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Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: August 13th, 2016, 2:15 pm
by intercomnut
MVTA starts the newest version of the Suburb to Suburb demonstration project with Route 495. It will provide hourly service between MOA, Burnsville Transit Station, and Marschall Road Transit Station in Shakopee from 4am to midnight 7 days per week.

Three trips per day will also stop at Amazon's building, timed to coincide with their employees' shift changes.

MVTA's press release is here and the schedule is here.

I also recall that SouthWest Transit was planning to have their on-demand mini bus service have 1 or 2 scheduled runs from SouthWest station in Eden Prairie to Marschall Road Transit Station to feed route 495, but I'm not sure if that's actually going to happen.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: August 13th, 2016, 4:34 pm
by Tcmetro
Seems like an added stop at Cedar Grove would eliminate the need for the 491 and 492 from doing that ridiculous deviation between Minneapolis and Shakopee. Other than that, I hope this new service is successful.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: August 13th, 2016, 4:58 pm
by DanPatchToget
On the map it shows the Blue Line as Route 55. I really hope the pocket schedule/maps don't have it like that or people will definitely get confused.

I'm hoping this is successful but I won't get my hopes up. The Mall of America has good transit connections to various destinations and many jobs nearby, Burnsville Transit Station has decent transit connections and Heart of the City is nearby, but Marschall Road Transit Station doesn't have anything surrounding it except single family homes and the only transit connection people would likely use is the Shakopee local routes.

What happens if this fails? Will they be out of funding to try something else?

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: August 13th, 2016, 5:07 pm
by intercomnut
They have $1.8 million left of the $2 million the legislature gave them. Not sure how expensive this service is though.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: September 23rd, 2016, 8:25 pm
by intercomnut
SouthWest Transit is suspending its service to Target's Brooklyn Park Campus. It's seen consistently low ridership, even with increased trips, and has a subsidy above the Met Council's limit for an express route.

Also, route 495 (Shakopee to MOA) had more ridership in its first 10 days (957) than route 494 had in its entire two-month trial (856) according to MVTA.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: September 23rd, 2016, 9:06 pm
by Silophant
Maybe we should extend the Blue Line to Shakopee instead of Target North?

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: September 24th, 2016, 6:53 am
by DanPatchToget
SouthWest Transit is suspending its service to Target's Brooklyn Park Campus. It's seen consistently low ridership, even with increased trips, and has a subsidy above the Met Council's limit for an express route.

Also, route 495 (Shakopee to MOA) had more ridership in its first 10 days (957) than route 494 had in its entire two-month trial (856) according to MVTA.
Just to clarify does this mean there were 957 riders in 10 days, or 957 rides?

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: September 24th, 2016, 9:19 am
by Tcmetro
It would be rides. Usually buses are equipped with APC, which counts rides, or manual counts are being done.

Riders would be more difficult, as you would have track individual people.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: October 24th, 2016, 12:31 pm
by intercomnut
SWT is considering alternatives to eliminating route 687 (service from Eden Prairie to Target in Brooklyn Park). They're looking into shortening the route, making additional stops at park-and-rides or other business in the Minnetonka area, or possibly implementing an on-demand service.

http://swtransit.org/cms-files/10-27-16 ... df#page=73

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: January 14th, 2017, 10:26 am
by intercomnut
Strib article on Southwest Transit's Uber-like service.

http://www.startribune.com/a-public-ube ... 410688675/

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: January 14th, 2017, 11:44 am
by intercomnut
After a month and a half, Southwest Transit is reducing the frequency of its new Eden Prairie - Shakopee route from hourly to approximately one bus every 1.5 hours.

http://swtransit.org/route-alerts/route-638/

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: January 14th, 2017, 3:48 pm
by Tcmetro
SW's Prime service is Dial-A-Ride meets modern technology. Really a great implementation, IMO, especially in suburban areas where the road system doesn't allow for logical fixed routes.

