Calgary Transit

[CTrainDude]

3 hours ago, Transit Fan said:

Anyone know when they typically update the signs at bus stops when there is a route revision?

Starting to see shelters and poles for stop signage go up along 17th Ave SE for the 87 and 155 but that's probably more due to the ongoing construction work there.

I haven't seen anything done for existing stops. Do they usually do it a day or two before? There's a lot of stops to go through this time.

Usually the Roads crews are out doing signs over the last few days before changes - they try to leave as late as possible.

[Transit Fan]

11 minutes ago, CTrainDude said:

Usually the Roads crews are out doing signs over the last few days before changes - they try to leave as late as possible.

Thanks! They definitely have their work cut out for them this time with all the routes affected.

[Pantograf]

And don't forget that the pocket schedules don't usually come out till after the new sign up starts to give people as little time to prepare as possible... or none at all.

[Blake M]

On 11/13/2018 at 8:03 AM, Transit Fan said:

Anyone know when they typically update the signs at bus stops when there is a route revision?

Starting to see shelters and poles for stop signage go up along 17th Ave SE for the 87 and 155 but that's probably more due to the ongoing construction work there.

I haven't seen anything done for existing stops. Do they usually do it a day or two before? There's a lot of stops to go through this time.

The Friday before is usually when. Since there's so many though it may take till Saturday this time.

[downbeat]

From the news today … two diverging ideas for transit: Reduced capital spending but investments for operations. 

 

[chills_on_the_train]

Because I *never* need to wait two trains to be able to board NB at 7th St W as it is. 

[Blake M]

6 hours ago, chills_on_the_train said:

Because I *never* need to wait two trains to be able to board NB at 7th St W as it is. 

I'm just imaginaning what a nightmare City Hall EB during PM peak will be under this plan

[chills_on_the_train]

I might start walking to 4 St W.

[aroy40]

On 9/12/2018 at 5:20 PM, aroy40 said:

I can't lie and say I always made the earlier community bus I take (3:42 route 46 at 5579) but I'm fairly certain it never came into service at that stop (usually would be a 32 switching over) nor was it so full we left people at 5579 and skipped the next stop as well. Not sure if kids are getting off earlier or something changed with the school buses but I'm curious for sure.

So this is still an ongoing issue, to the point that yesterday was an overload with people left at 78th and the next stop skipped as well (and the next stop gets skipped pretty often). From what I can see routes 4 and 20 are packed with kids who then completely overtake the 46. I remember the 4 being pretty crowded but it was never this bad. Still curious to what might have changed.

[downbeat]

"Extra buses on the road" is new under the current situation, I think:

Transit 55 shows 14 actives buses for Route 1, which seems like the usual number at this hour. Would floaters/extras be visible in the T55 interface?

[R. Meu]

1 minute ago, downbeat said:

"Extra buses on the road" is new under the current situation, I think:

Transit 55 shows 14 actives buses for Route 1, which seems like the usual number at this hour. Would floaters/extras be visible in the T55 interface?

there were a few floaters on the MAX purple when i was by 17th a couple of hours ago (such as 7894 and one nova which I couldn't get the number). neither appeared on the tracker though.

[downbeat]

How would I identify a floater in service? Would there be an extra letter/number in the turn sign, for example?

[1604]

2 hours ago, downbeat said:

Would floaters/extras be visible in the T55 interface?

Unfortunately not - only buses logged in & with schedule attached show up online. It's also unfortunate because it means they won't appear on the real time signs at the MAX stations.

[R. Meu]

Just now, 1604 said:

Unfortunately not - only buses logged in & with schedule attached show up online. It's also unfortunate because it means they won't appear on the real time signs at the MAX stations.

Not only that, but you can't track C-Train shuttle buses for the same reason.

[downbeat]

2 hours ago, 1604 said:

Unfortunately not - only buses logged in & with schedule attached show up online.

Would they show up in the Transit/Calgary Transit apps, however?

[Gsgeek540]

13 hours ago, downbeat said:

Would they show up in the Transit/Calgary Transit apps, however?

Only regular scheduled blocks of work with a fixed schedule show up on real time sourced.

[Blake M]

Thought I'd just lay the idea out as a topic of discussion: 24 hour transit service. By means of regular routes, dedicated night routes, etc. I'm sure time and time again there have been proposals for this but it would be interesting to hear different perspectives from members of this group

[TimmyC62]

Here's a Calgary Herald article on it from 2015, with yours truly quoted: https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/late-night-calgary-buses-would-need-15-riders-per-hour-to-made-sense-calgary-transit

[yvarushin]

Interesting observation according to T55: All buses out today (but one) are XD40s. Not one shuttle either  

 

Merry XMAS everyone

[Gsgeek540]

2 hours ago, yvarushin said:

Not one shuttle either

Shuttle buses have not run for the last several years on Christmas as a result of language in the collective bargaining agreement

[Blake M]

6 hours ago, yvarushin said:

Interesting observation according to T55: All buses out today (but one) are XD40s. Not one shuttle either  

 

Merry XMAS everyone

In all, 8038, 8040, and 8071 came out on the 3. 

[GrandeWest_B35G]

21 minutes ago, Blake M said:

In all, 8038, 8040, and 8071 came out on the 3. 

I thought I saw one, but when I had looked earlier, all buses were XD40s

[R. Meu]

53 minutes ago, Jaymaud0804 said:

I thought I saw one, but when I had looked earlier, all buses were XD40s

They came out later during the day.

[downbeat]

On 11/5/2018 at 8:23 PM, downbeat said:

EDIT: Interestingly, the schedule shows some routes (6, 7, 24, 112, that I could see) now have a shorter service span, with their final departures leaving the core around 2:20 a.m. (Or is that an error of some kind?)

This New Year’s Eve weirdness just might be a quirk of the scheduling system.

If you use the apps, you’ll see the last departures of the 6, 7, 24, 112, 301, 302 and 307 are indeed at/around 3 a.m. Similarly, the EB 303 leaves Brentwood at 3 a.m.

If you use the timetables on Calgary Transit’s website for those routes, you’ll find the 3 a.m. departures listed as the first bus of Jan. 1, 2019.

Routes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are not affected because the core is at mid-point on the line at 3 a.m. (they leave their endpoints before 3 a.m.)

Route 306 is not affected because its last departure from both endpoints is also before 3 a.m. 

[downbeat]

Happy new year everybody!

Just had the pleasure of using Route 1 tonight/this morning and I am pleased to say the bus was well-patronized westbound leaving downtown/Kensington around 2 a.m. (Now, if only we could convince Transit to run extended late-night bus service more often than on NYE and sorta-kinda during Stampede!   )

2 of the 4 buses on Route 1 aren't properly showing on Transit55. 8216 and 8290 are clearly running on the route but they are shown as "off" on T55 and I couldn't see them in the Transit app either.

Similarly, 8288 is "off" but it appears to be running on one of the Centre Street North services.

8146 is "off" and shown on T55 as being driven about in the north. (A floater, I presume?) EDIT: Seeing where it is parked now, it looks like it is on Route 301.

Almost everything on the road this morning is a LFS or XD40 out of Spring Garden, except on Routes 24 and 112, which are using shuttles as you might expect.

Also: 1 of the 5 buses operating on 302 is a shuttle. From the blocks on T55, it'll be the 3 a.m. departure from the core.