The Official Transit Thread

[ManUtd]

Well yeah, but that's like maybe one person per bus.

I have another question for everyone:

So i was on the 49 today heading to metro and this very elderly chinese man snuck onto the back. A guy waiting in line (who actually didn't get to get on) told him to gtfo and get on through the front. Not only did the chinese guy prevent some people from getting on, he also stole a seat.

The guy was like 70? But i don't know, still don't feel like he had the right to do that. I would've called him out on it, but honestly i didn't wanna be that guy to yell at an old guy.

Perhaps i'm a minority, but does anyone think elders should be able to do that? I mean yeah there's the occasional teenager who does it but honestly i only mostly see old people do it these days.

That may be true for a regular bus but not the 99. It's designated as all door boarding. Every time I've taken it the vast majority of people have used the back two doors regardless of how busy it is.

[Opmac]

Well yeah, but that's like maybe one person per bus.

I can guarantee it is not one person per bus especially on the 99 B-Line. That route is so busy that it's nearly impossible to check for fares thus no fear of getting caught for not paying the fare. It's so busy that even a honest person would probably hop on the bus from the back in order to get a seat rather than waiting in line at the front door to pay the fare.

[Opmac]

Speaking of the #49 route, am I the only one that noticed it seems like they're running drastically fewer artics this fall? I remember last year, it was artic after artic between maybe 3pm and 8pm?

[Armada]

How can you not pay for your tickets when you get on the bus? The bus driver checks their fares.

Someone's never taken the 99 b-line

[ronthecivil]

No, you say you're by two transit nodes (don't know how you figure that) but that you're in a 'far off place'. Anyway, you're just exaggerating for fun and cause it makes you feel good. You never provide links or evidence for anything you say, just anecdotal stories, so have fun.

Because I live within a five minute walk of White Rock Centre and work next to skytrain. They are not close but they are both transit nodes.

The argument I hear is that White Rock (or Langely) is too far to provide cost effective service, and that there's no money. Ergo I propose putting them in a fourth zone to account for that extra cost. I would happily pay a bit more for service than pay nothing for no service.

I don't think it's crazy to put White Rock/South Surrey into zone 4 in exchange for providing Blines to White Rock Centre on King George/152 and to Willowbrook via Fraser highway as well as making the Langely Port Mann bridge bus every ten minutes as was planned.

Would that extra money cover it? Not sure but it's work looking into imo. I would happily pay more if there was good service. Especially given how more costly driving will soon be.

[ronthecivil]

Someone's never taken the 99 b-line

The 99 only? Just say "I don't have any money" and that works just fine.

Back when I had to take transit to the skytrain to get to canucks games I would be short sometimes and I would say "I will pay when I get to skytrain" and that worked just fine. (I did pay when I got to skytrain).

The drivers are instructed not to be confrontational. MAYBE you will be asked to get off. So what? Get on the next bus and try again.

[aGENT]

Because I live within a five minute walk of White Rock Centre and work next to skytrain. They are not close but they are both transit nodes.

The argument I hear is that White Rock (or Langely) is too far to provide cost effective service, and that there's no money. Ergo I propose putting them in a fourth zone to account for that extra cost. I would happily pay a bit more for service than pay nothing for no service.

I don't think it's crazy to put White Rock/South Surrey into zone 4 in exchange for providing Blines to White Rock Centre on King George/152 and to Willowbrook via Fraser highway as well as making the Langely Port Mann bridge bus every ten minutes as was planned.

Would that extra money cover it? Not sure but it's work looking into imo. I would happily pay more if there was good service. Especially given how more costly driving will soon be.

Ron, you and your crazy, exaggerated, anecdotal "ideas" again Quit thinking of ways to try to fix/improve things would ya!

http://www.cknw.com/...aspx?ID=1775359

Surrey's mayor says Translink's 3 year plan falls short for South of the Fraser

The Mayor of Surrey says Translink's new three year plan falls short.

When asked if the transit plan is a disappointment when it comes to infrastructure needs for Surrey, Mayor Dianne Watts said.

"Well absolutely, when you look at 70-percent of the future growth of the region is coming South of the Fraser the infrastructure that needs to be in place is significant whether it is maintaining the existing infrastructure, moving forward to move the region forward,and to have additional infrastructure and transportation these are key issues for a livable region."

Watts says Surrey with the second largest border crossing in the country, and the expansion of deltaport, among other things, needs sustainable transit funding.

Watts says while Translink threw the city a bone or two "Having the rapid bus service over the Port Mann bridge as well as the B-line from 104th between Newton and Guilford."

But there was still more bad news than good "Down the road we still have the King George B-line service down to South Surrey White Rock that has yet to come to fruition. We have been waiting quite some time for that. Again very concerned about the major road network because that is our infrastructure where the funding has been scaled back."

