Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[grant1simons2]

http://www.metrocouncil.org/METC/files/ ... f66355.pdf

Approval of 4 new buses for 4 new local routes by SWTransit. I haven't heard about these routes yet, but hopefully they run where people live and maybe advertise it a bit better.

[Tcmetro]

SW Transit gives me a headache. They just cut two local routes for being underperforming two weeks ago.

[FISHMANPET]

Well presumably the buses used for those routes burst into flames the moment the routes were cancelled, so it makes sense they'd need new buses.

[grant1simons2]

Honestly wouldn't surprise me. Those were like old airport shuttle buses

[grant1simons2]

SWT is also starting a 494 service that would go to MOA and possibly the airport, an all day direct UofM bus, and more reverse routes. Along with these new services they'll also be marketing more of the local bus routes and reverse routes much more than before.

[twincitizen]

Design contract awarded for MTPD station, next to current Heywood office building: http://finance-commerce.com/2015/02/sno ... e-station/ (locked)

I wonder how it will be situated on the site...

If they wipe out too much of the main/visitor parking lot (pictured), I wonder how that will effect Metro Transit's ability to sell of the rear/lower parking lot for development.

[LRV Op Dude]

Design contract awarded for MTPD station, next to current Heywood office building: http://finance-commerce.com/2015/02/sno ... e-station/ (locked)

I wonder how it will be situated on the site...

If they wipe out too much of the main/visitor parking lot (pictured), I wonder how that will effect Metro Transit's ability to sell of the rear/lower parking lot for development.

Here a link of Vision of the Haywood campus from Met Council Transportation meeting.

[Tcmetro]

Bus service changes begin March 7th:

7 - B trips are extended to 7th/Oak Lake (back of Heywood Garage), some A trips to Plymouth/Wirth Chalet during evenings will be truncated to the B terminal.

12 - Uptown Terminal (X trips) moved from Uptown Transit Center to Lagoon/Emerson. WB trips will still stop at Uptown Transit Center.

22 - NB weekday service from 715-915 pm improved to 20 min.

565 (Richfield-Target North express) - Eliminated.

Blue Line - Lake St Park and Ride closed.

Minor changes, mostly timing and a few trip eliminations will occur on a handful of routes.

Also, MVTA is removing all references to Shakopee/Prior Lake/BlueXpress with their Feb. 21st service change. A new route 493 will serve the Marschall/169 Park and Ride.

http://www.metrotransit.org/these-route ... ge-march-7
http://www.metrotransit.org/lake-midtow ... will-close

[twincitizen]

Digital Advertising Coming: http://finance-commerce.com/transit/201 ... it-system/

[Anondson]

Plymouth Metrolink revising routes in preparation of the coming TCF relocation.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2015/02/20/plym ... us-routes/

[VacantLuxuries]

Digital Advertising Coming: http://finance-commerce.com/transit/201 ... it-system/

Maybe soon they'll even replace the ads on the bus/train itself. I can't wait for the Denham's Dentifrice sing-along.

[IllogicalJake]

Digital Advertising Coming: http://finance-commerce.com/transit/201 ... it-system/

Maybe soon they'll even replace the ads on the bus/train itself. I can't wait for the Denham's Dentifrice sing-along.

There were some digital screens hung from the train ceilings during the days leading up to Rail-volution 2014. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some use planned for them aside from when they use the train for special events.

[mulad]

RailBaronYarr and I requested some data from Metro Transit. Our first delivery is boarding data for all of the LRT and Northstar stations, to complement the bus boardings and alightings data on datafinder.org.

Here it is. (But remember, the "Total" column only reflects Green Line rides from June when the service started.)

I hope they will start publishing this regularly on the datafinder site.

[nate]

Fascinating. I look forward to discussion of these numbers.

I will start. All but the two lowest ridership Blue Line stations at least double the ridership of the best-performing Northstar stations.

[David Greene]

Good stuff. It would be nice to make a table including the projected ridership from the various DEISs.

I'm really glad we spent all that transit money on a huge parking ramp at 28th Ave.

I find it interesting and not all that surprising that the three missing Green Line stations added late in the game outperform several stations on the Blue Line. None of them are the worst-performing stations on the line. Hamline even outperforms Lexington which I guess isn't all that surprising given the retail component there. As I recall, even in the DEIS none of those stations was the worst-performing so even that is not a surprise. The whole saga is a great example of structural racism.

[Silophant]

Looks like it's time to give up on Bloomington Central Station, and just take the improvement to running time instead.

Seriously, why was that originally built instead of American Boulevard?

[David Greene]

Seriously, why was that originally built instead of American Boulevard?

It was supposed to become the third downtown. And it still may grow quite a bit. There's a LOT of land around there. I think it's a bit early to call it a complete failure given that a lot of the years of the Blue Line were during the worst recression in the country's history.

I wonder how much better 50th would perform if there was a much better connection to the park.

[mulad]

Fascinating. I look forward to discussion of these numbers.

I will start. All but the two lowest ridership Blue Line stations at least double the ridership of the best-performing Northstar stations.

In Northstar's defense, it does alright for a service that only has six round-trips daily (12 one-way trips total). That's an average of 211 per trip.

I was interested to see that Big Lake is the busiest station other than Target Field -- I'd heard that was the case, but never had the data to show it. It helps the argument that the line should be extended to St. Cloud.

One questionable thing I've seen when looking at operating costs for various commuter rail lines is that Northstar is the most expensive one to operate per revenue hour (at least for trains of that length). It's more than twice as costly per hour as the average. Not sure what the reason is there -- if the costs were more normal, it would have farebox recovery much more in line with the rest of our transit system.

[acs]

Seriously, why was that originally built instead of American Boulevard?

It was supposed to become the third downtown.

But in all seriousness, wasn't bloomington central the original station besides MOA? Then MOA wouldn't allow park & ride at their ramps so they added 28th street? then American Blvd was added after the line opened for who knows what reason?

[acs]

One questionable thing I've seen when looking at operating costs for various commuter rail lines is that Northstar is the most expensive one to operate per revenue hour (at least for trains of that length). It's more than twice as costly per hour as the average. Not sure what the reason is there -- if the costs were more normal, it would have farebox recovery much more in line with the rest of our transit system.

Would this have anything to do with the cost of trackage rights? This is along the BNSF transcon mainline and when the line was built it was mostly single and double track. Now, with BNSF adding more track here including double tracking big lake to becker you could use it as an opportunity to re-negotiate, but unfortunately I think the increased freight traffic would make it even more expensive now.