Blue Line/Southwest Transitway

[SirAndrew710]

20 minutes ago, Viafreak said:

Personally, I like the new routing of the 47. Currently if you want to get to Union Station or Forks from the northeast corner of the city, you have to transfer at Portage and Main or Pioneer and Main to continue south of Graham. With this new routing, you can go from KP to the Forks/Union Station with one bus.

While I will agree that combining two routes to run straight down Main is a good idea, choosing the two that would inconvenience the most people is not. The 47 and especially the 160 draw large numbers of passengers headed to/from the Graham Transit Mall and U of W. Why not combine, let’s say, the 26 and the 68 instead?

[ConnorsCompShow]

I would happily forego SWRT1 if it meant 47 could continue on Graham and absorb the regular 60 instead. Sure, crossing Pembina at Stafford from west to east is a bit of a PITA in comparison to the ease of the SWRT2 bridge or doing it the other way, but it's at least doable if you give yourself at least 3 minutes extra.

On the other hand I'm a little miffed that they didn't bother with stopping the new 47 at Lombard to preserve the Portage connection as it is currently with Colony. Yes, stopping at both McDermot and Lombard might be about as inefficient as Olive and Whytewold, but why not stop at Lombard instead since it'd go down to Pioneer anyway?

[SirAndrew710]

There are a few stops along eastbound Portage that they could probably do away with (Daer and Vernon come to mind as well as Olive). With regards to Lombard, the 47 isn’t the only one - there’s no connection between the 20 and the Portage routes until Polo, and there’s no connection between the 16, 18, 32, 44 or 45 and the Portage routes at all. All six of these routes do connect with the 11 at City Hall, but that’s no help when service to Portage West is handled by the 21 or 22.

[ConnorsCompShow]

Mount Royal East could probably be moved further back a bit as well. It's not as ridiculous as Olive and Whytewold but I've had operators shoot right past it on a few occasions.

[SirAndrew710]

7 minutes ago, ConnorsCompShow said:

Mount Royal East could probably be moved further back a bit as well. It's not as ridiculous as Olive and Whytewold but I've had operators shoot right past it on a few occasions.

In fact, Mount Royal isn’t even announced until the bus reaches the Foodfare parking lot. With regards to drivers not stopping, I have observed that phenomenon as well. I wonder why Mount Royal East and those extra eastbound stops (Daer, Olive, Vernon) only exist in one direction. I also think Albany could be moved or removed. The current stop’s as close to Deer Lodge as Olive is to Whytewold and I’ve seen drivers blow past that one as well.

[ConnorsCompShow]

I have to say that the new style signs are a bit hard to pick out at a distance on first glance. They do look nice but they seem to blend in to their surroundings, especially on a sunny day.

[trebor204]

With the new service under 2 weeks.

So far, they have only replaced the metal signs. Along with temporary notices for the old routes.

They haven't replaced the other 'plastic' signs at some of the major points. There is no new signage downtown.

There is no information for riders on routes that are totally being discontinued (eg 162, 76, 84).

What the new routes are (ie  672, BLUE)

No information on routes that are changing such as 78 (now going down University Cres) or 47 (not going down Graham)

I can see riders riding a 47 downtown and complaining to the driver that he's not going down Graham. Riders waiting downtown for a 47 that won't show up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Taylorover9001]

21 minutes ago, trebor204 said:

So far, they have only replaced the metal signs. Along with temporary notices for the old routes.

They haven't replaced the other 'plastic' signs at some of the major points. There is no new signage downtown.

I don't expect the plastic signs to be replaced, just have the new routes put onto them. After all, the Phase 2 BLUE stops have the same style. But that hasn't happened yet, last time I checked.

23 minutes ago, trebor204 said:

There is no information for riders on routes that are totally being discontinued (eg 162, 76, 84).

What the new routes are (ie  672, BLUE)

No information on routes that are changing such as 78 (now going down University Cres) or 47 (not going down Graham)

I can see riders riding a 47 downtown and complaining to the driver that he's not going down Graham. Riders waiting downtown for a 47 that won't show up.

https://winnipegtransit.com/en/service/blue-rapid-transit

[LilZebra]

3 hours ago, trebor204 said:

With the new service under 2 weeks.

So far, they have only replaced the metal signs. Along with temporary notices for the old routes.

They haven't replaced the other 'plastic' signs at some of the major points. There is no new signage downtown.

There is no information for riders on routes that are totally being discontinued (eg 162, 76, 84).

What the new routes are (ie  672, BLUE)

No information on routes that are changing such as 78 (now going down University Cres) or 47 (not going down Graham)

I can see riders riding a 47 downtown and complaining to the driver that he's not going down Graham. Riders waiting downtown for a 47 that won't show up.

Public Relations / Marketing & Communications101. Inform your customer of impending changes to service. LOL.

This is a PR disaster in the making. When can I close my eyes and wait until things calm down again?

[armorand]

10 hours ago, LilZebra said:

Public Relations / Marketing & Communications101. Inform your customer of impending changes to service. LOL.

This is a PR disaster in the making. When can I close my eyes and wait until things calm down again?

Don't forget what will look like surprise cuts to the 79, 82, 83, 98 etc, as well. 

This is going to be a PR nightmare, for Winnipeg Transit lol, especially with the lack of advertising, or even the vinyl wraps missing from the supposed "rt" launch as well - but then again, I'm not even surprised anymore.

