How's YOUR transit system right now?

[dewline]

Another nosy question, prompted by our current tsuris here in Bytown on the Outaouaias. Assuming you have such in your city or town, and that you use it, of course.

(Before I forget, if your system has a website, could you add a link to it?)

Comments

[radargrrl.livejournal.com]

They cranked up a public transit system here in Trenton sometime in 2008. It's just a couple of van conversion para buses operating on a single route that seems to thread all over town. Inexplicably, it doesn't go anywhere near the air base, the area's largest employer. Neither does the Belleville system. I have no idea why.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, either. You want people to get to their jobs on time if you're a city/town council with enough on the ball about such issues, after all.

Do they have a website?

[radargrrl.livejournal.com]

Prolly, somewhere.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Unless you are in the "hub" of Vegas, the CAT system is feeble.

For me to take it to work, I'd have to walk about a Mile to a stop where the bus comes once an hour*, make a switch at Eastern (every 20 minutes) make a transfer at Trop (every 20 minutes) and depending on if it happened to be there, make a transfer at Maryland (every 20 minutes) or just walk that extra half mile to into work.

It would turn a 20 minute drive into a 1.5 hour process.

---
*if I missed that bus, I'd have to walk 3 miles to Eastern avenue.

---
OTOH, with one exception, I've never needed a car to get where I wanted in the SF Bay area. Ralph and I use the "Bay Area BMW" (BART, Muni, Walk) to get where we want.

And the Walk is seldom more than a Football Field.

If I lived in the Bay Area, I don't think I'd have a car, or if I did, I'd drive it only to the Bart Station.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

"CAT"?

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

Halifax's transit system (http://www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/) has gaps all over the place. But I live near a major transfer point and work downtown, so I find it easy to get back and forth. If I lived ten minutes from where I do the story would change pretty quickly, though.

Speaking of which, I should get out to the bus stop before the snow begins. That can slow things down, big time!

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that link! Gives me a better sense of the region now, it does!

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

The Cleveland Regional Transit system isn't bad, though of late they've been cutting some routes (or at least the number of buses thereon) and raising fares, supposedly due to fuel costs and various other economic factors. On the other hand, you can get to a lot of places using them. DH uses the bus to get to work (downtown) daily from our inner-ring suburban apartment. It's cheaper than paying for downtown parking and for gasoline for the commute. They run both buses and a few short commuter train lines.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the linkage!

I could understand the fare hikes in the context of an expanding system, whether or not the fuel price situation was involved. It has certainly been a factor in recent years hereabouts.

As to the train lines, I remember maybe one or two from Transit Maps of the World, a cool collection of subway/light rail transit maps published last year. Looks like yours has been expanding somewhat on that front since publication!

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

Ours is overcrowded, under serviced, decaying rapidly. and yet mind-bogglingly over budget.

Seems the state government commissioned a new fare-levying system and it's been massively botched. At this stage it would, literally, be cheaper to let everyone travel for free for a decade that it will be to finish the project.

The city is growing fast. More people are using the transport network than ever, but there isn't any PT from the old outer suburbs, let alone the new outer-outer suburbs.

Our state government has sought to rectify these problems by building toll roads.

In other words... ours is fucked.

-- JF

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I hope that's not a permanent state of affairs for your system either.

Any links?

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

It's permanent in that the government needs to take action to fix it, and action is not their strong point. For example, it's taken ten years to respond to the drought we're having.

Links? Here's the first one I found:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24914157-2862,00.html

Explore the linked articles for a bigger picture.

-- JF

[dewline.livejournal.com]

They contracted out to a private company?

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

Some years ago, yeah. It's been one disaster after another.

-- JF

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Something we're going to have to watch out for symptoms of attempted infliction upon Ottawa, then. One more good reason to keep octranspo on my watch-list.

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

http://www.emtaerie.com/

I never use it because it runs so infrequently that a 15 minute drive can take 2 hours. However, the free bus that runs up State St is pretty nice.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

That kind of delay continues to be an ongoing peril of any system, it seems. :-(