To Hybrid or not to Hybrid (buses that is)

Image by paulkimo90 via Flickr
Hybrid buses...some transit companies have gone crazy having all new buses be hybrids while others such as TriMet in Portland and the Utah Transit Authority have been more conservative when it comes to buying hybrid buses. Back in 2002 TriMet received two New Flyer Hybrids while UTA received three of the same type of buses.

After evaluating TriMet made the decision not to order any new hybrids until this year because they did not see enough savings to justify the initial high costs of the buses. However, last year UTA received 10 Gillig Advantage BRT hybrid's to go along with a purchase of new regular diesels, and this year TriMet has decided to see how much the changes in hybrid technology in the last decade has changed and ordered 4 hybrids also from Gillig to evaluate their performance.

Some would argue that Hybrids use less fuel so transit agencies should by them. Of course life is a little more complicated than that. In fact the experience with hybrids have been a mixed bag largely because how well they save on diesel depends of the type of service they are used on.

New York is probably one of the biggest users of hybrid buses. In an environment like crowed New York streets were many of the buses are sitting in traffic or traveling at low speeds the hybrid technology pays off. However, in Seattle the opposite situation exists. Seattle purchased their hybrids to travel in their bus tunnel when it became a joint operation with Sound Transit Light Rail. However, once the buses leave the tunnel a number of them become express routes across the Seattle area. Because they spend a majority of their time travel at higher speeds Metro does not see the advantages of Hybrid technology.

Here is a article from Seattle about the performance of their hybrids from a few years ago:

Hybrid Buses Fuel economy promises didn't materialize 

Some later numbers may show some better performance from diesels including maintenance cost however lets look at some important numbers:

Currently Hybrid buses cost substantially more than standard diesel buses. For example TriMet's new hybrids cost approximately $650,000 while the new diesels that TriMet ordered this year coast about $400,000. So lets look at some examples to show what would make this purchase justify itself.

As you can see above the difference in price between the regular bus and the hybrid bus is $250,000. Let's say a standard bus gets 4 miles per gallon and a hybrid averages 5 miles per gallon. That means that you would save one mile per gallon. For the sake of this example and to make the numbers easier lets say that the transit agency will put 500,000 miles on it during its life at the agency. Also let's say that the average price of diesel during the life of the bus is $3.00 per gallon to keep the numbers easier. With this example the agency would spend $375,000 on fuel for a diesel bus and $300,000 for the hybrid.

The $75,000 savings does not justify the initial cost of they hybrid. In this example it is virtually impossible for the Hybrid to justify its initial cost. There is other factors that need to be considered beyond just fuel cost such as maintenance and resell value but that would most likely go in favor of diesel for maintenance and resell value is so small it is irrelevant anyway.

When making decisions on what type of bus to buy we need to look at hard numbers and not just try to feel good. But there is also something to be said for going beyond the bean counter numbers. Hybrid buses can offer other benefits that cannot be looked at on a balance sheet such as quieter operations and points on the political and public relations front.

On a profit and loss statement the hybrids may not add up, other factors may be in their favor but a transit agency needs to look at the the life of the vehicle and whether the substantial cost will pay off in the long run.

Los Angeles puts lipstick on a pig.

Image by Metro - Los Angeles via Flickr

With great fanfare, Los Angeles Metro will be introduced its new Silver Line service on Sunday. So is the newest light rail line to open in Los Angeles or part of the subway to the sea? No, actually it is combining service on two of the LA basin’s two busways into a single service and increasing the number of transfers.

The first busway was opened 35 years ago extending from just east of downtown Los Angeles to the city of El Monte and traveled along the Interstate 10 freeway. There is a rail line between the busway that once carried the interurbans of the legendary Pacific Electric and is now home to the Metrolink Commuter Rail service to San Bernardino. The busway was later extended a mile to Union Station in the late 1980’s.

When the busway first started a large number of buses would travel the busway to El Monte then fan out throughout the San Gabriel valley. After many cuts to bus service most of the San Gabriel valley routes were taken over by Foothill Transit in the late 1980’s leaving RTD with only a few routes on the busway.

