Commuters face packed buses, trains

[A. Wong]

Commuters face packed buses, trains

Transit crunch leaves rush-hour riders waiting

Bill Mah

The Edmonton Journal

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

CREDIT: Brian Gavriloff, The Journal

SOUNDING BOARD: Is your commute to work or school worse now than it was this time last year? Tell us about it, whether you travel by car, bus, LRT, bicycle or by some other means. Send your commuting story to city@thejournal.canwest.com.

EDMONTON - Rush hours are tougher than usual in Edmonton this fall, with snarled lines of frustrated commuters, long delays and bumper-to-bumper traffic.

And that's just on buses and LRT trains. A "phenomenal" seven-per-cent spike in riders plus thousands of students returning to classes equals overcrowded buses and stressed-out commuters.

"Compared to last year, it's definitely been a lot more busy," said Grant MacEwan student Matt Brown who takes the No. 9 bus between the college and his south-side home.

Between downtown and Southgate Centre mall, he says the bus inevitably packs full, leaving him standing in a teeming aisle.

"When it's really busy, I just wait for the next bus. It's almost not worth it with people always crowding into you and jumping on you."

The solution isn't so simple for Edmonton Transit, however, trying to accommodate unprecedented numbers of customers on growing numbers of routes.

From January to the end of July, ridership rose seven per cent over last year -- up to 32.7 million passengers from 30.6 million in 2005.

"It's actually a phenomenal increase in the industry," said Ken Koropeski, Edmonton Transit director of service development. Over the past five years, growth has averaged 21/2 to three per cent per year.

A booming economy means more newcomers busing to work and recreation. And high gas prices force increasing numbers of drivers on to public transit.

Add students returning to school this month and workers coming back from vacation and it's more riders than the system can handle.

"We are having problems with that right now," Koropeski said.

"When kids come back to school, there's a period of time when they're still learning the system that we do have overloads."

The corridor connecting the University of Alberta, Southgate and Mill Woods is seeing "extremely heavy usage," he said.

Buses in some outlying suburban areas are also straining at the seams such as the ones ferrying Riverbend students to Strathcona high school and Riverbend junior high.

And buses shuttling between Klarvatten and Eaux Claires neighbourhoods and Northgate mall and nearby schools are also seeing overloads.

"It's only the second week since school started, but it's looking like we've got a number of jam-packed buses out there that we're trying to deal with."

Koropeski said transit officials monitor the situation, tweaking schedules and diverting a garage-bound bus here and there to the busiest routes. In other cases, staff also encourage riders to catch less-crowded buses that may run earlier or later.

He said extra service was added last September.

City council will ultimately decide if even more service will be introduced during budget deliberations in November. Depending on the request from transit, council may have to weigh extra service to ease overloaded routes with demands for transit from fast-growing subdivisions.

Since ridership goes up when it gets cold in October and November, crowding might get worse, Koropeski said.

It's not only buses that are jammed.

The LRT line's three park-and-ride lots at Belvedere, Clareview and Stadium stations are so full, commuters hoping to leave their vehicles and hop on a train are being turned away, Koropeski said.

"They're jam-packed. At this point, we are not able to accommodate everybody at them.

"In the long run, we're going to have to look at extending the line further north and getting more park-and-ride sites in there as northeast Edmonton continues to grow but that's not within the next five years."

But transit users considering driving to work should think twice. Commutes for motorists are also unusually bad this fall as students returning to school pump higher traffic volumes into key routes already clogged by construction.

"If the weather keeps up, we should have all the major construction sites cleared up by the end of the month, so be patient," said city transportation and streets spokeswoman Kelly Vail. "We'll be seeing some great improvements very shortly."

bmah@thejournal.canwest.com

© The Edmonton Journal 2006

[James]

extend the line north is a good thing. however we need more lrv's on now. im lucky that ive had cute women to cuddle next to while squeezing onto the cars but heck that probably wont last long. They have to make sure they have enough service with what they have currently before making decisions to increase stations bringing in more passengers.

I wonder if they will start using the 100% diesel backup fleet for the trolley's for regular service.... oh wait. that doesnt exist. maybe this will let them finally publically admit this fleet doesnt exist and hasnt for a while because they need the vehicles to fix their shortness of operating buses

[M. Parsons]

The photo that accompanied that article... Was taken while I was waiting to shoot Strathcona 882.

The Journal photographer was standing on a ledge pretty much just above my head...

Cheaper than extending the line.... build parkades for commuters.

It costs money... but, they could offer preminum services like plug ins, or a heated garage.

[A. Wong]

Yeah right, this is ETS we're talking about.

Multi-level parking would be awesome at the Park n Rides, but having those lots inaccessible for any period of time would be killer.

[M. Parsons]

Yeah right, this is ETS we're talking about.

Multi-level parking would be awesome at the Park n Rides, but having those lots inaccessible for any period of time would be killer.

Run a shuttle service as Strathcona did when rebuilding their terminal, and, still to this day run the shuttle depsite the new terminal and parkade.

[Ode of Bund]

City council will ultimately decide if even more service will be introduced during budget deliberations in November. Depending on the request from transit, council may have to weigh extra service to ease overloaded routes with demands for transit from fast-growing subdivisions.

