During the cuts last year UTA introduced this great new bus service to the valley called "Fast Bus". What UTA did was turn the former 48 in the 327, the 46 into the 346, and create a new route number 313. The concept was to get people to downtown faster. In fact it would be a big part of the changes that will come in August.
If the first three lines are any indication we are heading for a failure.
Lets remember that the 48 line was already a success. UTA did one smart thing and that was reroute the line to Daybreak. The they turned around and made it limited stop. However the 46 line was already a weak performer but Fast Bus was going to make it a much better route.
Well if they did such a good job with the 313 and 346 why are they essentially discontinued? Oh yeah the 346 will still run but it will not go downtown instead it will terminate at the Historic Sandy TRAX station. Why don't they just go ahead and restore the stops since their admitting the 346 was a failure.
The 313 that will be running after August 26 is a different animal that the current 313. Instead of heading downtown it will go to the University of Utah instead. So once again UTA would admit it, but the line was a failure.
The question once again has to be asked, who is held accountable in the fact that these routes failed? Will any planner be held accountable? Of course not.
As I have said in the past, the Fast Bus program is like the ski bus service, a major waste of capital resources. Fast Buses sit all day in the yard after making a trip or two while the ski buses sit 8 months out of the year.
We will see what the next year brings us. Of course we there is a bunch of proposals for changes next year, the board of Trustees will say well we made a mistake and approve changes. They will not hold the planners accountable to make a working plan.
Will we end up like Orange County, CA and slowly change many routes back? Time will tell.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Is UTA a social service?
During the public hearings for the bus cuts, one of the UTA's people made an interesting statement when he said that UTA "was not a social service".
So what is it? Lets look at UTA's Mission Statement:
"Utah Transit Authority strengthens and connects communities enabling individuals to pursue a fuller life with greater ease and convenience by leading through partnering, planning, and wise investment of physical, economic, and human resources."
Looking at the mission statement of UTA gives the impression that it is indeed a social service.
Interesting note, if you consider how many areas that will be left without bus service or useless bus service, it kind of makes you question if the UTA is "enabling individuals to pursue a fuller life".
So where does a majority of UTA's revenue come from? Well looking at their budget it does appear that it comes from tax dollars. So in other words the UTA is not a self-reliant business. I guess you can get into all kinds of philosophical discussions on what makes something a true social service but looking at their mission statement and at their budget tells me that they are indeed a social service.
I am not saying if this is a bad thing or not. But when UTA representatives get up in front of people and tell them they are not a social service, they should get called on the carpet for it. Unless UTA wants to change the way it does business, it shouldn't try to be something its not or admit what it truly is.
So what is it? Lets look at UTA's Mission Statement:
"Utah Transit Authority strengthens and connects communities enabling individuals to pursue a fuller life with greater ease and convenience by leading through partnering, planning, and wise investment of physical, economic, and human resources."
Looking at the mission statement of UTA gives the impression that it is indeed a social service.
Interesting note, if you consider how many areas that will be left without bus service or useless bus service, it kind of makes you question if the UTA is "enabling individuals to pursue a fuller life".
So where does a majority of UTA's revenue come from? Well looking at their budget it does appear that it comes from tax dollars. So in other words the UTA is not a self-reliant business. I guess you can get into all kinds of philosophical discussions on what makes something a true social service but looking at their mission statement and at their budget tells me that they are indeed a social service.
I am not saying if this is a bad thing or not. But when UTA representatives get up in front of people and tell them they are not a social service, they should get called on the carpet for it. Unless UTA wants to change the way it does business, it shouldn't try to be something its not or admit what it truly is.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Deseret News Editorial
Thumbs up to funding mass transit
Hard hitting excellent editorial pointing out the hypocrisy of the road warriors and of course many members of our state legislature.
Hard hitting excellent editorial pointing out the hypocrisy of the road warriors and of course many members of our state legislature.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Don't Forget....
The new UTA fares go into effect tomorrow. UTA did not post any bullitens about the fare increase until last Monday so some people may be taken by surprise if they don't follow transit politics.
Mountain View Corridor Land Getting Expensive
Corridor land price prohibitive?
Here is one issue that you will rarely here road warriors talking about. It cost a great deal of money to buy enough land to build a freeway. Not only is the freeway expensive to build as it is, but land acquisition can also cost a bundle. Add the rise in land prices here in the Salt Lake area and you have a nightmare in the making.
However, this could turn into trouble for transit plans because the first place the road warrior members of the legislature will do is steal money from the transit fund in order to boost spending on highways.
Watch out for your pockets...
Here is one issue that you will rarely here road warriors talking about. It cost a great deal of money to buy enough land to build a freeway. Not only is the freeway expensive to build as it is, but land acquisition can also cost a bundle. Add the rise in land prices here in the Salt Lake area and you have a nightmare in the making.
However, this could turn into trouble for transit plans because the first place the road warrior members of the legislature will do is steal money from the transit fund in order to boost spending on highways.
Watch out for your pockets...
The Lonely Bus Stop Shelter....
Here is the bus stop shelter at the corner of 8680 south and 300 East on the southeast corner. It is currently served by the 24 route however after August 25 will be like the 900 West shelters, unused and forlorn. I used this bus stop for almost a year and a half as I lived in apartment just a block and a half from this bus stop.
Talk about a nice apartment, just three really short blocks to Historic Sandy TRAX and a short walk to a bus. Too bad the apartment went down hill or we may still be there then again the bus will soon be gone and you will have to cross the 700 East Superspeedway to get to the bus stop soon. As I recall this is the only bus stop shelter on the entire line except for the TRAX stations. UTA is one of the worst bus companies I have rode (Spokane Transit Authority may actually be worst) when it comes to have to shelters. Then they turn around cut the service to areas with shelters leaving them unused.
Talk about a nice apartment, just three really short blocks to Historic Sandy TRAX and a short walk to a bus. Too bad the apartment went down hill or we may still be there then again the bus will soon be gone and you will have to cross the 700 East Superspeedway to get to the bus stop soon. As I recall this is the only bus stop shelter on the entire line except for the TRAX stations. UTA is one of the worst bus companies I have rode (Spokane Transit Authority may actually be worst) when it comes to have to shelters. Then they turn around cut the service to areas with shelters leaving them unused.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Transit Related Articles
UTA urges visits to shops hurt by work on extension of TRAX
Rider's birth-control 'advice' leads to bus ban
-This story from Logan is very interesting. I wonder if the ACLU will get involved in this one. After all the Logan system is a 'free' system. They can't say that she did not have a fare or anything, and frankly she can say anything she wants to. I did notice in Denver they have signs on their buses that you can be removed for saying offensive things and it could include jail time.
Rider's birth-control 'advice' leads to bus ban
-This story from Logan is very interesting. I wonder if the ACLU will get involved in this one. After all the Logan system is a 'free' system. They can't say that she did not have a fare or anything, and frankly she can say anything she wants to. I did notice in Denver they have signs on their buses that you can be removed for saying offensive things and it could include jail time.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Transit Tax Hike??????
Weber OKs vote on a transit tax hike
Voters in December will get the opportunity to vote to increase taxes for roads. However, they are calling it a transit tax which gives no money at all to transit. It is 100% a road tax. ]
Will the voters get confused and think they are actually going to get transit improvements with these dollars? Are they calling a transit tax because it has a better chance of getting approved?
The only REAL transit tax may be in Box Elder county where they are trying to get a ballot initiative passed to extend Frontrunner to Brigham City.
Voters in December will get the opportunity to vote to increase taxes for roads. However, they are calling it a transit tax which gives no money at all to transit. It is 100% a road tax. ]
Will the voters get confused and think they are actually going to get transit improvements with these dollars? Are they calling a transit tax because it has a better chance of getting approved?
The only REAL transit tax may be in Box Elder county where they are trying to get a ballot initiative passed to extend Frontrunner to Brigham City.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
New Bus Stop Line Number Signs
Here is a couple of the new signs telling customers what route number service a bus stop:
Pictures are copyrighted protected.
(Sorry the pictures don't show the symbols really well especially on the 207 sign)
It looks like UTA is using green and a little indicator that indicates a route that runs every 15-minutes which is a step in the right direction. However I rather see something like Portland does and put on a special sign below the main sign that boldly announces that the bus stop has frequent service promoting that service much better.
Notice that the sign for the 207, mentions nothing that service is a pathetic every 60-minutes off-peak. Every sign should say the frequency of the line, days of the week it runs, and especially if its peak hours only. Continue to note it runs later in the evening should also be noted.
I also want to point out the two other symbols. One is a no smoking sign and the other is a accessible sign. Now is the no smoking one supposed to tell people not to smoke around the bus stop? That would be nice but how many people do you think will actually pay attention? I hope that UTA is not trying to tell its customers that the bus is no smoking since I've never heard of transit buses that allow smoking but I am sure they existed 50 years ago.
The accessible sign is also funny. While its nice that they are letting customers know that the bus is accessible, the last time I checked since the 1980 era buses where retired a few years ago every bus but one in the entire UTA fleet is accessible, the exception being the historic bus which isn't used in regular route service.
Now, if only UTA would start getting more information out there so people will be better informed when change day comes but that's another story.
Pictures are copyrighted protected.(Sorry the pictures don't show the symbols really well especially on the 207 sign)
It looks like UTA is using green and a little indicator that indicates a route that runs every 15-minutes which is a step in the right direction. However I rather see something like Portland does and put on a special sign below the main sign that boldly announces that the bus stop has frequent service promoting that service much better.
Notice that the sign for the 207, mentions nothing that service is a pathetic every 60-minutes off-peak. Every sign should say the frequency of the line, days of the week it runs, and especially if its peak hours only. Continue to note it runs later in the evening should also be noted.
I also want to point out the two other symbols. One is a no smoking sign and the other is a accessible sign. Now is the no smoking one supposed to tell people not to smoke around the bus stop? That would be nice but how many people do you think will actually pay attention? I hope that UTA is not trying to tell its customers that the bus is no smoking since I've never heard of transit buses that allow smoking but I am sure they existed 50 years ago.
The accessible sign is also funny. While its nice that they are letting customers know that the bus is accessible, the last time I checked since the 1980 era buses where retired a few years ago every bus but one in the entire UTA fleet is accessible, the exception being the historic bus which isn't used in regular route service.
Now, if only UTA would start getting more information out there so people will be better informed when change day comes but that's another story.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Why I Hate Wraps....
As regular readers to this blog know, I am no fan of bus wraps. Wraps are an insult to its customers who have to try to see through them.
Today I had a meeting in Sandy so I rode the 40 to TRAX and finally the 24. The 24 was a 1999 Gillig Low Floor and yes it had a wrap. However I was able to go toward the back of the bus and found that the third set of seats from the back had a window that was only half wrapped. Well low and behold while waiting for the bus to leave I got the bright idea to take a picture so everyone can see the difference between wrapped and non-wrapped.
Picture Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved
Nice 50/50 picture don't you agree? Which part would you rather have the opportunity to look out of? This is why wraps must go.
Today I had a meeting in Sandy so I rode the 40 to TRAX and finally the 24. The 24 was a 1999 Gillig Low Floor and yes it had a wrap. However I was able to go toward the back of the bus and found that the third set of seats from the back had a window that was only half wrapped. Well low and behold while waiting for the bus to leave I got the bright idea to take a picture so everyone can see the difference between wrapped and non-wrapped.
Picture Copyrighted, All Rights ReservedNice 50/50 picture don't you agree? Which part would you rather have the opportunity to look out of? This is why wraps must go.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Transit Trip to Utah County
On Monday, I took a trip down to Utah County to check out the Provo River Trail and to ride the transit system and see how it is doing while BYU is not in main session.
The first bus of the day was a Gillig Low Floor and wouldn't you know it, it was wrapped!&!%!
Next I took the 832 over to the trail. For those of you who have not had a chance to check out the trail, it is a nice trail although it needs to be wider, especially when it goes under roads. Under University Parkway it is too narrow for two humans to pass easily much less if one of them is on a bicycle. However the section of the trail I walked was all covered by mature trees which makes a nice walk in the morning before it gets to hot.
One of the things I noticed is that more than a few stops had the bus stop signs covered by trees or otherwise hard to see. UTA needs to do a better job of making sure their bus stop signs are not covered up and are visible. Also, some shelters would be really nice but no, having shelters along 900 West where they killed service is more important.
Also, half of the bike riders that where riding the bus did not put the bicycle rack back in its home located when they got their bikes back. The best example of customer service I saw was on trip where there was already two backs on the rack, the driver allowed the third person to bring his bike on the bus. I will not say who it was because that driver would probably get in trouble for not following the rules even though he was providing excellent customer service.
Ridership was week except on the 830 which is always a busy route and the 850. In fact the 850 had a pretty full bus, with three loud teenagers, a gang member, and some woman who got on and started talking to someone who wasn't there. Oh well, another day on the bus.
The 811 coming back was also an adventure. It was another Gillig Low Floor and wrapped, however the wrap was torn where I sat so I did not have to deal with the crap. The bus started to overheat and shut off when we got to the American Fork exit. It shut off a few times more as the driver tried to force it to keep going. However, once we left the Lehi area the bus did not give any more problems.
One more note about that bus. Not only was the wrap torn but the my window was also broken. Once again it shows that customers are low on UTA's priorities.
It was another interesting adventure on the UTA, once again showing that UTA has many areas it needs to work on.
The first bus of the day was a Gillig Low Floor and wouldn't you know it, it was wrapped!&!%!
Next I took the 832 over to the trail. For those of you who have not had a chance to check out the trail, it is a nice trail although it needs to be wider, especially when it goes under roads. Under University Parkway it is too narrow for two humans to pass easily much less if one of them is on a bicycle. However the section of the trail I walked was all covered by mature trees which makes a nice walk in the morning before it gets to hot.