The second busway is the infamous Harbor Freeway Transit way that extends from Artesia to a few miles south of downtown and parallels the Long Beach light rail line that sits a few miles to the east. While the Blue line carries upwards of 78000 passengers per day the Harbor Freeway Transitway pulls in roughly 5000 per day.

Now Metro will run a direct line from the Artesia station through downtown Los Angeles out to the El Monte station calling it the Silver line. This will give the first direct service between the two lines but will also mean that people traveling from the routes that currently use the busway will have to transfer to the new service as those routes will be truncated at El Monte and Artesia respectively.

In addition the new Silver line will compete with Foothill Transit’s Silver Streak service that started a couple of years ago and operates from Pomona to downtown Los Angeles via the El Monte busway. Like Metro is doing with its lines, Foothill Transit also truncated most of its bus routes at El Monte when Silver Streak service was started.

Isn’t it interesting that when most road warriors say that buses should be used instead of rail, they say that buses are more flexible and thus better than the rail option? Of course we all know the tired BS about BRT (Badly Repackaged Transit) being just like light rail but on rubber tires. In this case they are operating a bus route like a rail line but cutting the so called flexibility of the bus.

What is interesting is that Metro’s predecessor the RTD tried to run truncate routes in El Monte and run a separate El Monte to downtown LA route back in the late 70’s. Route 495 provided frequent service from El Monte to downtown but was killed only a few months later.

But let’s also look deeper into the two busways themselves.

As stated before the El Monte bus way is celebrated its 35th year in 2009. While it is hard to quantify any development results being the fact that there is only three stations on the line with the two mid line stations being a University and a hospital, the end of the line station has seen no development in the area since its opening. In other words the place looks the same as it did in 1974 although plans are finally progressing to turn the station into a transit oriented development.

Compare that to TRAX where development is starting to take place in several areas along the line. While progress has been slowed by the credit crunch, new homes have been built near several stations and when things heat back up in the real estate market you will several more projects come on line.

The Harbor Freeway Transit way points to not only that busways are not an alternative to light rail but also the failure of Freeway Transit in general.

While it is hard to judge the Harbor Transitway head to head against the Blue line despite their close proximity to each other, it is clear that the Transitway does not attract riders like the Blue Line.

Meanwhile the Harbor Transitway also shows that Freeway transit is not an attractive option for riders. Whether it is a light rail station or busway station, freeway stops are noisy and inconvenient for riders. For those that have tried to access a station that sits in or along a highway know that they can be impossible to access due to the freeway and then noise levels are extremely high.

Instead of spending $500 million on the transitway that carries few passengers, the agencies that built it would have been much farther ahead by pumping money into the overburdened Blue Line. Money could have been used to grade separate the line and then build a branch down to San Pedro (which would restore another ex-Pacific Electric line) build a branch to Torrance or southeast toward Orange County. Either of these options would have garnered more ridership that the pathetic transitway.

The two busways also show the true reason why road warriors support busways over rail lines. When the El Monte busway first opened it was used exclusively for buses but then it seemed like good highway lanes for the taking so car pools were eventually allowed to use the busway. Every time I have gone down the busway in the last few years it has been more crowded that the main lanes on the freeway.

Now Metro is planning to turn the busways into HOT lanes just line the car pool lanes here in Utah and reason behind the creation of the Silver Line. One has to wonder how long it will take before our state legislature passes laws stating that the BRT lanes along 3500 South and subsequent ones have to be open to automobile traffic of some form.

The Silver line is doing nothing but putting lipstick on a pig. While it will make it easier to travel through downtown Los Angeles from the Harbor Transitway to the El Monte Busway, overall it does little to increase the travel opportunities in the region. It will be interesting to see what happens over the year or so.

UTA July 4th Service

Image via Wikipedia

UTA Independence Day Weekend Service





What: Utah Transit Authority advises its riders and the public of changes to bus, TRAX and FrontRunner service for the Independence Day holiday weekend.



