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kevlo86

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I was planning on using the 1 to go eastbound last night, but nothing showed up when texting the stop number or when going through the main schedule - the late night runs only showed up in the planned schedule if I clicked through the link on the holiday service page. 

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Yes, I also noticed the limitations of looking up schedules on their website. Because it was technically already January 1, it wouldn't show you anything relating to late-night service on Dec. 31. (Good trick with the direct link, however. A cool workaround — but probably too much work for most people.) Happily the schedules on the mobile app seemed to be working just fine.

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On 1/1/2019 at 2:38 PM, TimmyC62 said:

I was planning on using the 1 to go eastbound last night, but nothing showed up when texting the stop number or when going through the main schedule - the late night runs only showed up in the planned schedule if I clicked through the link on the holiday service page. 

transit55.ca  would have been my answer to find out when the next route 1 is coming.

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33 minutes ago, BCT-3122-D800-10240 said:

transit55.ca  would have been my answer to find out when the next route 1 is coming.

But as I mentioned earlier, only 2 of 4 buses running on the line were listed as Route 1. I made a guess on the other two — and guessed right. 

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1 hour ago, BCT-3122-D800-10240 said:

transit55.ca  would have been my answer to find out when the next route 1 is coming.

Was trying to keep my data use to a minimum! 

 

Which, incidentally, makes me mildly irritated at the lack of a route number on the MAX stops - Teletext doesn't understand MO/MP/MT, and you have to text 30X. But since the 30X numbers are not advertised anywhere, I would think most users wouldn't know which number to use.

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Transit55 is an unbelievably useful tool. I honestly wish the CT website and/or app had some of its features. A lot of it is probably too much info for the average person but there's definitely parts of it that I think people would find useful.

  • The route overview is super handy for getting a sense of how many buses are currently on my route, how on-time they are, what kind of buses are being used and the map view shows roughly where they all are at a given time (taking the 1-2 minute delay into account).
  • The citywide live map easily tracks multiple buses which is handy if you've got to make transfers or have the option to take multiple buses. Having a visual representation on a map is often more intuitive than just relying on the estimated arrival times. Imagine if they had something like this on a display at LRT stations and major bus terminals.
  • Block explorer probably falls into the "too much info" category but I love using it for seeing how the schedule is laid out over the entire day, how much scheduled slack time there is at end points and if there is any interlining going on.
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On 1/2/2019 at 7:58 PM, Jaymaud0804 said:

I've been able to use it successfully by connecting to various open wifi networks

I just measured it now. It only used 255 kB of data this time to check the position of Route 1 buses in map view. (I’ve seen it a bit higher and lower than that.) So it should work even under less-than-ideal network conditions, and saves data too!

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Route 1 and Max Purple schedule tweaks start today. Extra bus added to the 1 which should help with schedule adherence. No such luxury for the Max Purple though.

Speaking of which, saw around 7-8 people waiting at East Hills yesterday afternoon which was nice to see. That stop behind the Walmart could use some benches or a shelter. People were standing around with their shopping bags. A few were using shopping carts as seats.

Unfortunately, weekend schedule adherence is just downright bad. If Transit55 was accurate, it would appear that one of the MP's became so late on Saturday afternoon that it eventually got itself on time again after being behind by 60 minutes (one round trip). Then proceeded to be late again until end of service that night.

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Route 1 seemed to be in good shape today. As per schedule, the Max Purple I was waiting for arrived at 1 St SW and pretty much needed to leave right away after everyone boarded at about 4:30.

However, just because buses are running "on-time", i'm hoping that doesn't mean they can ignore the very obvious signal issues. Spent 2-3 minutes at 26th St this morning and then over 3 minutes at 19th St in the afternoon.

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54 minutes ago, Transit Fan said:

Route 1 seemed to be in good shape today. As per schedule, the Max Purple I was waiting for arrived at 1 St SW and pretty much needed to leave right away after everyone boarded at about 4:30.

However, just because buses are running "on-time", i'm hoping that doesn't mean they can ignore the very obvious signal issues. Spent 2-3 minutes at 26th St this morning and then over 3 minutes at 19th St in the afternoon.

How long do you think it'll take for CT to get that sorted out (or at least get them a few minutes early so the delays make them on time)?

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One thing at a time, I suppose … 

I am very glad they added a bus to attempt to address schedule adherence issues. I will get to try this out for myself tomorrow.