One of the things I noticed is that more than a few stops had the bus stop signs covered by trees or otherwise hard to see. UTA needs to do a better job of making sure their bus stop signs are not covered up and are visible. Also, some shelters would be really nice but no, having shelters along 900 West where they killed service is more important.
Also, half of the bike riders that where riding the bus did not put the bicycle rack back in its home located when they got their bikes back. The best example of customer service I saw was on trip where there was already two backs on the rack, the driver allowed the third person to bring his bike on the bus. I will not say who it was because that driver would probably get in trouble for not following the rules even though he was providing excellent customer service.
Ridership was week except on the 830 which is always a busy route and the 850. In fact the 850 had a pretty full bus, with three loud teenagers, a gang member, and some woman who got on and started talking to someone who wasn't there. Oh well, another day on the bus.
The 811 coming back was also an adventure. It was another Gillig Low Floor and wrapped, however the wrap was torn where I sat so I did not have to deal with the crap. The bus started to overheat and shut off when we got to the American Fork exit. It shut off a few times more as the driver tried to force it to keep going. However, once we left the Lehi area the bus did not give any more problems.
One more note about that bus. Not only was the wrap torn but the my window was also broken. Once again it shows that customers are low on UTA's priorities.
It was another interesting adventure on the UTA, once again showing that UTA has many areas it needs to work on.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Hatchet Job in Deseret News
Are rail plans worth it?
Well it looks like the extremist in the Legislature are out rattling their sabers in order to advance their agenda.
Some points I would like to make about the article:
First of all it was poorly researched.
Here is the biggest example:
The author claims that it cost the same for a mile of light rail as it does for a mile of freeway. Not unless where talking about unusually situations like in Seattle where it is more a heavy rail system than light rail. In most cases a light rail cost about the same as a lane mile of freeway but now the entire freeway. One of the problems of dealing with cost is that politicians add cost to light rail such as urban renewal and other pork that does not have anything directly to do with the line itself but often gets included.
There is always the people prefer cars argument. Well cars may still be a majority of trips but when compare corridor to corridor the figures change. What the road warriors do is lump all traffic on a highway and say...see light rail isn't carrying that much. Yet, the highway numbers including trucks plus people just traveling through. What you won't here is a comparison of people traveling within the corridor and if you do they try to spout of some gross generalizations of the market.
What I always love is statements like Dougall makes in the article. "Cars represent freedom" they try to portray cars as apple pie yet if people like Dougall had a choice they would take your freedom away. Your freedom to choose your from of transportation. Right now you have the choice to ride transit but if Dougall wants your that freedom taken away from you.
Then there is the biggest argument for the investment in transit. It is what the taxpayers wanted. Apparently John Dougall is so arrogant, that he believes he knows better than you do on where transportation dollars should be spent. Obviously he doesn't think much of the voters who put him in office.
Well it looks like the extremist in the Legislature are out rattling their sabers in order to advance their agenda.
Some points I would like to make about the article:
First of all it was poorly researched.
Here is the biggest example:
The author claims that it cost the same for a mile of light rail as it does for a mile of freeway. Not unless where talking about unusually situations like in Seattle where it is more a heavy rail system than light rail. In most cases a light rail cost about the same as a lane mile of freeway but now the entire freeway. One of the problems of dealing with cost is that politicians add cost to light rail such as urban renewal and other pork that does not have anything directly to do with the line itself but often gets included.
There is always the people prefer cars argument. Well cars may still be a majority of trips but when compare corridor to corridor the figures change. What the road warriors do is lump all traffic on a highway and say...see light rail isn't carrying that much. Yet, the highway numbers including trucks plus people just traveling through. What you won't here is a comparison of people traveling within the corridor and if you do they try to spout of some gross generalizations of the market.
What I always love is statements like Dougall makes in the article. "Cars represent freedom" they try to portray cars as apple pie yet if people like Dougall had a choice they would take your freedom away. Your freedom to choose your from of transportation. Right now you have the choice to ride transit but if Dougall wants your that freedom taken away from you.
Then there is the biggest argument for the investment in transit. It is what the taxpayers wanted. Apparently John Dougall is so arrogant, that he believes he knows better than you do on where transportation dollars should be spent. Obviously he doesn't think much of the voters who put him in office.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
The 3500 South BRT Plan
One of the many projects the UTA is currently working on is two BRT projects, the Orem/Provo line and the 3500 South. The UTA has a request for proposal out on the 3500 South BRT line so construction is expected to start soon.
So what is BRT? Well that is a very open question. It can either be priority on traffic lights to dedicated right of way. What BRT promoters try to claim is that BRT is light rail at lower cost. However, most BRT projects that are in operation are barely limited service bus routes and only a couple are what many would consider comparable to a light rail line.
So what will the 3500 BRT line be like? Well, it is nothing but a glorified limited stop service. What the system will have is signal prioritization, frequent service, and few bus stops. So the buses will still deal with traffic, and will only be about 10-25% faster than current service. Currently the 37 (soon to be 35) takes 53 minutes to travel from Magna to Salt Lake City. The BRT on the other hand will only take 40 minutes. In other words you will only save about 13 minutes.
Since the BRT line will basically follow the route of the 35 there will be no new markets created by the line. While speed might create a slight ridership increase, there will not be a big increase in market forces because the route doesn't do anything that the current route does. My proposal was to run the route from Magna to the University of Utah which would have created new market forces, a new route matrix and actually brought new riders to the fold. Lets see the difference with that service. Under current conditions the bus takes 1 hour 38 minutes not counting the transfer from the 31 to the 14 (the 37 and 31 are through route so the bus just stops at TRAX, changes route numbers and continues). Now using the same 20% savings you are looking at 1 hour and 10 minutes which is a 28 minutes savings (also assumes a more direct routing). Not a huge change but the route would create a new matrix because it provides service where no existing service travels.
The BRT will most likely do nothing but rob ridership off the local Magna Route along with some ridership of the neighboring bus lines. Despite the fact that Metro Rapid has been praised as a super success story in Los Angeles, ridership numbers shows that the lines have done little but rob the local service in the area of riders. Because all but a couple of the Metro Rapid lines parallel existing service, no new matrix dynamics have been created. In fact even the CEO of the Los Angeles Metro agency has said that Metro Rapid is not creating ridership increases.
UTA could probably do more with precious resources by following the lead of the Portland Tri-Met. Take the high ridership lines line the 37, and redo bus stops so that the curbs conform to Low Floor Buses, make sure there are no bus stops on top of each other, and use exclusively low floor buses on those routes. This will do more to speed up the bus service at a lower cost than the BRT scheme, yet do the same thing as the BRT scheme.
So what is BRT? Well that is a very open question. It can either be priority on traffic lights to dedicated right of way. What BRT promoters try to claim is that BRT is light rail at lower cost. However, most BRT projects that are in operation are barely limited service bus routes and only a couple are what many would consider comparable to a light rail line.
So what will the 3500 BRT line be like? Well, it is nothing but a glorified limited stop service. What the system will have is signal prioritization, frequent service, and few bus stops. So the buses will still deal with traffic, and will only be about 10-25% faster than current service. Currently the 37 (soon to be 35) takes 53 minutes to travel from Magna to Salt Lake City. The BRT on the other hand will only take 40 minutes. In other words you will only save about 13 minutes.
Since the BRT line will basically follow the route of the 35 there will be no new markets created by the line. While speed might create a slight ridership increase, there will not be a big increase in market forces because the route doesn't do anything that the current route does. My proposal was to run the route from Magna to the University of Utah which would have created new market forces, a new route matrix and actually brought new riders to the fold. Lets see the difference with that service. Under current conditions the bus takes 1 hour 38 minutes not counting the transfer from the 31 to the 14 (the 37 and 31 are through route so the bus just stops at TRAX, changes route numbers and continues). Now using the same 20% savings you are looking at 1 hour and 10 minutes which is a 28 minutes savings (also assumes a more direct routing). Not a huge change but the route would create a new matrix because it provides service where no existing service travels.
The BRT will most likely do nothing but rob ridership off the local Magna Route along with some ridership of the neighboring bus lines. Despite the fact that Metro Rapid has been praised as a super success story in Los Angeles, ridership numbers shows that the lines have done little but rob the local service in the area of riders. Because all but a couple of the Metro Rapid lines parallel existing service, no new matrix dynamics have been created. In fact even the CEO of the Los Angeles Metro agency has said that Metro Rapid is not creating ridership increases.
UTA could probably do more with precious resources by following the lead of the Portland Tri-Met. Take the high ridership lines line the 37, and redo bus stops so that the curbs conform to Low Floor Buses, make sure there are no bus stops on top of each other, and use exclusively low floor buses on those routes. This will do more to speed up the bus service at a lower cost than the BRT scheme, yet do the same thing as the BRT scheme.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
The Day Pass
Yesterday I talked about the Call A Ride program that I liked over in Denver that the local transit system the RTD is operating. Today I am going to talk about the day pass that RTD offers like UTA but like UTA makes them difficult to get.
Both RTD and UTA only have day passes available in certain places. The way I have purchased day passes from both companies was on their websites. However at least UTA ships out your purchases when the next business day, however RTD only ships twice a month. I purchased my day pass about a week before there site says they will ship. The ship date was almost a two weeks before I was due to leave. However, my departure date came and went with no day pass showing up (in fact, it has never shown up).
Fortunately RTD has a counter at the Denver Airport (which UTA does not) so I was able to buy a couple of day passes there. However, the bus driver on route AT punched the 6th on my day pass instead of the 7th so I was screwed.
Compare that to the Metro in the Los Angeles area. When I was in Los Angeles in March I rented a car for one day because my uncle lives in an area that would have taken hours to get there by bus. I returned the car the next day and took transit to my meeting. I just board the Metro bus and purchased the day pass and I was on my way.
If RTD drivers where able to sell day passes he could have replaced the one he screwed up on with a new one but because RTD doesn't allow the drivers to sell them, I was screwed. UTA also does not allow drivers to sell day passes which is the opposite what many other transit organizations are doing around the country.
UTA and RTD should be making day passes easy to get. Its a matter of making the transit system easy to use for your customers. In addition making it easy to use also means that people from out of town are more likely to use your system. With car rental prices going through the roof even worse than gas prices, transit systems have a good opportunity to get more people on the system.
So how about it RTD and UTA, lets make day passes easier to get?
Both RTD and UTA only have day passes available in certain places. The way I have purchased day passes from both companies was on their websites. However at least UTA ships out your purchases when the next business day, however RTD only ships twice a month. I purchased my day pass about a week before there site says they will ship. The ship date was almost a two weeks before I was due to leave. However, my departure date came and went with no day pass showing up (in fact, it has never shown up).
Fortunately RTD has a counter at the Denver Airport (which UTA does not) so I was able to buy a couple of day passes there. However, the bus driver on route AT punched the 6th on my day pass instead of the 7th so I was screwed.
Compare that to the Metro in the Los Angeles area. When I was in Los Angeles in March I rented a car for one day because my uncle lives in an area that would have taken hours to get there by bus. I returned the car the next day and took transit to my meeting. I just board the Metro bus and purchased the day pass and I was on my way.
If RTD drivers where able to sell day passes he could have replaced the one he screwed up on with a new one but because RTD doesn't allow the drivers to sell them, I was screwed. UTA also does not allow drivers to sell day passes which is the opposite what many other transit organizations are doing around the country.
UTA and RTD should be making day passes easy to get. Its a matter of making the transit system easy to use for your customers. In addition making it easy to use also means that people from out of town are more likely to use your system. With car rental prices going through the roof even worse than gas prices, transit systems have a good opportunity to get more people on the system.
So how about it RTD and UTA, lets make day passes easier to get?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Denver's Call A Ride
As I mentioned yesterday, as part of my journey in Denver I had the opportunity to ride Denver's transit system including the Dial A Ride. The picture above is of the Dial A Ride bus at the Dry Creek Station after it had dropped me off. I had already ridden this bus over to the motel about an hour earlier. All the people in the picture are actually attending the dedication ceremony of the new bridge that brings people from the light rail station, across Interstate 25 to the east side of the freeway and past the new park n ride lot.
The only other bus service in this area is the 77 route which I also took, but it only runs primarily during the peak periods.
The concept of the Dial A Ride is that it will be at the light rail station approximately every 30-minutes. Once you board, you just tell the driver where you want to go and you are on your way. Now when you want to be picked up you either tell the driver or you can also make a call up to an hour before you want to be picked up.
This is an excellent alternative to fixed route bus service in areas that are in close proximity to a light rail station (or it could be any transit center but then again we don't have many non-TRAX transit stations). UTA is half a.. doing this with the route along 9400 South after the big changes. However, it will still try to maintain a schedule and a route where a Dial A Ride has a certain coverage area and the only timepoint is to be at the light rail station every 30-minutes. One of the downsides of the RTD system in Denver is that there is no schedule on when it will be at the station but I never had to wait. Apparently it sits at the station until it needs to pick up people.
The only downside of the system for me was the hours. While it was great coming in from the airport and heading to my meeting, because it stopped running at 8:00pm I had to walk back to the motel after dark. However, at least it wasn't UTA who would have probably stopped the operation at 6:00pm like they do with many bus routes.
I think the Dial A Ride would be great for areas like Sandy, the Sandy industrial area, and several others. Daybreak is planning to have shuttles once TRAX heads out there and that would be a terrific place to have this kind of operation.
The Denver operation is run by contractors in the case of the one I road it was operation by Laidlaw Transportation. This type of operation will probably only be economical was a contracted service which means the bus drivers union will scream bloody murder. I have no problem with contracting so long as the transit system properly overseas the operation to insure quality service to its customers. However, most transit systems that contract do not have good oversight and considering how UTA does not take its customers into account in many instances, I would not hold my breath on adequate oversight.