When: Friday, July 3, 2009 – Independence Day observed

Saturday, July 4, 2009 – Independence Day



Info: TRAX will run on a Sunday schedule with extended evening service each night to accommodate late fireworks or other festivities:

· The last westbound University train to Salt Lake Central station departs Medical Center at 11:04 p.m.

· The last eastbound University train to Medical Center station departs Salt Lake Central at 11:09 p.m.

· The last southbound train to Sandy departs Salt Lake Central station at 11:55 p.m.

· The last northbound train to Salt Lake Central departs Sandy Civic Center station at 10:25 p.m.



UTA Buses will operate on a Sunday schedule on both July 3 and 4



FrontRunner will not operate on either July 3 or 4



Sunday, July 5, will follow the regular Sunday service schedule.





For more information, visit www.rideuta.com or call 1-888-RIDE-UTA (743-3882).

Blog Postings from this week...

Image by phxwebguy via FlickrFrom the California High Speed Rail Blog:

No Policy Change in the Stimulus?

Once again Obama seems to talk a lot about roads but never mentions transit. Maybe the change President is not going to be one.

Shake, Rattle & Roll

Talks about what will happen when a earthquake hits the high speed rail line. Also good information about the destruction to all transportation infrastructure which is something we need to keep in mind when our "big one" hits.

From The Overhead Wire:

Likely Unlikely Ally

It is nice to see the steel industry is supporting the call for new rail. While some may say that is natural because rails are made of steel, just consider the amount of steel that goes into the foundations of highways.

From the Light Rail AZ Blog:

Metro light rail - Growing pains in early days

The Phoenix light rail system seems to be doing pretty good despite the usual teething problems that you find on any new system.

From the Jacksonville Transit Blog:

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO FLORIDA

Apparently the mayor of Jacksonville wants to steal money appropriated by the VOTERS for transit and spend it instead on highways.

From the Intermodality Blog: .

Rapid streetcar

Rapid Streetcar is slotted between regular streetcars and full blown light rail. Instead of BRT, rapid streetcar makes much more sense as shown in the article.

From the Cap'n Transit Blog:

Don't Give Rail Infrastructure to Buses

Some common sense from the other side of the country.

Article Roundup

Image via WikipediaUtahns walk less, weigh more

Well this is unexpected, NOT. Of course I am not one to talk since I need to loose some weight but it is slowly going down. Just today I walked from work to home even though there was some white stuff falling from the sky.

Of course part of the problem is there is too many pedestrian unfriendly neighborhoods. Take a walk in my neighborhood and by the time you get back you are checking how good your life insurance policy is.

UTA TRAX Operator Told To Stop Singing On The Train

On the one hand its nice to see a TRAX operator with personality. On the other hand when I am on TRAX I am usually either working on a project or thinking about it so I can see how many would consider it distracting. Just goes to show you can satisfy some of the people some of the time but...

Bus routes at risk as revenues slip

Once again, when your revenue base is dependent on something so cyclical as the sales tax, you have to deal with downturns in revenue usually when it is need the most.

UTA Thanksgiving Service

Image via Wikipedia

UTA Holiday Service Changes

Extra Service for Events & Holiday Festivities

What: Utah Transit Authority will be adding two TRAX trains the day after Thanksgiving to accommodate riders for the Utah Jazz basketball game, the lighting of Temple Square’s holiday decorations, and the Gateway Mall’s annual ‘Light up the Night’ ceremony.

When: Thursday, Nov. 27 & Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

Info: Thanksgiving Day Service:

*There will be NO UTA bus, TRAX or FrontRunner service.*

Friday after Thanksgiving Service:

Regular weekday service on bus, TRAX and FrontRunner.

Two extra TRAX trains will leave Historic Sandy Station (100000 South) at 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.

UTA ski bus service will not start until Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008.

For more information, log onto www.rideuta.com.

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Blog Entries of Note...

