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kevlo86

By kevlo86
in Calgary and Area

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downbeat

downbeat

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, D40LF said:

I imagine that a lot no longer get called in, unless the changed the interface and it is now easier to do it via CAD.

That doesn't sound helpful. How does Transit fix overload problems if operators can't easily report them?

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D40LF

D40LF

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, downbeat said:

That doesn't sound helpful. How does Transit fix overload problems if operators can't easily report them?

I hate to say it but when I was there I encountered ops who really did not care about anything. Customers, the buses, other ops.

When I was spare board I once went out of my way to report overcrowding on a school run, got called in and thought I was in trouble. They told me that I was the first op to report the issue (it was a few weeks after school had started). ?

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downbeat

downbeat

Posted
Posted

News from the city today about safety:

Quote

The City of Calgary announced today an immediate action plan to help address safety concerns on its Transit system, including a combination of increased public safety personnel on the system, and crime prevention through environmental design changes. This work is in addition to actions taken over the past year.

Full statement at https://newsroom.calgary.ca/the-city-of-calgary-announces-immediate-actions-to-make-transit-safer/

A CBC reporter on Twitter said the city will be spending $85 million on transit safety this year. That’s wild. Once all the issues are sorted, I hope some of that money gets funnelled back into providing service …

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1604

1604

Posted
Posted

https://newsroom.calgary.ca/calgary-transit-introduces-new-weekend-group-day-pass/

11 April 2023
Calgary Transit introduces new weekend group day pass

Beginning this weekend, Calgary Transit will be offering a new weekend group day pass for customers.

This new pass is targeted to groups and families traveling together, who don’t use transit regularly, but could benefit from discounted transit fares to attend events and activities on weekends. The price of the weekend group day pass is $15 and it is valid for unlimited travel on a weekend day for groups of up to five people including up to two adults.

“We know that for a lot of families or groups traveling together, the price to get around can really add up,” says Councillor Kourtney Penner. “This discounted fare will make it easier for them to choose transit to get where they’re going.”

The price of this pass offers savings versus the cost if the individuals were to buy single ride tickets or multiple day passes at the regular rates. And unlike a single ride ticket, the group pass is valid all day – until the end of service.

“There’s always so much happening in Calgary on weekends and this pass is a great opportunity for groups to save on regular transit costs, or on the cost and hassle of driving, parking and navigating through traffic,” Penner says.

After April 15, the weekend group day pass will be available every weekend on My Fare, the Transit trip planning app, or from ticket vending machines at CTrain stations.

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R. Meu

R. Meu

Posted
Posted

Another incident on a bus, this time a stabbing this morning at rundle.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/man-injured-in-stabbing-aboard-calgary-transit-bus-1.6354205?cid=sm:trueanthem:ctvcalgary:manualpost&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+New+Content+(Feed)&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR18xIpo9dtK3w0P93cFSkIjk1WH-X40H8rzI5aCp3Hmf1hWcg2UoIhAkIg&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

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downbeat

downbeat

Posted
Posted

Here's an unadvertised schedule change I've noticed starting Monday, May 15: MAX Orange has it p.m. peak period eastbound extended, with new departures from Brentwood at 5:06 and 5:29 p.m. These pass Centre Street at 5:30 and 5:52 p.m.

Has anyone else noticed anything else changing, starting on that date?

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1604

1604

Posted
Posted

1.thumb.jpg.79a59752ca13b3dcdbf8d8c15f2ac87a.jpg

Glad to see new decals going up on CTrains and buses prominently advertising the 74100 text line.

 

The real time sign at North Pointe is working(?) again. This afternoon it was displaying arrival times for the 738 and 739. 🤔

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BC_YYC

BC_YYC

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, 1604 said:

The real time sign at North Pointe is working(?) again. This afternoon it was displaying arrival times for the 738 and 739. 🤔

The real time sign isn't even accurate at North Pointe, on weekends it'll be displaying the 161 which obviously doesn't run weekends and the arrival ETA's are rarely accurate I once saw the board say the 421 was due in 14 minutes while the 421 was sitting there so it's a cool feature just not very helpful for its main purpose.