Watts was asked about NDP Transportation critic Harry Bains saying Translink is spending money they don't have by relying on property tax revenue, which isn't certain.

"That was a two year limited property tax increase that I think was voted on about a year ago these are the things they can do and there is a number of things they have scaled back on. You know we have a mayors council meeting coming up over the next day or two and so we will be having those discussions at that point."

Edited September 18, 2012 by J.R.

[ronthecivil]

Ron, you and your crazy, exaggerated, anecdotal "ideas" again Quit thinking of ways to try to fix/improve things would ya!

http://www.cknw.com/...aspx?ID=1775359

When you spend 45 minutes trying to get on the Port Mann bridge figuring out options to fix things is a nice distraction from the homicidal rage that would be building otherwise.

[Armada]

The 99 only? Just say "I don't have any money" and that works just fine.

Back when I had to take transit to the skytrain to get to canucks games I would be short sometimes and I would say "I will pay when I get to skytrain" and that worked just fine. (I did pay when I got to skytrain).

The drivers are instructed not to be confrontational. MAYBE you will be asked to get off. So what? Get on the next bus and try again.

I was using that line as a particular example but it happens most often on Commercial and Broadway since usually all the doors open on the bus but ya you get all of that quite often.

No wonder translink is losing so much money.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Armada

[inane]

Because I live within a five minute walk of White Rock Centre and work next to skytrain. They are not close but they are both transit nodes.

The argument I hear is that White Rock (or Langely) is too far to provide cost effective service, and that there's no money. Ergo I propose putting them in a fourth zone to account for that extra cost. I would happily pay a bit more for service than pay nothing for no service.

I don't think it's crazy to put White Rock/South Surrey into zone 4 in exchange for providing Blines to White Rock Centre on King George/152 and to Willowbrook via Fraser highway as well as making the Langely Port Mann bridge bus every ten minutes as was planned.

Would that extra money cover it? Not sure but it's work looking into imo. I would happily pay more if there was good service. Especially given how more costly driving will soon be.

This is a regional problem. What you're advocating for is just chopping it up into smaller pieces and having that money go to those smaller pieces. I mean it is one way to do it, but we don't do that for sewer or water mains, we don't do that for highways, we don't do that for anything that crosses a lot of municipal boundaries. So why is transit different?

There are lots of options, I don't think carving up the region into little fiefdoms is a good one...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443864204577619082194372886.html

[inane]

http://pricetags.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/perverse-priorities-where-were-spending-our-money-or-not/

[ronthecivil]

This is a regional problem. What you're advocating for is just chopping it up into smaller pieces and having that money go to those smaller pieces. I mean it is one way to do it, but we don't do that for sewer or water mains, we don't do that for highways, we don't do that for anything that crosses a lot of municipal boundaries. So why is transit different?

There are lots of options, I don't think carving up the region into little fiefdoms is a good one...

http://online.wsj.co...2194372886.html

Cutting up the region? That's my plan if they can't figure out how to get transit to the places that don't currently have it.

The fourth zone is not carving up the region, it's adding another fare zone. Much like when you cross from Vancouver into Burnaby the fare gets more expensive. Not sure how you are not getting it or even commenting on the actual plan I am putting out that would in fact cost ME more but at least give me something worth paying for.

[ronthecivil]

http://pricetags.wor...r-money-or-not/

And to that I said...

As someone living in one of the areas being neglected (White Rock) who would be first in line should had they actually provided Bline service as has been promised a decade now I have motivation to come up with a solution.

I understand there’s a bunch of farmland one has to go through to get to South Surrey/White Rock much like there’s a big distance factor in providing the Langley Port Mann Bus or a potential King George to Willowbrook express bus.

As such, so long as this service was provided, I would have no objection to paying for it. I would therefore suggest putting in a fourth zone for transit with a four zone one way ticket costing about 7 bucks and a month pass for 190 or so. Zone four would be South Surrey/White Rock and the Langleys.

There. I figured out what I want and helped come up with a way to pay for it that would directly hit my pocketbook. It might cost more but with tolls on the way having Bline service would make transit very competitive with driving for a heck of a lot of people. I know I would take it even at the higher cost.

[Opmac]

Woman struck and killed by TransLink bus in Vancouver

VANCOUVER -- An articulated TransLink bus hit and killed a woman outside the busy Main Street SkyTrain Station on the outskirts of downtown Vancouver early Wednesday evening.

Just before 5 p.m. a woman was struck by the northbound bus on the northeast corner of the Main Street and Terminal Avenue intersection, according to witnesses.

“No one screamed, there was no crash sound,” said Carmen Bright, who was less than a block away at a nearby farmer’s market when the woman was hit. “No one knew until you walked past.”

