I walked out yesterday to get my mail when either the 307 or 320 flew by me on Van Winkle. It was one of the brand spanking new Gillig Advantage BRT look buses and I was disgusted to see that the bus had a full wrap on it.
Now anyone who has read my blog for long knows that I despise them because they are so anti-customer. Just try to look out of a wrapped window (go down to the June 25th entry).
Not only that, but they have wrapped a brand new bus. Transit systems such as the Spokane Transit Authority will wrap buses that need to be repainting because of the damage that can be done to the paint but I guess UTA doesn't care about our expensive capital resources enough.
Showing posts with label Advantage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advantage. Show all posts
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Reno Comparison...
Now the answer to the question you have been waiting for: How does Reno Ride compare to UTA?
What does Reno do Better?
1. Timed Transfers-Many systems do timed transfers better than UTA. The buses have time transfers at all the 3 transit centers which makes getting across the system easy. When UTA butchered the cross town routes such as 4500 South/4700 South and 3900 South/4100 South, Redwood, and State they made some long waits for transfers. Transit mentality says that the buses run every 15-minutes so that is ok, customer focus mentality says poor service.
2. Fare Boxes-Reno uses a more advance fare box than UTA. Something I have not seen before is that the fare box will issue transfers and day passes which makes a lot of sense. Plus the fare box will validate transfers and day passes to insure they are current. As a side note to this, the system is not set in stone as the driver can over ride in order to take care of the customer in special circumstances.
3. Actually calling their day pass is wrong as it's actually a 24 hour pass. When it is validated by the fare box, you can use it for the next 24 hours. This is a much more customer oriented model than a standard day pass. For example I arrived in Reno at noon and started riding at 1:00pm. I could have ridden the buses the next day until 1:00pm if my schedule allowed.
4. You can purchase a 24-hour pass on the buses. Drivers (or actually the fare box) will issue a 24-hour pass so you don't have to order them special, you don't have to worry about stocking up, in other words a customer can pick up a 24-hour pass and start using it.
5. The fare box validates the pass not the driver. I have had drivers in both Denver and Salt Lake validate day passes with the wrong dates. Then what do you do? After all the driver has no day passes so your SOL.
What does UTA do better?
1. Reno has those cheap anti-vandalism plastic seats with the cushion insets that are not comfortable especially compared to UTA's more comfortable padded seats.
Ties?
Reno and UTA seem to be equal on quality of drivers which is overall good.
Looks like Reno wins. Of course Reno is a smaller system so they do have advantages over UTA, but there is still things that UTA could take from the Reno system to make the Utah system better.
Next up Miami...
What does Reno do Better?1. Timed Transfers-Many systems do timed transfers better than UTA. The buses have time transfers at all the 3 transit centers which makes getting across the system easy. When UTA butchered the cross town routes such as 4500 South/4700 South and 3900 South/4100 South, Redwood, and State they made some long waits for transfers. Transit mentality says that the buses run every 15-minutes so that is ok, customer focus mentality says poor service.
2. Fare Boxes-Reno uses a more advance fare box than UTA. Something I have not seen before is that the fare box will issue transfers and day passes which makes a lot of sense. Plus the fare box will validate transfers and day passes to insure they are current. As a side note to this, the system is not set in stone as the driver can over ride in order to take care of the customer in special circumstances.
3. Actually calling their day pass is wrong as it's actually a 24 hour pass. When it is validated by the fare box, you can use it for the next 24 hours. This is a much more customer oriented model than a standard day pass. For example I arrived in Reno at noon and started riding at 1:00pm. I could have ridden the buses the next day until 1:00pm if my schedule allowed.
4. You can purchase a 24-hour pass on the buses. Drivers (or actually the fare box) will issue a 24-hour pass so you don't have to order them special, you don't have to worry about stocking up, in other words a customer can pick up a 24-hour pass and start using it.
5. The fare box validates the pass not the driver. I have had drivers in both Denver and Salt Lake validate day passes with the wrong dates. Then what do you do? After all the driver has no day passes so your SOL.
What does UTA do better?
1. Reno has those cheap anti-vandalism plastic seats with the cushion insets that are not comfortable especially compared to UTA's more comfortable padded seats.
Ties?
Reno and UTA seem to be equal on quality of drivers which is overall good.
Looks like Reno wins. Of course Reno is a smaller system so they do have advantages over UTA, but there is still things that UTA could take from the Reno system to make the Utah system better.
Next up Miami...
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