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1604

1604

Posted
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Some other info from the Fare Innovations report I found interesting:

 

Airport boarding pass for route 300 at the airport is recommended to be discontinued

"This pass was implemented when the Route 300 – Airport BRT was inaugurated on 2011 June 27. Initially, the airport boarding pass was introduced as the Route 300 was seen as an enhanced service targeted at air travellers. [...] Today, the improved route using 96 Avenue NE can better serve local trips and airport workers. . .

Calgary Transit has also heard from airport workers the airport boarding pass is an extra expense to them based on the location of their work. Because the airport boarding pass is only required at the two transit stops at the airport terminal, some workers are walking to the next closest transit stop on Barlow Trail NE.

Because the initial reasons for implementing the airport boarding pass (routing on Deerfoot Trail, enhanced service targeted at air travelers) have changed, the boarding pass no longer meets our guiding principles for our fare structure, use of the pass causes confusion for customers and exasperation for Calgary Transit operators, and to support mobility in the workforce (airport workers travelling to/from their jobs) Calgary Transit recommends discontinuing the airport boarding pass and accepting regular fares at all stops on Route 300."

 

Usage info on the new weekend group day pass

"On the first weekend, 112 passes were sold, on the weekend of April 22/23, 190 passes were sold, and on the weekend of April 29/30, 314 passes were sold. A marketing campaign is being developed by Calgary Transit to further promote the pass to customers and non-customers."

 

The report also discusses the idea of extending the free fare zone by 1-2 stations in each direction, coming to the conclusion it's not worth exploring further.

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Nick B

Nick B

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51 minutes ago, 1604 said:

Some other info from the Fare Innovations report I found interesting:

 

Airport boarding pass for route 300 at the airport is recommended to be discontinued

"This pass was implemented when the Route 300 – Airport BRT was inaugurated on 2011 June 27. Initially, the airport boarding pass was introduced as the Route 300 was seen as an enhanced service targeted at air travellers. [...] Today, the improved route using 96 Avenue NE can better serve local trips and airport workers. . .

Calgary Transit has also heard from airport workers the airport boarding pass is an extra expense to them based on the location of their work. Because the airport boarding pass is only required at the two transit stops at the airport terminal, some workers are walking to the next closest transit stop on Barlow Trail NE.

Because the initial reasons for implementing the airport boarding pass (routing on Deerfoot Trail, enhanced service targeted at air travelers) have changed, the boarding pass no longer meets our guiding principles for our fare structure, use of the pass causes confusion for customers and exasperation for Calgary Transit operators, and to support mobility in the workforce (airport workers travelling to/from their jobs) Calgary Transit recommends discontinuing the airport boarding pass and accepting regular fares at all stops on Route 300."

 

Usage info on the new weekend group day pass

"On the first weekend, 112 passes were sold, on the weekend of April 22/23, 190 passes were sold, and on the weekend of April 29/30, 314 passes were sold. A marketing campaign is being developed by Calgary Transit to further promote the pass to customers and non-customers."

 

The report also discusses the idea of extending the free fare zone by 1-2 stations in each direction, coming to the conclusion it's not worth exploring further.

Fantastic decision regarding the airport pass!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care what anyone says, the airport premium on the 300 made absolutely zero sense on every front possible. Who wants to pay $11.25 to sit on a bus for 35 minutes to downtown? It would at least make more sense had the 300 been more direct (i.e. Deerfoot nonstop Airport-Downtown) but otherwise, the route always offered little incentive over paying a regular fare and using the 100-Blue Line instead - some saved time for sure, but not enough to make the premium worth it. Doubling as a day pass is also useless... if I want a day pass, I'll buy a day pass. I don't need it included in the ticket every time. 

Expanding on that note though, one thing I will humbly admit is that since I live well over 90 minutes transit time from the airport (whether I use the 300 or not), I do use an Airport pass/day pass on MyFare every time I'm making a round trip to the airport for whatever reason on transit. Reason being is that it's easy to end up having to use 3 tickets on a round trip of this length and the pass costs only 45 cents more than 3 adult tickets, while saving the stress of worrying about the time limit expiring and having to log into the app in a potentially time critical situation. This isn't even limited to the airport for me too, since MyFare came online I've found myself doing this on most longer (i.e. SW-NE) transit round trips as well. I think that given the sheer size that Calgary has grown to and the resulting lengthy transit trips possible nowadays, they should really consider expanding the time limit on regular fares to 2 hours.

