Calgary Transit

[downbeat]

2 hours ago, D40LF said:

Operators are told in training that when they are using the bus, or train, to get to a start point for their shift they should use the service before the one that would get them there on time. That way if there are any issues they have some extra time. Even after leaving transit I still used this approach to ensure that I reached my destination in time, after all it is better to wait at the end than it is to arrive late!

Yes, this is good advice. As a transit user, I follow this all the time.

But we were talking about connections and compensating for delays that happen despite a rider’s (and Transit’s) best intentions and best planning.

Maybe you’re at work and something has happened and you can’t leave as early as you wanted, or your bus got stuck in traffic, or there’s a delay on the train, or whatever, any plans will go out the window. If the bus you’ve **just** missed because of this is only running every 30-45 minutes or something like that, that a lot of buffer for missed connections — an extra hour or more of contingency time for a return trip. I think that’s way too much of an extra allowance for most people. 

[downbeat]

Transit has posted its service information for the Stampede: https://www.calgarytransit.com/content/transit/en/home/news/stampede-101.html

Notably:

• There will be a post-parade shuttle bus service, Route 501, from downtown to Stampede/Erlton. The route will run on the 7th Avenue transit mall for a small stretch with stops at The CORE Shopping Centre (Route 3 NB stop), EB outside Hudson's Bay, and SB at the convention centre.
• There are PDF maps to go with the list of bus detours on parade day.
• As is Transit's custom, there is no mention of supplemental bus service on regular routes on the morning of the parade, nor is there mention of extended late-night bus service on some routes all through Stampede.
• Unlike last year, Route 507 (S.E. Express) information is available in online schedules.

[D40LF]

3 hours ago, downbeat said:

Yes, this is good advice. As a transit user, I follow this all the time.

But we were talking about connections and compensating for delays that happen despite a rider’s (and Transit’s) best intentions and best planning.

Maybe you’re at work and something has happened and you can’t leave as early as you wanted, or your bus got stuck in traffic, or there’s a delay on the train, or whatever, any plans will go out the window. If the bus you’ve **just** missed because of this is only running every 30-45 minutes or something like that, that a lot of buffer for missed connections — an extra hour or more of contingency time for a return trip. I think that’s way too much of an extra allowance for most people. 

Then just do what most operators normally and drive your car!

But seriously I did find the timings of some of the routes to be off and I often wondered if those who came up with the scheduling ever actually rode the bus! What transit actually want is for passengers to ask the drivers to call ahead and hold the bus the passenger wants to transfer to. Before CAD we would just pick up the radio and call the other bus but the caveat was that the other bus needed to be on the same channel. After CAD they wanted the operator to pull up the CAD menu, scroll through and select a sub-menu, scroll through to another sub-menu select 'transfer request' and enter the information for the required bus. Of course this all took time and with CAD being so slow it could not be done even at traffic lights so the poor passengers would miss their connection or the first bus would sit blocking traffic becoming even later while the operator messed around with the screen!

[Hypn0tized]

On 6/24/2023 at 3:09 PM, TimmyC62 said:

Well that's the big qualifier, isn't it? Add to that one that actually fits your appointment schedule!

I meant that maybe lookup the schedule and find a key on the 9 that is supposed to come around the same time as the 1 at Parkdale and 29 eastbound. It's a timepoint for both routes. There are different headways throughout the day. At certain times we're talking a minute or two minutes wait for example like midday. Schedules keep getting changed and Routes keep having their time cut. This may not always work but there are times it will. 

On 6/25/2023 at 1:41 PM, D40LF said:

Then just do what most operators normally and drive your car!

