Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
Tcmetro
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1768
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 8:02 pm
Location: Chicago (ex-Minneapolitan)

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » March 7th, 2017, 3:41 pm

http://finance-commerce.com/2017/03/tra ... akup-vote/. I saw the above article on finance and commerce. About a week ago, I read an article on the streets MN main fourm talking about the metro transit bus reductions. It mention that metro transit is currently facing and $80 million budget deficit. I noticed in the article from finance and commerce, that wants the CTIB is dissolved, Hennepin county would receive an additional $60 million per year. That would mean that metro transit's budget deficit would only be 20 million, correct?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm not sure about the rules now that the counties are handling the transit tax, so I'm not sure that Hennepin County would be able to give operating funds to Metro Transit. Also, the counties want to use these dollars to pay for the construction costs of the next round of lines (Blue Ext, Green Ext, Orange, Gold, Riverview, Rush), so I can't imagine that they would just hand the money over. Lastly, Metro Transit serves five counties (the same ones that have a transit tax), so I would imagine any county support of the bus system would have to be split proportionally.

Simply put, CTIB dissolution doesn't mean or guarantee Metro Transit operating support.

twincitizen
Moderator
Posts: 6368
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 7:27 pm
Location: Standish-Ericsson

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby twincitizen » March 10th, 2017, 10:50 am

Route 679 Twins express will not be operated this year. I'm sure it made sense in 2010-11 with sold out crowds, but was probably pretty empty the last couple years. It always seemed like a very specific subsidy to Twins fans in the 394 corridor. Route 675 (soon to be re-named 645) does provide all-day service between CR-73 P&R and downtown, BUT as currently scheduled it doesn't actually run late enough to get people home after a night game. They'd probably need to add a minimum of two additional westbound trips at the end of the night, as the last bus leaves the North Loop at 9pm on weekdays and 8pm on Saturdays...

Green Line maintenance: Beginning at 6:45 p.m. Friday, March 24 buses will replace Green Line trains from Snelling Avenue to Stadium Village stations. Trains will resume again by 5:00 a.m. on Monday, March 27.

March Connect newsletter http://metrotransit.cmail19.com/t/ViewE ... F08F503B7C

intercomnut
Rice Park
Posts: 404
Joined: April 23rd, 2015, 1:04 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby intercomnut » March 12th, 2017, 10:26 pm

Bottineau neighborhood in NE is pushing back on Metro Transit's plan to reroute express buses onto E River Road and Marshall during 94 construction.

Tcmetro
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1768
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 8:02 pm
Location: Chicago (ex-Minneapolitan)

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » March 14th, 2017, 5:49 pm

I put together a table of average weekday ridership for Metro Transit routes from their Fall 2015 file from the Minnesota Geospatial Commons. I can't seem to attach the pdf I made, but here are the top routes:

Green - 40509
Blue - 32688
5 - 17808
21 - 13899
18 - 12802
6 - 10802
10 - 9789
19 - 7969
3 - 7952
17 - 7789
4 - 7079
22 - 6695
2 - 6600
14 - 6047
64 - 5790
74 - 5171

Somewhat interestingly, Northstar is the best performing peak only route, with 2585 riders per weekday.

Qhaberl
Foshay Tower
Posts: 855
Joined: February 25th, 2016, 9:51 am

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Qhaberl » March 14th, 2017, 5:56 pm

I would be interested to know if route 2 has increased in ridership since going HI- Freq.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

talindsay
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1533
Joined: September 29th, 2012, 10:41 am

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby talindsay » March 14th, 2017, 6:10 pm

What's the number for the A line? I thought it was above 5k, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.

Tcmetro
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1768
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 8:02 pm
Location: Chicago (ex-Minneapolitan)

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » March 14th, 2017, 6:11 pm

The latest data is from Fall 2015, pre A Line. Fall 2015 #84 ridership was 4362/day.

talindsay
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1533
Joined: September 29th, 2012, 10:41 am

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby talindsay » March 14th, 2017, 6:25 pm

Ha, you'd said fall 2015, I wasn't paying attention. Thank you.