I think we should be vigilant as this could be the time when Krushell begin to attack trolley again.

If the council does approve to increase budget for ETS, how soon can we see that being reflected in service improvement?

I always wondered the necessassity of the introduction of routes 38, 78, and 193 this September as they were mostly covered by existing routes. Is that a reflection of improper priority setting in the conflict between "easing overloaded routes" and "demands for transit from fast growing subdivisions" as stated in the last statement of the quote?

[Modulator]

Welll, they could pull the diesel back-up fleet out of storage in Cromdale, and put some trolleys on the street, hmm a 9 short turn from NAIT to down town or maybe even whyte...

Why stop at Whyte? Run a peak hour/midday service with trolleys from Southgate to NAIT, so that the 9 runs every 7/8 minutes on that part of the route. You could replace the midday service on the 17 between Southgate and Downtown (which saves maybe 2 minutes over the 9) to make up some of the service hours.

[M. Parsons]

I think we should be vigilant as this could be the time when Krushell begin to attack trolley again.

If the council does approve to increase budget for ETS, how soon can we see that being reflected in service improvement?

I always wondered the necessassity of the introduction of routes 38, 78, and 193 this September as they were mostly covered by existing routes. Is that a reflection of improper priority setting in the conflict between "easing overloaded routes" and "demands for transit from fast growing subdivisions" as stated in the last statement of the quote?

The 78 sort of has a purpose...

The 79 was running two ELF's together at times. Now the 78 runs one of those ELF's instead and goes into a few more places, and over all provides more service during peak times to that area.

The best thing would have just been to put in a 40' bus on 30 minute frequencies...

[James]

Krushell could attack the trolleys however in my opinion this would be the wrong time for her as we all know our current trolley fleet carrys approximately 40% more passengers on the bus than a d40lf with a wheelchair/stroller. If they were to remove them, A) Would have to buy more than one d40lf to replace each trolley as you would leave even more behind and Would have to buy the buses and the fact is we are not going to get them overnight. Hell we would be lucky to get them sometime next year the way New Flyer is going with these.

So her smart move would be just to let them be for now and worry about existing services that need care like the 4 and the 8 etc... Otherwise she may find herself in a bigger pickle as her care for maintaining service would be shown to not be very high.

[M. Parsons]

Krushell could attack the trolleys however in my opinion this would be the wrong time for her as we all know our current trolley fleet carrys approximately 40% more passengers on the bus than a d40lf with a wheelchair/stroller. If they were to remove them, A) Would have to buy more than one d40lf to replace each trolley as you would leave even more behind and Would have to buy the buses and the fact is we are not going to get them overnight. Hell we would be lucky to get them sometime next year the way New Flyer is going with these.

Does Krushell really care about the carrying capacity different between a BBC OR GM Vs. a D40LF? No.

Will they order new buses at an appropriate ratio to offset the lost carry capacity of a D40LF? No. Granted, we would have order extra E40LF's to replace the BBC's based upon that logic. Extra money.

We probably wouldn't get rid of them overnight. New Flyer's pretty good a deliveries, considering how busy they seem to be. There's always the outside chance ETS could check the used bus market. There's a lot of used Classics kicking around these days... We'd be looking at needing a fleet of 50-60 (that would give a few extra buses for hte regular diesel fleet). It could almost be worthwhile.

[captaintrolley]

I still think it's not right to go TOTALLY Low Floor. On Routes with just a few buses, like 30 or 60 minute frequency, sure let them all be Low Floor. But on Routes that have 7/8-10-15 minutes frequency, every second unit can be a HF and provide the extra needed capacity. Transit is for the masses, and the majority of users are not mobility-challenged.

[A. Wong]

 

I always wondered the necessassity of the introduction of routes 38, 78, and 193 this September as they were mostly covered by existing routes.

I think the 193 is stupid. They should combine the 192 and 193 routes, and run a 15 minute frequency on it. That would probably require no more than 3 buses!

I still think it's not right to go TOTALLY Low Floor. On Routes with just a few buses, like 30 or 60 minute frequency, sure let them all be Low Floor. But on Routes that have 7/8-10-15 minutes frequency, every second unit can be a HF and provide the extra needed capacity. Transit is for the masses, and the majority of users are not mobility-challenged.

I agree. The school runs are packed to the max - use a high floor bus for more capacity. Even the Fishbowls are so packed that people stand in the wheel wells. High floors should also be used for some express runs.

[Ode of Bund]

I still think it's not right to go TOTALLY Low Floor. On Routes with just a few buses, like 30 or 60 minute frequency, sure let them all be Low Floor. But on Routes that have 7/8-10-15 minutes frequency, every second unit can be a HF and provide the extra needed capacity. Transit is for the masses, and the majority of users are not mobility-challenged.

The biggest beneficiaries of LFB's aren't really the handicapped, but senior citizens with reduced mobility, and that constitutes a significant proportion of patronage, the appearance of LFB's is also a reflection of aging society. My mother is in absolute support of my cause for trolleys, but she does like LFB's for their accessibilities, thus she is in great favour of acquiring the combination of the two.