But seriously I did find the timings of some of the routes to be off and I often wondered if those who came up with the scheduling ever actually rode the bus! What transit actually want is for passengers to ask the drivers to call ahead and hold the bus the passenger wants to transfer to. Before CAD we would just pick up the radio and call the other bus but the caveat was that the other bus needed to be on the same channel. After CAD they wanted the operator to pull up the CAD menu, scroll through and select a sub-menu, scroll through to another sub-menu select 'transfer request' and enter the information for the required bus. Of course this all took time and with CAD being so slow it could not be done even at traffic lights so the poor passengers would miss their connection or the first bus would sit blocking traffic becoming even later while the operator messed around with the screen!

The request transfer feature was shown in CAD training something 10-11 years ago when CAD first came out. Even then, our trainer told us that this feature is not hooked up and likely never will be.

[thatONEtransitfan8]

Hey do you guys remember those transit ettiquitte advertisements such as fareless frog or blocking bunny? I wonder if they will ever put them back on the transit vehicles or if they make new ones.

[TimmyC62]

30 minutes ago, thatONEtransitfan8 said:

Hey do you guys remember those transit ettiquitte advertisements such as fareless frog or blocking bunny? I wonder if they will ever put them back on the transit vehicles or if they make new ones.

No answer to the question, but in case you're not aware, they were "borrowed" from Translink in Vancouver, which had illustrator Ed Spence produce them as part of their "Pet Peeves" series in 2011 and was adopted as a formal campaign in Spring 2013. That summer, CT adopted it: https://web.archive.org/web/20130613124354/http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/etiquette.html

[D40LF]

9 hours ago, Hypn0tized said:

The request transfer feature was shown in CAD training something 10-11 years ago when CAD first came out. Even then, our trainer told us that this feature is not hooked up and likely never will be.

Interesting as my class were never told it was not hooked up. I can remember trying to use it once but by the time I got to the screen the traffic light turned green.

[Gsgeek540]

13 hours ago, Hypn0tized said:

The request transfer feature was shown in CAD training something 10-11 years ago when CAD first came out. Even then, our trainer told us that this feature is not hooked up and likely never will be.

There are a number of features on CAD from both an operators perspective at the back office perspective (controllers) that the city did not invest to be active. When I was trained for the back office portion, I think they said that we only purchased about 35 to 40% of what orbCAD is actually capable of. There is a lot of back office stuff missing that would remove a lot of redundancies.

[D40LF]

5 hours ago, Gsgeek540 said:

There are a number of features on CAD from both an operators perspective at the back office perspective (controllers) that the city did not invest to be active. When I was trained for the back office portion, I think they said that we only purchased about 35 to 40% of what orbCAD is actually capable of. There is a lot of back office stuff missing that would remove a lot of redundancies.

Why am I not surprised.

I can remember being told in training about all the wonderful things CAD will do, but in reality all it seemed to be used for was logging in, tracking location, showing the paddle, and messing up the destination sign!

[thatONEtransitfan8]

16 hours ago, TimmyC62 said:

No answer to the question, but in case you're not aware, they were "borrowed" from Translink in Vancouver, which had illustrator Ed Spence produce them as part of their "Pet Peeves" series in 2011 and was adopted as a formal campaign in Spring 2013. That summer, CT adopted it: https://web.archive.org/web/20130613124354/http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/etiquette.html

Oh i never knew that!! I thought calgary just made them

[downbeat]

Some of Calgary Transit's current courtesy tweets are also borrowed from other transit agencies, if I'm not mistaken?

 

[vicinity]

https://www.calgarytransit.com/content/transit/en/home/news/canada-day-service-2023.html
 

Some bonus service on Canada day in the core.

[downbeat]

8 hours ago, vicinity said:

https://www.calgarytransit.com/content/transit/en/home/news/canada-day-service-2023.html
 

Some bonus service on Canada day in the core.

This is a legit awesome change!

[downbeat]

Naturally, when they do cool things like this, it's super difficult to learn about it. These extra departures don't show in the Transit app, in trip planning or on the Calgary Transit website's online schedules.

To make up for this, I do hope they actually advertise this loudly on social media and elsewhere. 