Call A Ride is an innovative system and it is something that needs to be looked at not only at UTA but other transit systems as well.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
My Trip to Denver
Well, I know that Google Peak Oil and maybe some other people are ready to hear about my trip over to Denver. I said I was trying to do the trip all transit so how did I do? Well actually pretty good except my wife did give me a ride over to the TRAX station to avoid a 20-minute walk to the bus stop in the rain, and then picked me up at the train station since it gets in at 11:30pm.
Well my wife took me over to the Murray Central TRAX station where I rode TRAX to 3900 South and caught the 56 bus over to the airport. It went well, as I only had a duffel bag, garment bag with my suit, and my back pack with laptop in it.
I am glad I only had a short ride on TRAX since it was full. There was only one sit available and some ugly woman sat on the aisle side of the seat and refused to let anyone sit down. Now if I was traveling farther I might have been tempted to tell her off but who cares.
Next I took a Southwest Cattle Car over to Denver running 40-minutes late due to weather. Would this make you mad, you get a "A" boarding pass, wait three and a half hours for your plane (including delay) then watch as a couple in the "B" line has a friend red cap who goes over to the podium and gets them a pre-boarding pass. Neither of the people needed help plus there was already 5 wheelchairs, a blind person with dog, and several couples with little children boarding. Every time I fly into Denver, I encounter some of the worse turbulance of my life and this trip was no exception. At least this time the girl next to me did not loose her breakfast all over the place.
Originally I had 55-minutes from the time my plane landed to the next RTD Airport Express would leave heading my direction but because I had only 15-minutes it was a mad dash. Add the fact that the day passes I ordered never showed up so I had to get some at the airport plus get my duffel bag from baggage claim. Suprisingly I actually made it to the bus at the nick of time. Good thing I read headsigns since there was two AT route buses leaving at this time. One goes to a wrong area but I watched and caught the right one.
The AT bus took me to the Nine Mile Light Rail Station where I got a G line train to the Dry Creek Station where a bus took me to my motel. This bus is what is called a Dial A Ride which I will talk about in another post either tomorrow or a couple of days. Oh I bought two more Day Passes from the airport RTD counter but the driver on the AT bus punched the wrong day so I was screwed for today!
I then road the E line to the D line out to the end of the line at 30th and Downing. I would not want to be in this section of town after dark as it had lots of boarded up buildings. Then I took the D line back the Convention Center and walked to my meeting. After the meeting I walked by to the Convention Center Station and caught an F line train back to Arapahoe Station where I walked the mile and a half to my motel since bus service ends at 8:00PM in this area and it was now 9. I was actually trying to find a convinience store but did not find one on my walk back.
The next day I took RTD route 77 to the Dry Creek Station and proceed to ride the entire RTD light rail system. The line I was along follows the I-25 freeway and opened back in November while the other line goes along the main line of the BNSF down to the infamous town of Littleton. I also went to Union Station, picked up 3 sets of train tickets, then rode an historical trolley run by an historical society. It turns out this trolley will only be operating its long route for a couple of more weeks because the majority of the route is becoming RTD's new westside Light Rail Line. However the historical trolley will still run along the Platte River and its a nice little ride. I then returned to Arapahoe Station, caught the 77 again and rode it to an area where I saw some restaurants, ate, bought a couple of things for the night and headed back to the motel on the 77.
The Next day I walked about a mile back to the Dry Creek Station and caught an E line train back to Union Station and rode Amtrak's California Zephyr. The scenery along this line is outstanding, however we had a lounge car that was badly in need of refurbishment. In addition the head server in the dining car named Rose was a monster who made children cry and treated adults like they where children. Beyond her the rest of the crew was friendly and after 14 hours of outstanding scenery we arrived back in Salt Lake City 45-minutes early.
OK, except for the rides from my wife, the entire trip was via transit. In September my wife will be going with me as I have another meeting in Denver. This time we have a motel that is right at the light rail station.
Overall, RTD does somethings better than UTA, some things worse, and others just as bad like UTA. Like the Dial Ride, I will discuss these things over the next couple of days depending on what happens news wise.
Well my wife took me over to the Murray Central TRAX station where I rode TRAX to 3900 South and caught the 56 bus over to the airport. It went well, as I only had a duffel bag, garment bag with my suit, and my back pack with laptop in it.
I am glad I only had a short ride on TRAX since it was full. There was only one sit available and some ugly woman sat on the aisle side of the seat and refused to let anyone sit down. Now if I was traveling farther I might have been tempted to tell her off but who cares.
Next I took a Southwest Cattle Car over to Denver running 40-minutes late due to weather. Would this make you mad, you get a "A" boarding pass, wait three and a half hours for your plane (including delay) then watch as a couple in the "B" line has a friend red cap who goes over to the podium and gets them a pre-boarding pass. Neither of the people needed help plus there was already 5 wheelchairs, a blind person with dog, and several couples with little children boarding. Every time I fly into Denver, I encounter some of the worse turbulance of my life and this trip was no exception. At least this time the girl next to me did not loose her breakfast all over the place.
Originally I had 55-minutes from the time my plane landed to the next RTD Airport Express would leave heading my direction but because I had only 15-minutes it was a mad dash. Add the fact that the day passes I ordered never showed up so I had to get some at the airport plus get my duffel bag from baggage claim. Suprisingly I actually made it to the bus at the nick of time. Good thing I read headsigns since there was two AT route buses leaving at this time. One goes to a wrong area but I watched and caught the right one.
The AT bus took me to the Nine Mile Light Rail Station where I got a G line train to the Dry Creek Station where a bus took me to my motel. This bus is what is called a Dial A Ride which I will talk about in another post either tomorrow or a couple of days. Oh I bought two more Day Passes from the airport RTD counter but the driver on the AT bus punched the wrong day so I was screwed for today!
I then road the E line to the D line out to the end of the line at 30th and Downing. I would not want to be in this section of town after dark as it had lots of boarded up buildings. Then I took the D line back the Convention Center and walked to my meeting. After the meeting I walked by to the Convention Center Station and caught an F line train back to Arapahoe Station where I walked the mile and a half to my motel since bus service ends at 8:00PM in this area and it was now 9. I was actually trying to find a convinience store but did not find one on my walk back.
The next day I took RTD route 77 to the Dry Creek Station and proceed to ride the entire RTD light rail system. The line I was along follows the I-25 freeway and opened back in November while the other line goes along the main line of the BNSF down to the infamous town of Littleton. I also went to Union Station, picked up 3 sets of train tickets, then rode an historical trolley run by an historical society. It turns out this trolley will only be operating its long route for a couple of more weeks because the majority of the route is becoming RTD's new westside Light Rail Line. However the historical trolley will still run along the Platte River and its a nice little ride. I then returned to Arapahoe Station, caught the 77 again and rode it to an area where I saw some restaurants, ate, bought a couple of things for the night and headed back to the motel on the 77.
The Next day I walked about a mile back to the Dry Creek Station and caught an E line train back to Union Station and rode Amtrak's California Zephyr. The scenery along this line is outstanding, however we had a lounge car that was badly in need of refurbishment. In addition the head server in the dining car named Rose was a monster who made children cry and treated adults like they where children. Beyond her the rest of the crew was friendly and after 14 hours of outstanding scenery we arrived back in Salt Lake City 45-minutes early.
OK, except for the rides from my wife, the entire trip was via transit. In September my wife will be going with me as I have another meeting in Denver. This time we have a motel that is right at the light rail station.
Overall, RTD does somethings better than UTA, some things worse, and others just as bad like UTA. Like the Dial Ride, I will discuss these things over the next couple of days depending on what happens news wise.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Transit Related Articles
Legacy work is focusing on environment issues
UTA plan will let riders surf Web while they ride
-I sure would like the wireless internet service but I don't often ride the commuter cruisers so I am not important to UTA.
UTA plan will let riders surf Web while they ride
-I sure would like the wireless internet service but I don't often ride the commuter cruisers so I am not important to UTA.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Trip to Denver using transit
Tomorrow I will be leaving for a meeting that I have in Denver tomorrow night. Friday I plan to spend the day in Denver studying their transit system and return Saturday on Amtrak's California Zephyr.
My plan is to use transit for this entire journey (although if its still raining tomorrow morning I might get a ride to TRAX since there is no bus shelters in my area that I can use). I will take the 40/TRAX/56 to the airport, fly to Denver, take Denver's RTD from the airport to my motel. Transit once again from the motel to the meeting and back (although I have a mile walk hopefully at dusk coming back since bus service stops at 8:00pm), transit on Friday and transit directly to the Union Station on Saturday.
I am not sure if I will have internet access on Friday night, but if I do I will tell you how things are going (won't have time on Thursday).
Be back soon!!
My plan is to use transit for this entire journey (although if its still raining tomorrow morning I might get a ride to TRAX since there is no bus shelters in my area that I can use). I will take the 40/TRAX/56 to the airport, fly to Denver, take Denver's RTD from the airport to my motel. Transit once again from the motel to the meeting and back (although I have a mile walk hopefully at dusk coming back since bus service stops at 8:00pm), transit on Friday and transit directly to the Union Station on Saturday.
I am not sure if I will have internet access on Friday night, but if I do I will tell you how things are going (won't have time on Thursday).
Be back soon!!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
I want sound walls!!!!
Resident upset over lack of sound walls in rail project
You know this is one of those things you just have to shake your head and laugh about. Ok, she is worried about her precious little children getting hurt by debris falling off the tracks. I am sure some anti-transit zeolot would love to run with this to claim how bad commuter trains are. However, we are not talking about trains going into an area that has never seemed them before. Last time I checked that little rail line has been there for more than a hundred years and it is a very busy freight line.
Shouldn't she be more worried about all those Union Pacific freight trains that are constantly going back and forth over a passenger train on its own dedicated set of tracks?
You know this is one of those things you just have to shake your head and laugh about. Ok, she is worried about her precious little children getting hurt by debris falling off the tracks. I am sure some anti-transit zeolot would love to run with this to claim how bad commuter trains are. However, we are not talking about trains going into an area that has never seemed them before. Last time I checked that little rail line has been there for more than a hundred years and it is a very busy freight line.
Shouldn't she be more worried about all those Union Pacific freight trains that are constantly going back and forth over a passenger train on its own dedicated set of tracks?
Monday, June 04, 2007
Using a Matrix Theory in Transit
In my last post I pointed out that even if there is an increase in ridership when the changes in the bus system takes place, we should question whether UTA is actually gaining any new riders to the system. The new bus system will actually reduce the marketable opportunities to gain new riders.
Basically with a Matrix plan, for each new link you create, the more opportunities you have to create ridership. Yesterday, I used the example of Southwest Airlines to show how a well run transportation outfit operates compared to how transit systems operate. I will once again use Southwest for examples of how you make things work compared to UTA.
Lets start by using one of UTA's changes and the proposal I made a few months ago to create a new UTA system. Since they are routes that I am familiar with, I am going to use the example of routes 8 and 85 which will become routes 220 and 72.
First of all lets look at my proposal. My proposal would have continued to operate both route 8 and route 85 as is. However, route 8 would run every 30 minutes from 9400 South to downtown instead of every 20-minutes. However, I would have created a new line which would essentially be a branch of route 8. This new route will have been the same as route 8 from downtown to Highland/Fort Union Blvd where it would turn and travel to the Midvale/Fort Union TRAX station. Now according to UTA this would be a bad thing because there would be service duplication. That once again is thinking of planners who do not have hard core business experience.
This new branch 8 would also provide every 30-minute service which with coordinated scheduling (another difficult concept for UTA) would provide every 15-minute service on Fort Union Blvd from the TRAX station to Highland then would increase service on Highland/1100 East/U of U/200 South all the way to the Intermodal depot to every 15-minutes so except for the small portion of Highland south of Fort Union Blvd service would have been increased (by the way there would also be increased service on Highland because of a branch of another route but that not the issue right now).
Now according to UTA thinking, all they would see is that this new route would duplicate other services and the cost of operating the bus. Guess what? There is no concept of the marketing possibilities of this type of operation. By UTA thinking this route will only take away ridership from the 85 and the 8 because they cannot see the concept of building a system based on marketing opportunities.
However, you have actually create new markets for bus service and increased your ridership potential greatly. Here are some new opportunities created by this theory:
-Riders that will not ride along Fort Union Blvd because service is not frequent enough
-Riders who will not travel along Fort Union Blvd and Highland because service is too inconvenient with transfers.
-Riders who will now ride because they will only need to transfer twice instead of three times.
In other words you have created a whole new matrix of opportunities for ridership. Now creating branches of multiple lines creates even more marketing based opportunities and expands exponentially.
Now lets take a look at Southwest and compare them.
If Southwest ran there flights the way UTA runs their bus service you would have flights between say Salt Lake City and Denver. Then you would have flights from Salt Lake City to Reno. However there would be no through service and you would not have flights going to different destinations. A recipe for failure that most transit systems, not just UTA are good at.
Instead Southwest has a variety of flights. Lets take a look again at the the Salt Lake to Denver route (since I will be on one of these flights on Thursday). Do you think that the planes just fly from Salt Lake to Denver or from Salt Lake to Denver to one other destination. Of course they don't run their system that way. Instead out of the say 8 flights from Salt Lake to Denver, one may originate in Seattle, one in Spokane, a couple of Oakland, a couple in the Los Angeles area (in other words the "branch"). Then the serve the Salt Lake to Denver route then they head somewhere else.
With each branch that Southwest creates, they create new markets for their service. In other words they do not worry about service "duplication".
It is ironic that anti-transit types try to attack light rail by saying its inflexible compared to buses which are much more flexible. However, today's transit systems are doing everything possible to make the systems less flexible and consequently are loosing marketing opportunities.
