they did post a nice video of a northbound trip, sped up of course.



I count 3 full unscheduled stops and 4 half-stops where the signal priority failed. Still likely a better ratio than the green line. Also seems like they skipped stopping at most stations and they cut out the stopped time at the lights and stations to make this shorter.

[mulad]

Here's a set of reports about it. The KARE piece included a bus driver saying that the signal priority only extends signals if the bus is more than 1 minute behind schedule, and says the official opening date will be announced tomorrow.

http://www.kare11.com/news/a-line-brt-g ... s/39418112
http://www.startribune.com/snelling-bus ... 368399871/
http://www.twincities.com/2016/02/10/st ... or-a-roll/
http://finance-commerce.com/2016/02/met ... on-a-line/
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/02/10 ... d-bus-line
http://kstp.com/traffic/new-bus-rapid-t ... s/4044271/

[VAStationDude]

I've always understood a brt would offer signal priority not preemption -similar to the 10 & 59 on central avenue. The September 2013 project updates uses the term priority. Hopefully the schedule will be aggressive so priority is used frequently.

[twincitizen]

Eagerly anticipating the opening date announcement today. I'm really hoping it's no later than April. This isn't like LRT where they need to test it for several months. If the stations are built, electronics/TVMs/screens are all hooked up and working, and all 12 buses have arrived, then let's get this thing in motion.

[Silophant]

Me too. I was thinking they'd wait until the June service change, but now that they've had half a dozen news services say "Spring", I'm optimistic for April/May.

I know June 1-19 is still technically Spring, but no one actually thinks that.

[mulad]

June 11th, according to Adam Duinick. He presented it in the Met Council "State of the Region" speech a little while ago.

[twincitizen]

It's hard not to be disappointed by the continued delay...what the hell are they doing for the next 4 months?

OTOH, in terms of transit projects, opening 6 months late is probably a few years early.


P.S. Anyone think the C Line will open by its target date of late 2017? Is that even still the goal?

[Silophant]

That's still the goal, AFAIK. But no, June 2018 is my guess.

[jebr]

I was taking the 84 yesterday and swung by one of the stations to see the progress. This was at the Har Mar Mall station. The ticket machines look a lot like parking lot machines. They aren't pictured, but I noticed that they appear to have solar panels on top. Interesting placement if that's functional, as it's located just to the north of the platform and covered by the roof of the platform.



I also noticed that the Go-To card reader had the old logo...are they repurposing some spare machines or is there a reason why they have the older logo?

[David Greene]

There's a new logo?

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[twincitizen]

[jebr]

The "new" logo is about two years old at this point as well. The special Go To card for the opening of the Green Line has the new logo on it.

I think some of the LRT readers have the new logo (not sure if it's all, though.) It seems strange to me that they would have the old logo on equipment installed at new stations, though.

[mamundsen]

Station pylons were installed recently in Roseville. They help this look like more than just an average bus stop.

[Minnehahaha]

I'd already been looking forward to the opening of the A Line... Now I find out we get pylons as well? Cool!

[Tiller]

You must construct additional pylons before you can build an aBRT line.

[Rube Dali]

I know for a fact that there can be nothing done about this, but why on earth did they not build a stop directly at the Midway Parkway entrance to the State Fairgrounds?

[mulad]

It's considered too close to the stop at Como Avenue, which is more heavily used the rest of the year (it's a transfer point with route 3). They also tend to close the normal bus stop at that entrance (southbound, anyway) when the fair is running, but the Como stop stays open. There's a fair entrance right near the Como & Snelling intersection anyway (southeast of the International Bazaar area).

[mulad]

Another timelapse video from Metro Transit showing the route (southbound) as seen from the front of a bus. Not as exciting as the Green Line ones, since it's almost the same as riding the existing route 84, but it shows how the station locations are a bit different.

[Qhaberl]

Anyone know what intersections have the TPSS systems instaled on them? Its the signal priorty system?


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[jebr]

The A Line schedule has been released.

Appears to start from Rosedale at just after 4 AM daily, and start at 46th St. Station at 4 AM weekdays, 4:30 AM weekends/holidays. Last run is just before 1 AM on weekdays at Rosedale, and just after 1 AM on weekdays at 46th St. Station. Weekends have the last run at about 12:45 AM in both directions.

Doing some quick envelope calculation (I compared the 84F with the A Line, with one instance where I had to use the 84H instead) it appears that the A Line is roughly 20% faster than the 84F, which is the one that made no deviations. Surprisingly, the biggest difference was found in the early morning and late nights, although some of that is due to the layover at Snelling/University. It's a bit frustrating that they couldn't eek more time out of it, especially on weekday afternoons, where the runtime is 36 minutes. However, with the drive time on the route in Google Maps reflecting 24 minutes without traffic, and nearing 45 minutes with traffic, there may not be a whole lot more that can be done without a fully separate traffic lane. It's also (obviously) a huge improvement over the current situation where the 84D would run every half-hour but not go across the river to connect to Minnehaha and the Blue Line.

Moving to the area shortly, I'm excited that the bus times are early enough that I can make a 6 AM flight relatively easily if I'm not checking bags (or if I'm checking bags but have pre-check so I don't have to worry about the security line.) The new southbound A Line schedule connects with the 4:37 AM train from 46th St. Station, arriving at T1/Lindbergh at 4:45 AM and arriving at T2/Humphrey at 4:47 AM. The old schedule had the final arrivals 15 minutes later on weekdays and 25 minutes later on weekends. While I ideally would like it just a bit earlier (75 minutes cuts it a bit close with security lines these days) it's a huge improvement over the old schedules, and I'll probably use it somewhat regularly to make that connection.