I'd love to see a free fare zone extension come to light as well! Would definitely be useful for the Stampede stations in particular.

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D40LF

D40LF

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, 1604 said:

Some other info from the Fare Innovations report I found interesting:

 

Airport boarding pass for route 300 at the airport is recommended to be discontinued

"This pass was implemented when the Route 300 – Airport BRT was inaugurated on 2011 June 27. Initially, the airport boarding pass was introduced as the Route 300 was seen as an enhanced service targeted at air travellers. [...] Today, the improved route using 96 Avenue NE can better serve local trips and airport workers. . .

Calgary Transit has also heard from airport workers the airport boarding pass is an extra expense to them based on the location of their work. Because the airport boarding pass is only required at the two transit stops at the airport terminal, some workers are walking to the next closest transit stop on Barlow Trail NE.

Because the initial reasons for implementing the airport boarding pass (routing on Deerfoot Trail, enhanced service targeted at air travelers) have changed, the boarding pass no longer meets our guiding principles for our fare structure, use of the pass causes confusion for customers and exasperation for Calgary Transit operators, and to support mobility in the workforce (airport workers travelling to/from their jobs) Calgary Transit recommends discontinuing the airport boarding pass and accepting regular fares at all stops on Route 300."

I signed the 300 a lot and used to see people hop on the 100 then get off at the stop just outside the airport to transfer to the 300. Of course tourists did not know about this trick but it shows how silly the plan was.

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BC_YYC

BC_YYC

Posted
Posted

Calgary Transit is once again having a Free Transit day on Saturday May 13th, this event is once again sponsored by the Dashmesh Culture Centre in celebration of the Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan parade, along with free transit from 7AM - 7PM charters will be running from various parts of the city to the Dashmesh Culture Centre

https://www.calgarytransit.com/content/transit/en/home/news/free-transit-this-saturday--may-13.html

image.png

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downbeat

downbeat

Posted
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I used public transit to get to Beacon Hill shopping centre for the first time on a weekend yesterday. Very pleased to report Route 129 was busy in both directions in various parts of the afternoon — full enough for standees. I know weekend service isn't at the top of the priority list at the moment but it would be cool if it were possible to bring the headways down to maybe 30 minutes, instead of 40, during business hours to support the people who work and shop there?

(And it wasn't a rush created by the special free transit service: everyone who boarded tried to pay cash or scan their app, and people with physical bus passes flashed them at the driver.)

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BC_YYC

BC_YYC

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Calgary Transit was free yesterday from 7 AM to 7 PM for the Nagar Kirtan Parade. This event was sponsored by the Dashmesh Culture Centre along with free transit the DCC also paid for multiple charters, I decided to check out some of the charters as I was interested to see what kind of ridership they got and I can say it was more then expected the morning was very tame as all the charters ran mostly on time with decent ridership. The afternoon was a terribly different story with almost every single charter & public route servicing the area nearby being extremely late and over crowded. Most of the charters didn't start showing up till over 30 minutes past their scheduled times, with some not showing up until over an hour after their scheduled times, on top of the very late arrivals of the charters they were all overcrowded to the door most even leaving people behind left to wait for another bus to show up.

The communication throughout the afternoon was also a massive failure, even with supervisors on scene nobody had any clue when the charters were showing up. The Call Centre had even less idea of what was happening as when I called they had no idea what the 514 (the Panorama/North Pointe - DCC charter) was and had to look up a schedule and map which failed to provide even the first stop that the route served. The communication of what bus was serving what route was also next to non existent with the most being the route number in the key box which lead to most people just asking the driver because they couldn't even have a yellow card on the windshield, CT should have planned ahead and had programming for each individual charter route to minimize confusion and lower the distraction on the driver.


It wasn't just buses in the NE that struggled the LRT was a major issue too with delays of up to 15 - 20 minutes and leaving people behind due to trains being overfilled, because CT again failed to plan ahead and put extras on the Blue Line or even the bare minimum of 4 car sets. 

Calgary Transit has to step it up this is a yearly event and I would hate to see them have a repeat of this year next year. 

I have attached multiple images that show buses being loaded to the doors and a next train arrival display displaying the next Saddletowne train to arrive at the station is in 30 minutes.

