I don't think that is the plan anymore, given that Currie is not building out at the density originally envisioned. The MAX Yellow will run faster by remaining on crowchild and using Richard Road as it currently does.
Would have been great to know that before they build the Marda Loop Station on the on-ramp. The Max Yellow is a pretty solid route with a couple of pain points - downtown's brutal lack of bus priority and this Marda Loop station location.
The problem is they put the existing station on the NB ramp onto Crowchild - making it farther with many road crossings from the areas of density and walkability focused increasingly on 34th Avenue, but also subject to long signal delay issues with existing the freeway, waiting for a light, entering the freeway again. Even with the Currie alignment the proposal would have forced a left-hand turn onto Crowchild from 33rd, again risking more delays. The trade-off was that going through Currie centrally would yield some good ridership (eventually at build out) so the risks of delays are worth it.
If the bus doesn't go to Currie, the NB Marda Loop stop is forever in an inefficient location. A better approach (had they known they were going to stay on the freeway) is build the stops into the freeway bridge with a short pedestrian tunnel under the ramp connecting directly to Safeway for the NB stop. When combined with the a SB stop on Crowchild under the bridge and some ramps and stairs we've all of sudden created a transit station in both directions that has zero at-grade crossing for busses or pedestrians, dramatically improving travel times and reliability from signals and congestion.
Consider a south-bound Max Yellow passenger heading to Marda Loop safeway area has:
- Current: 4 crosswalks (1 unprotected on a ramp), 2 signal waits, 1 unprotected
- Proposed: 0 road crossings, no signal delays.
A north-bound Max Yellow passenger has a similar issue heading from Marda Loop safeway area has:
- Current: 3 crosswalks (2 unprotected on ramps), 1 signal wait
- Proposed: 0 road crossings, no signal delays
Here's a poor-quality diagram of what we should have ended up with, black is new sidewalks, green is transit stations staying on crowchild. Yellow lines are what the route currently does:
It might seem like small stuff, but this is daily a 2 - 5 minute delay for the bus to enter and exit Crowchild here adding to every trip. For Marda Loop residents all this forced walking delays add safety issues but also real time, making a short walk into a annoying one with 2 to 5 minutes of signal delays waiting to cross a road.