[captaintrolley]

The biggest beneficiaries of LFB's aren't really the handicapped, but senior citizens with reduced mobility, and that constitutes a significant proportion of patronage, the appearance of LFB's is also a reflection of aging society. My mother is in absolute support of my cause for trolleys, but she does like LFB's for their accessibilities, thus she is in great favour of acquiring the combination of the two.

True enough. But where there is very frequent service with a need for high capacity, even if every second or third bus is a HF it will help move the masses. The LF trips can be identified on the schedule and persons that require a LF can plan their trips accordingly. Also the HF can be used for school runs. I see a lot of LF on school runs that SHOULD be high floor. Although if they interline with something that requires LF then there goes that argument.

[A. Wong]

I think LF buses should supplement the high floor fleet.

ie. the ratio of HF buses on a route should be higher than LF buses DURING THE PEAK HOUR.

Off-peak it doesn't matter if its LF or HF.

[T6H-5307N]

I see a lot of LF on school runs that SHOULD be high floor.

The ETS scheduals aren't exactly accurate when it comes to telling whether the bus will be LF or not. Recently I have seen a lot of HF's on the route 33 when it is supposed to be all LF's all the time, and I also saw a bunch of Lf's on the school runs which are normally Hf. I even saw a GM doing a route 4 yesterday! (But this is a great thing to see, even if ETS is bending the rules )

[kevlo86]

The ETS scheduals aren't exactly accurate when it comes to telling whether the bus will be LF or not. Recently I have seen a lot of HF's on the route 33 when it is supposed to be all LF's all the time, and I also saw a bunch of Lf's on the school runs which are normally Hf. I even saw a GM doing a route 4 yesterday! (But this is a great thing to see, even if ETS is bending the rules )

There are a few runs on the Route 4 scheduled in as a GM (high floor).

[captaintrolley]

If a trip is designated Low Floor it will have an 'L' besides it. Non-designated trips can be whatever. Para Routes can be D40LF if there are no ELFs available, but because the ELFs are accessible, only a D40LF can sub in for it.

Many of the GMs on the Route 4's are school specials. There is a whole new sub-section of 'school specials' for post-secondary schools this year. Unless these interline later on with something designated LF, they are usually going to be GMC's.

[edmontonguy]

An interesting article in the Journal today, a sounding board for our crammed commutes with a lot of reader imput. One suggestion i liked was the idea to add an extra car to the LRT trains in service in the morning to help with flow, however isn't the line already stretched to the max, too bad ETS is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Having school specials to the U especially dedicated routes is a big plus, but it must be a pain in the behind for ETS to interline any of the LF busses as the reliability, especially for any route traveling down the whitemud is horrible.

[M. Parsons]

An interesting article in the Journal today, a sounding board for our crammed commutes with a lot of reader imput. One suggestion i liked was the idea to add an extra car to the LRT trains in service in the morning to help with flow, however isn't the line already stretched to the max, too bad ETS is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Having school specials to the U especially dedicated routes is a big plus, but it must be a pain in the behind for ETS to interline any of the LF busses as the reliability, especially for any route traveling down the whitemud is horrible.

Contrary to a recent post of mine... I believe ETS is making do with only 9 train sets during peak hours.

At 3 cars each... and 2 4 car trains... that's 29 cars... 7 spares. They probably try to have 3 extra cars so that an entire train set could be replaced... leaving 4 cars that can be down. Probably not enough to add more 4 cars trains, but, they sure could use it.

The U2's are starting to get old. Some are over 25 years old... I'm sure we could start to see problems with them... if we haven't already.

[Modulator]

The U2's are starting to get old. Some are over 25 years old... I'm sure we could start to see problems with them... if we haven't already.

Oh, they're already showing their age.

[Mark Walton]

An interesting article in the Journal today, a sounding board for our crammed commutes with a lot of reader imput. One suggestion i liked was the idea to add an extra car to the LRT trains in service in the morning to help with flow, however isn't the line already stretched to the max, too bad ETS is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Having school specials to the U especially dedicated routes is a big plus, but it must be a pain in the behind for ETS to interline any of the LF busses as the reliability, especially for any route traveling down the whitemud is horrible.

Can the stations handle 4-car trains? Calgary has been modifying its 201 (Dalhousie-Somerset) line and downtown stations for 4 cars; the 202 (Whitehorn) line will stay with 3-car trains for the foreseeable future.

[M. Parsons]

Yup, our stations can handle 4 cars, actually 5 but some of the cars would not be under the station canopy, and all of our stations are accessable

ETS actually did a great job with the stations, allowing for future expansion of train length, Kudos I say!

Not that it matters if the cars are under the canopy.

The only station which cannot fit 5 cars is Health Sciences Station, however, it is extendable to 5 cars. It might well also be some sort of temporary station.

Ultimately the University wants to build above it, and in fact, the columns along the walls all around the extension were designed to be used to support a building.

[edmontonguy]

Has there ever been a 5 car train used in regular service?

[M. Parsons]

Has there ever been a 5 car train used in regular service?

Not that I have heard of.

I did see a 6 car once heading into D.L. after bumping down a few trains at Clareview.