Calgary Transit

[CBBarnett]

The main problem they had with this seems to be the lack of "normal" weekends. They plan to run 2 car train, but there's a Flames game, concert, event, etc. that half the time it's not even 2 cars on weekends.

We're not Minneapolis or Houston with their dismal transit usage. Bad idea from the start.

Exactly - there are no "normal" weekends in a city of nearly 2 million where transit - although imperfect - probably gets 100K+ trips each Saturday or Sunday (although it would be awesome if Transit published more data to confirm that !). This isn't performative transit of the mid-sized American metros, Calgary Transit is a real workhorse all week. There aren't quiet weekends in a city this large - events, but also just employment, out of 1 million jobs in the city, I'd imagine at least 1/4 to 1/3 work Saturdays, particularly retail and service industry stuff.

That said, I get what Calgary Transit was trying to do in a operational-funding starved business, trying anything to eek out a few dollars of savings,. But weekend LRT service is too critical to overall mobility, but also the brand - LRT is the only truly effective transit service on the weekend, better to cut some random routes with a few passengers a day on Saturday over the best service you have used by tens of thousands on Saturday. Or if Transit is so convinced that the most effective cost/benefit from a service cut can come from 2 car trains on weekends - prove it! Release the cost and ridership data and win the argument that's the right place to make a cut over the many other options available.

In the long-term, funding advocacy combined with squeezing more for less is critical - most importantly for me, improve the speed of buses so we don't need as many buses (and as many operators), to offer a given level of service. It's the whole "primary transit network" philosophy - concentrate stops spaced farther apart, improve operational practices that reduce dwell times and time-wasting merge times into and out of traffic, realign route designs to avoid time-wasting turns/inefficient bus loops, and inordinately long time points. Basic stuff, but done relentless attacking every inefficient point in the network of thousands of inefficient points.

Every critic of transit should be required to hang out at City Hall or 7th Street SW station at 8am on a Saturday and Sunday. While obviously not rush-hour weekday levels, people would be surprised how many hundreds of people use the system even during "sleepy" hours.

 

[InfrastructureEnthusiast]

https://livewirecalgary.com/2025/11...ip-of-calgary-free-fare-zone-two-years-early/

Seems like it's also prompting a bit of discussion about the free fare zone in general.

Good riddance. Slapping the name of another city all over your CBD is pretty cringe, especially when done for peanuts.

FTA:

At the time, it was hailed as a way to generate non-fare revenue for Calgary Transit, though terms were never disclosed to the public.

That said, seems petty to do away with the free fare zone, particularly with the open station designs DT.

Wonder who else responded to the RFI/RFP in 2022. TD has some bank wide restructuring happening so it may not be that the sponsorship is performing poorly.

I'd think there'd be a bit more focus on getting local sponsors. Although I'd question whether the sponsorship money is worth degrading the local brand at all...

 

[trtcttc]

Exactly - there are no "normal" weekends in a city of nearly 2 million where transit - although imperfect - probably gets 100K+ trips each Saturday or Sunday (although it would be awesome if Transit published more data to confirm that !). This isn't performative transit of the mid-sized American metros, Calgary Transit is a real workhorse all week. There aren't quiet weekends in a city this large - events, but also just employment, out of 1 million jobs in the city, I'd imagine at least 1/4 to 1/3 work Saturdays, particularly retail and service industry stuff.

That said, I get what Calgary Transit was trying to do in a operational-funding starved business, trying anything to eek out a few dollars of savings,. But weekend LRT service is too critical to overall mobility, but also the brand - LRT is the only truly effective transit service on the weekend, better to cut some random routes with a few passengers a day on Saturday over the best service you have used by tens of thousands on Saturday. Or if Transit is so convinced that the most effective cost/benefit from a service cut can come from 2 car trains on weekends - prove it! Release the cost and ridership data and win the argument that's the right place to make a cut over the many other options available.

In the long-term, funding advocacy combined with squeezing more for less is critical - most importantly for m2e, improve the speed of buses so we don't need as many buses (and as many operators), to offer a given level of service. It's the whole "primary transit network" philosophy - concentrate stops spaced farther apart, improve operational practices that reduce dwell times and time-wasting merge times into and out of traffic, realign route designs to avoid time-wasting turns/inefficient bus loops, and inordinately long time points. Basic stuff, but done relentless attacking every inefficient point in the network of thousands of inefficient points.

Every critic of transit should be required to hang out at City Hall or 7th Street SW station at 8am on a Saturday and Sunday. While obviously not rush-hour weekday levels, people would be surprised how many hundreds of people use the system even during "sleepy" hours.

Agreed its good for a transit agency to try things that may or may not work. I don't doubt that when they look at ridership and capacity on a spreadsheet, 2 cars were enough. The issue is the headway is not perfect. Sometimes you get two trains that are close and a gap to the third. In those situations, maybe the total passengers are within the capacity of 3 two car trains, but in reality, you have a full 1st and 3rd train, with a more empty second train. And now that 2-car third train will be insufficient for the number of customers.

 

[kora]

For me it's a surprise to see these huge American cities with weekend light rail service consisting of 1 or 2 car trains. It's like running a tram on an expensive exclusive right-of-way.

 

[badc0ffee]

For me it's a surprise to see these huge American cities with weekend light rail service consisting of 1 or 2 car trains. It's like running a tram on an expensive exclusive right-of-way.

This was my experience at Levi's Stadium near San Jose. The service was a 1 or 2--car train every 20 or 30 minutes. This is probably "fine" on a typical day, but once my concert let out of the stadium, there was a huge line for the train, and I had to wait for the second one. There were so many cops to keep people from skipping that line that they probably would have saved money by just running a few extra trains.

The experience was nothing like getting on to the C-train after a Stamps or Flames game. We have it good here, and VTA sucks.

 

[kora]

There were so many cops to keep people from skipping that line that they probably would have saved money by just running a few extra trains.

This kind of holistic thinking would be helpful

 

[kora]

My friend went to Taylor Swift in Minneapolis and they simply stopped running the trains after the concert was finished. It took them 3 hours to get back to their hotel room in the suburbs even though it was by a light rail station

 

[whatchyyc]

This was my experience at Levi's Stadium near San Jose. The service was a 1 or 2--car train every 20 or 30 minutes. This is probably "fine" on a typical day, but once my concert let out of the stadium, there was a huge line for the train, and I had to wait for the second one. There were so many cops to keep people from skipping that line that they probably would have saved money by just running a few extra trains.

The experience was nothing like getting on to the C-train after a Stamps or Flames game. We have it good here, and VTA sucks.

VTA is especially terrible

 

[whatchyyc]

This bus went way off course on the 302 and paid the price

 

[badc0ffee]

This bus went way off course on the 302 and paid the price

Ha. I appreciate the effort in getting photos from these angles.

 

[trtcttc]

They started the switch to all-weather tires, wonder how many of the ones stuck/crashed today were all-season (in name only) vs all-weather

 

[whatchyyc]

They started the switch to all-weather tires, wonder how many of the ones stuck/crashed today were all-season (in name only) vs all-weather

That bus in particular had the new all-weathers on the front but the drive wheels still had all seasons. Honestly day-to-day they'll help a lot, but for brutal snow days like today you're not gonna see much of a difference without a dedicated winter tire like the Michelin Grip D that Vancouver is using.