343822601_5430094500427438_8074051746548709615_n.jpg

8243-555.jpg

8279-521ridershipa.jpg

8285-560ridership.jpg

8246.jpg

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R. Meu

R. Meu

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, downbeat said:

I used public transit to get to Beacon Hill shopping centre for the first time on a weekend yesterday. Very pleased to report Route 129 was busy in both directions in various parts of the afternoon — full enough for standees. I know weekend service isn't at the top of the priority list at the moment but it would be cool if it were possible to bring the headways down to maybe 30 minutes, instead of 40, during business hours to support the people who work and shop there?

(And it wasn't a rush created by the special free transit service: everyone who boarded tried to pay cash or scan their app, and people with physical bus passes flashed them at the driver.)

I remember taking the 129 not too long ago either - I think it was a couple weekends ago, and I can attest to how busy it is for both Saturday and Sunday (yet Sunday its shuttle lol). The fact it is still 40 minutes on weekends for it is pretty bad, but it speaks volumes to a greater problem that I've been saying for a few years (which cannot be fully blamed on covid) - Weekend service at this time is in a very ill and extremely weak state when it comes to service frequency + service span city wide.

 

Every weekend I've been seeing all sorts of the system from using it, whether it be the overcrowds on the Centre Street corridor regarding the 3/300/301 and having 20/30/21 minute frequency (respectively) is a total letdown, and you could say the same with the MAX Orange, 1, 23, and 43 and beyond. I cannot stress how frustrating it is with these odd (and most importantly low) frequencies that are really plaguing the state of weekend service when it comes to connections, comfort, and usability (a lot of times, you're better off walking if you miss a feeder or even something like the 4/5 and you'll get to your destination faster). I hope that this starts to change at least by September, because there really shouldn't be more excuses to see how slow and unresponsive it's been to get service back to where it once was on weekends (and to an extent on a lot of things on weekdays too), and plus COVID cannot be fully blamed for this state because some of these changes were done in 2019 and prior to that. If this stuff continues, this can seriously damage prospects for increasing ridership.

 

1 hour ago, BC_YYC said:

Calgary Transit was free yesterday from 7 AM to 7 PM for the Nagar Kirtan Parade. This event was sponsored by the Dashmesh Culture Centre along with free transit the DCC also paid for multiple charters, I decided to check out some of the charters as I was interested to see what kind of ridership they got and I can say it was more then expected the morning was very tame as all the charters ran mostly on time with decent ridership. The afternoon was a terribly different story with almost every single charter & public route servicing the area nearby being extremely late and over crowded. Most of the charters didn't start showing up till over 30 minutes past their scheduled times, with some not showing up until over an hour after their scheduled times, on top of the very late arrivals of the charters they were all overcrowded to the door most even leaving people behind left to wait for another bus to show up.

The communication throughout the afternoon was also a massive failure, even with supervisors on scene nobody had any clue when the charters were showing up. The Call Centre had even less idea of what was happening as when I called they had no idea what the 514 (the Panorama/North Pointe - DCC charter) was and had to look up a schedule and map which failed to provide even the first stop that the route served. The communication of what bus was serving what route was also next to non existent with the most being the route number in the key box which lead to most people just asking the driver because they couldn't even have a yellow card on the windshield, CT should have planned ahead and had programming for each individual charter route to minimize confusion and lower the distraction on the driver.


It wasn't just buses in the NE that struggled the LRT was a major issue too with delays of up to 15 - 20 minutes and leaving people behind due to trains being overfilled, because CT again failed to plan ahead and put extras on the Blue Line or even the bare minimum of 4 car sets. 

Calgary Transit has to step it up this is a yearly event and I would hate to see them have a repeat of this year next year. 

I have attached multiple images that show buses being loaded to the doors and a next train arrival display displaying the next Saddletowne train to arrive at the station is in 30 minutes.

You know, it brings me back to a point as I mentioned above with the gong show it was during Nagar Kirtan regarding service in general - if there's any major delays in the system at this time (especially on a weekend), the whole thing just falls apart and doesn't work because that one bus or a few keys is literally the only service a route would get in that regard. Here's an example that isn't directly related to the NE service during the parade, but something also I saw this weekend: the construction and closures on 5th Ave downtown this weekend absolutely destroyed the schedule adherence for anything running in that area, and lots of confusion among passengers and to an extent even drivers in that regard. It blows when communication is weak.