Basically with a Matrix plan, for each new link you create, the more opportunities you have to create ridership. Yesterday, I used the example of Southwest Airlines to show how a well run transportation outfit operates compared to how transit systems operate. I will once again use Southwest for examples of how you make things work compared to UTA.
Lets start by using one of UTA's changes and the proposal I made a few months ago to create a new UTA system. Since they are routes that I am familiar with, I am going to use the example of routes 8 and 85 which will become routes 220 and 72.
First of all lets look at my proposal. My proposal would have continued to operate both route 8 and route 85 as is. However, route 8 would run every 30 minutes from 9400 South to downtown instead of every 20-minutes. However, I would have created a new line which would essentially be a branch of route 8. This new route will have been the same as route 8 from downtown to Highland/Fort Union Blvd where it would turn and travel to the Midvale/Fort Union TRAX station. Now according to UTA this would be a bad thing because there would be service duplication. That once again is thinking of planners who do not have hard core business experience.
This new branch 8 would also provide every 30-minute service which with coordinated scheduling (another difficult concept for UTA) would provide every 15-minute service on Fort Union Blvd from the TRAX station to Highland then would increase service on Highland/1100 East/U of U/200 South all the way to the Intermodal depot to every 15-minutes so except for the small portion of Highland south of Fort Union Blvd service would have been increased (by the way there would also be increased service on Highland because of a branch of another route but that not the issue right now).
Now according to UTA thinking, all they would see is that this new route would duplicate other services and the cost of operating the bus. Guess what? There is no concept of the marketing possibilities of this type of operation. By UTA thinking this route will only take away ridership from the 85 and the 8 because they cannot see the concept of building a system based on marketing opportunities.
However, you have actually create new markets for bus service and increased your ridership potential greatly. Here are some new opportunities created by this theory:
-Riders that will not ride along Fort Union Blvd because service is not frequent enough
-Riders who will not travel along Fort Union Blvd and Highland because service is too inconvenient with transfers.
-Riders who will now ride because they will only need to transfer twice instead of three times.
In other words you have created a whole new matrix of opportunities for ridership. Now creating branches of multiple lines creates even more marketing based opportunities and expands exponentially.
Now lets take a look at Southwest and compare them.
If Southwest ran there flights the way UTA runs their bus service you would have flights between say Salt Lake City and Denver. Then you would have flights from Salt Lake City to Reno. However there would be no through service and you would not have flights going to different destinations. A recipe for failure that most transit systems, not just UTA are good at.
Instead Southwest has a variety of flights. Lets take a look again at the the Salt Lake to Denver route (since I will be on one of these flights on Thursday). Do you think that the planes just fly from Salt Lake to Denver or from Salt Lake to Denver to one other destination. Of course they don't run their system that way. Instead out of the say 8 flights from Salt Lake to Denver, one may originate in Seattle, one in Spokane, a couple of Oakland, a couple in the Los Angeles area (in other words the "branch"). Then the serve the Salt Lake to Denver route then they head somewhere else.
With each branch that Southwest creates, they create new markets for their service. In other words they do not worry about service "duplication".
It is ironic that anti-transit types try to attack light rail by saying its inflexible compared to buses which are much more flexible. However, today's transit systems are doing everything possible to make the systems less flexible and consequently are loosing marketing opportunities.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Why Ridership Increases with Changed Service is Meaningless
UTA is bragging on how much the changes in the bus service in Utah and Weber Counties have increased ridership, and how they expect a 17% increase in ridership when the changes happen. Actually ridership numbers on the buses should actually increase even more than that and all the over paid planners at UTA and the board will be patting themselves on the back saying what a great job they have done. However, the truth of the matter is, the ridership increase will be meaningless and the planners should be held accountable for different numbers.
Let me show you how ridership increases will be meaningless with this new system and why UTA management should not get away with saying success if ridership goes up.
I will use myself as a perfect example of what will happen with the numbers. Currently I have two ways to get to downtown from my place. I can either walk to Van Winkle/1300 East and catch the 32 bus or I can wall to Spring Lane and 1300 east and catch the 11 which is more convenient since buses that run every hour are useless.
Now if the replacement for the 32 still stops on Van Winkle which we still don't know yet, it will only run during a few trips per day during rush hour so will be useless for anyone that doesn't work in downtown. So say I am traveling to the downtown area mid day which would more fit with my travel patterns. Instead of being able to take one bus directly to downtown I will have to take the new 213 (old 11) to the U. then transfer to either the 220 (old 8) or to TRAX which will be over crowded. Because UTA counts people getting on and off the bus I am counted a second time when I finish my trip to downtown. So in other words even though I am making the same trip I have many times, I am now counted as two riders instead of 1. So there will be a large number of people who will have to ride two buses instead of one. So in other words UTA ridership has gone up using a typical transit system's voodoo accounting. However, has UTA gained any new riders? NO!!
Now lets put things in perspective. UTA like most transit agencies use passenger mile per vehicle mile to tell you how well they are doing. Of course the problem with this number is that it does not tell you is how much they are making per mile. In fact besides transit agencies the only people that use passenger mile per train mile is Amtrak who is the king of bad accounting. For the record I am supporter of train service but feel that Amtrak management has been very poor especially for the 14 years that former transit people have had control. Oh wait, former transit people have been in control of Amtrak until last year and it has gone down the drain in quality, now there isn't any coincidences there right?
Now lets take a look at a successful transportation company and see what they look at. When it comes to transportation companies that are successful you have to look at Southwest Airlines. Does Southwest care about passenger miles? Of course not, they care about revenue per mile. UTA doesn't look at revenue figures. UTA cannot tell you how many people will have to transfer from route 11 to another route when it is cut. But I bet Southwest can tell you how many times a customer has to change planes. I bet you they can break it down if they where to cut a route in half how many people would it affect. They wouldn't be looking strictly at how many people it carries they would be looking at how much revenue the run brings in.
The the first of next year we will have UTA claiming how "successful" the changes in the transit system was. But remember, it is nothing but vodoo numbers, UTA doesn't care about the real numbers.
Let me show you how ridership increases will be meaningless with this new system and why UTA management should not get away with saying success if ridership goes up.
I will use myself as a perfect example of what will happen with the numbers. Currently I have two ways to get to downtown from my place. I can either walk to Van Winkle/1300 East and catch the 32 bus or I can wall to Spring Lane and 1300 east and catch the 11 which is more convenient since buses that run every hour are useless.
Now if the replacement for the 32 still stops on Van Winkle which we still don't know yet, it will only run during a few trips per day during rush hour so will be useless for anyone that doesn't work in downtown. So say I am traveling to the downtown area mid day which would more fit with my travel patterns. Instead of being able to take one bus directly to downtown I will have to take the new 213 (old 11) to the U. then transfer to either the 220 (old 8) or to TRAX which will be over crowded. Because UTA counts people getting on and off the bus I am counted a second time when I finish my trip to downtown. So in other words even though I am making the same trip I have many times, I am now counted as two riders instead of 1. So there will be a large number of people who will have to ride two buses instead of one. So in other words UTA ridership has gone up using a typical transit system's voodoo accounting. However, has UTA gained any new riders? NO!!
Now lets put things in perspective. UTA like most transit agencies use passenger mile per vehicle mile to tell you how well they are doing. Of course the problem with this number is that it does not tell you is how much they are making per mile. In fact besides transit agencies the only people that use passenger mile per train mile is Amtrak who is the king of bad accounting. For the record I am supporter of train service but feel that Amtrak management has been very poor especially for the 14 years that former transit people have had control. Oh wait, former transit people have been in control of Amtrak until last year and it has gone down the drain in quality, now there isn't any coincidences there right?
Now lets take a look at a successful transportation company and see what they look at. When it comes to transportation companies that are successful you have to look at Southwest Airlines. Does Southwest care about passenger miles? Of course not, they care about revenue per mile. UTA doesn't look at revenue figures. UTA cannot tell you how many people will have to transfer from route 11 to another route when it is cut. But I bet Southwest can tell you how many times a customer has to change planes. I bet you they can break it down if they where to cut a route in half how many people would it affect. They wouldn't be looking strictly at how many people it carries they would be looking at how much revenue the run brings in.
The the first of next year we will have UTA claiming how "successful" the changes in the transit system was. But remember, it is nothing but vodoo numbers, UTA doesn't care about the real numbers.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Changes in UTA Plan
Well, I told you I would go over the changes UTA made is the great bus plan so here they are with comments:
I am going to do this in order they appear on the lovely UTA website.
Route 62: 6200 South. They discovered that buses will not be able to turn from 6235 South onto 1300 West Southbound so instead they will head north to 5400 South. I am sure that will please the people on 1300 West whose homes are close to the street, so they will probably scream bloody murder. Now call me crazy, but doesn't that mean that this route and the 5400 South route will duplicate 5400 South for a portion. The evils of it!!
Route 11: Route will basically parrallel existing Route 1 with the jog to 13th instead of staying on 11th between G and I Streets.
Route 6: This route will have evening/night service instead of route 3.
Route 3: Will service the VA Hospital but still looses service to the University of Utah.
Route 21: Will run north/south along 2100 East instead of Foothill Blvd that looses 15 min service for hourly service. This restores decent service along 2100 South which should have never been cut back to every 30-minutes but then again UTA planners are not held accountable from stupidity.
Route 213: Will use Highland/1100 East from Richmond & Highland to 9th South replaces a portion of old Route 8 (to be 220) which will run along 1300 East instead. Now if the people in scheduling will figure out if a bus ends at the University of Utah instead of going all the way to downtown it should arrive at TRAX at the U. a few minutes before a Downtown bound train, not at the same time (oh wait, we are talking UTA schedulers, forget it).
Route 220: As mentioned will use 1300 East north of Richmond/Highland to the U. In addition, Nicole from Where's My Bus, UTA? is hopefully jumping for joy because it will use 200 South from the U not S. Temple (S. Temple portion replaced by Route 209). Now if only we knew at what hours the bus was running since they have not addressed those issues yet (then again they could cut and no one will know!)
Route 223: Will run along 2700 South/1700 East/1700 South/1900 East/900 South to Guardsman Way instead of 2000 East/Parkway/2100 East. Service reduced to hourly during the day (I will blast this later). Restores service along 1700 East but the 15th/15th area still has no service.
Route 228: Will replace route 14 except will travel along 100 South instead of 400 South (why? wouldn't better service along South Temple made more sense since service was restored to 200 South). Also will run down Murray-Holladay Road to the Cottonwood Dead Mall. Once again will have hourly mid day service.
Route 209: Two changes: will use South Temple instead of 200 South to replace Route 220, will also use Winchester to the 6200 South TRAX station (so 900 East south of Winchester loses service because can't have duplication with revived Fort Union Blvd route). I bet UTA didn't even think about the fact that this restores Saturday service to a major mall that is under going major refurbishment (oh wait, of course not since UTA isn't good about serving major destinations properly that might actually build business with the proper marketing).
Route 207: Will replace the portion of existing route 10 south of the Murray Central TRAX station along Vine, 5600 South, and Fashion Blvd instead of using 5900 South/State. But since UTA made this change they of course cut service to hourly to teach people not to complain about their change ideas!
Route 217: Good service cut back from traveling all the way to 5400 South and instead will terminate at SLCC. Once again another major shopping and entrainment destination looses Saturday bus service.
Route 218: Gives southern part of Redwood direct service to SLCC. However Southtowne Mall and Redwood Shopping Centers loose Saturday service (of course Southtowne is essentially without transit service now except for the 811).
Route 519 and 520: Minor change in downtown routing that won't take effect immediatly because of City Creek construction.
Route 500: Will use 400 South and Main Street instead of 200 South and State street on portion of route.
Routes 517 and 522: The Crackheads are at it again. Since there was an uproar over loosing Route 26, UTA is getting even by creating a convulted route system. Route 517 will run peak hours in one way and back in the pm. During those times the 522 will not run the same direction even though it serves Redwood Road which is a good distance from 2200 West. This once again shows how UTA just does not make riding their system easy for their customers.
Route 313: Once of those Fast Buses that are a waste of capital assets. Instead of traveling directly down Union Park Ave to I-215 will diviate to service the Park and Ride lot on 6600 South. Now if only the replacement for the 32 as many stops as this route.
Route 307: Replaces route 32, no changes but where are the limited stops going to be? Are you going to screw the many people who board along Van Winkle like several people I know? Inquiring mines want to know.
Route 240: A couple of trips added because of heavy ridership, plus will exit I-15 at 500 South/600 South instead of the 400 South HOV exit.
Route 35: Route will service UTA like existing route 37. Ok, its fine to make your customers walk great distances to a bus, but your drivers can't walk a couple of blocks or take the 39? What a bunch of bull.
Route 227: Will service Welfare Square, what a concept.
Route 232: Will use California instead of 1700 South due to restoration of service along 4800 West. Once again UTA is cutting service to hourly.
Route 518: Well heres a concept, instead of having the bus run empty dead heading one way, the route will run "live" back to starting point.
Route 248: I mentioned when I rode the 48 route it seemed to have good ridership despite it being a new route. Well, it looks like UTA will keep the route but to show it really doesn't want the route it will end at 5400 South instead of 6200 South loosing service to the Cougar Shopping Center that seemed to create many trips.
Route 348: Route will use 9000 South instead of Old Bingham Highway which is now closed off. Is this the new service the one Board of Rubber Stamping was talking about creating new service? It sure doesn't seem to be creating a great deal of new service.
Route 356: One of those great new Fast Buses will have minor reroutes in the 6200 South/5600 South area and in downtown. Service slashed in half from 4 trips to 2 trips.
Route 551: Restores service to International Center but only 4 trips AM and 4 trips PM.
Route 236: Will service the business park west of Bangerter Highway north of 2100 South.
Wood Cross Routes: Will not be revamp just new numbers with some minor changes. So who is politcally connected here?