Image by Amber Rhea via FlickrFrom the Mobilizing the Region Blog:

Where the Sidewalk Continues…

In September 2006, NJ Gov. Jon Corzine launched a five-year, $74 million statewide pedestrian safety initiative that included money for several NJDOT pedestrian safety programs, traffic calming infrastructure, “traffic-stat” technology, and increased inter-agency coordination. Two years in, the results are visible around the state.

This is what we need in Utah, a program to improve pedestrian safety.

From the Xing Columbus Blog:

62 New Bike Racks Installed in Past Three Months

Columbus, Ohio has installed a large number of bike racks around their city recently. One of the problems many bicyclist face is the lack of facilities to park their bikes. The next time you are out see how often you see bike racks available.

From the Overhead Wire Blog comes:

Pushy SF1

Another great entry from the Overhead Wire about so called free market and new urbanism.

From Streetsblog LA:

Metro Making Room for Bikes on Their Trains

Metro in Los Angeles actually banned bicycles during rush hour periods but is now reversing itself and doing the same thing as UTA: removing seats from trains to give more room for bicycles.

Transportation for America Launches Legislative Campaign

Campaign to improve transit and rail infrastructure.

From the Steve Munro Blog:

Diesels, Not Hybrids, At Least For Now

Back when UTA implemented the fuel surcharge people scream why doesn't UTA buy more Hybrid buses (UTA currently has three in the fleet). In Toronto, they have decided to order more diesel buses because the batteries are only lasting a quarter of the time they were supposed to.

From the Orphan Road Blog:

Parking Ruins Everything

Some interesting information about a couple of different boroughs in New York.

Video about Seoul Bus Service

Here is a video about what the problems that Seoul, South Korea faced with its bus system and what they did to reorganize it.

There are some good ideas here, some UTA is already doing and a push for Bus Rapid Transit which is not the best of ideas. However, it is always good to see what has worked in other places in order to improve transit locally.

Danger with the Bus Riders Union

I have mentioned it before but after the complaint session this past week about the service cuts and the calls for a bus riders union, I think it's time for me to go over again the problems I have with it and the problems it can cause especially since I saw some of the rhetoric coming out at the protest.

The biggest thing I see happing is a direct attack on the rail programs. By demonizing the rail programs they create an us versus them attitude which will only lead to failure on both sides. First and foremost the voters want rail and have voted for it twice. Rail construction is not taking away from bus service.

In fact by making blatant attacks on TRAX and FrontRunner they are actually doing more harm than good. If you look at what financial numbers the UTA presents (which are not that great but they are all we have to work with), there are some things that are clear:
1. That revenues have gone up over the last 10 years.
2. That revenues went up substantially when both TRAX lines opened
3. That bus ridership has gone down over the last 10 years (and it started before TRAX).
4. That TRAX gets 14 million riders per year and the bus system gets only 21 million
TOTAL and that includes they entire system.

So what the numbers say is that the two TRAX lines are carrying 2/3rds as many riders as the entire bus system.

What this says is the problem is not TRAX but the bus system and how UTA is running it. Also you have to look at our cities as a whole and why they are not attracting bus riders.

Instead of looking at TRAX as the big evil one take a look at some issues that UTA has:
1. Poor equipment utilization: Ski Buses and Fast Buses are an example.
2. Almost no bus shelters in the system: Considering are weather extremes shelters are needed. Denver is doing a much better job providing shelters. Blame UTA and the cities.
3. UTA is falling into the same transit mentality planning which says duplication is bad (only in the way UTA does it: 307 and 320 on top of each other, the old 11 and 7 on top of each other, the list goes on).
4. UTA by trying to avoid duplication actually worsens it's market penetration possibilities and decreases ridership potential.
5. The UTA has gone to a grid systems. Grid systems have proven they only work if bus service is more frequent than every 20-minutes. While that is good for their new frequent routes, all the other routes are hurting because of the grid design.
6. Where UTA has made people transfer, like on Redwood, State, crosstown routes at TRAX, they did not create time transfers. In fact in some cases the if you are traveling westbound and need to transfer to a route beyond TRAX, the bus you needs leaves 2 minutes before you get there. UTA needs to work on timed transfers.
7. The way the buses like 4500 South/4700 South, 3900 South/4100 South were cut at TRAX also shows that UTA doesn't understand marketing dynamics. Life doesn't end at the TRAX stations it is only a stopping point.

