Sardine 99 B-Line bus reflects political neglect

Late Friday morning (March 27) at Commercial and Broadway, outside both rush hours, the 99 B-Line was full.

The first bus I let pass by. The next duly filled up after I boarded via the middle doors with my $9 day pass.

Someone from the Gulf Islands made the innocent remark: “There’s not enough room in here.”

The bus was full, and I mean full. This fact alone is just not news anymore, and that is a disgrace. Where is the care?

These buses are where the concentration of ridership is most acutely felt. They creak under the strain and the drivers bristle with anxious energy.

The poor, the elderly, and the infirm all struggle for a seat, and if they have to stand, they risk physical injury. More often than not, it is low-income residents and the single mothers who struggle the most. They have no cars and no other options. Day in and day out.

Well, this is our public transit system. As Straight editor Charlie Smith has suggested, politicians in this region plainly don’t care about transit users, if their transit decision-making is any clue.

The 99 B-Line is a sad joke during rush hour. The Straight reported in 2007 that driver reports revealed 945 total pass-ups for the 99 route from May 1, 2006, to July 8, 2007.

It was then stated by Jim Houlahan, vice president of CAW Local 111, that this was but a fraction of the total figure, as most drivers don’t even bother calling the pass-ups in to dispatch.

The bus system is central to the transit system, and it accounts for most of the ridership.

Yes, the Expo Line is fairly busy, but at what cost over time? The Millennium Line still has low ridership.

What will happen when the Canada Line and Evergreen Lines come on stream? Will they provide transportation for those with limited money, or will they bleed the already overwrought bus system completely dry?

If you ride the system, you already know the answer.

Comments

10 Comments

Grumpy

Mar 30, 2009 at 4:19pm

The problem is not one of lack of buses, rather piss-poor management. Good transit managers would provide the buses, to halt overcrowding and pass-ups.

During the same period that there is over crowding on the 99B Line buses, the 620 Ferry - Airport Station route, which operates articulated buses, is carrying fewer than 20 people a trip!

In South Delta, there are many bus routes including the 609, C84, C86, C87, C88, & C89 that carry fewer than 10 passengers per day per route!

It's not that politicians don't care about transit, they are too busy spending billions of dollars on glitzy SkyTrain metro lines, so they can cut ribbons and tell all who will listen that they are 'ecco friendly', 'pro transit', and of course "'green'.

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Matthew Burrows

Mar 30, 2009 at 5:23pm

"It's not that politicians don't care about transit..."

Grumpy, are you sure?

The disconnect I see at ribbon-cutting ceremonies speaks to the very apathy and "don't care" attitude I describe. Bottom line is this: Politicians, with few notable exceptions, don't ride the system. Ergo, they really don't care...

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Grumpy

Mar 30, 2009 at 8:18pm

I understand that Campbell likes to toot the horn on Canada line trains.

Rail transit projects in the metro area have always been about election winnability and property development, not transit.

To date the taxpayer has seen spent over $6 billion on two SkyTrain Lines that combined carry fewer passengers and double the annual operating cost of Calgary's much cheaper C-Train LRT.

The Millennium Line is the only metro in the world that goes nowhere to nowhere.

The RAV/Canada Line, costing anywhere up to $2.8 billion (depending who you talk to) is not compatible with SkyTrain and can't run on SkyTrain's tracks and vis versa. The cost of the RAV Line escalated so much that the scope of the project was reduced to such an extent, that as built, the RAV/Canada line metro, costing 4 to 6 times more than LRT has a maximum capacity 5,000 pphpd to 10,000 pphpd less that if cheaper LRT was built on the Arbutus Corridor.

Why was this allowed? Politicians like to cut ribbons in front of glitzy new metro lines like RAV or SkyTrain!

Politicians care about transit, so long as they can use it as a reelection tool!

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ezekiel bones

Mar 31, 2009 at 5:16pm

To be fair, during the time I lived in Vancouver I used the skytrain pretty frequently. It was not usually as sardine packed as the buses, but is that sort of crowding a sign of success? The fact that the Skytrain is not usually overcrowded is good, not bad.

Also I have friends, young people who live or have lived in the suburbs because the housing is more affordable. The skytrain makes it possible for them to stay connected to the city and that is a good thing.

That said, I'm not confident that they went with the smartest and most cost effective technology, but it is no good pooh-poohing the only form of transit which has really gotten significant buy-in from the suburbs (where the buses are absolutely abyssmal)

What we need to talk about are solutions... rather than hating investments which are already made we should look at how we can integrate them better with the bus system and invest in more busses/smarter busses.

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Matthew Burrows

Apr 1, 2009 at 2:54pm

Ezekiel:

"The fact that the Skytrain is not usually overcrowded is good, not bad."

I am in full agreement. I didn't mean to confuse things by mentioning the SkyTrain. I merely wanted to say that the successive governments of the NDP (under Clark) and the B.C. Liberals (under Campbell) have shovelled money off a truck at the Expo, Millennium, Canada (RAV) and now Evergreen lines, while REAL bus count has stagnated.

