Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[jebr]

Idea: Make every fare $2, across the board. Local buses, METRO lines, express buses, everything except those last Northstar stations. Then, charge a $2-3 parking fee for the park and rides.

Advantages:
-Simplifies the fare structure, so you always know exactly how much to pay, and it's an even dollar amount since the buses don't give change.
-Solves the issue of the 94 charging an express fare despite not having to support expensive parking infrastructure, and the associated issue of the LRTs not charging an express fare despite supporting expensive parking infrastructure.
-Incentivizes getting to your express bus P&R by not driving.

While this is a good solution to address the cost issue (and gets the park and rides paid for, which is quite a bit of the capital expense of the express routes) I would consider making them free to enter on evenings and weekends, at least on the Northstar and the light rail stations. There's a non-trivial amount of outstate people that use the light rail and the Northstar to attend events, and I think having the "free" parking for those helps make transit seem more available to outstate Minnesota. In the current political climate where some subsidy comes from the state, it can help to have transit visible and usable for those outstate without having an unnecessary disincentive for them to use it.

[SamHartmen]

Idea: Make every fare $2, across the board. Local buses, METRO lines, express buses, everything except those last Northstar stations. Then, charge a $2-3 parking fee for the park and rides.

Advantages:
-Simplifies the fare structure, so you always know exactly how much to pay, and it's an even dollar amount since the buses don't give change.
-Solves the issue of the 94 charging an express fare despite not having to support expensive parking infrastructure, and the associated issue of the LRTs not charging an express fare despite supporting expensive parking infrastructure.
-Incentivizes getting to your express bus P&R by not driving.

Idk about the existing breakdown between rush and non-rush fares, so maybe it would have to be $2.50 to avoid losing money over the status quo, but the points remain the same.

I love this comment so much!

Yes, a fee for using the parking in the park and ride lot seems like a great idea. Except, only use it for lots currently facing around 80-100% usage. The parking lots way on the outer suburbs should still be free. When it comes to park & ride ramps needing more funds to expand and are already at capacity, those extra funds could greatly improve accessibility. Would also encourage drivers to shift to a less used park and ride as well.

It's a great idea! Even give out monthly parking permits at a bit of a discount to also encourage more dependable users of public transit. I like it a lot! (pun intended)

[Tcmetro]

June 11th schedules are up:

10, 18 - hourly owl service. Route 10 will operate to Central/41st (Columbia Heights TC), 18 to Nicollet/46th
A Line - 10 min service, 15-30 late night and early morning. 5 am - 1 am.
84 - 30 min service between Rosedale and Sibley Plaza
30 - Weekend service added
12 - Weekday EB buses turn on Hennepin to Uptown TC. Weekend service terminates at Emerson/Lagoon.
54 - Early AM trips added.
17 - later Sunday service to NE Mpls.

http://www.metrotransit.org/plan-ahead- ... on-june-11

[acs]

Whoops, looks like Move Minneapolis (that commuter connections non-profit on nicollet mall) was engaging in some fraudulent billing and abuse of their CMAQ grant. They intentionally destroyed documents relating to it too. City might just cancel their contract.

http://www.startribune.com/audit-transp ... 380688611/

Looks like another space is opening up on the mall.

[grant1simons2]

How? Move Minneapolis was using that space, but Meet Minneapolis has the lease.

[mattaudio]

COMMUNITY VOICES
Minnesota should go all in on electric buses
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voic ... tric-buses

[intercomnut]

Metro Transit is proposing to revise the West End transit corridor, which will include major changes to the routes 604, 469, 675, and the clusterfuck known as route 9.

They've come out with a concept plan for the corridor that will go through public comment in September, with meetings on the 8th and 10th:

Route 9: Route 9 will be simplified from six variations to three branches. Service is proposed to be eliminated on Cedar Lake Road between Penn and Glenwood, on the 9B branch along Xenia and Glenwood Avenue west of Penn, on the 9H branch along Ewing/France, 26th Street, Barry Street and the Highway 100 east frontage road, and on Wayzata Avenue west of Park Place. One-hundred twenty-eight one-way trips by 64 riders are affected by these changes; 43 of these riders are more than a quarter-mile from other service.

All trips will serve Glenwood and Penn avenues in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood, providing a more consistent
routing and improving the frequency of service. All trips will also serve Laurel and Upton avenues and the West
End via Wayzata, Utica, 16th Street and Park Place.

During rush hours, some trips will be rerouted to serve Cedar Lake Road east of Park Place (Jewish Community Center) and the other trips will serve the Louisiana Avenue Transit Center via Cedar Lake Road. Also, eastbound in the morning peak hour and westbound in the afternoon peak hour, service on the entire route east of Glenwood Avenue and Cedar Lake Road will operate every 20 minutes instead of every 15 minutes.

Service on the 9N branch on Cedar Lake Road west of Louisiana Avenue to the Greenbrier area in Minnetonka will be improved in the off-peak and will be available every 30 minutes on weekdays to match the weekend schedule. During peak periods this area will continue to be served by express routes 643 and 663.

Route 604: The portion of the route between Louisiana Transit Center and Park Place Boulevard and Wayzata Boulevard is proposed for elimination and will be replaced by new Route 645. Twenty-four one-way trips by 12 riders who currently ride between south and east of Louisiana Transit Center will instead have to transfer between routes 604 and new route 645. This route change will eliminate route duplication and allow for better timed connections.