Far too often since Nov. 19, I’ve waited ~30 minutes midday and 40+ minutes late at night for a Route 1 bus. Those are unacceptably long headways for a mainline bus service. If I sped walked, I could get most of the way to my destination(s) in that time. (As an aside: I once waited an hour for a Route 1 bus late at night on a weekend last summer but that was a one-off, as opposed to the current situation, where I feel I have to mentally prepare for a very long wait every time I use it.)

Waiting a few minutes at a red light is a relatively more tolerable problem than losing an entire service interval — but it shouldn’t be happening. I do hope the signal timing issues will be addressed in short order. The whole point of a transitway is to skip traffic and speed things up.

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11 hours ago, Jaymaud0804 said:

How long do you think it'll take for CT to get that sorted out (or at least get them a few minutes early so the delays make them on time)?

Back in December, I got a callback from a 311 request I made regarding the signals. From what I understand (and someone correct me if i'm wrong), signal timing is out of the hands of transit and is ultimately, down to the traffic signals team to modify. I'm sure transit has been collaborating with them but at the end of the day, there's only so much that transit can do since the signal timing affects all forms of traffic (cars, pedestrians and the buses on the transitway). Padding out the schedule with extra time is probably the best they can do until it's fixed.

For what it's worth, I tried the 1 this morning and it actually arrived downtown 5 minutes early (7:22 vs 7:27). We arrived at 26th St when 26th St traffic's green phase was just ending. Then at 19th street, an EB Max Purple had already triggered the sensor and the transit light was already green by the time we got to the intersection so there wasn't even a wait at all. Interesting to note that the time we arrived at today would've been the scheduled arrival time last week. Had we gotten an unfavourable timing at those two intersections, those 5 minutes would've easily been eaten up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This seems very odd, but on the 111 for the past two days, on the same block, both 8230 (today) and 8242 (yesterday) were not travelling on the planned route and instead went on a different route.  I've attatched an image.  The black pen is the actual 111 route and the red pen is the route the bus today and yesterday took.

wtf.PNG

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31 minutes ago, TechSpotlight said:

This seems very odd, but on the 111 for the past two days, on the same block, both 8230 (today) and 8242 (yesterday) were not travelling on the planned route and instead went on a different route.  I've attatched an image.  The black pen is the actual 111 route and the red pen is the route the bus today and yesterday took.

wtf.PNG

Snow clearing, maybe construction (water main break, etc.)?

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  • 2 weeks later...

So one of the buses on Route 1 is operating almost an hour late at the moment, if Transit55 is to be believed. 

Would it be feasible for a controller to have ordered this bus to short turn at some point earlier today, to minimize the number of people subject to extreme lateness? Or would there conceivably be a rescue floater out there to fill the service gap, which doesn’t look as if it will be made up?

3C43C716-3313-453F-A238-10401F11B657.jpeg

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  • 3 weeks later...

I enjoyed a rather wild, slip-slidey ride to Crowfoot station this morning on the 138. Driver didn't seem to realize he was driving in winter conditions. As we came into the loop at the station the bus slid and hopped the curb, nearly nailing the fence.

Always blows my mind a bit that someone who is a professional driver is incapable of exercising basic winter driving skills. Does CT deliver any kind of winter-driving training?

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3 hours ago, chills_on_the_train said:

I enjoyed a rather wild, slip-slidey ride to Crowfoot station this morning on the 138. Driver didn't seem to realize he was driving in winter conditions. As we came into the loop at the station the bus slid and hopped the curb, nearly nailing the fence.

Always blows my mind a bit that someone who is a professional driver is incapable of exercising basic winter driving skills. Does CT deliver any kind of winter-driving training?

You should call in a complaint to 262-1000. Then there’s at least a chance someone follows up with the operator. 

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6 hours ago, chills_on_the_train said:

I enjoyed a rather wild, slip-slidey ride to Crowfoot station this morning on the 138. Driver didn't seem to realize he was driving in winter conditions. As we came into the loop at the station the bus slid and hopped the curb, nearly nailing the fence.

Always blows my mind a bit that someone who is a professional driver is incapable of exercising basic winter driving skills. Does CT deliver any kind of winter-driving training?

Boo. That’s half assed....our drivers finish the job:

BBBCDC13-CC1A-4280-A897-AE3F894926D5.thumb.jpeg.3b5baffc478823e935895b7a93144171.jpeg

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