As for the 638, I would imagine that it is somewhat difficult to schedule around shifts at Amazon. I'm not familiar with the operation at Amazon, but if it is like UPS, then shift end times vary depending on how much work there is to do. Because of this there may be some very full buses and some very empty. With low-frequencies and variable shift-end times, workers may need to wait a long time for a return trip. UPS also seems to have 24 hour operations. If Amazon is the same, then workers can't be dependent on a bus that only runs during daylight hours. MVTA's 495 has a better schedule in these regards, ~4am-midnight. Lastly, due to the suburban nature of the line, many potential riders will need to walk long-distances, as SW has few neighborhood connections in their service area.

It's a valiant effort on behalf of the suburban agencies, but hard to make successful. The location of the warehouse simply isn't amenable to transit, and there are a lack of surrounding uses to create compound effects that increase demand for transit services.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: March 10th, 2017, 10:00 am
by grant1simons2
So I just tried SW Prime for the first time and absolutely loved it. It took about 15 minutes for the driver to reach my house from the time I requested the ride. He was on the other side of Eden Prairie, so I was a little impressed by that. Bus got to my driveway, I got on and paid the $3 and took a seat. There was one other person on the bus when I got on out of maybe 6 seats. Took around 10 minutes to get from my house to the station which is typical driving tine. Maybe I'm just in shock that this is actually happening in Eden Prairie? I'm hoping they dont cut it after 6 months like every other project they've tried. You can ride it to Shakopee now as well, which I'm guess is response to the failed local route.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: March 10th, 2017, 11:21 am
by DanPatchToget
SW Prime has been around for awhile and from what I've read is doing pretty well. Before Prime (I believe in early 2015) an attempt was made at two local routes within Eden Prairie. They failed miserably and only lasted a few months, so Prime was created.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: March 10th, 2017, 11:40 am
by Qhaberl
I would really like to see more of the suburban communities make Uber like services that connect to buses. Just like they did with prime. Even with in Minneapolis, they could help subsidize Uber trips for people who take Uber to a light rail station. I wouldn't recommend it along the greenline, but I could see it working really well along the blue line. It would work especially well once the green and blue line have their extensions built.


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Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: March 10th, 2017, 11:42 am
by Qhaberl
I would really like to see more of the suburban communities make Uber like services that connect to buses. Just like they did with prime. Even with in Minneapolis, they could help subsidize Uber trips for people who take Uber to a light rail station. I wouldn't recommend it along the greenline, but I could see it working really well along the blue line. It would work especially well once the green and blue line have their extensions built.


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Maybe metro transit could even do this with some of the routes that are not as busy. Subsidizing services like lift or Uber to get people to one of their main routes.


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Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: March 10th, 2017, 12:44 pm
by gopherfan
Here's why Uber is NOT a solution to our PUBLIC transit. http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/02/technology/uber-access/

Also check out Sunday Parker's twitter www.twitter.com/sundaytakesbart
We're pretty good in MN comparatively, but she's got some true horror stories and clearly we have miles to go to improve accessibility.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: June 11th, 2017, 8:43 am
by DanPatchToget
Has an express service to Farmington ever been looked at? Either to Minneapolis and/or St. Paul.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: June 11th, 2017, 10:18 am
by Tcmetro
Farmington has talked about joining the Transit Taxing District (funds capital improvements) but nothing came of it. I can't imagine any fixed route service would be added without any agreement.

IIRC, the only city with service that isn't in the Transit Taxing District is Carver. They received a CMAQ grant to build a park and ride lot and fund service. They decided to contract with Southwest Transit, because the funding could provide more trips by extending the existing express routes from Chaska.

The closest transit service to Farmington is the park and ride at 181st and Cedar. Currently the usage is under 10 riders per day and the subsidy is extremely high. I would imagine that would factor into consideration of any transit expansion. The main problem is likely a lack of downtown commuters, considering the distance between the two.

Re: Suburban Transit (Opt-out Services Providers)

Posted: June 11th, 2017, 9:45 pm
by QuietBlue
With much of the population of Farmington being in the northern part, I imagine most people there who use transit are driving to other stations (AVTS, the 157th Street station, etc).