(We only just recently got our first new bus since 2000 - a whole other sorry story for another day.)

We are way behind on buses. That's what makes the 99 B-Line so terrible to ride on some days. It could be better with a bit of tweaking and a whole lotta love thrown the way of the BIAs. How? They could dedicate the lanes (i.e. those on Broadway) and really bullet the buses along. It was this that was my focus. The bus network is hurting as you said. And that includes in places like Delta, as Grumpy has said, because there they operate in a fashion that nobody will get out of their cars. And changing the modal split is key and only when new riders come on will the improvements be felt.

"Also I have friends, young people who live or have lived in the suburbs because the housing is more affordable. The skytrain makes it possible for them to stay connected to the city and that is a good thing."

Here I agree unequivocally. I travel to Burnaby a lot and boy do I appreciate the Expo Line. But that's not the issue. We've paid off the Expo Line now.

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Spork

Apr 1, 2009 at 9:15pm

If you had done your research, you would realize that that corridor for the 99 b-line is at capacity for rush hour. Simply visit either end of the system or the middle to see that there is no more space for bus drivers to take their end-of-line breaks/timing stop, or to see busses pile up at Granville and have to wait for the next bus to get out of the way in order to unload more people. This is the busiest bus corridor in the province - expect some issues.

In regards to the Millenium line - try taking that thing at rush hour as well! It is jam-packed for the most part, and is meeting ridership figures. More cars are coming within the next couple of weeks, so the Millenium and Expo lines should have much more capacity soon.

Regarding those bashing SkyTrain lines in general - they have much more capacity than a bus given their dedicated right of way (higher speed, on-time) and computer-controlled nature (can run closer together if need be). Simply saying that they are "glitzy" is an ignorant statement - they are effective and go beyond the capacity constraints of a bus system.

Why is it necessary for the Canada Line trains to run on Expo/Millenium line tracks? Are tens of thousands of people going to suddenly stop taking the Canada Line and start taking the Expo/Millenium lines? Translink has simulation models to forecast when more trains are required, so there is no need to switch from one system to the other.

In regards to the Arbutus corridor comment - did you know that the City of Vancouver was in a legal dispute with CP rail over this corridor and who has rights to it? It was recently solved (Vancouver won), but that would mean that the Canada line wouldn't be done until 2012 or 2013! Anybody who was taken the 98 knows how terrible that bus is (on par with the 99) and knows that we need that line NOW.

In regards to a dedicated lane for busses - this would certainly help right now, but for the long term? Heck no. The Broadway corridor will do nothing but grow upwards, and removing two lanes from a four/six-lane street will do nothing to help, particularly if the parking lanes are removed (imagine the Broadway merchants when that happens!). Further, busses would still need more space for layover, and would require greater signal priortization, messing up the commute for those coming from the south (by causing red lights for major corridors such as Cambie, Granville, Main, etc.).

In regards to bus improvements south of the fraser - these are coming, but most of the issue lies with city planning. These are suburbs and lack the density required to have a full bus route. Surrey is moving along in the right direction, but isn't quite there yet. Community Shuttles allow for a lower requirement, but these still require a significant number of people to want to take transit.

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Matthew Burrows

Apr 2, 2009 at 1:08pm

"This is the busiest bus corridor in the province - expect some issues."

Spork:

We should expect SOME issues, yes, but not EVERY issue. And the 99 encapsulates almost every issue on the spectrum of human experience.

Consider these more negative ones:

1. 99 B-Line drivers will tell benighted passengers to "get over that red line", as it's against the safety regs to have them spill over the front line. Most drivers ask nicely, but some yell so hard that it becomes the passenger's fault for having the nerve to get on when they did. The passengers that are last on get it the worst, therefore, and this makes them want to jump right back out the way they came. Thus: It's a disincentive.

2. On a rainy/snowy day, multiply that by a factor of 10.

3. When the service is at its most vulnerable during winter, buses are slower, nerves are frayed and the number of passups is equalled only by the amount of "Snowspam" coming from the communications offices of TransLink for that same period. http://twurl.cc/q2l

4. Let us not forget, it now costs $2.50 for a one-zone cash fare.

5. To ride the B-Line means to ride one zone. But at any given time you have many different fare options at play. Add to that the all-door boarding, which only works with the buses geared up to do it. Even then, you must have valid fare to board the middle or rear doors, which of course means you get on faster. If you need first to validate your discount ticket, or if you need to pay cash (as most of the poor folks do), you must take 30 seconds to go through the front doors and validate.
This pits passengers against one another. In that time the bus fills right up like a Helium balloon, as the pre-validated are on and dry in a seat and the non-validated are (yes you guessed it) TOLD TO GET BEHIND THE RED LINE at the front.

(5.5 For examaple, the other rainy morning, I had to validate my discount fare at the front, and a woman saw that I had stopped, wet umbrella in hand, and got excited about passing me with her monthly pass and getting a seat ahead of me. That's fine, but the poor lady brushed by me and got soaked from my dripping umbrella before I could move it to the side. She was not happy the whole time after that, and she would have been better off not feeling like she had to compete against other riders. But that's the new culture now. Get that seat any which way...

