Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

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Multimodal
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Multimodal » December 8th, 2018, 6:53 am

Yikes. Are those the brand of buses Metro Transit has bought or plans to buy?

Tcmetro
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » December 8th, 2018, 7:04 am

Metro Transit will most likely buy New Flyer or Gillig as they have in the past. Nova or ElDorado could make an appearance, but I think that is unlikely given purchasing decisions over the past few decades.

New Flyer makes both 40 foot and 60 foot buses, but Metro Transit generally only buys 60-footers from them. Gillig does not make 60-foot buses, but have been the favorite for 40-footers.

Gillig seems to have an electric bus in development, while ElDorado does not. Nova has three test electric buses running in Montreal. Because of this, I would imagine that the electric buses are most likely going to be from New Flyer.

The BYD buses have only been purchased in a few cities, most notably in Albuquerque where problems with the buses has delayed the opening of a BRT line. Albuquerque is now waiting a year and a half for New Flyers to arrive. I believe there are also a few BYD buses running in Lancaster, CA which is where the manufacturing plant is located. BYD is a top manufacturer in China, where cities are running tens of thousands of electric buses.

DanPatchToget
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby DanPatchToget » December 8th, 2018, 10:26 am

What was the reasoning behind purchasing Nova buses for the Red Line?

Tcmetro
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » December 8th, 2018, 10:55 am

I really don't know. It seems like a maintenance nightmare to keep seven unique buses. I think the idea was to differentiate from the Gilligs and New Flyers in MVTAs fleet.

Bob Stinson's Ghost
Landmark Center
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Bob Stinson's Ghost » December 8th, 2018, 11:13 am

BYD is a top manufacturer in China, where cities are running tens of thousands of electric buses.
I think you're off by an order of magnitude, at least according to this article on electric buses published by Bloomberg:

http://c40-production-images.s3.amazona ... 1523363881

The article states that there are approximately 385,000 electric buses operating globally and 99% of them are in China.

Korh
Union Depot
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Korh » December 26th, 2018, 10:06 pm

been wondering this for a while, I've been fare checked a few times (most of them where when I made the mistake of getting of at target field during a twins game) and every time I simply had to show my go-to card to get a pass.
So does anyone know if the Metro Transit police have anyway to check the balance of a go-to card on the green, blue, and A line? Because if they don't wouldn't simply finding an empty go-to card be enough to cheat the system a little.

Tcmetro
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » December 26th, 2018, 10:23 pm

The last time I was fare checked with a GoTo card (a few years ago at this point), the officer had a cell phone that doubled as a balance reader. When I took the Link light rail in Seattle earlier this year, they had a similar operation.

Bakken2016
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Bakken2016 » December 26th, 2018, 10:25 pm

It definitely reads if the Go-To card was tagged


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Oreos&Milk
Landmark Center
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Oreos&Milk » December 30th, 2018, 1:02 pm

The map at the end of the METRO presentation looks great. Riverview is listed as LRT. 😁
Map looks nice, and Im glad they are moving towards thinking of riverview as LRT. However, our system should reflect OUR metro area. Green line should be re-named as the PURPLE line. and the blue line should be the GOLD line. Since this is the bold north of the mighty Minnesota Vikings! Every metro area focusing on the main colors Red, Blue, Green, first is getting tiresome. That way we can be different! Granted it might get a little embarrassing when they are on a losing streak, but hey, let's be BOLD! :lol:

Multimodal
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Multimodal » December 30th, 2018, 1:10 pm

Great idea for … local color, but maybe maroon & gold for the public university rather than a private business.

Unless they have a few billion to sponsor the lines.

tmart
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby tmart » December 30th, 2018, 3:50 pm

Purple is a nice color that's not used a lot, looks great, and reflects our most popular sports team and our most famous cultural figure. I wouldn't rename the Blue or Green Lines, especially since people are used to them by now, but I think it'd be cool to see a Purple Line sooner rather than later. (Ideally we'd use it for a prominent urban LRT line like Riverview; I'm gonna be really bummed if we squander it on a suburban express bus.)

Bakken2016
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Bakken2016 » December 30th, 2018, 3:55 pm

Purple is a nice color that's not used a lot, looks great, and reflects our most popular sports team and our most famous cultural figure. I wouldn't rename the Blue or Green Lines, especially since people are used to them by now, but I think it'd be cool to see a Purple Line sooner rather than later. (Ideally we'd use it for a prominent urban LRT line like Riverview; I'm gonna be really bummed if we squander it on a suburban express bus.)
Purple has been requested by the Rush Line project.