UTA has problems but attacking the rail program is not the solution but attacking the direct issues with the bus system is.

Bus Wraps: Great for UTA not for its Customers

Over the last few years Wraps have become the rage in the transit industry. Wraps are when buses are wrapped completely including the windows.

The transit agencies have fought tooth and nail in various communities that have tried to put a limit on wraps. What the transit agencies is the money that comes in from the wraps.

What wraps truly show is just how much transit agencies only look to riders as numbers and not as customers that are there to be treated with respect. For anyone who has ridden on a bus with a wrap know that you can barely see out the windows and if you try to look out the windows for more than a minute it will give you a headache and blurry vision.

It also shows that bus riders are second class citizens in the eyes of many transit agencies. While you see buses all the time with wraps, when is the last time you saw a TRAX car with a full wrap that covers the windows? That's different because they consider TRAX riders more important than bus riders.

I have no problem with wraps so long as they do not cover the windows. A couple of years ago GTE I think it was had a wrap but it did not cover the windows. You could still clearly see who paid for the wrap so GTE did not loose any exposure even though the wrap did not cover the windows.

Message to Transit Agencies: Wraps are fine, but treat your bus customers the same way you treat your rail riders, DON'T WRAP THE WINDOWS!!!!

When Will Changes Come to Bus Lines?

Last year UTA did a study of all the bus routes in Salt Lake County and they where planning to do massive changes in the bus system over this year. However, UTA has put off many of those changes but still plans to do most of the changes in the next year.

However, few people know exactly what these changes will be. UTA has not released the details of the plan or what kind of changes will take place.

The problem with most of these plans is that they are made up by consultants that never rode the bus system and don't have a clue about the who what where and why people ride the bus. Orange County, California reorganized their bus system a few years ago on the advice from a consultant yet after only six months they started returning to the old system because of the negative effects it had on thier system.

I am not putting down all consultants (after all I am breaking into the business myself), but when the consultants only go by the "numbers" and do not find out the information on riding habits, the changes will not help out the UTA's customers: the riders on the buses and TRAX.

I am not saying that there is not the need for changes in the bus system, on the contrary there does need to be changes. Currently the bus system is in the immediate Salt Lake area is largely based on old streetcar lines that buses replaced 70 years ago! The times have changed and its time for the bus system to change. However, the system needs to change in order to make riding the system easier for the customers of the UTA.

UTA needs to work with its customers to make a better transit system that will not only work for existing riders, but also be more attractive to choice riders.

UTA should look to Portland and their buses

Image via WikipediaOne of the weaknesses of the UTA system is the buses. They cost more to operate than light rail and do not attract the number of choice riders that TRAX light rail does. So what can UTA do to improve its bus system and make it attract more choice riders?

UTA needs to look at what Portland is doing on its busiest routes. Since we are stuck with the Low Floor buses that are inferior to the high floors, UTA like Tri-Met in Portland needs to take advantage of them.

What Portland did was go route by route and assign the low floor buses to their busiest routes that will take advantage of the faster loading and unloading. In addition they reduced the number of bus stops (but still keeping them close together), and adjusted the sidewalks and curves to make getting in and out of the low floors as seamless as can be.

This gives the best invest for the dollar short of building streetcar or light rail systems. It speeds up the buses and is more attractive to choice riders.

Among the routes that would be perfect opportunities for this kind of investment is the 8, 9, 22, 30, 31, 39, 40, 70, 603, 612, and the 830 (probably this route will be served more by this than the BRT scheme).

Expansion of TRAX is very important, but still is maintaining and increasing ridership on the bus routes.

Bus Assignments Need Work

Many years ago I had a close family friend who drove for the Southern California Rapid Transit District. It was not uncommon for the RTD to put a 30-foot bus on a route that should have nothing but a 40-foot bus and would have 40-foot buses on a route that should have only 30 foot buses.