6. Where I do agree wholeheartedly is with lane prioritization. It would be messy. But how else do we up capacity on Broadway? Are we to wait until every other SkyTrain line is built and T/Link gets round to the Broadway Corridor, having first staved off financial collapse? This will happen when? We will be how old? Will our pensions cover the fares that will ensue? Can we stretch to $10 each way?

Spork, please point me to the silver lining...

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singular

Apr 2, 2009 at 5:22pm

Grumpy...

"To date the taxpayer has seen spent over $6 billion on two SkyTrain Lines that combined carry fewer passengers and double the annual operating cost of Calgary's much cheaper C-Train LRT."

And yet, most Calgarians will tell you that they'd take SkyTrain any day rather than the slow and low-frequency LRT.

As well, the operating cost of our automated system is cheaper than their manually driven system.

"The Millennium Line is the only metro in the world that goes nowhere to nowhere."

Perhaps because the Millennium Line is only half built? The Evergreen Line and UBC extensions were meant to be phase II of the Millennium Line, completed by 2005.

"The RAV/Canada Line, costing anywhere up to $2.8 billion (depending who you talk to) is not compatible with SkyTrain and can't run on SkyTrain's tracks and vis versa. The cost of the RAV Line escalated so much that the scope of the project was reduced to such an extent, that as built, the RAV/Canada line metro, costing 4 to 6 times more than LRT has a maximum capacity 5,000 pphpd to 10,000 pphpd less that if cheaper LRT was built on the Arbutus Corridor."

The Canada Line cost $2.05-billion...period.

Studies have shown that LRT along Arbutus would have taken 30-35 minutes, which is far too long. In addition, most importantly, Arbutus lacks employment centres and destinations that would feed ridership into the line.

Finally, with regards to your capacity claims. The Canada Line's operating capacity on opening day will be about 8,000 pphpd, about the same as the Millennium Line. However, its maximum design capacity is 15,000pphpd - in comparison, the Expo Line uses 13,000 pphpd capacity during peak hour. The Canada Line won't reach the Expo Line's ridership anytime soon.

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singular

Apr 2, 2009 at 5:30pm

And with regards to the 99 B-Line, it sees 60,000 passengers per day and I believe that makes it the busiest bus route in Canada. In fact, the 99 B-Line has a much higher ridership than some of Toronto's streetcar lines.

As well, currently 130 articulated buses are dedicated to the 99 B-Line. That's 10% of the entire Translink bus fleet. Adding more buses simply isn't the solution when Broadway is at overcapacity with buses...buses frequently bunch up, and there are not enough dwelling spaces at terminus stops.

Fact is, the problems we see today on the 99 B-Line is a result of long overdue rapid transit rail not being built...more specifically, an extension of Millennium Line SkyTrain. It certainly doesn't make any sense to build LRT, which will no doubt be much slower than the SkyTrain option. In addition, LRT will mean a seamless train ride - no transfer - saving precious minutes in transfer time. Taking away road space for bus lanes or LRT lanes on Broadway simply isn't an option either as lets face it, Broadway is a critical road artery east-west of the city. This city ain't building any additional road capacity in the future, that's okay, but it must save and preserve what existing road capacity we have.

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racc

Apr 7, 2009 at 1:18pm

Calgary has done a great job of building a cost-effective LRT system, the C-Train, that attracts a large number of users. It is much different system than SkyTrain so direct comparison is difficult. As only extends a maximum of 10km from downtown, operating speed is less important than for SkyTrain which extends 20km from downtown. Also, the intent of SkyTrain is to shape development as opposed to serving existing transit users so it is not really surprising that C-Train has greater ridership. C-Train's three lines serve downtown while SkyTrain has only one line serving downtown, so again, it is not surprising that the C-Train has larger ridership.

The maximum ridership per line on the C-Train is around 90,000 passengers with just the Expo Line has around 170,000 passengers per day.

It is important to note that while the C-Train has greater ridership than SkyTrain, most LRT systems only have a fraction of the ridership that SkyTrain has. Portland's system only carries a bit over 100,000 passengers per day while SkyTrain is at least 220,000 (I think it is 240,000 now)

While Calgary's system, C-Train does attract more riders than SkyTrain, the average trip length is significantly less so the total passenger kilometres per year, 627,000,000, on SkyTrain is 29% larger than on C-Train, 491,000,000.

http://www.ieej.or.jp/aperc/2008pdf/2008_Reports/Urban%20Transport%20Ene...

Also don't forget that Calgary has a free fare zone downtown while SkyTrain does not. It is easier to attract riders to a free system.

C-Train also has larger and more parking and ride lots around its stations so more people are driving to the stations as opposed to walking and using the bus which are more environmental sound.

Regarding the B-Line along Broadway, while rail is badly needed, the city needs to do a lot better job with building effective bus lanes. A good start would be to either ban right turns at major intersections or have the bus lane in the middle lane with the stops on curb bulges on the far side of intersections so the buses don't get stuck behind right turning vehicles.

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