RailBaronYarr
Capella Tower
Posts: 2625
Joined: September 16th, 2012, 4:31 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby RailBaronYarr » March 14th, 2017, 9:17 pm

Per this, the A Line + 84 had ~5,400 per weekday https://www.metrotransit.org/metro-tran ... on-in-2016 and back when the line opened the A Line had 85% of trips (http://www.twincities.com/2016/08/02/sn ... nsit-says/), so it's likely somewhere around 4,500 for just the A Line now.

But also good god the 5 should have skipped right past aBRT and gone straight to LRT.

DanPatchToget
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1645
Joined: March 30th, 2016, 1:26 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby DanPatchToget » March 14th, 2017, 10:15 pm

They should skip past ABRT and LRT and go with heavy rail along Route 5, but I guess I'm thinking too far ahead. ABRT will be okay, but with the ridership Route 5 gets right now I'll think "what if".

And didn't Metro Transit just reduce frequency on Route 5?

User avatar
Tiller
Foshay Tower
Posts: 964
Joined: January 17th, 2015, 11:58 am

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tiller » March 14th, 2017, 10:58 pm

But also good god the 5 should have skipped right past aBRT and gone straight to LRT.
I'd be curious to find the ridership/mile along these bus routes since it would give a better idea of where we *should* (not that we will in the foreseeable future) upgrade to LRT.

intercomnut
Rice Park
Posts: 404
Joined: April 23rd, 2015, 1:04 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby intercomnut » March 14th, 2017, 11:34 pm

But also good god the 5 should have skipped right past aBRT and gone straight to LRT.
I'd be curious to find the ridership/mile along these bus routes since it would give a better idea of where we *should* (not that we will in the foreseeable future) upgrade to LRT.
That would be good. Ridership for the 5 overall has been dropping quickly. And it's got high ridership because of it's length, but there are other routes that are more productive per mile and per in-service hour.

But if they stay close to what's proposed for the D Line, the frequency changes will be reversed and the Hi Frequency part will be extended all the way to Brooklyn Center. Hopefully that plus faster speeds and more reliability will reverse the ridership trends.

Silophant
Moderator
Posts: 4471
Joined: June 20th, 2012, 4:33 pm
Location: Whimsical NE

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Silophant » March 15th, 2017, 6:11 am

That would be good. Ridership for the 5 overall has been dropping quickly. And it's got high ridership because of it's length, but there are other routes that are more productive per mile and per in-service hour.
That's true. The 5s number is the most impressive, but if the 10 and the 18 were combined into a similar length route, it would have almost 22,900 riders by that data, and probably more, since it would allow for single-seat rides from one side of downtown to the other.

So, basically, Minneapolis needs to stop screwing around with the streetcar and aBRT that route yesterday.
Joey Senkyr
[email protected]

Qhaberl
Foshay Tower
Posts: 855
Joined: February 25th, 2016, 9:51 am

Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Qhaberl » March 15th, 2017, 6:47 am

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.p ... format=pdf

Anyone who is interested in transit in the Twin Cities should read this. This is a bill currently going through our state legislature. In brief, the goal of this bill is to prohibit the construction of light rail without the explicit permission of the state. I don't think this would ever happen, at least not under Governor Dayton.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

amiller92
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1983
Joined: October 31st, 2014, 12:50 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby amiller92 » March 15th, 2017, 8:42 am

Almost useless anecdotal evidence: every time I ride the 5 south from downtown it's pretty full, regardless of time of day (afternoons/evenings).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

RailBaronYarr
Capella Tower
Posts: 2625
Joined: September 16th, 2012, 4:31 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby RailBaronYarr » March 15th, 2017, 9:50 am

I'd like to see the numbers on the 5 from a productivity standpoint. Obviously its high ridership owes to it being a very long route relative to others. But even still.. I did some calculations on which but routes came closest to profitability, and the 5 had higher overall farebox recovery than the 18, 10, and 6, and matched the 21. There are some assumptions built into that calculation that may smooth over the raw riders-per-in service hour differences, but it seems pretty close. But also, when talking a pipe dream like an urban LRT alignment, wouldn't longer routes with major anchors on both ends in addition to downtown in the middle make more sense than a shorter route considering you'll have wider stop spacing?