Route 471: Replaces route 71 which was to be killed.
Route 72: Reinstated by the good graces of UTA. Of course to get even service will be cut to hourly.
Route 78: Extended from 4000 West to 4800 West.
Route 389: Service cut from 4 trips per day to 2. Minor reroute leaving Judge High School.
Route 90: Extended to 4800 West to interline with route 78.
Route 94: Instead of being peak hours only, UTA will make this Salt Lake County's first Flex Route. This concept has the bus diviating from its route to service the neighborhood. This will restore full time weekday bus service to the route. Too bad UTA doesn't have decent buses to use on this type of route unless they plan to use Flextrans buses.
Thats what UTA changed from the orginal plan.
Now the hourly crap: UTA even admitted a few years ago that hourly service doesn't work. Optional Customers will not be attracted to a service that runs this infrequently. By running a bus every hour they are killing all the potential that route has. They plan to run these buses every hour and tell you next year, oh well there not working, we are going to kill them off.
I am going to do this in order they appear on the lovely UTA website.
Route 62: 6200 South. They discovered that buses will not be able to turn from 6235 South onto 1300 West Southbound so instead they will head north to 5400 South. I am sure that will please the people on 1300 West whose homes are close to the street, so they will probably scream bloody murder. Now call me crazy, but doesn't that mean that this route and the 5400 South route will duplicate 5400 South for a portion. The evils of it!!
Route 11: Route will basically parrallel existing Route 1 with the jog to 13th instead of staying on 11th between G and I Streets.
Route 6: This route will have evening/night service instead of route 3.
Route 3: Will service the VA Hospital but still looses service to the University of Utah.
Route 21: Will run north/south along 2100 East instead of Foothill Blvd that looses 15 min service for hourly service. This restores decent service along 2100 South which should have never been cut back to every 30-minutes but then again UTA planners are not held accountable from stupidity.
Route 213: Will use Highland/1100 East from Richmond & Highland to 9th South replaces a portion of old Route 8 (to be 220) which will run along 1300 East instead. Now if the people in scheduling will figure out if a bus ends at the University of Utah instead of going all the way to downtown it should arrive at TRAX at the U. a few minutes before a Downtown bound train, not at the same time (oh wait, we are talking UTA schedulers, forget it).
Route 220: As mentioned will use 1300 East north of Richmond/Highland to the U. In addition, Nicole from Where's My Bus, UTA? is hopefully jumping for joy because it will use 200 South from the U not S. Temple (S. Temple portion replaced by Route 209). Now if only we knew at what hours the bus was running since they have not addressed those issues yet (then again they could cut and no one will know!)
Route 223: Will run along 2700 South/1700 East/1700 South/1900 East/900 South to Guardsman Way instead of 2000 East/Parkway/2100 East. Service reduced to hourly during the day (I will blast this later). Restores service along 1700 East but the 15th/15th area still has no service.
Route 228: Will replace route 14 except will travel along 100 South instead of 400 South (why? wouldn't better service along South Temple made more sense since service was restored to 200 South). Also will run down Murray-Holladay Road to the Cottonwood Dead Mall. Once again will have hourly mid day service.
Route 209: Two changes: will use South Temple instead of 200 South to replace Route 220, will also use Winchester to the 6200 South TRAX station (so 900 East south of Winchester loses service because can't have duplication with revived Fort Union Blvd route). I bet UTA didn't even think about the fact that this restores Saturday service to a major mall that is under going major refurbishment (oh wait, of course not since UTA isn't good about serving major destinations properly that might actually build business with the proper marketing).
Route 207: Will replace the portion of existing route 10 south of the Murray Central TRAX station along Vine, 5600 South, and Fashion Blvd instead of using 5900 South/State. But since UTA made this change they of course cut service to hourly to teach people not to complain about their change ideas!
Route 217: Good service cut back from traveling all the way to 5400 South and instead will terminate at SLCC. Once again another major shopping and entrainment destination looses Saturday bus service.
Route 218: Gives southern part of Redwood direct service to SLCC. However Southtowne Mall and Redwood Shopping Centers loose Saturday service (of course Southtowne is essentially without transit service now except for the 811).
Route 519 and 520: Minor change in downtown routing that won't take effect immediatly because of City Creek construction.
Route 500: Will use 400 South and Main Street instead of 200 South and State street on portion of route.
Routes 517 and 522: The Crackheads are at it again. Since there was an uproar over loosing Route 26, UTA is getting even by creating a convulted route system. Route 517 will run peak hours in one way and back in the pm. During those times the 522 will not run the same direction even though it serves Redwood Road which is a good distance from 2200 West. This once again shows how UTA just does not make riding their system easy for their customers.
Route 313: Once of those Fast Buses that are a waste of capital assets. Instead of traveling directly down Union Park Ave to I-215 will diviate to service the Park and Ride lot on 6600 South. Now if only the replacement for the 32 as many stops as this route.
Route 307: Replaces route 32, no changes but where are the limited stops going to be? Are you going to screw the many people who board along Van Winkle like several people I know? Inquiring mines want to know.
Route 240: A couple of trips added because of heavy ridership, plus will exit I-15 at 500 South/600 South instead of the 400 South HOV exit.
Route 35: Route will service UTA like existing route 37. Ok, its fine to make your customers walk great distances to a bus, but your drivers can't walk a couple of blocks or take the 39? What a bunch of bull.
Route 227: Will service Welfare Square, what a concept.
Route 232: Will use California instead of 1700 South due to restoration of service along 4800 West. Once again UTA is cutting service to hourly.
Route 518: Well heres a concept, instead of having the bus run empty dead heading one way, the route will run "live" back to starting point.
Route 248: I mentioned when I rode the 48 route it seemed to have good ridership despite it being a new route. Well, it looks like UTA will keep the route but to show it really doesn't want the route it will end at 5400 South instead of 6200 South loosing service to the Cougar Shopping Center that seemed to create many trips.
Route 348: Route will use 9000 South instead of Old Bingham Highway which is now closed off. Is this the new service the one Board of Rubber Stamping was talking about creating new service? It sure doesn't seem to be creating a great deal of new service.
Route 356: One of those great new Fast Buses will have minor reroutes in the 6200 South/5600 South area and in downtown. Service slashed in half from 4 trips to 2 trips.
Route 551: Restores service to International Center but only 4 trips AM and 4 trips PM.
Route 236: Will service the business park west of Bangerter Highway north of 2100 South.
Wood Cross Routes: Will not be revamp just new numbers with some minor changes. So who is politcally connected here?
Route 471: Replaces route 71 which was to be killed.
Route 72: Reinstated by the good graces of UTA. Of course to get even service will be cut to hourly.
Route 78: Extended from 4000 West to 4800 West.
Route 389: Service cut from 4 trips per day to 2. Minor reroute leaving Judge High School.
Route 90: Extended to 4800 West to interline with route 78.
Route 94: Instead of being peak hours only, UTA will make this Salt Lake County's first Flex Route. This concept has the bus diviating from its route to service the neighborhood. This will restore full time weekday bus service to the route. Too bad UTA doesn't have decent buses to use on this type of route unless they plan to use Flextrans buses.
Thats what UTA changed from the orginal plan.
Now the hourly crap: UTA even admitted a few years ago that hourly service doesn't work. Optional Customers will not be attracted to a service that runs this infrequently. By running a bus every hour they are killing all the potential that route has. They plan to run these buses every hour and tell you next year, oh well there not working, we are going to kill them off.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Deseret News Editorial
Transit needs higher priority
Surprisingly good editorial coming from the Deseret News. Wasatch Regional Council has been a big supporter of TRAX since 1999, but it seems that it is still taking the highways are priority stance. There is many reasons why the focus needs to be on transit and will have to be to keep the quality of life good on the Wasatch Front. We will see what happens.
Surprisingly good editorial coming from the Deseret News. Wasatch Regional Council has been a big supporter of TRAX since 1999, but it seems that it is still taking the highways are priority stance. There is many reasons why the focus needs to be on transit and will have to be to keep the quality of life good on the Wasatch Front. We will see what happens.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Changes in Bus System Approved, Suprise, Suprise, Suprise
UTA revises its bus-system redesign
I will comment in the next couple of days about some of the changes they have made which some are good, some are OK, some are bad, some are really bad.
Right now I want to comment on the board meeting.
First of all, it seems that the impression that the board was trying to get across to their customers was: you had your information meetings to talk about the changes, don't bug us about them we already made up our mines.
While I will complement the chairman for actually going through the audience and greeting everyone that was there, I would have to say that the general tone of the meeting was one of scolding the children for talking back.
Then we had three of the members lecture us on how they know the bus system and do ride it. The first guy to talk told us how he was dependent of the bus when he went to the U. I thought to myself: looking at you I would guess that was twenty to thirty years ago, how does not apply to today? Then he told us how his area was getting bus service for the first time. Interesting he said he was on the west side but there is little new service there except for the capital wasting fast buses but they are primarily traveling down routes that have service and the new route along 6200 south but for the most part the area still has service now. So I question the sincerity of his comments.
The third board member try to chastise everyone for thinking that the board is made up of rich people in their Mercedes. She saids her family does take the bus and knows the system. Then the chairman mentioned that he has two daughters with MS and another in a wheelchair but he said he could not let personal feelings affect his decision.
After all the talk they went ahead and approved the fare increase and the changes.
I still say the Board of Trustees needs to be revamped. The board needs representation from labor and from the riders. Then maybe people will start having more faith in the board. Well, maybe.
I will comment in the next couple of days about some of the changes they have made which some are good, some are OK, some are bad, some are really bad.
Right now I want to comment on the board meeting.
First of all, it seems that the impression that the board was trying to get across to their customers was: you had your information meetings to talk about the changes, don't bug us about them we already made up our mines.
While I will complement the chairman for actually going through the audience and greeting everyone that was there, I would have to say that the general tone of the meeting was one of scolding the children for talking back.
Then we had three of the members lecture us on how they know the bus system and do ride it. The first guy to talk told us how he was dependent of the bus when he went to the U. I thought to myself: looking at you I would guess that was twenty to thirty years ago, how does not apply to today? Then he told us how his area was getting bus service for the first time. Interesting he said he was on the west side but there is little new service there except for the capital wasting fast buses but they are primarily traveling down routes that have service and the new route along 6200 south but for the most part the area still has service now. So I question the sincerity of his comments.
The third board member try to chastise everyone for thinking that the board is made up of rich people in their Mercedes. She saids her family does take the bus and knows the system. Then the chairman mentioned that he has two daughters with MS and another in a wheelchair but he said he could not let personal feelings affect his decision.
After all the talk they went ahead and approved the fare increase and the changes.
I still say the Board of Trustees needs to be revamped. The board needs representation from labor and from the riders. Then maybe people will start having more faith in the board. Well, maybe.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Transit Oriented Article
American Fork Rotary, UTA unveil bus shelter
Wow, a nice little fluff piece the day of the big board meeting.
Too bad your chances of having a shelter waiting for a UTA bus is notta unless you are downtown or along one of the TRAX lines. Then again if your riding a bus from 3300 South to 2100 South along 900 West you have a choice of nice shelters. Oh thats right! There is no bus service along 900 West in that area any more so the bus stop shelters are useless.
Another example of UTA failing its customers.
Wow, a nice little fluff piece the day of the big board meeting.
Too bad your chances of having a shelter waiting for a UTA bus is notta unless you are downtown or along one of the TRAX lines. Then again if your riding a bus from 3300 South to 2100 South along 900 West you have a choice of nice shelters. Oh thats right! There is no bus service along 900 West in that area any more so the bus stop shelters are useless.
Another example of UTA failing its customers.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Important Article about the changes....
Fliers on UTA redesign irk riders
I encourage everyone if they can, to be at tomorrow's Board meeting of UTA. I was not planning to attend since usual changes like this are rubber stamped by governing Boards, but this article clearly shows how misguided the UTA is.
I think Justin Jones from the UTA has opened up another can of worms (and you thought they could not open another on over this issue!!).
Its is clear that the Board of Directors of UTA needs to be changed. Their purpose is to run the agency and to take into consideration the needs of their customers when making changes. What Mr. Jones implies is that the UTA employees will do whatever they want.
If the UTA board had any guts, it will ask Mr. Jones for his resignation for making them sound useless. If I was a board member I would be very angry at this statements.
What is needed is a new board format that includes a representative from the riders, a representative from the drivers, and then representatives from the jurisdictions voted on by each city and county.
I have changed my schedule to be at tomorrows meeting, I hope everyone who can come will show up and start asking for heads to roll.
I encourage everyone if they can, to be at tomorrow's Board meeting of UTA. I was not planning to attend since usual changes like this are rubber stamped by governing Boards, but this article clearly shows how misguided the UTA is.
I think Justin Jones from the UTA has opened up another can of worms (and you thought they could not open another on over this issue!!).
Its is clear that the Board of Directors of UTA needs to be changed. Their purpose is to run the agency and to take into consideration the needs of their customers when making changes. What Mr. Jones implies is that the UTA employees will do whatever they want.
If the UTA board had any guts, it will ask Mr. Jones for his resignation for making them sound useless. If I was a board member I would be very angry at this statements.
What is needed is a new board format that includes a representative from the riders, a representative from the drivers, and then representatives from the jurisdictions voted on by each city and county.
I have changed my schedule to be at tomorrows meeting, I hope everyone who can come will show up and start asking for heads to roll.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Transit Oriented Editorial
Don't dismantle UTA
Good editorial from the Deseret News opposing the bill by Rep. Harper of West Jordan that would help kill TRAX expansion.
UTA needs a wake-up call
Then there is this letter to editor in today's Deseret News. This guy does get one thing right, it would put the brakes on UTA and kill off all transit expansion. Would he rather have UTA in the hands of people who would like to eliminate most service? Apparently so.
