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darwink said:
Bus growth will only accelerate with the major service investments being made in budget adjustments last year. Finally making up for the cuts/lack of service expansion from the 2015-2020 period, and never implementing service adequate for the infrastructure investment made on the BRT routes.
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Yea I think they need to go more aggressive on the PTN, we're at one route that achieved PTN, not even the Blue line... Maybe this is selfish as I don't use any of the community route but it's an inefficient service that serves few residents at a significant cost.

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They got the money or at least some money for this, this last budget, didn't they? MAX Route frequency and north central should be the priorities.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
They got the money or at least some money for this, this last budget, didn't they? MAX Route frequency and north central should be the priorities.
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They really should do quarterly updates and have a clear implementation plan of how they will get to PTN. Have a plan then go to council to get it funded. The level of planning and reporting from Calgary Transit is pretty lacking compared to other major metros.

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Long-Term Strategic Plans - RouteAhead

RouteAhead, Route Ahead,
www.calgarytransit.com www.calgarytransit.com
 
trtcttc said:
They really should do quarterly updates and have a clear implementation plan of how they will get to PTN. Have a plan then go to council to get it funded. The level of planning and reporting from Calgary Transit is pretty lacking compared to other major metros.

View attachment 617437

Long-Term Strategic Plans - RouteAhead

RouteAhead, Route Ahead,
www.calgarytransit.com www.calgarytransit.com
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Maybe there will be a status update before the end of the year or early in 2025?
 
Surrealplaces said:
Good points. I'd like to see a better bus network as well. I don't take the train often, but my observations as a transit user are that the bus network still needs improvements. My own experiences are that if both source and destination are near LRT stations, the LRT is 100 times better than the bus, due to higher frequency, being on time more often, and the time of the trip being shorter.

Some of those points you mentioned, like dedicated bus lanes and fewer stops could make a difference.
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I think there's a lot of quick wins CT could do to improve the bus network.

1. Revamp the transit map

This is tough to look at:
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This map isn't as tough to look at:
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2. Improve wayfinding at bus stops:

At minimum, every bus stop should have an easy to read map printed of the bus route. Busier bus stops should have heater shelters and digital screens which indicate arrival times. This is a bus stop on 6th Ave. It serves as a bus stop for routes 301,302, MY, #1, #2 and #3. It has a bent sign and pylon to indicate that it's a major bus stop.
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3. Redesign the Network

There's nothing wrong with a feeder bus. But I'd lose my mind I had to take the #123 everyday. It's long, ineffective, milk-run route. Transit routes should be direct, connective and frequent.

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CBBarnett said:
They do provide this through those quarterly APTA report - your summary is correct. Calgary vastly outperforms on light rail, but has long been underwhelming for regular bus traffic. Winnipeg - hardly a transit friendly city - has about the same bus ridership as Calgary with our extra 500,000 people, greater density and more centralized employment clusters. Some of this is the LRT taking ridership away from a hypothetical bus, but we should be having better ridership even then.

The other trend we are weird on is how bus ridership is not the majority. People underestimate how crucial the bus network is to major cities. Vancouver and Toronto, for all their quality rail infrastructure, still see substantial majority of their ridership from buses.

Calgary needs to act on some of the good plans we have for buses - keep pushing this primary transit skeletal network, actually solve downtown bus congestion with dedicate lanes, make busses competitive to driving between major destination through making them faster and with fewer stops.


View attachment 617028View attachment 617029
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Calgary Transit would be able to get a lot more riders if they focused on expanding their bus routes and increasing service. Just one example, but why is there no bus going from Marda Loop to Chinook? With the ever expanding population, and only going to get even bigger, it’s a huge oversight by Calgary Transit.

Maybe focusing less on boondoggles would help..
 
Dārayavauš said:
Marda Loop to Chinook
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The 9 could, and sort of does, if you're willing to walk or transfer from the 7. Route 9 is a wild route:
Leaves a Red Line station and goes through Brentwood, then by another Red Line station, then through the university and by foothills hospital, then to the Blue Line at Westbrook, then to MRU, and finally past Chinook before stopping at another Red Line station.

Obviously not meant to be an end to end ride, as it seems design to use in segments:
Red Line to University and FMC, University and FMC to Blue Line, Blue Line to MRU (Max Teal does this run), and MRU to Chinook.

I feel like there's opportunity here to shorten Route 9 or divide it up:
University Red Line stop through the University and FMC and then go to the Blue Line.
Westbrook Blue Line stop to MRU (even though Max Teal does this run) and then MRU to Chinook.

I don't get the run through Brentwood, there must be another bus that runs through there between Red Line stops, and with such a long route your margin for error can be quite high if you're stuck in traffic anywhere along the route that can pretty easily have two buses running into one another if the first bus is stopping at every stop and getting stuck on Memorial, Crowchild, 36th, or Glenmore.
 
Dārayavauš said:
Calgary Transit would be able to get a lot more riders if they focused on expanding their bus routes and increasing service. Just one example, but why is there no bus going from Marda Loop to Chinook? With the ever expanding population, and only going to get even bigger, it’s a huge oversight by Calgary Transit.

Maybe focusing less on boondoggles would help..
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It is a glaring gap, and one I feel is a bit political considering the area. But with the ongoing West Elbow LAP being developed, it's at least being acknowledged somewhat. So might be something addressed soon...

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Dārayavauš said:
Marda Loop to Chinook
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Rockyview is more important and serving Chinook LRT reliably/without congestion would require fixing a few intersections. I'm not sure whether the google maps algoriythm would consider backtracking on the LRT from Heritage to Chinook. That should be faster than going downtown, but it isn't presented as an option. Just because Google Maps doesn't show it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I think we also shouldn't over estimate how many people live in Marda Loop or their trip demand to Chinook. The trip demand from the central SW Calgary was easily handled by the circle route before either BRT came into being.
 
darwink said:
Rockyview is more important and serving Chinook LRT reliably/without congestion would require fixing a few intersections. I'm not sure whether the google maps algoriythm would consider backtracking on the LRT from Heritage to Chinook. That should be faster than going downtown, but it isn't presented as an option. Just because Google Maps doesn't show it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I think we also shouldn't over estimate how many people live in Marda Loop or their trip demand to Chinook. The trip demand from the central SW Calgary was easily handled by the circle route before either BRT came into being.
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Well right now, 44,280 people live in the Marda Loop BIA. To me increasing the bus routes from there to other destinations in Calgary, especially as popular as Chinook Centre is, seems like a no brainer to me.

Only 9% of the 44,280 take public transit to work, which is clogging the roads. There needs to be greater investment imho
 
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