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PartiallySD

PartiallySD

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, BC_YYC said:

Calgary Transit was free yesterday from 7 AM to 7 PM for the Nagar Kirtan Parade. This event was sponsored by the Dashmesh Culture Centre along with free transit the DCC also paid for multiple charters, I decided to check out some of the charters as I was interested to see what kind of ridership they got and I can say it was more then expected the morning was very tame as all the charters ran mostly on time with decent ridership. The afternoon was a terribly different story with almost every single charter & public route servicing the area nearby being extremely late and over crowded. Most of the charters didn't start showing up till over 30 minutes past their scheduled times, with some not showing up until over an hour after their scheduled times, on top of the very late arrivals of the charters they were all overcrowded to the door most even leaving people behind left to wait for another bus to show up.

The communication throughout the afternoon was also a massive failure, even with supervisors on scene nobody had any clue when the charters were showing up. The Call Centre had even less idea of what was happening as when I called they had no idea what the 514 (the Panorama/North Pointe - DCC charter) was and had to look up a schedule and map which failed to provide even the first stop that the route served. The communication of what bus was serving what route was also next to non existent with the most being the route number in the key box which lead to most people just asking the driver because they couldn't even have a yellow card on the windshield, CT should have planned ahead and had programming for each individual charter route to minimize confusion and lower the distraction on the driver.


It wasn't just buses in the NE that struggled the LRT was a major issue too with delays of up to 15 - 20 minutes and leaving people behind due to trains being overfilled, because CT again failed to plan ahead and put extras on the Blue Line or even the bare minimum of 4 car sets. 

Calgary Transit has to step it up this is a yearly event and I would hate to see them have a repeat of this year next year. 

I have attached multiple images that show buses being loaded to the doors and a next train arrival display displaying the next Saddletowne train to arrive at the station is in 30 minutes.

343822601_5430094500427438_8074051746548709615_n.jpg

8243-555.jpg

8279-521ridershipa.jpg

8285-560ridership.jpg

8246.jpg

I’ll follow up on this with my experience there with @BC_YYC. We arrived at McKnight on an already crowded train with PM riders leaving the core to a completely full, jam packed platform, peace officers and transit security present. The platform was quite literally full to the point that they prevented people from entering at points. Trains were doing the typical “hold, board, wait for clearance, go” as they would similarly do at Stampede, but the schedules were not adjusted to provide compensation for this.

We wandered for several minutes to no avail, completely unable to find the pickup point of the 500 routes. There was no signage, no officers or supervisors providing live directions, or anything to remotely indicate the location of this pickup. We eventually found the stop, clearly not having been served for several minutes as seen by the massive crowd present.

7C71B639-750C-4CEA-9C20-FAD883F8FA8E.thumb.jpeg.c56a93332dfcb13599f023ebf9ebb3a0.jpeg
 

It was clearly also misjudged by the Calgary Police how severe traffic would be departing the event, as the entirety of the mid NE was completely gridlocked, with officers scrambling to regain traffic control at several intersections. This led to our already massively late bus taking upwards of a half hour to even cross the airport, let alone get to North Pointe.

No mistake should be made, it was clear that attendance was going to be incredibly high for this parade. It was similar in scale to the Stampede parade, and yet the treatment or preparation for it was far from equal, instead leaving a sour taste to the end of a beautiful event. It seems like common sense was lacking in so many ways.

- Why were no 4 car sets running despite transit knowing that the event was large scale enough to send transit peace officers for crowd control?

- Vis a vis for extras

- Why were artics not seen as a necessity for the event, considering how many people they would need to move in the course of 4 hours?

- Why were buses not staged within Castleridge and Martindale, instead having to travel through the gridlock in the NE?

- Why was clear and concise signage on stops and buses, and maps not available for riders, especially a group of riders who’s primary language may not be English or whom may not speak English at all? These riders may be possibly relying on simply a number or a neighborhood name, and even that is apparently a chore to provide.

Saturday was by far the most massive logistics failure I’ve seen a transit agency make for an event, stranding customers for hours and losing faith of a large population of riders during what should’ve been a simple and minimally troubling event. This is a massive embarrassment for Calgary Transit and should be seen as such.

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