Good editorial from the Deseret News opposing the bill by Rep. Harper of West Jordan that would help kill TRAX expansion.
UTA needs a wake-up call
Then there is this letter to editor in today's Deseret News. This guy does get one thing right, it would put the brakes on UTA and kill off all transit expansion. Would he rather have UTA in the hands of people who would like to eliminate most service? Apparently so.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Bad Proposal Back again....
Proposal to restructure UTA resurfaces at the Capitol
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am not a fan of UTA management. With that being said, this proposal to bring UTA under the control of UDOT is one of the most dangerous and stupid proposals to come out of our legislature and that's saying a lot.
While UTA needs some reorganization, it is not a bad agency, UDOT on the other hand is a highway agency not a transit agency. If this merger takes place you can kiss our badly needed TRAX expansion goodbye. The state will steal our tax money and put it into only highway projects. Remember our state legislature is made up of primarily right wing extremist who tend to be very anti-transit zealots.
If UTA is merged with the state, the counties should take votes to take over their own transit service.
So much for Republicans being for local control.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am not a fan of UTA management. With that being said, this proposal to bring UTA under the control of UDOT is one of the most dangerous and stupid proposals to come out of our legislature and that's saying a lot.
While UTA needs some reorganization, it is not a bad agency, UDOT on the other hand is a highway agency not a transit agency. If this merger takes place you can kiss our badly needed TRAX expansion goodbye. The state will steal our tax money and put it into only highway projects. Remember our state legislature is made up of primarily right wing extremist who tend to be very anti-transit zealots.
If UTA is merged with the state, the counties should take votes to take over their own transit service.
So much for Republicans being for local control.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Drivers: UTA's Ambassadors
Yesterday I took another journey through Salt Lake county on the UTA. Among the routes that I rode where the 11, 3, 50, 9, 10, 39, TRAX, 22, and the 24.
One of the things that has always bothered me about many bus drivers, while they may be friendly, they do a poor job of being Ambassadors for the transit authority. After all, they are probably the only UTA employees most people ever encounter unless someone goes into one of the UTA shops to buy a pass or something. So the drivers ARE the UTA.
One of the problems is the drivers attitude toward their customers. Many drivers have a disdain from the customers thinking they are all idiots and such and a major inconvenience (despite the fact that like any business, without the customer you don't have a job!). Having worked with customers for many years I know that sometimes you feel that they are pains in the ...., they are still customers and still needed to be treated with respect.
This comes especially true when people ask questions. As the UTA, the driver needs to have a working knowledge of the system to answer questions. I can name at least 5 times yesterday that the driver was asked a basic question and could not answer it or got agitated about the question being asked. The drivers need to remember that the person asking the question is from out of town or something and may be confused about the area. The more they help the better the UTA looks.
Once again though, if there is a problem with the employee management is to blame. If I have employee that is not giving good customer service I am to blame. I have not trained well, or I have not motivated right, but it comes down to the fact of management error. Maybe UTA needs to throw out its personality test that potential employees has to take because it doesn't work.
Then again we have another factor with drivers and thats the union. One of the reasons I am no fan of unions is that a union will protect bad employees. Instead of helping weed out the bad apples and keeping the best, unions will protect to the death any employee no matter how bad they are. There needs to be a change of attitude that allows for drivers with the right personality to be removed from the buses.
The drivers are representatives of the UTA and each one should be an ambassador for the system. After all, the better they are with the customers, the more likely people will be willing to ride the bus and the more buses UTA will need to put out on the road and in turn, the more drivers the UTA will need.
One of the things that has always bothered me about many bus drivers, while they may be friendly, they do a poor job of being Ambassadors for the transit authority. After all, they are probably the only UTA employees most people ever encounter unless someone goes into one of the UTA shops to buy a pass or something. So the drivers ARE the UTA.
One of the problems is the drivers attitude toward their customers. Many drivers have a disdain from the customers thinking they are all idiots and such and a major inconvenience (despite the fact that like any business, without the customer you don't have a job!). Having worked with customers for many years I know that sometimes you feel that they are pains in the ...., they are still customers and still needed to be treated with respect.
This comes especially true when people ask questions. As the UTA, the driver needs to have a working knowledge of the system to answer questions. I can name at least 5 times yesterday that the driver was asked a basic question and could not answer it or got agitated about the question being asked. The drivers need to remember that the person asking the question is from out of town or something and may be confused about the area. The more they help the better the UTA looks.
Once again though, if there is a problem with the employee management is to blame. If I have employee that is not giving good customer service I am to blame. I have not trained well, or I have not motivated right, but it comes down to the fact of management error. Maybe UTA needs to throw out its personality test that potential employees has to take because it doesn't work.
Then again we have another factor with drivers and thats the union. One of the reasons I am no fan of unions is that a union will protect bad employees. Instead of helping weed out the bad apples and keeping the best, unions will protect to the death any employee no matter how bad they are. There needs to be a change of attitude that allows for drivers with the right personality to be removed from the buses.
The drivers are representatives of the UTA and each one should be an ambassador for the system. After all, the better they are with the customers, the more likely people will be willing to ride the bus and the more buses UTA will need to put out on the road and in turn, the more drivers the UTA will need.
Monday, May 14, 2007
UTA bike ride in Provo....
UTA plans bike ride with Provo's mayor
Wow, UTA is putting on a bike ride in Provo to celebrate National Bike Month.
I am sure that UTA people will be out handing out promotional things, but of the UTA big wigs planning to attend the event, do you think any of them will actually take their buses down to the event? If John Inglish or any of the other big wigs are attending they should ride the 811 down to the event and hopefully get one of the crappy wrapped buses. (Of course they would probably end up getting a commuter cruiser of the bus division's management knows the big wigs will be riding).
UTA management needs to be on the bus more to see what is happening with the system they are in charge of.
Wow, UTA is putting on a bike ride in Provo to celebrate National Bike Month.
I am sure that UTA people will be out handing out promotional things, but of the UTA big wigs planning to attend the event, do you think any of them will actually take their buses down to the event? If John Inglish or any of the other big wigs are attending they should ride the 811 down to the event and hopefully get one of the crappy wrapped buses. (Of course they would probably end up getting a commuter cruiser of the bus division's management knows the big wigs will be riding).
UTA management needs to be on the bus more to see what is happening with the system they are in charge of.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
A Day in Salt Lake County.
Well I talked about my days in Utah, Weber, and Davis counties and now to discuss my travels within Salt Lake county which actually comprises a couple of days plus my regular travels.
One of the trips I took was on the 48 line. This line was created from the cuts last year in the West Valley. The line travels from the Ballpark TRAX station to 6200 South and 4800 West with some trips serving the industrial complex to the west of Bangerter Highway.
Despite the fact this route is less than a year old ridership was good even in the off-peak hours and generally it takes about 3 years to build the ridership up an a new route to adequate levels. However, this route will cease to exist with the bus reorganization despite it providing good cross valley bus service.
One of the biggest things I am noticed was how bad the low floor buses are falling apart. The interiors rattle so bad even the one year old Opus buses, there are rattles throughout and give a generally poor ride. Now if UTA management and the Board of Directors cared about the riders they would be paying attention to these facts and working to solve the problems and communicate the problems with the manufacturers.
One thing I have mentioned in the past, why does UTA have the 11 & 7 run on top of each other? How much better would ridership be if they provided coordinated service along 1300 East? The same can be said of the 32 and 21 which run 2 minutes apart inbound and on the same schedule outbound.
Overall, almost every bus was on time and the drivers where friendly. The system did its job.
One of the trips I took was on the 48 line. This line was created from the cuts last year in the West Valley. The line travels from the Ballpark TRAX station to 6200 South and 4800 West with some trips serving the industrial complex to the west of Bangerter Highway.
Despite the fact this route is less than a year old ridership was good even in the off-peak hours and generally it takes about 3 years to build the ridership up an a new route to adequate levels. However, this route will cease to exist with the bus reorganization despite it providing good cross valley bus service.
One of the biggest things I am noticed was how bad the low floor buses are falling apart. The interiors rattle so bad even the one year old Opus buses, there are rattles throughout and give a generally poor ride. Now if UTA management and the Board of Directors cared about the riders they would be paying attention to these facts and working to solve the problems and communicate the problems with the manufacturers.
One thing I have mentioned in the past, why does UTA have the 11 & 7 run on top of each other? How much better would ridership be if they provided coordinated service along 1300 East? The same can be said of the 32 and 21 which run 2 minutes apart inbound and on the same schedule outbound.
Overall, almost every bus was on time and the drivers where friendly. The system did its job.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
My Trip to Utah County
Earlier I covered my trip up to Weber and Davis counties. Today, it will be some observations about my trip down to Utah County.
I was wondering in this was the wrong day to take this trip. While nothing went wrong catching the 40 line, once I got to TRAX things went wacky.
I had a 17 minutes before my train which would be the first southbound train of the day from downtown. When the northbound train showed up it was on the wrong track so I knew something was wrong. I then worried about making my short connection to the 811.
Next one of the University trains came into the station also on the wrong track followed almost immediately by another Downtown train. Then a two car train of San Jose cars pulled in heading north but on the right track. The train sat at the station for several minutes so I went up and asked the operator what was up and he ignored me.
After he left another University train pulled in also on the proper track. I then wondered how late our train would be. Finally nine minutes late our southbound train finally showed up. One person commented that the 811 driver always leaves on time no matter what is up with TRAX so I gave up making it, however the bus was still there when we arrived. Sadly, it was one of the low floor Gilligs instead of a Commuter Cruiser and wouldn't you know it was wrapped!!
A couple of observations:
1. UTA Dispatchers should be able to use the loudspeakers at TRAX station platforms in order to keep their customers informed what is going on.
2. UTA TRAX operators need to do a better job of keeping their customers informed of what is happening and if buses are going to be held.
Once I got to Orem I rode the 862, 833, and 832 which have all changed since my last trip here. Surprisingly all the changes seem to make some since except for the poor service to the MTC and Provo Temple.
What is it with the busiest bus routes in the UTA system getting the worst buses in the system? Many of the buses running around where UTA's oldest Orions. Why did Weber/Davis get new buses while Orem that has even higher ridership gets the shaft?
Well I guess that Utah County is getting the BRT line so they should be satisfied even thought should be a streetcar line. It makes more sense as a streetcar line since that will attract more riders than a bus.
The Utah Valley Visitors bureau has a nice brochure that shows all the trails in the area plus bus routes (even though the bus routes are about 4 years out of date). Since I walk an hour per day I like walking new trails and would like to know where they are. UTA should be promoting the use of these trails and be using items such as this brochure more to encourage ridership.
Overall, Utah County seems to work but there needs to be more improvements in order to improve non-BYU ridership on the local routes.
I was wondering in this was the wrong day to take this trip. While nothing went wrong catching the 40 line, once I got to TRAX things went wacky.
I had a 17 minutes before my train which would be the first southbound train of the day from downtown. When the northbound train showed up it was on the wrong track so I knew something was wrong. I then worried about making my short connection to the 811.
Next one of the University trains came into the station also on the wrong track followed almost immediately by another Downtown train. Then a two car train of San Jose cars pulled in heading north but on the right track. The train sat at the station for several minutes so I went up and asked the operator what was up and he ignored me.
After he left another University train pulled in also on the proper track. I then wondered how late our train would be. Finally nine minutes late our southbound train finally showed up. One person commented that the 811 driver always leaves on time no matter what is up with TRAX so I gave up making it, however the bus was still there when we arrived. Sadly, it was one of the low floor Gilligs instead of a Commuter Cruiser and wouldn't you know it was wrapped!!
A couple of observations:
1. UTA Dispatchers should be able to use the loudspeakers at TRAX station platforms in order to keep their customers informed what is going on.
2. UTA TRAX operators need to do a better job of keeping their customers informed of what is happening and if buses are going to be held.
Once I got to Orem I rode the 862, 833, and 832 which have all changed since my last trip here. Surprisingly all the changes seem to make some since except for the poor service to the MTC and Provo Temple.
What is it with the busiest bus routes in the UTA system getting the worst buses in the system? Many of the buses running around where UTA's oldest Orions. Why did Weber/Davis get new buses while Orem that has even higher ridership gets the shaft?
Well I guess that Utah County is getting the BRT line so they should be satisfied even thought should be a streetcar line. It makes more sense as a streetcar line since that will attract more riders than a bus.
The Utah Valley Visitors bureau has a nice brochure that shows all the trails in the area plus bus routes (even though the bus routes are about 4 years out of date). Since I walk an hour per day I like walking new trails and would like to know where they are. UTA should be promoting the use of these trails and be using items such as this brochure more to encourage ridership.
Overall, Utah County seems to work but there needs to be more improvements in order to improve non-BYU ridership on the local routes.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Friday, May 04, 2007
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Transit Related Article
Utah Subway diners will learn about transport issues from UDOT brochures
Transportation open houses planned for Utah County area
Driver in crash with UTA bus on U.S. 89 identified
-Looks like heavy damage to UTA's new Gillig buses.
Transportation open houses planned for Utah County area
Driver in crash with UTA bus on U.S. 89 identified
-Looks like heavy damage to UTA's new Gillig buses.
My Comments about Weber/Davis County
Last week, I took a trip up to Weber/Davis counties. There was a couple of main reasons why I wanted to head up there: 1. To ride line 626 which I have not had a chance to ride since it was changed several years ago. 2. To ride one of the new Gillig buses that UTA claim are so wonderful and much better than a standard bus.
I will so glad when I can jump on FrontRunner and head up to Weber County but right now it was a trip on the 11 to the 72.
Riding the 72 is nice with the nice Commuter Cruiser MCI buses. However, the driver need some customer service training. While he wasn't unfriendly he was not friendly and when asked the question answered very Borg like and refused to give a straight answer.