David Greene
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby David Greene » January 15th, 2019, 3:28 pm

Given what we know, I can't think of a good reason to dismiss someone who is apparently highly respected by the workforce and who has room the agency pretty effectively

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alexschief
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby alexschief » January 30th, 2019, 2:33 pm

Eight Metro Transit requests in the Met Council's regional solicitation:

Four to increase frequency:

Route 724 - Runs from Target North Campus to downtown Minneapolis, with some twists and turns in Brooklyn Center and Park. Commuter radial route. The highest ridership "Suburban Local" bus in the system, though that's probably because it goes into the urban core. Twenty second overall among local buses. Metro Transit wants to double frequency to every 15 minutes on weekdays.

Route 68 - Runs through Inver Grove Heights and West St. Paul to downtown St. Paul. Local radial route. Primary arterial is Robert Street. Eighteenth highest ridership among local buses. Metro Transit wants to increase frequency in the off-peak so that it comes every 15 minutes pretty much all day.

Route 32 - Runs from Robbinsdale to Roseville. Primary arterial is Lowry. Local circumferential route. Thirtieth highest ridership among local buses, but third best among purely circumferential routes (behind the 515 and the 23, I didn't count the 21 or the 2). Metro Transit has been building ridership on this route for many years, and wants to increase service by a third to every 20 minutes almost all the time.

Route 4 - Runs along Johnson Street in Northeast Minneapolis, through downtown Minneapolis, and along Lyndale/Bryant in South Minneapolis. Classic local through-running route (that should be on the list for aBRT, but isn't). Tenth highest ridership among local buses. Metro Transit wants to increase frequency in the off-peak so that it comes every 10 minutes pretty much all day, and every 15 minutes on the weekend. Metro Transit also wants to look at transit signal priority for the south Minneapolis portion of the route.


Four to improve bus stops:

Route 5 south of downtown on Emerson and Fremont
Route 5 north of downtown on Chicago and Portland
Route 21 along Lake and Marshall
Route 6 along Hennepin, 4th and University

Although the requests don't explicitly spell it out, it seems obvious that these requests are for projects that would take place concurrently, or are intended to be complimentary with aBRT work on these exact corridors. I guess it's a separate pot of money, however, and so it's not technically a part of the aBRT project. Little unsure of what it was presented this way.

Silophant
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Silophant » January 30th, 2019, 3:24 pm

Those are definitely requests to build out the aBRT stations, (save the TVMs), which I think is just a symptom of the way they're cobbling together the funding for them. As long as they make the case that the stations are usable by normal buses before the BRT service starts, they can get funding for the long-lead construction stuff even if they can't afford the buses themselves yet.

Agreed that the 4 should be right up with the 2 and the 3 when MT takes another look at the aBRT expansion program. Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later, as the planning office wraps up the C Line and hands off the D Line to detailed engineering - they'll have to start thinking about the F Line soon, and it's not at all obvious to me what it'll be. Of the remaining studied corridors:
W 7th has been replaced by Riverview
E 7th, Robert, and especially American don't seem to have the ridership to justify the investment
Nicollet/Central and W Broadway are being blocked by streetcar dreams.

So, unless they can get the city to admit that the Nicollet streetcar isn't happening, seems like it's time to branch out and start aiming for Lyndale, or Franklin, or wherever.
Joey Senkyr
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Multimodal
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Multimodal » January 30th, 2019, 3:51 pm

Those are definitely requests to build out the aBRT stations, (save the TVMs), which I think is just a symptom of the way they're cobbling together the funding for them. As long as they make the case that the stations are usable by normal buses before the BRT service starts, they can get funding for the long-lead construction stuff even if they can't afford the buses themselves yet.
Perhaps also due to the timing of local street improvements (e.g. Hennepin).

Silophant
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Silophant » January 30th, 2019, 3:53 pm

Oh, yeah, didn't even think of that. They definitely need to get the Hennepin money this year to be able to coordinate with the downtown reconstruction.
Joey Senkyr
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twincitizen
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby twincitizen » January 30th, 2019, 7:30 pm

Funding for the A and C Lines was cobbled together in a similar fashion, from various federal, state, and local sources. And that's fine. We don't necessarily need Hennepin County to dedicate a big pile of money all at once. We do need Hennepin County to step up and pledge to fill a gap immediately if state money doesn't come through (e.g. when the D Line money was dropped from the bonding bill last year). The sources of funding are fine - it's the ongoing uncertainty causing delays that are the problem. The A Line opened 6 months late, as will the C Line this summer. The D Line is still like 2.5-3 years from operating, as stations won't be built until 2020-21...that's IF the funding comes through this year. The E Line would open in 2024 at best. We have got to pick up the pace on doing one of these lines every 3 years, but unfortunately that ship has basically sailed at this point.

EOst
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby EOst » January 31st, 2019, 9:23 am

Devil's advocate: If Hennepin County pledges in advance to fill the gap if the state won't, why would anyone at the state feel urgency to fill it?

MNdible
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby MNdible » January 31st, 2019, 9:57 am

Came here to say what EOst said.


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