September service changes and optimization
September service changes and optimization
Fall is quickly approaching (September 23rd to be exact), and with the change in the weather comes changes in commuting patterns. This is especially true for those of us who are returning to school. To accommodate the increase in the number of people taking transit in September, there will be changes to service starting September 5. Like the changes in service in June, the number of changes isn’t huge. However, there are some significant changes for certain routes both permanent and seasonal.
As mentioned in my last post, service optimization is all about managing resources “…as efficiently and effectively as possible”, and that’s what our planning department has tried to do again this time around. For more on service optimization, take a look at my April post.
All the September service changes can be found on the TransLink website. Here are a few of the bigger changes:
- The 5 will return to its regular routing in the downtown core, from Robson onto Granville northbound to Hastings and then Richards southbound back to Robson.
- The C74 will be renumbered as 337. The route will remain the same; all existing stops and destinations will continue to be served. All weekday 337 service will be provided by conventional buses, with Community Shuttle vehicles providing the 337 service on weekends/holidays.
- Weekday westbound service for the 143.will improve to every 15 minutes before 7:30 a.m. and to every 10 minutes between 7:30–8 a.m. for the
- The following routes will return to their more frequent schedules: :
9 UBC/Alma/Granville/Broadway Station/Boundary
25 Brentwood Station/UBC
28 Joyce Station/Capilano University
41 Joyce Station/UBC
43 Joyce Station/UBC
44 Downtown/UBC
49 Metrotown Station/Dunbar Loop/UBC
99 B-Line Broadway Station/UBC
125 Patterson Station/BCIT
130 Metrotown Station/Capilano University
143 SFU/Coquitlam Station
145 Production Way/SFU
239 Park Royal/Capilano University
480 Bridgeport Station/UBC
Hi Robert.
Thank you for posting these updates.
Thank you, Translink for the Surrey improvements. I’m impressed that there still improvements coming our way.
Thank you, Translink, for the changing the route number to #337.
Sending community shuttles for the #388 is a great idea, assuming that there aren’t many people using the route.
Hey Eugene, I have to disagree b/c the #388 has very little people because the route does not have many connections with other buses and it only runs on peak hours. If it runs all day long many people will ride to get to walnut grove quicker or to Langley as well instead of using the #501 since it runs on different routes to walnut grove. But with the C74 to #337 is better since many people go to Guildford mall and needs to get there faster then using the other routes.
I also want to know why the #29, #27, #26 are still running hourly in September because many students from post secondary have to deal with late night courses that their instructors instated or have to do homework on campus or other activities which makes the commute harder for them to get home and plus with the minatory upass makes the young adults have to wait for bus a very long time. Please re sure the hour service during the night makes them unsafe and will either walk back home from one of the connection buses or have to call parents during the late night to pick them up.
@Maxwell
Have you ever ridden the 26 at night? I have, and I can frequently tell you I am the only one on the bus, from Matheson and Champlain all the way to 29th Avenue or Joyce Station, depending on which bus shows up first. And you want to /increase/ service on the route? There’s nobody riding it in the first place!
Why 337? why not 374 or 339? 337 is such an awkward prime number.
I think that what surrey needs (and doesn’t have) is a E-W bus. the only bus currently that runs east west in surrey all day long are: 364, 337 and 501. Surrey needs a bus on 96 or 88th all day long. Also worth noting is the fact that Unlike the city centers in vancouver and Richmond, surrey has an exchange (at surrey central. While the Vancouver & richmond buses go right through downtown without stopping, which creates less waiting, almost all the surrey buses terminate at one of the city center skytrain stations. When the 399 comes, it will fix the problem slightly.
hey Joe, I know that some routes like the 26 has less people on, but the buses interlinks with that route and even with the 28, but the 28 itself already runs half an hour during night time because or north shore, which I understand. But with the regardless of 29 which I take during the night to go back home and with many other post secondary students that take this bus route home is having trouble dealing with it since there has to be a second person involve by getting picked up or walking home from a connection point. This makes the students unsafe and have to rely on parents to drive them home.
@Jacob: The 337 is just re-claiming the route number from before the C-Shuttle days.
I would like to see bus #43 run all day, Monday – Friday. Similar to bus #480 to Richmond, but it never reaches out to the Canada Line at Oakridge. I live near Dunbar area & would like to see bus #43 get over to the Canada Line Station. Too busy on the bus #41, and too slow to get over there. I doze off while ridding on a #41 bus.