On the 626 the driver was friendly to most customers including myself but on the other hand did yell at one elderly lady for standing up when he was stopping at a light and a Junior High student for taking to long to load up his bike on the rack.
All the other drivers through out the day where friendly which is not unusual as most of the drivers I encounter on UTA are good.
The next bus was the 610 and it was one of the new Gillig buses. I do not see much difference between this bus and the 1999 and 2001 Gillig buses UTA has except for seamless windows, new front and rear caps, and a more deluxe cloth on the seats. In addition two of the buses had problems. The first one on the 610 had very back breaks that squealed worst than any other bus I have every ridden. To top it off I got this same bus heading back later in the day. The other problem was the back door was broken on one of them on the 603. Not good for a bus that is only a few weeks old.
Overall ridership on all the routes I rode was good except for the 626. In the morning I was the only customer for more than half the route. Returning in the afternoon toward WSU Davis there was several customers on and off along the whole route so ridership is building.
Another observation was that there was construction on the 612 that is delaying the buses up to 10 minutes. Yet, there is nothing posted on any bus stop sign mentioning that there could be delays which since this will last through the summer. UTA needs to keep its customers better informed on what is happening. (Look for more on this when I talk about Utah County). Customers need to know if their buses are going to be delayed.
Overall, ridership was good on all the routes I rode, most of the drivers where friendly, and the system seems to do the basics of what needs to be done. However, there is plenty of room for improvement in the system and UTA needs to continue providing better service to its customers.
I will so glad when I can jump on FrontRunner and head up to Weber County but right now it was a trip on the 11 to the 72.
Riding the 72 is nice with the nice Commuter Cruiser MCI buses. However, the driver need some customer service training. While he wasn't unfriendly he was not friendly and when asked the question answered very Borg like and refused to give a straight answer.
On the 626 the driver was friendly to most customers including myself but on the other hand did yell at one elderly lady for standing up when he was stopping at a light and a Junior High student for taking to long to load up his bike on the rack.
All the other drivers through out the day where friendly which is not unusual as most of the drivers I encounter on UTA are good.
The next bus was the 610 and it was one of the new Gillig buses. I do not see much difference between this bus and the 1999 and 2001 Gillig buses UTA has except for seamless windows, new front and rear caps, and a more deluxe cloth on the seats. In addition two of the buses had problems. The first one on the 610 had very back breaks that squealed worst than any other bus I have every ridden. To top it off I got this same bus heading back later in the day. The other problem was the back door was broken on one of them on the 603. Not good for a bus that is only a few weeks old.
Overall ridership on all the routes I rode was good except for the 626. In the morning I was the only customer for more than half the route. Returning in the afternoon toward WSU Davis there was several customers on and off along the whole route so ridership is building.
Another observation was that there was construction on the 612 that is delaying the buses up to 10 minutes. Yet, there is nothing posted on any bus stop sign mentioning that there could be delays which since this will last through the summer. UTA needs to keep its customers better informed on what is happening. (Look for more on this when I talk about Utah County). Customers need to know if their buses are going to be delayed.
Overall, ridership was good on all the routes I rode, most of the drivers where friendly, and the system seems to do the basics of what needs to be done. However, there is plenty of room for improvement in the system and UTA needs to continue providing better service to its customers.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Over the next few days, I will be talking about my travels on UTA over the last couple of weeks. I spent one day in Salt Lake County, one in Davis/Weber Counties and journeyed through Utah County yesterday.
My feelings on wraps are well known, and after being stuck on several buses that where wrapped its time to vent again.I think that the UTA Board of Directors should have to ride a wrapped bus for several hours and try to see out the windows.
A perfect example of what is wrong with wraps is while going through Roy on the 626, I was trying to see what businesses where along the line. The problems is, because of the stupid wrap I could not see about half of the signs. Here they are trying to encourage people to ride the bus but wraps are a turn off.
To top it off, I rode when of their new Gillig buses that are based out of the Ogden division and it was wrapped!! Talk about the height of stupidity in wrapping a brand new bus. Most transit systems wrap buses that are due for repainting or the paint already looks bad. The reason for this is very simple, when the wrap is pulled off, it can often remove or damage the paint despite what the manufacturer tries to claim.
This once again shows that the UTA is often not a good steward of our tax money. In addition the Board of Directors and Management of UTA continue to be too disconnected from their customers.
My feelings on wraps are well known, and after being stuck on several buses that where wrapped its time to vent again.I think that the UTA Board of Directors should have to ride a wrapped bus for several hours and try to see out the windows.
A perfect example of what is wrong with wraps is while going through Roy on the 626, I was trying to see what businesses where along the line. The problems is, because of the stupid wrap I could not see about half of the signs. Here they are trying to encourage people to ride the bus but wraps are a turn off.
To top it off, I rode when of their new Gillig buses that are based out of the Ogden division and it was wrapped!! Talk about the height of stupidity in wrapping a brand new bus. Most transit systems wrap buses that are due for repainting or the paint already looks bad. The reason for this is very simple, when the wrap is pulled off, it can often remove or damage the paint despite what the manufacturer tries to claim.
This once again shows that the UTA is often not a good steward of our tax money. In addition the Board of Directors and Management of UTA continue to be too disconnected from their customers.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
UTA Headquarters
As anyone who reads this blog often knows, I throw a lot of criticism toward the UTA and its operations. However, you will also know that if I find something right with UTA I will also point it out.
One area that UTA is being smart is with their headquarters. For those of you that don't know, UTA maintains a modest headquarters building as part of the Meadowbrook garage. In fact driving by the facility you would be hard press to figure out that a major transit system is headquartered there.
The UTA should continue to maintain this modest facility and not be like some of their brethren who have built palaces that only cost the riders in the long run.
A perfect example of this is the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) in Los Angeles. METRO was created by the merging of the former transit system the SCRTD and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. This made METRO responsible not only for transit but all transportation (similar to the stupidity proposed by one of our state legislators earlier in the year).
The RTD was headquartered in the skid row section of Los Angeles and this was just not good enough for METRO. So they decided to build a headquarters behind Union Station but still in downtown Los Angeles. Now as you come westbound on the Hollywood Freeway you see it just before passing Union Station.
This facility is often referred to as the Taj Mahal by transit advocates and opponents alike. The 27 story building and transit center ended up costing an astronomical $500 million dollars. That's right, half a billion dollars (in other words the cost of TWO of the TRAX extensions.
Now thanks to a consent degree that took all the reserves, METRO is faced with a budget meltdown. How much better would METRO be if they had not built the Taj Mahal? Probably a lot better off than they are now.
If UTA every gets the bright idea to build a glorious new facility, it needs to be stopped before Salt Lake City ends up with its own Taj Mahal.
One area that UTA is being smart is with their headquarters. For those of you that don't know, UTA maintains a modest headquarters building as part of the Meadowbrook garage. In fact driving by the facility you would be hard press to figure out that a major transit system is headquartered there.
The UTA should continue to maintain this modest facility and not be like some of their brethren who have built palaces that only cost the riders in the long run.
A perfect example of this is the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) in Los Angeles. METRO was created by the merging of the former transit system the SCRTD and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. This made METRO responsible not only for transit but all transportation (similar to the stupidity proposed by one of our state legislators earlier in the year).
The RTD was headquartered in the skid row section of Los Angeles and this was just not good enough for METRO. So they decided to build a headquarters behind Union Station but still in downtown Los Angeles. Now as you come westbound on the Hollywood Freeway you see it just before passing Union Station.
This facility is often referred to as the Taj Mahal by transit advocates and opponents alike. The 27 story building and transit center ended up costing an astronomical $500 million dollars. That's right, half a billion dollars (in other words the cost of TWO of the TRAX extensions.
Now thanks to a consent degree that took all the reserves, METRO is faced with a budget meltdown. How much better would METRO be if they had not built the Taj Mahal? Probably a lot better off than they are now.
If UTA every gets the bright idea to build a glorious new facility, it needs to be stopped before Salt Lake City ends up with its own Taj Mahal.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Hold Planners Accountable
For most of us, if we do not perform in our occupations, we are either fired or we go out of business if we are self employed. But what happens if your a transit planner...nothing, transit planners are not held accountable.
Lets take a look at a couple of changes the UTA made over the last few years and see how the changes performed.
Example One: Routes 16, 17, and 81. At first the 16 and 17 where loops where one route ran clockwise and the other counter-clockwise while the 81 served 900 West. All three routes where switched around where the 16 served part of the old loop, the 17 served another, and the 81 went up Emery for a portion of its trip. A year later the 16 and 17 are merged back into one route and a portion of the 81 is replaced. So in other words the weird routing of the 16, 17, and 81 where a failure. OK, changes took place because of financial issues, but if the routing's would have been a success in the first place would the redone 16 look almost like the old loop except serving Ballpark TRAX instead of an actually loop?
Example Two: Route 25. Route 25 travels from the Midvale Center TRAX station to service Monroe Street and the Sandy Industrial area including NOVUS services. First stupidity was trying to cancel the line. So then over the last year it has been reroute at every schedule change until it looks pretty much like it did before the planners started screwing with it. In other words it should have been left alone. So in other words the planners getting it wrong.
So what should be done?
Simple, the planners need to be held accountable the same way someone in the private sector would be. The question is, what criteria should be used in order to hold the planner accountable?
There is a wide range of ways to hold the planner accountable depending on why the changes where made and what affect it had on system performance.
Here are some examples:
What was the effect on ridership? If ridership did not go up the planner should be held accountable.
What effect did the changes had on finances? If it cost more after the changes and ridership did not go up then the planner should be held accountable.
What did the changes affect other lines? The way the numbers are gathered and the way the planners look at things, they for the most part don't take a systematic systems approach. In other words Route A is changed causing a drop in ridership on Route B etc.
Now lets look at the big bus reorganization. What happens if it does not work? What if we have a situation like Orange County, California where the revamped their whole bus system only to start putting the routes back the way they where because it didn't work. But guess what, where the planners who made the decisions held accountable? Of course not, the riders got screwed but the planners went along their merry way getting their big paychecks without any accountability.
IF UTA's changes don't work, who will be held accountable? The planners should be. Just like they should be for all their decisions just like a planner would in the private sector. Otherwise what is their motivation to do the best job possible? There needs to be accountability.
Lets take a look at a couple of changes the UTA made over the last few years and see how the changes performed.
Example One: Routes 16, 17, and 81. At first the 16 and 17 where loops where one route ran clockwise and the other counter-clockwise while the 81 served 900 West. All three routes where switched around where the 16 served part of the old loop, the 17 served another, and the 81 went up Emery for a portion of its trip. A year later the 16 and 17 are merged back into one route and a portion of the 81 is replaced. So in other words the weird routing of the 16, 17, and 81 where a failure. OK, changes took place because of financial issues, but if the routing's would have been a success in the first place would the redone 16 look almost like the old loop except serving Ballpark TRAX instead of an actually loop?
Example Two: Route 25. Route 25 travels from the Midvale Center TRAX station to service Monroe Street and the Sandy Industrial area including NOVUS services. First stupidity was trying to cancel the line. So then over the last year it has been reroute at every schedule change until it looks pretty much like it did before the planners started screwing with it. In other words it should have been left alone. So in other words the planners getting it wrong.
So what should be done?
Simple, the planners need to be held accountable the same way someone in the private sector would be. The question is, what criteria should be used in order to hold the planner accountable?
There is a wide range of ways to hold the planner accountable depending on why the changes where made and what affect it had on system performance.
Here are some examples:
What was the effect on ridership? If ridership did not go up the planner should be held accountable.
What effect did the changes had on finances? If it cost more after the changes and ridership did not go up then the planner should be held accountable.
What did the changes affect other lines? The way the numbers are gathered and the way the planners look at things, they for the most part don't take a systematic systems approach. In other words Route A is changed causing a drop in ridership on Route B etc.
Now lets look at the big bus reorganization. What happens if it does not work? What if we have a situation like Orange County, California where the revamped their whole bus system only to start putting the routes back the way they where because it didn't work. But guess what, where the planners who made the decisions held accountable? Of course not, the riders got screwed but the planners went along their merry way getting their big paychecks without any accountability.
IF UTA's changes don't work, who will be held accountable? The planners should be. Just like they should be for all their decisions just like a planner would in the private sector. Otherwise what is their motivation to do the best job possible? There needs to be accountability.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
UTA Planners....
When I think of transit planners my mind goes back to an incident that happened in 2000 when I was living in Spokane. Because the a revamp of the vehicle tax by Initiative I-195 in 1999, the Spokane Transit Authority and all other Washington State transit systems where threats of severe cuts because a major source of income was cut out.
During one of the public meetings proposing to cut the system, a citizen asked a show of hands from the Board of Directors and the STA employees of how many actual ride the bus. There was several minutes of silence until one of the County Commissioners started rattling off a list of excuses on why they can't ride the system.
Well that may be well and good but what about the planners? Since they are making decisions about the system shouldn't they be riding it on a regular basis in order to get a better idea on why, when, where, and how people are riding the bus?
Interesting enough when the head planner left that meeting in Spokane he jumped in his expensive BMW and drove away. Now, how is this guy supposed to truly understand what makes the system tick?
They would argue that they have the ridership date from the black boxes carried on many buses these days. The problem is, the boxes don't tell the planners why the person rode the bus, doesn't tell the planner if the person transferred from another route, doesn't tell the planner what the customers destination is, and so on.
Here is something else that troubles me with the planners. When they post requirements for the job when their is an opening the insist on a degree, while a business degree is listed their prefer a urban planning degree and planning experience. I have never seen a transit system higher a planner with extensive business experience only planning.
So why the business? Once again it boils down to the fact that planners do not have the business experience to look at things from a marketing and financial point of view. They do not see having buses sit 8 months a year as being wasteful. How long do you think someone would last at Southwest if they had a plane sit 16 hours a day? The answer is not long.