[SirAndrew710]

11 minutes ago, armorand said:

Don't forget what will look like surprise cuts to the 79, 82, 83, 98 etc, as well. 

The budget documents didn’t even say when those cuts will take place. At least they said the Spirits will be cut in the fall.

12 minutes ago, armorand said:

This is going to be a PR nightmare, for Winnipeg Transit lol, especially with the lack of advertising, or even the vinyl wraps missing from the supposed "rt" launch as well - but then again, I'm not even surprised anymore.

There’s advertising galore. I’ve seen newspaper ads, TV ads, pictures of bus bench ads, and I’ve even had targeted ads on my iPad for the launch.

[Taylorover9001]

3 hours ago, armorand said:

especially with the lack of advertising

There's advertising everywhere. On buses, on bus shelters, on bus benches, on affected bus stop signs, on https://winnipegtransit.com, and even on the LED BUSwatch signs to some extent (warning of the upcoming schedule change). Other people are saying on online ads, TV and newspapers too. People were able to adjust to the changes when Phase 1 opened, I think people can adjust to the Phase 2 changes too. It might take some time, but people will adjust.

[MMP15]

This image just proves @Taylorover9001's point.

 

[ConnorsCompShow]

There's been one or two front-page banner ads in the print editions of the Winnipeg Free Press too.

On another note, I've noticed significantly more volume of buses utilizing it in the past week or two with sometimes one bus going out every 3-5 minutes at times. It seems that an okay has been given to operators that want to use it to deploy & all the testing has wrapped. I know there's a 72 run that pulls out and goes down SWRT2 right over Pembina around 3:50-3:55 pretty reliably as of late.

[Taylorover9001]

33 minutes ago, ConnorsCompShow said:

There's been one or two front-page banner ads in the print editions of the Winnipeg Free Press too.

On another note, I've noticed significantly more volume of buses utilizing it in the past week or two with sometimes one bus going out every 3-5 minutes at times. It seems that an okay has been given to operators that want to use it to deploy & all the testing has wrapped. I know there's a 72 run that pulls out and goes down SWRT2 right over Pembina around 3:50-3:55 pretty reliably as of late.

For awhile now, drivers have used Phase 2 as a Not In Service short cut, especially around rush hour.

[ConnorsCompShow]

New style signs for route 47 is up at Jubilee Overpass.

[Taylorover9001]

New monitors up and running at Fort Rouge Station, including an electronic billboard, displaying current information, and Phase 2 information. Jubilee Station is unchanged, and the signs at both stops are also unchanged.

With the new upcoming bus monitors, wouldn't it be nice if they always displayed the number of minutes until the next bus, or at least extend it to 60 minutes (instead of the current 15 minutes)? For example, that next 170 was scheduled to come in 27 minutes, but you wouldn't know that until you did the math in your head.

[jhood135]

Here are some clips I took of buses running on the transitway from about a week ago. Pretty cool to get a preview of what will be in a couple of weeks!

 

[Taylorover9001]

1 hour ago, jhood135 said:

Pretty cool to get a preview of what will be in a couple of weeks!

Actually 1 week and 1 day (as of when you made the post). Soooooo close!

[Viafreak]

10 hours ago, Taylorover9001 said:

New monitors up and running at Fort Rouge Station, including an electronic billboard, displaying current information, and Phase 2 information. Jubilee Station is unchanged, and the signs at both stops are also unchanged.

With the new upcoming bus monitors, wouldn't it be nice if they always displayed the number of minutes until the next bus, or at least extend it to 60 minutes (instead of the current 15 minutes)? For example, that next 170 was scheduled to come in 27 minutes, but you wouldn't know that until you did the math in your head.

Those new displays look pretty sweet. The next bus time would be confusing if it was longer than 15 minutes. Stops like Northdale (11 and 90), Club Regent (42, 46-48) and others would get confusing as those stops have routes with multiple destinations but with the same route number.

[Taylorover9001]

33 minutes ago, Viafreak said:

Those new displays look pretty sweet. The next bus time would be confusing if it was longer than 15 minutes. Stops like Northdale (11 and 90), Club Regent (42, 46-48) and others would get confusing as those stops have routes with multiple destinations but with the same route number.

Route # on the left, time on the right destination in the middle, is it really that hard for people to figure out? It also displays which page is being displayed.

[SirAndrew710]

7 minutes ago, Taylorover9001 said:

Route # on the left, time on the right destination in the middle, is it really that hard for people to figure out? It also displays which page is being displayed.

Same as a BusWatch sign really. I gotta say I like the addition of the page marker, as there have been times where I’ve looked at the BusWatch sign at Polo Park or U of W having no idea when it would cycle back around.

[Taylorover9001]

Just now, SirAndrew710 said:

I gotta say I like the addition of the page marker, as there have been times where I’ve looked at the BusWatch sign at Polo Park or U of W having no idea when it would cycle back around.

Me too. It's annoying having to stare at them, having no idea when it will go back.

[SirAndrew710]

I wonder if they plan to replace BusWatch signs at other stops (such as Polo Park) with these. Those signs seem to malfunction a lot, and the one at Portage/Spence westbound wasn’t even in for the entire fall term.

[Taylorover9001]

11 minutes ago, SirAndrew710 said:

the one at Portage/Spence westbound wasn’t even in for the entire fall term.

The northbound Fort Rouge Station one had been missing for I have no idea how long. A very long time. At least a year, if not more.