@Jacob: “I think that what surrey needs (and doesn’t have) is a E-W bus.” Are you sure you’re not my dad in disguise. That’s been one of his big transit complaints for years (and why he drives more than taking the bus). I got my parents to go to one of TrankLinks open houses in Surrey and he brought it up then too.
hello Kelly, I agree with you but the situation was that the #43 was supposed to turn into a 91 b-line to replace that number, but never did since they do not have any money which I still think it is workable because the C74 is changed to 337 and the route has not change at all so why not changed the sign still.
@ Maxwell. Thought the 91 B-Line was the SFU line. Replacing the 135 bus.
fyi… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/91_B-Line
Ok so what that ment was after their open house plan and their future outlook for the Vancouver/UBC Their future was to replace the 91 and 95 B-Lines from the #43 and 135. The Canada Line blew that money away. :( Thanks, By ;-)
@Sheba @Jacob
I kind of brought up this concern before, but the planners didn’t think that my idea had any merit.
I suggested that they realign the #326 to not travel on 140 St. It would be the same that it is now, but it would go all the way through the intersection of KG Hwy and 88 Ave.
I even went on the bus and asked passengers for feedback. I got some statistics and everything, but the planners felt that the #388 would be good enough.
I believe that even though the #326 realignment would only give another half mile of cross town travelling, it would make things so much better, because some riders could go from Newton Exchange to 88 Ave, and then transfer once to get to Fleetwood. It connects well in reverse too. It’s not much, but it’s much better than what we have now. Also, the #326 probably is not as crowded as the #321, so having it travel on KG Hwy a little more would alleviate pressure on the #321.
What do you both think? Are you interested in working together to get them to change it?
From what I was last told, the planners are not interested in petitions. They’ll only listen if a large amount of people write in.
By the way, for a supplement to a cross-town route, we can use the #341 combined with the #319 or #301.
@Kelly: Not quite…. Canada Line freed up the articulated buses to be used elsewhere in the system. The articulated buses no longer run on Granville and some run on 49 to serve UBC.
Canada Line was built on a shoestring budget (lack of down escalators, single line to Brighouse, non-linear propulsion, fewer cars, etc…). Translink does not fund the entire cost. It’s the only line that operates on “3P”. The Vancouver/Richmond corridor was predicted and proven to be a high demand route and will recoup it’s cost ahead of schedule.
With regards to UBC, the arterials are maxed out. Translink in recent years have tried to spread the load away from Broadway, but I think we are reaching capacity. There needs to strong agreement for rapid transit on the broadway corridor. Don’t know what the results of the open houses has turned out.
@ ???: Robert has put up a post about the results of the public consultation for phase 2 of the Broadway and Surrey rapid-transit studies.
@???: These Open houses and workshops were to help customers deal with the Vancouver/UBC plan in to add new routes in the area. Eg. Bus 43 were to replace it with a B-Line. Same with the bus #135, unfortunatly, most of the business on the Canada line got sued & went over to court to win this depate about the cut and cover on almost to their properties. After that was all done, Translink was dead broke & those plans to create 2 new B-lines were dead in the water.
@???: “Canada Line was built on a shoestring budget (lack of down escalators…” Outside of downtown Van I don’t think any of the stations have down escalators. Hell on the Expo line some of them don’t even have up escalators.
@Eugene Wong
I sent many ‘suggestions’ about upgrading the BC Parkway (the bike path along the Expo line that everyone walks on). I got practically no response until I started asking around and was told to send e-mail to both Translink and the mayor of the city. That is definitely the way to get your message heard. Even a few people sending an e-mail is enough for them to take notice. Btw when e-mailing the city you’ll need to include your name and mailing address.
Commercial-Broadway has down escalators, 3 (one at old Broadway, 1 at old Commercial Drive, and 1 connecting the two)… What station has no up-escalators?
In Burnaby there aren’t any escalators at Royal Oak or Edmonds (admittedly there aren’t many stairs at Edmonds either) and in New West the outbound platform at Columbia doesn’t have an escalator either.
@ Dave: There’s a list of the SkyTrain Stations that don’t have up escalators:
– Old Granville Enterance on the outbound platform.
– New enterance from Expo Bvld (GM Place) to platform.
– Nanaimo Station (Eastbound only)
– 29th Avenue Station.
– Edmonds Station (Eastbound only)
– 22nd Street Station (Eastbound only)
– Columbia Station (Eastbound only)
I note that yet again there are changes to the 160 services that are NOT listed anywhere. It seems Translink tries to keep changes to this route under wraps and never advises people of the changes, instead we are left to stand at a stop for an hour and realize for ourselves that they have made changes to the roue yet again.
I was curious if you ever considered changing the structure
of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better.
Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 pictures.
Maybe you could space it out better?