[TimmyC62]

On 6/28/2023 at 8:50 AM, downbeat said:

Naturally, when they do cool things like this, it's super difficult to learn about it. These extra departures don't show in the Transit app, in trip planning or on the Calgary Transit website's online schedules.

To make up for this, I do hope they actually advertise this loudly on social media and elsewhere. 

So I wouldn't call one tweet "loudly", but they are starting to mention it. Of course, instead of linking to the actual Canada Day page, they just link to the generic service updates page:

 

[downbeat]

Baby steps … 

[TimmyC62]

Some years in the near future: "Is this where I catch the Green Line?"

[BC_YYC]

On 6/29/2023 at 3:00 PM, TimmyC62 said:

So I wouldn't call one tweet "loudly", but they are starting to mention it. Of course, instead of linking to the actual Canada Day page, they just link to the generic service updates page:

 

Unfortunately I don't believe their advertising was enough the floaters leaving 3rd street and 7th Avenue were mostly empty except the 302 which I rode and there was only 1 other person on the bus. 

[downbeat]

1 hour ago, BC_YYC said:

Unfortunately I don't believe their advertising was enough the floaters leaving 3rd street and 7th Avenue were mostly empty except the 302 which I rode and there was only 1 other person on the bus. 

I was on the #1 with one other person; I saw the #6 with several people on board. 

It really hurts that these trips weren't listed in the app, not on the schedules and not possible to plan in the trip planner. I wonder why they couldn't have added a alert on the line in the Transit app?

The list of departures was buried deep at the end of their Canada Day page, which leads off with a warning that there's only Sunday service today.

In the case of the #1, the extra departure might have been busier were it not for the fact that the previous two departures were extremely late. The 11:45 p.m. departure for the #1 from the 5 Ave x 2 St time point got there sometime after 12:10 a.m. (The extra arrived about 10 minutes later.)

As for trains, I observed City Hall station for a bit before heading home. Very busy with lots of peace officers doing crowd control and traffic control. Lots of idiot car drivers thoughtlessly driving through the busy intersection by the library and waiting on the tracks. *facepalm*  They had to be shooed off the tracks by bylaw folks.

I'm not sure this reply from Transit's social media team is 100% correct. There were instances where Red Line trains were arriving almost back-to-back so unless the controllers deliberately held trains back, I think there actually were extras. (The headways between those pairs didn't feel super-long.)  I even saw at least one 4-car train and a U2 consist as well, which seemed unusual for a weekend. I didn't notice any apparent extras for the Blue Line although it's possible I missed this.

[Transit Fan]

It really baffles me that in 2023, we're somehow not able to push these kind schedule adjustments on the fly immediately. Them tweeting out the completely wrong link which mentioned nothing about the extra service wasn't very helpful either. I'm glad some of you had the chance to make use of the extra trips but it's not overly surprising that it was a mostly a bust in terms of ridership. I sure hope the takeaway for the folks over at Calgary Transit isn't that there is little to no demand for extra services after events like this.

One interesting thing to note is that from a quick glance at the Sunday schedules for the downtown routes, 4 of the ones that had the extra 12:20am trip would've ended their regular service many hours earlier. The last outbound departure from their main time point in downtown:

• 24 - 9:52pm
• 302 - 10:06pm
• MY - 10:25pm
• MP - 9:45pm

If you were someone that maybe uses transit infreqeuntly and wanted to watch the fireworks, do you trust that you'll actually be able to get back home given that no apps, schedules or trip planners list this as a method of returning home? The only indication that the extra trip exists is one bullet point on the Canada Day service page. If it's wrong, you're potentially taking a pricey taxi or ridershare back home.

[downbeat]

2 hours ago, Transit Fan said:

I sure hope the takeaway for the folks over at Calgary Transit isn't that there is little to no demand for extra services after events like this.