Also, is the 5 losing riders quickly? Data I have says it was 19,700 in 2014 and then 17,800 in 2015, but both of those are way up from what MT said was basically 15,600 riders/weekday back in 2010 in the aBRT study.

talindsay
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1533
Joined: September 29th, 2012, 10:41 am

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby talindsay » March 15th, 2017, 10:03 am

Also, simply dividing number of passengers by number of miles to come up with a passenger/mile figure may be mathematically solid, but it doesn't take into account the length of passengers' trips. If the 5 has high ridership because it's cobbling together a lot of short rides along its whole length then yes, the high ridership is an expected function of the line being longer: being bisected at any arbitrary point would result in two lines with the same total ridership. But if the 5 has high ridership because people are being hauled long distances on it, then the length of the line is a necessary function of the ridership patterns on it. We assume that there's a distinct north "half" and a distinct "south" half with the downtown being the dividing point, but is that actually true? How many people are riding *through* downtown on the 5?

intercomnut
Rice Park
Posts: 404
Joined: April 23rd, 2015, 1:04 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby intercomnut » March 15th, 2017, 10:08 am

Also, simply dividing number of passengers by number of miles to come up with a passenger/mile figure may be mathematically solid, but it doesn't take into account the length of passengers' trips. If the 5 has high ridership because it's cobbling together a lot of short rides along its whole length then yes, the high ridership is an expected function of the line being longer: being bisected at any arbitrary point would result in two lines with the same total ridership. But if the 5 has high ridership because people are being hauled long distances on it, then the length of the line is a necessary function of the ridership patterns on it. We assume that there's a distinct north "half" and a distinct "south" half with the downtown being the dividing point, but is that actually true? How many people are riding *through* downtown on the 5?
More useless anecdotal evidence, but when I ride the 5 south from North Minneapolis, there's usually a huge wave of riders leaving the bus at 8th & Hennepin and Nicollet Mall and then a lot of riders who board and replace them.

RailBaronYarr
Capella Tower
Posts: 2625
Joined: September 16th, 2012, 4:31 pm

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby RailBaronYarr » March 15th, 2017, 12:27 pm

Now THAT I can help answer.

Image

This is Fall 2014 ridership along the 5 in the northbound direction only. One would assume if you flipped the direction that the ons/offs within a given segment would flip (most people tend to take the same bus and use similar stops in reverse for whatever trip they make). In any case, segment 6 is the the downtown segment of the 5, and while you've got a lot of people getting on and off there, there's a decent amount of people using the bus solely outside of downtown as well. For example, ~1,600 people get on in the NB direction north of downtown vs 2,500 getting on NB within downtown. The only thing this doesn't tell us is how long people at any given segment are traveling - we can guess based on the ratio of ons/offs within each segment what % are taking long trips, but that could be 100% false.

Even still, this tells me the line is probably more on the "ridership is a function of the line's length" than the other way around. Lots of riders using it within the segments on either end of downtown, and the majority of the remainder seem to be getting off downtown as their end destination or transferring to another route. I'd still say that doesn't mean it makes a bad LRT candidate - it's exactly the behavior we see on the Green Line (and what many transit detractors don't understand about how it functions best not as a end-to-end vehicle, but serving many points in between).

User avatar
LRV Op Dude
Union Depot
Posts: 328
Joined: July 7th, 2012, 10:30 am
Contact:

Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby LRV Op Dude » March 19th, 2017, 5:04 pm

Blog: Old-Twin Cities Transit New-Twin Cities Transit

You Tube: Old, New

AKA: Bus Driver Dude


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 53 guests