The reason is that when that vehicle is sitting it is not earning revenue. The government (planner) mindset is that if the bus is sitting its not costing anything (they don't understand the concept of wasting capital resources). This is the same "transit-mentality" that is killing Amtrak.
All transit agencies should require a business background for a planner. In addition, the planners should be required to ride the system a certain number of hours per week in order to better understand why the system works the way it does. Maybe then we would see some changes for the better in the planning of our transit schedules and not see the stupid statements being made like "bus service is not being cut".
During one of the public meetings proposing to cut the system, a citizen asked a show of hands from the Board of Directors and the STA employees of how many actual ride the bus. There was several minutes of silence until one of the County Commissioners started rattling off a list of excuses on why they can't ride the system.
Well that may be well and good but what about the planners? Since they are making decisions about the system shouldn't they be riding it on a regular basis in order to get a better idea on why, when, where, and how people are riding the bus?
Interesting enough when the head planner left that meeting in Spokane he jumped in his expensive BMW and drove away. Now, how is this guy supposed to truly understand what makes the system tick?
They would argue that they have the ridership date from the black boxes carried on many buses these days. The problem is, the boxes don't tell the planners why the person rode the bus, doesn't tell the planner if the person transferred from another route, doesn't tell the planner what the customers destination is, and so on.
Here is something else that troubles me with the planners. When they post requirements for the job when their is an opening the insist on a degree, while a business degree is listed their prefer a urban planning degree and planning experience. I have never seen a transit system higher a planner with extensive business experience only planning.
So why the business? Once again it boils down to the fact that planners do not have the business experience to look at things from a marketing and financial point of view. They do not see having buses sit 8 months a year as being wasteful. How long do you think someone would last at Southwest if they had a plane sit 16 hours a day? The answer is not long.
The reason is that when that vehicle is sitting it is not earning revenue. The government (planner) mindset is that if the bus is sitting its not costing anything (they don't understand the concept of wasting capital resources). This is the same "transit-mentality" that is killing Amtrak.
All transit agencies should require a business background for a planner. In addition, the planners should be required to ride the system a certain number of hours per week in order to better understand why the system works the way it does. Maybe then we would see some changes for the better in the planning of our transit schedules and not see the stupid statements being made like "bus service is not being cut".
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Transit Related Article
Higher fares, fewer routes
Favorite Quote:
"UTA, however, says the redesign is not a "bus cut." Buses will run the same number of hours and miles, said Jerry Bensen, UTA chief performance officer."
So Mr. Benson does not see this as a cut? How much you are you willing to bet that Mr. Bensen does not regularly ride any of the routes that are about to be cut or rides the bus at all?
There is going to be a severe cut in service. It is ironic that according to their bus stop chart of how many people board per day, that the intersection of Fort Union Blvd and Highland Drive show good boardings but will have no service on Fort Union Blvd anymore and only capital wasting peak hour service on Highland Drive.
While trying to get more commuters on the bus is nice, lets face it, much like the ski bus service, the Fast Buses are another waste of capital resources. You have a three hundred thousand dollar bus making only a round trip or two per day or less. That means it is spending 80% or more of its time sitting and not earning any revenue.
Yes Mr. Bensen bus service is being cut and thats why people are angry.
Favorite Quote:
"UTA, however, says the redesign is not a "bus cut." Buses will run the same number of hours and miles, said Jerry Bensen, UTA chief performance officer."
So Mr. Benson does not see this as a cut? How much you are you willing to bet that Mr. Bensen does not regularly ride any of the routes that are about to be cut or rides the bus at all?
There is going to be a severe cut in service. It is ironic that according to their bus stop chart of how many people board per day, that the intersection of Fort Union Blvd and Highland Drive show good boardings but will have no service on Fort Union Blvd anymore and only capital wasting peak hour service on Highland Drive.
While trying to get more commuters on the bus is nice, lets face it, much like the ski bus service, the Fast Buses are another waste of capital resources. You have a three hundred thousand dollar bus making only a round trip or two per day or less. That means it is spending 80% or more of its time sitting and not earning any revenue.
Yes Mr. Bensen bus service is being cut and thats why people are angry.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Transit Related Article
UTA redesign a tough sell to ridership
It will be interesting to see if the negative comments have any affect on the changes.
It will be interesting to see if the negative comments have any affect on the changes.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Monday, April 02, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Transit Related Article
Bus riders sound off on new routes
I urge everyone to go and let your feelings know to the UTA board about the proposed changes whether you are for or against them.
I urge everyone to go and let your feelings know to the UTA board about the proposed changes whether you are for or against them.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Transit Related Editorial
UTA death warrant: Bill to kill transit agency would be a train wreck
An excellent editorial on the bill started by Representative Harper of West Jordan which is trying to kill UTA and give the funds over to the highways.
An excellent editorial on the bill started by Representative Harper of West Jordan which is trying to kill UTA and give the funds over to the highways.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Transit Related Article
Big changes coming for bus system
UTA plans route redesign for 'better service'
Changes to bus system
Well, we knew the this was coming and here it is. The grand plan to reorganize UTA bus service and my fears have been realized, major cuts in bus service and once again the west and south sides of the valley take the brunt of the cuts.
Across the nation for the last 30 years whenever a bus system has been reorganized, some areas get better service but a majority of the riders get the shaft and UTA's plan is no different. While some areas will get better service, mainly from downtown south to 4500 South, the rest of the county gets little. While some cuts make sense such as the 7 and 11 along 1300 East due to idiot scheduling on the part of UTA, instead of improving service they are leaving the 11 but it will only operate to the U of U and not all the way to downtown. It will be extended to Midvale TRAX replacing the section of the 27.
What is interesting about the way bus systems are being reorganized is that it flies in the face of the anti-transit advocates try to push. Highway advocates say that rail systems such as TRAX and Frontrunner are inflexible and do not allow changes in routes, however the UTA proposal does the same thing. Instead of routes being flexible, such as my proposals where routes would have branches to different important destinations, the UTA proposal creates a system that is less flexible and less customer friendly. You have to travel the corridor and transfer to get your destination, if your destination is even still served by a bus.
Another part of the plan is to introduce more "fast buses" some of which will replace regular lines such as the 32. This another case of wasting capital dollars much like the ski bus service. Buses make a run in the morning then they sit all day then make another run in the evening. So in other words, a $325,000 piece of equipment may get used less than 4 hours a day and that includes dead head time. Once again this shows the difference between a business mindset and a government organizational mindset.
I encourage everyone to make there voices heard and attend the public hearings.
UTA plans route redesign for 'better service'
Changes to bus system
Well, we knew the this was coming and here it is. The grand plan to reorganize UTA bus service and my fears have been realized, major cuts in bus service and once again the west and south sides of the valley take the brunt of the cuts.
Across the nation for the last 30 years whenever a bus system has been reorganized, some areas get better service but a majority of the riders get the shaft and UTA's plan is no different. While some areas will get better service, mainly from downtown south to 4500 South, the rest of the county gets little. While some cuts make sense such as the 7 and 11 along 1300 East due to idiot scheduling on the part of UTA, instead of improving service they are leaving the 11 but it will only operate to the U of U and not all the way to downtown. It will be extended to Midvale TRAX replacing the section of the 27.
What is interesting about the way bus systems are being reorganized is that it flies in the face of the anti-transit advocates try to push. Highway advocates say that rail systems such as TRAX and Frontrunner are inflexible and do not allow changes in routes, however the UTA proposal does the same thing. Instead of routes being flexible, such as my proposals where routes would have branches to different important destinations, the UTA proposal creates a system that is less flexible and less customer friendly. You have to travel the corridor and transfer to get your destination, if your destination is even still served by a bus.
Another part of the plan is to introduce more "fast buses" some of which will replace regular lines such as the 32. This another case of wasting capital dollars much like the ski bus service. Buses make a run in the morning then they sit all day then make another run in the evening. So in other words, a $325,000 piece of equipment may get used less than 4 hours a day and that includes dead head time. Once again this shows the difference between a business mindset and a government organizational mindset.
I encourage everyone to make there voices heard and attend the public hearings.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Transit Related Article
State takeover of transit proposed
Our state legislature strikes again. First they try to steal the money that the voters in Salt Lake voted to tax themselves for, and now because the money is not going to their pet projects especially highway projects, a West Jordan legislature is trying to steal the money another way.
Does anyone really want UDOT running the UTA? They cant run what they are supposed to much less the state's biggest transit system.
Make sure you make your voice heard on this issue!!
Our state legislature strikes again. First they try to steal the money that the voters in Salt Lake voted to tax themselves for, and now because the money is not going to their pet projects especially highway projects, a West Jordan legislature is trying to steal the money another way.
Does anyone really want UDOT running the UTA? They cant run what they are supposed to much less the state's biggest transit system.
Make sure you make your voice heard on this issue!!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Ski Bus Service
Well, we are about halfway through the ski season and the ski buses are making their frequent trips up to the ski resorts. While the ski bus service does provide a great transportation resource, is the ski bus service doing more harm than good?
The Ski bus service runs approximately 4 months out of the year. The other 8 months the ski buses largely sit in the yard. That is $10 MILLION in precious capital resources that are not doing any good. In addition, it means your employee force is lopsided with a bunch of drivers needed for a short period of time that have to be absorbed into the regular system or laid off.
The worst problem is the capital resources that go to waste. Having $10 million dollars in equipment sitting a majority of the year when UTA has plenty of uses for that money. The biggest problem is the attitude. A typical transit planner (government worker) figures that if the bus isn't moving it is not loosing money. Contrast that with a business attitude that says if the bus is just sitting there it is loosing money because it is not out on the road earning revenue. Do you think Southwest Airlines would be profitable if it allowed its 737s to sit 16 hours a day? Of course not.
Then their is the human resource issue. Every year the UTA needs a big pool of drivers to run the ski service. However, when April comes along these drivers once again have to work their way into the regular route system. This is fine when you are loosing a lot of drivers, but generally the turnover is not that high. The alternative is that you have to pink slip the drivers that are not needed. The other way around this is to be short on drivers 4 months out of the year. The problem here is that your drivers get overworked, they get burned out, then they either leave or loose their customer service skills.
So what to do?
On the capital front UTA should look to partner with someone to use the buses in the off season since the off season for UTA is the peak season for many others. While it is too late now because the park already has its buses, UTA could have teamed up with Zion National Park. Since Zion only needs the buses from May 1 to September 30, UTA could have used the buses for the ski season, taken off the snow tires, and sent the buses to Zion to be used in the park during the summer. That way the buses just don't sit there loosing money. An example of this is a few years ago the Union Pacific and a Canadian railroad worked out an agreement where UP would use a group of locomotives one part of the year and the Canadian railroad another part of the year. That way the railroads where able to split the cost of the capital purchase but have the locomotives when they needed them.
However that would not take care of the human resource issue.
The other alternative would not be popular with the union and that would be to contract out the service. That way a private operator would operate the service plus provide the drivers and the equipment. That way the UTA does not shoulder the problem of having equipment sit for 8 months a year plus the human resource issue. Since many private operators need more buses during the summer than winter, this could work out perfect for the right operator.
Its time for UTA to think "out of the box".
The Ski bus service runs approximately 4 months out of the year. The other 8 months the ski buses largely sit in the yard. That is $10 MILLION in precious capital resources that are not doing any good. In addition, it means your employee force is lopsided with a bunch of drivers needed for a short period of time that have to be absorbed into the regular system or laid off.
The worst problem is the capital resources that go to waste. Having $10 million dollars in equipment sitting a majority of the year when UTA has plenty of uses for that money. The biggest problem is the attitude. A typical transit planner (government worker) figures that if the bus isn't moving it is not loosing money. Contrast that with a business attitude that says if the bus is just sitting there it is loosing money because it is not out on the road earning revenue. Do you think Southwest Airlines would be profitable if it allowed its 737s to sit 16 hours a day? Of course not.
Then their is the human resource issue. Every year the UTA needs a big pool of drivers to run the ski service. However, when April comes along these drivers once again have to work their way into the regular route system. This is fine when you are loosing a lot of drivers, but generally the turnover is not that high. The alternative is that you have to pink slip the drivers that are not needed. The other way around this is to be short on drivers 4 months out of the year. The problem here is that your drivers get overworked, they get burned out, then they either leave or loose their customer service skills.
So what to do?
On the capital front UTA should look to partner with someone to use the buses in the off season since the off season for UTA is the peak season for many others. While it is too late now because the park already has its buses, UTA could have teamed up with Zion National Park. Since Zion only needs the buses from May 1 to September 30, UTA could have used the buses for the ski season, taken off the snow tires, and sent the buses to Zion to be used in the park during the summer. That way the buses just don't sit there loosing money. An example of this is a few years ago the Union Pacific and a Canadian railroad worked out an agreement where UP would use a group of locomotives one part of the year and the Canadian railroad another part of the year. That way the railroads where able to split the cost of the capital purchase but have the locomotives when they needed them.
However that would not take care of the human resource issue.
The other alternative would not be popular with the union and that would be to contract out the service. That way a private operator would operate the service plus provide the drivers and the equipment. That way the UTA does not shoulder the problem of having equipment sit for 8 months a year plus the human resource issue. Since many private operators need more buses during the summer than winter, this could work out perfect for the right operator.
Its time for UTA to think "out of the box".
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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Draper TRAX line foes press their petition effort
OK, the "new" Draper people say they got sixty more signatures. That still leaves them sixty more (even if all of the 60 are good), so they still didn't make it. But these idiots have more money than common sense so the fight goes on....
OK, the "new" Draper people say they got sixty more signatures. That still leaves them sixty more (even if all of the 60 are good), so they still didn't make it. But these idiots have more money than common sense so the fight goes on....
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