The problem at the time was that the RTD had such a diverse fleet, many different types of buses, from many different sources so it was difficult for them to insure the right bus was on the right line. Of course this was in the days before they high tech computers of today.

Today UTA has a much more standardized fleet than the RTD back in the late 70's early 80's, but seems to have the same trouble with assigning buses even with the advent of computers.

A perfect example of this is route 22. This route is one of the busier routes the UTA has, yet many times it is assigned 35-foot low floor buses. It is bad enough that the low floor buses reduces seating capacity, then you add the fact that you are using a smaller bus often leads to standing room only on the route north of 3300 South. I can see running low floors on this route but they should only have 40-foot buses on this route.

There is no reason why this cannot be done. In fact if you ride the same route every day you will find that often you will ride the same bus number every day. When I road the route 24, I road the same Orion V buses on the regular basis. The other bus I rode was usually assigned bus 9222. So why can't they make sure the routes that need the 40-footers have them?

The situation is gets more ridiculous when there is special events going on. When the American Public Transit Association had there national meeting in Salt Lake, a rodeo was held for bus drivers across the country. Many of the newest Gillig Advantages was pulled from revenue service carrying their customers and used them instead for the rodeo. During this time I rode another very bus route line 37 which runs to Magna. This is another route that runs with standing loads on many runs. Because they wasted buses on the rodeo, they had to assign 35-foot ski buses to this tripper. Not only is the bus smaller but several sets of seats are removed for ski's.

Why? They wanted to show off for APTA and showed how they could care less about their customers that ride with them every day. Why couldn't the rodeo use the ski buses which are sitting anyway? It would make much more sense to use the ski buses on the rodeo and keep the other buses on their regular assignments for their PAYING customers.

The sad thing is that UTA is one of the better transit agencies when treating the customer. However, it is clear that there still needs to be changes at UTA to make it more customer friendly. If it is going to attract the option riders, UTA needs to reinvent is service.

Goodbye to the Classics

Image via WikipediaUTA is in the process of pulling from service the 1990 MCI Classics that have served many miles for the UTA and being replaced by the new 30-foot Optima Opus buses.

The Design of the Classic is based of the GM New Look buses that first started production in 1959. Production in the United States was stopped in 1977 and replaced by the RTS series which UTA never used except during the Olympics. However the New Look continued to be produced in Canada and was updated in 1984 and became the classic. UTA purchased these buses in 1984 and 1990. In 1987 GM sold its bus division to MCI which at the time was part of Greyhound but the buses remained the same.

The problem with the newer buses is that they are not built to the same standards as the previous buses. The new Optima's and the Gillig's that UTA purchased over the last few years are not the same quality as the Classics or the New Looks that proceeded them. While the motors are essentially the same it is in the passenger cabin that you can really notice the differences in the buses.

If you where to ride on of the few remaining Classics that are left in service, while you will notice a couple of rattles here in there, it would not be major. Meanwhile even when the Gillig Advantage's where just a couple of years old they had major rattles and are not a passenger friendly bus to ride on.

Sadly there are several reasons why this happens.

1. Lowest bidder-may not always be the best bidder.

2. Fed's 12 Year Policy-Buses only have to last that long even though many of them are falling apart before that.

3. Policy Makers don't ride the buses-This is probably the biggest reason why the quality of today's buses is poor compared to older vehicles. For the most part the big wigs and especially the board members of UTA DON'T RIDE THE BUS. Unless it is for some public relations reason they are not on the buses. They do not ride the bus and see the condition of the buses so it doesn't even enter their minds that the customer compartment of the bus is poor. All they look at is the mechanical performance-that's all.

Do you think those big wigs would allow their personal cars to rattle like the buses that their customers have to ride in? Of course the answer is no, they would be screaming bloody murder to the dealer and the manufacturer. They should also not permit it on the buses their customers have to ride in either.

The board of directors and the top corporate people of transit agencies in general, not just the UTA need to demand better products from the manufacturers. It is their responsibility to their customers to do so.