Route 649: Route 649 is proposed for elimination and will be replaced by Route 9 and new Route 645 to avoid route duplication. Customers currently boarding on Louisiana Avenue and Cedar Lake Road will instead be served by Route 9. Service on Cedar Lake east of Park Place would be reduced from five to three trips on Route 9. Travel time for riders between the West End and downtown Minneapolis will increase by 16 minutes.

Seventy-four one-way trips by 37 riders are affected by this change; 26 of them are more than quarter-mile from express service.

Riders using the Park Place Park & Ride and those using Route 649 to commute to jobs in the West End will be served by new Route 645 and have no increase in travel time. All existing Route 649 customers will continue to have a one-seat ride to downtown Minneapolis.

Route 675/new Route 645: A significant improvement proposed in this concept plan is limited-stop service between downtown Minneapolis and the West End via I-394 all days of the week, providing a 40 percent increase in service and a trip that is seven minutes faster than that currently provided on Route 9. Existing Route 675 would be modified to create this connection east of the Louisiana Avenue Transit Center by traveling on Wayzata, Zarthan Avenue, 16th Street, Park Place and I-394. Rush-hour direction trips would also serve Wayzata between Park Place and Highway 100. The route is no longer an express route, so it will be renumbered to Route 645 and a less-expensive local fare will be charged.

This reroute adds two to four minutes travel time for existing riders. Most customers board at park-and-ride lots with alternate express service, but there are 72 riders boarding east of Ridgedale during the morning rush hour that do not have an alternative and will be affected by the longer travel time.

[DanPatchToget]

I had a feeling Route 675 would eventually become a limited-stop route. Now if we could get faster service between Minneapolis and Wayzata at off-peak hours.

[mulad]

Something irks me about the idea of dropping service on Glenwood west of Penn, but it looks like there are only 12 trips (6 per direction) per day on that leg, and most of the population seems to be near Glenwood & Xenia, which is only half a mile from a pretty decent hub of service.

Ideally, I'd extend the stub ends of France Ave (next to the Target office building) and Cedar Lake Road (by the Cedar Trails Apartments and Sabes Jewish Community Center), then route the bus along that. It's almost exactly half a mile. It would cause the bus to approach the West End from the south, but I don't think this is much worse than the route that hugs I-394:


route-9-france-cedar-lake-extensions by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

The closest approximation of this using the existing streets would be to use Natchez Ave on the west side of the apartment complex.

[Anondson]

Yes! This reroute is exactly what I've been imagining as the best route. You'd fight the residents on Zarthan getting more buses on it if buses aren't made quieter.

I can see a route that doesn't take Cedar Lake Rd. under 100 but follows the east 100 frontage road up to the 394 underpass back through West End.

[Tcmetro]

I could imagine that some of the 649 riders will be quite vocal about the change, especially when MT is saying that the replacement service will have two fewer trips, and will take 16 minutes longer to get downtown.

The 9 simplification is much needed. The loss of the H branch (26th St) may be mitigated with SW LRT bus changes. The loss of the B branch on Glenwood could potentially be replaced by a new north-south bus that connects Robbinsdale or Crystal with the West End, post Bottineau LRT.

The 675 conversion to limited-stop service is a nice addition for those in the West End area, but a lot of trips are already quite long on this route. MT should look at a Mound-Ridgedale-Downtown express and a limited stop from Ridgedale-West End to downtown.

The 604 is a very short route, and should be considered for integration with the 705 service.

Overall, the restructure will improve service significantly, especially for the West End and Cedar Lake Road riders.

[mattaudio]

Park & Rides Lose Money and Waste Land — But Agencies Keep Building Them
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/07/05/p ... ding-them/

[maxbaby]

Could say the same about the light rail lines.

[DanPatchToget]

MVTA will begin Route 495, an express route between Shakopee and Mall of America via Burnsville, in August. Also includes stops near the Amazon.com facility.

http://www.startribune.com/mvta-tests-b ... 386091001/

Not sure what roads it will use. I'm surprised this is going to be every day, not just weekdays.

[acs]

MT transit way maps on LRT trains and stations now include the A line. However it's marked in grey and simply "rapid bus line" on the legend. No letter. I guess that's what we're calling these things now?

[Silophant]

I suppose that makes sense for the theoretical future where we have a couple dozen of them on every major corridor, though I don't think it would make it too busy to put an "A" on the line somewhere.

[mattaudio]

I am also surprised the A line is not marked as a transfer point on the "squished system map" above LRT doors, for 46th St (blue) and Snelling (green).

[RailBaronYarr]

File this one under "Don't Read Any Comments When Major Media Picks It Up"

http://metrocouncil.org/News-Events/Tra ... oject.aspx

[MSPtoMKE]

The photo in that press release was taken during one of the electric bus demonstrations last year. I am seated next to the guy in the red hat. You know what the fare was for that ride? $0.00! Socialism!!!!11

[Sacrelicio]

http://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/real-transit

Good article about making transit more useful by focusing on faster, more frequent, more reliable, and more predictable service. I realize some folks don't agree with the idea if it means fewer stops and more walking for some people, but I think it's a great idea. Houston's idea to condense their bus system into fewer overall routes with more high frequency routes seems to have boosted their ridership. The streetcar system we used to have seemed to balance coverage and frequency pretty well, with an efficient and fairly logical grid layout.