Completely agree. At best (and this isn't actually good) it seems as if some people at Calgary Transit don't know how to fully harness the tech at their disposal and make info like this conveniently available for riders. At worst (and I hope this is just my imagination gone wild) they are trying to tank their own service offering to justify not doing it again.

On top of that: Twitter is a terrible way to reach passengers. Twitter's usefulness is limited at the best of times, given it poor reach among the general population. Its utility was hindered even more yesterday due to tweet viewing limits imposed by the company for reasons stated or otherwise.

The train was very well-used at least. It took several passes to clear the platforms at City Hall and some Red Line trains were arriving from the south fully loaded — I presume due to people watching closer to Stampede Park. Difference of course is people know the trains run late enough all the time. There is no adjustment of expectations required.

[Gsgeek540]

9 hours ago, downbeat said:

It really hurts that these trips weren't listed in the app, not on the schedules and not possible to plan in the trip planner. I wonder why they couldn't have added a alert on the line in the Transit app?

They were not officially scheduled runs. My understanding is that floater buses were offered for Canada Day within the last week. A discussion on how best to use those floster buses, based on past yesrs, resulted in having them leave on downtown routes at 24:20, much like you’d see on the 24:20 signal trip. Everything for that was essentially hand written by 1 employee, who has seen subpar Canada Day service in the past late at night, bless their heart, hense why the only time listed is 24:20 where they start and where they end. All buses were assigned the route, start location and told to leave at 12:20. There was nothing official about it.

 

If not for this, these buses would have sat around incase needed.

 

Keep in mind, this years fireworks are different then the past. It was supposed to be a pyrotechnics show at Fort Calgary with fireworks cancelled. After an outcry, the city reached out to stampede and managed to get access to a days worth of fireworks (i have heard the fireworks for the sneek a peek grandstand show rehersal) for Canada Day. With that being said, the changes in ridership patterns, with fireworks from stampede instead of the usual downtown, were uncertain.

[downbeat]

18 minutes ago, Gsgeek540 said:

They were not officially scheduled runs. My understanding is that floater buses were offered for Canada Day within the last week. A discussion on how best to use those floster buses, based on past yesrs, resulted in having them leave on downtown routes at 24:20, much like you’d see on the 24:20 signal trip. Everything for that was essentially hand written by 1 employee, who has seen subpar Canada Day service in the past late at night, bless their heart, hense why the only time listed is 24:20 where they start and where they end. All buses were assigned the route, start location and told to leave at 12:20. There was nothing official about it.

Well many thanks to that person at Transit for organizing this initiative. For all my criticism above, I really do appreciate the additional service as a person who likes to take in Canada Day festivities whenever it's possible.

Hopefully next year, proper Canada Day service can be arranged ahead of time and not be a last-minute, ad hoc affair — and not just at night. There's stuff going on all day downtown and elsewhere at private and public venues. Perhaps trains could run more often than every 15 minutes and there could be service adjustments/service additions/official accommodations for the traffic s---show around Fort Calgary, day and night. (There were people complaining to Transit on Twitter about having to wait one hour for Route 1 yesterday, for example.)

[downbeat]

3 hours ago, Transit Fan said:

One interesting thing to note is that from a quick glance at the Sunday schedules for the downtown routes, 4 of the ones that had the extra 12:20am trip would've ended their regular service many hours earlier.

You make me think of this reply to Transit on Twitter:

 

[BC_YYC]

1 hour ago, Gsgeek540 said:

They were not officially scheduled runs. My understanding is that floater buses were offered for Canada Day within the last week. A discussion on how best to use those floster buses, based on past yesrs, resulted in having them leave on downtown routes at 24:20, much like you’d see on the 24:20 signal trip.

These were treated exactly like a 24:20 signal trip because the operators were informed not to leave their start point until a CAD message was sent which was sent at around 24:21 from what I observed. I also observed something interesting about the key number, the 302 was 928-133 which I've never actually observed a 133 key being used by a Calgary Transit bus.