Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[Tcmetro]

Some SW Transit updates:

- City of Carver is working with SW Transit to provide service to their new park and ride lot. Extending existing express routes is a lot cheaper than the City of Carver operating a separate service. Buses to the new Carver lot begin on Jan. 5th.

- An understanding has been reached between SWT and the Met Council over operations at SW Station. The existing station will be demolished to make room for another parking deck, and the bus loop will be reconfigured for improved operations. Currently, SWT is proposing to not make changes to their express schedule.

- SWT has been contracted by the City of Plymouth to handle day-to-day operations of their transit system. A new phone app, bus WiFi, and other operational changes are being made in order to improve service. SWT is also proposing that Plymouth reduce the amount of reserve funds so that they can qualify for additional transit funds for increased service.

- CMAQ grant applications have been made for a 169/Pioneer Trl park and ride and for electric buses to operate an Eden Prairie circulator service.

- The temporary Saturday service will be ending Dec. 3rd.

http://swtransit.org/wp-content/uploads ... .17.14.pdf

[Tom H.]

Somewhat older SWT news, but they now run an all-day service along Valley View Rd from Eden Prairie Rd to Southwest Station. It's only at 2-hour frequencies, but it is still a useful service for those who live along this corridor and don't want to be restricted to the AM/PM rush hour express schedules.

[Tcmetro]

It's nice that SW Transit has added the local service. I've began to think that extensions of the 614 and 540 routes into Eden Prairie would probably be more useful to residents, but SW Transit doesn't really play to nice with Metro Transit/Met Council.

They are cutting their Saturday service on Dec 20th instead of Jan 3:

http://swtransit.org/saturday-service-express-local/

[mattaudio]

Westbound 53 turning from Hennepin to Lagoon ran into the Uptown Theater this morning.

[David Greene]

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/287652191.html

Anyone else read that as "metroPOS?"

[HiawathaGuy]

From the article:
"The southbound Route 53 bus was sliding through the intersection..."

Glad to see that good reporting still happens. *sighs*
(53 is an east/west route)

[David Greene]

From the article:
"The southbound Route 53 bus was sliding through the intersection..."

Glad to see that good reporting still happens. *sighs*
(53 is an east/west route)

They probably meant "southbound on Hennepin" which is exactly what it would have been doing at the time of the crash.

[MNdible]

In their defense, the bus was pointing south when it hit the building...

[xandrex]

From the article:
"The southbound Route 53 bus was sliding through the intersection..."

Glad to see that good reporting still happens. *sighs*
(53 is an east/west route)

It's not reporting what Metro Transit dubs the route. It's the direction it was going when the crash occurred (which was southbound). If I remember correctly, it's more of an news style thing than anything else.

[UrsusUrbanicus]

Ah yes, the old physical / logical direction confusion. I work part-time in Shakopee and get a lot of confused looks when giving directions, because "southbound" 169 physically runs almost due west for about 8 miles through the heart of town...

[EOst]

Metro Transit finally updated its High Frequency website/map: http://www.metrotransit.org/high-freque ... k-map.aspx

[Silophant]

It's been said before, but lol at the "LRT on tires" Red Line not making the High Frequency cutoff. What a joke.

[PhilmerPhil]

Will the 4 ever be added to the Hi Frequency network? I thought I heard at one point that it was being considered.

[twincitizen]

They may have been planning to update it anyways, but I did specifically call that map out in my SIP comments a couple months back.

Not that I'd ever defend the Red Line, but it's worth pointing out that it is not operated by Metro Transit. It basically does meet Hi-Freq standards on weekdays (15-minute service cutoff is just before 7pm, at roughly 6:30-45 depending on direction).

I wonder how many additional routes would meet Hi-Freq standards if you removed the Saturday requirement? Or if the AM/PM cutoffs were at 6:30 instead of 6am and 7pm, respectively? I'd want to play with the fringes of those requirements a bit and see if you couldn't get a couple more routes in there. I believe the 4 (downtown to 38th St S) makes the cut already, or is very, very close.

[FISHMANPET]

Besides just "lol red line" posturing, it also helps to dilute both the Hi Frequency and the METRO brand. METRO should be a subset of Hi Frequency.

[RailBaronYarr]

Looking at that map is a reminder why so many people simply drive everywhere. I'm pretty tolerant of a wait for a bus, but 15 minutes is not "high frequency" to me. 10 minute headways is my cutoff. I know the whole thing is you "average" out and wait for half the headway, but that's not how it really works. You leave your house/work in an effort to catch a certain bus, especially if you have a transfer to make. If you get caught up, or the bus was running early (up to 2 minutes early is considered "on-time" by MT right?), or you barely miss the xfer due to a slow-running bus, you're waiting nearly 15 minutes. That scenario plays out far more often than the "catch the next bus, don't even read the schedule!" one.

Regardless, kudos to MT for striving to make frequency a thing people recognize. We're just really, really far from anything sniffing a world-class transit system.

[xandrex]

^Yeah, it's amazing to see the gaps in high frequency travel service.

I don't even try to ride when a transfer is required (exceptions include rail on occasion). Too much uncertainty and often way too much time with a transfer. I'd rather drive (and pay whatever price, usually free, because I can one-seat ride to downtown and Uptown...the two "expensive" or difficult places to park) or take an Uber than deal with Metro Transit. And that's even with a Metro Pass.

[FISHMANPET]

I make the commute from Lake St to Stadium Village and it's usually a half hour journey, which seems like an insane amount of time to go not very far. The only solace is that it would probably take just as long to drive during rush hours.

Transfer penalties are even worse in weather like this, where stepping outside just makes you want to die.

[Tcmetro]

So many more routes would be on the map if a 20 minute interval was shown (or perhaps those routes should be upped to 15 mins). That would add the entire 2, the 3 from Downtown Mpls to Como/Snelling, the 4 from Downtown to 50th St, most if not all of the 5, the 14, the 16, the 17, the 18 to American Bl, the entire 19, the entire 21, the 22, the 63, the 65, the 67, the 68, the 74, and the 87.

MT has been working a lot on improving frequency, and I hope that within a decade frequencies are much better.

[twincitizen]

I sort of got into it in my last comment, but I think I ended deleting the part about 20-minute frequency. I say this knowing that the Hi-Freq network isn't a particularly useful or well-advertised "brand" to MT users, but I would not be in favor of including routes with 20-minute headways. As RBY said, 15-minutes is already pushing it.

I would however be interested in pinching and pulling at the fringes of those qualifiers, to see if you could get a bigger network with a 6:30-6:30 window of service, instead of 6am-7pm, or by easing or eliminating the Saturday requirement. What if the Saturday requirement was 30-minutes?? I think it's kinda dumb to advertise a "network" of high-freq bus routes (therefore heavily-used), but then remove routes from inclusion in this network because they don't run every 15 minutes on a day with markedly lower ridership (Sat) than weekdays, when most people aren't riding.

tl,dr: the Saturday qualification should be eased to 20 or 30 minute headways, if it means the Hi-Freq network is actually much more extensive than we believe it to be.

Does that make sense?