A blue tarp covered the woman’s body as authorities shooed horrified bystanders away Bright said. The woman has not been identified, but police news release confirmed she was the 12 person to be killed in a traffic accident in Vancouver this year.

The circumstances behind the accident are unknown, but eyewitness Shinya Mikawa said the bus apparently ran a red light. Bright said several other eyewitnesses she talked to at the scene said the same thing.

“All I can confirm on my end is there has been an incident be involving a bus and a pedestrian at Main Street terminal,” said TransLink spokesman Drew Snider.

Meanwhile TransLink has tweeted that their northbound #3, #8 and #19 buses have been detoured via Broadway to Cambie. Southbound buses are still travelling down Main Street.

City of Vancouver spokeswoman Wendy Stewart said the traffic cameras at the intersection that face all four directions are not programmed to take video. However, most articulated TransLink buses come equipped with multiple cameras, including one at the front that may capture footage of an accident like this.

Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the collision to call them at 604-717-3012.

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html?id=7269006

It was 2553.

[hullo.]

http://www.vancouver...html?id=7269006

It was 2553.

That's at least the second pedestrian hit and killed by a bus at Main and Terminal this year.

The other was back in March i think, involving a Southbound #3 on the South-west corner of the intersection.

[Opmac]

Apparently the on-board cameras showed that the driver did not run a red light. What apparently happened according to another eyewitness was she was leaning up against a pole and she missed or loss her footing, she fell into the road, and the bus drove over her. The bus was already well past her when this happened.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2282018497/

[inane]

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Port+Mann+Bridge+toll+doesn+enough+says+expert/7251242/story.html#ixzz27LgDNvKp

http://www.vancouversun.com/McMartin+Port+Mann+Bridge+should+never+have+been+built/7282640/story.html#ixzz27M6ki2eA

[KoreanHockeyFan]

Yeah regarding the whole free ride on the #99. Today I was sleeping on the bus on the way back from school when an officer came in and woke me up to check if I had my pass. I had mine, unfortunately, about 15-20 others didn't...

Edited September 25, 2012 by KoreanHockeyFan

[Common sense]

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/421621--new-transit-fare-rates-coming-into-effect-at-start-of-2013

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Here's your six weeks' warning: Transit fares are going up as of January 1st.

Derek Zabel with TransLink explains the increases are retroactive. "Things like cash fares, day passes, and short-term West Coast Express prices haven't risen since 2008. So, this is an increase of about two per cent per year since 2008, and this is basically to cover the cost of inflation."

"We expect that this increase will bring in about $32 million and that'll help to maintain our system. With the cost of inflation, this $32 million will help to cover that cost," he adds.

A model to find hundreds of millions of dollars for transit improvements still needs to be worked out.

The reason TransLink is telling us this today is that by law, it has six weeks to remind the public that fares are going up.

Transit Fares as at January 1, 2013

CASH FARES

Adult

Concession

Regular fares

Weekday service from start of service to 6:30 p.m.

1 zone

$2.75

$1.75

2 zones

$4.00

$2.75

3 zones

$5.50

$3.75

Discount fares

Weekdays after 6:30 p.m. and all day Saturday, Sunday and holidays

All zones

$2.75

$1.75

PREPAID FARES

Adult

Concession

Monthly FareCard

1 zone

$91.00

$52.00

for all zones

2 zones

$124.00

3 zones

$170.00

FareSaver Tickets

Book of 10

1 zone

$21.00

$17.50

2 zones

$31.50

N/A

3 zones

$42.00

N/A

DayPass

$9.75

$7.50

West Coast Express fares will rise by approximately 12.5 per cent.

[Sugar baby watermelon]

So a bus driver keeps closing the doors before I arrive at the stop but has a red light, why won't he open the door for me. A couple of days later, the same bus driver lets me on because other people are getting on too, I try to signal for my stop but the cords aren't working because the driver does not have them turned on. I go up to him and ask if I can have the next stop, he asks me if I am aware of what bus I am on? I tell him I have been taking this bus for two years. He then asks me if I am aware of what bus stop is next, being on an express bus, I tell him that is why I pulled the next stop. The bus driver pulls over just after cracktown on Hastings, and proceeds to call for translink security and VPD as a passenger is harrassing him. I tell him I hope you have your video footage working and audio to prove what you just said. He does not say an ything. I stand for five minutes by the open door, he apologizes to his two other passengers, I apologize and explain why he has pulled over and what he has done in the past. I step off and tell him I will wait right here so we can hash this all out. He closes the door, turns off the lights, smells and waves at me as he pulls away. I have to walk home at 645AM through cracktown to get to my apartment. I made a complaint online and called in a complaint. They will be getting back to me.

Any other suggestions??