Big changes are in store for Halifax bus riders. Metro Transit has released its annual service plan, which matches routing and scheduling to the funding and service standards adopted by city council. Service standards for core routes are 40 passengers/hour for weekdays and 20p/hr for evenings and weekends. Those numbers for local routes are 25/15, for MetroLink 50/35. Community urban routes standards are 20p/hr for peak times, 10p/hr for off-peak; community rural standards are 15/10. When ridership exceeds those numbers, additional service is added; when ridership is below those figures, service is reduced.
The good news is that the bus system will expand by 10 articulated conventional buses, providing an increase of 29,770 service hours, and efficiency improvements related to the new bus barn will add another 13,690 hours, for a total of 43,460 new service hours. New routes being created are the #8 along the waterfront, the #22 to Exhibition Park and the #57 to Russell Lake. The #1, #20, #32, #65, #72 and #80 will see additional service.
The downside of the service plan is reduced service for routes that don’t meet the service standards. The #3 will be eliminated completely, while the #33, #51, #53, #63, #82, #83, #87, #88 and #89 will have service reductions.
MetroLink buses to Portland Hills and Sackville will no longer run at night or midday, but the Woodside MetroLink route will be extended to Penhorn. Community bus service to BeaverBank, Porters Lake and Sambro will be reduced to commuting hours only.
The changes will be ruled out from August through November. See complete details here.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.
Might want to read that report again. I’m pretty sure the MetroLink cuts are reducing the mid-day frequency and buses will terminate the 159 at 7pm and the 185 at 10pm each night.
The 33 loses the noon hour trip but the MetroX provides a similar route at the hour anyway.
51 & 53 to hourly service after 10pm means they can use one bus to cover a back to back service.
63 won’t go to Penhorn anymore.
82 will drop the last 1.5 trips of the night, 83 will lose the last trip of the night.
87 – no more peak hour service on the Halifax side. The bus will start/finish at the sportsplex where passenger can tranfer to/from a multitude of routes already crossing the bridge.
88 & 89 go to peak hour service only.
Community transit – BB goes rush hour only Mon to Fri but keeps Saturday service that will now finish at 6pm. PL also goes rush hour only and loses summer service on Saturdays. Sambro loses off-peak service.
What Tim’s doom and gloom article failed to mention:
New routes
#8 Waterfront route, #22 Exhibition Park route (will service the new transit garage as well), #57 Russell Lake route.
Service improvements
#1 will have extra AM trips on Sundays/Holidays, #20 will start/finish at Scotia Square on Saturdays, #32 added trips, #65, routing adjustment and increased frequency, #72 service extension, #80 will have addtional inbound trips.
I personally feel Metro Transit is making a huge error in cutting rural services when they should be adding service hours and improving schedules to get cars off the roads.
The Coast might want to go after them for financial accountability when it comes to all the federal money they’ve received for MetroLink, MetroX and rural transit implementation plans.
“What Tim’s doom and gloom article failed to mention:
New routes
#8 Waterfront route, #22 Exhibition Park route (will service the new transit garage as well), #57 Russell Lake route.”
From Tim’s Article
New routes being created are the #8 along the waterfront, the #22 to Exhibition Park and the #57 to Russell Lake.
Um…. yeah….
Anyway, the loss of the #3 is going to hurt seniors. That route is a planning disaster, the frequency is terrible and the long meandering route is a joke. they should either fix it or split it into multiple routes that connect to the rest of the system at the major terminals.
Yeah I guess I missed that part of his story. Just so used to his stories being so full of errors I must of figured it would be the same as I glanced over it.
The #3 is a joke, and is rarely ridden thanks to a convoluted route (which hits almost every single old folks home), and is pretty well redundant. Most of the stops that the #3 covers are already covered by routes that are quicker, and for those seniors that have issues with movement (thereby necessitating a bus stop right in front of the centre), they already use the Access A Bus service and for those without movement issues, they go to closer, more reliable stops/routes.
All in all, it looks like Transit is looking to cut down on redundancies within the system. Too many buses going to the same place at the same time (many of the Sackville buses), or better service winning out (such in the case of MetroX or Link beating out regular MT Tantallon service).
I’m gonna miss the #3, even though it was mainly for the oldies. It was a good way to see a lot of Halifax that you wouldn’t otherwise see. Farewell #3, gone but never forgotten.
So Sambro got screwed completely. In 2008 transit tax was 4.5 cents per $100 of assessment for rural area and 13.1 cents per $100 of assessment for urban area.
In 2009 new tax structure residents was introduced promising people in rural area better service. Now residents living within 3 km of bus stop will have to pay extra 10 cents per $100 of assessment on top of regional rate of 5 cents per $100
Bus stops on Old Sambro Road stands like mushroom now to make sure that everybody will get taxed. And now they are reducing service from minimum to bare minimum claiming saving of $157,000
Are you also aware that 4 drivers are loosing full time job because of that ?
Sambro was a a pilot project. if you would read IBI 5yr Strategic Plan commissioned for by Metro Transit for 70K you would see that recommendation was to run pilot for 12-18 months, monitor progress and start with target of 75%
It seems to me that cuts are being made to the elderly, disabled and the poor cousins of HRM, the suburban area. While Sambro has only one community bus whose service frequency evry ninety minutes Spring garden Road and the down town core has as many as buses from 14 different bus routes converging on it. I have generally observed ridership in the early morning hours, mid morning and mid afternoon for these buses. What I see is half filled buses with very sporadic ridership. Why so many half filled buses travelling to the downtown core? According to the Metro transit plan there is a total of six buses servicing the Cherry Brook area. which led to a reduction of service for one of the buses.
It is a well known fact that transit systems across North America operate mostly in the red. Halifax Metro Transit is trying to operate as a profit making corporation which should not be the case. Public transportation is a social service like welfare and unemployment insurance created to move mass amounts of people at public expense. Gas taxes are suppose to go to the creation of roads, road maintenance and transportation costs. Why then, is Metro Transit so hell bent on cutting service instead of trying to create a system that is efficient that people will want to use. How can people be interested in taking a bus that only services an area every ninety minutes and does not run on the weekend at all? It had been suggested in the Transit Plan that because the no. 88 ran on the hour people lost interest in that route. The same reason was given for the 89. However, when I suggested that the frequency for the Sambro bus be increased i was told that it would not create any greater interest in bus usage by the community. It is strange that the suggestion of the infrequency of bus service may have led to the reduction of the 88 and 89 bus routes cannot be applied to the Sambro bus route.
There are also other areas that Metro Transit could cut besides reducing service to the disabled, the elderly and suburban areas. FRED, the bus that travels throughout the downtown core costs the taxpayer $50,000.00 a year plus an additional $50,000.00 for special event transportation for concerts on the central commons and special request for service. Also, it has been suggested that the taxpayer pays for buses travelling to the down town core because of low ridership.
I believe there is a double standard when it comes to deciding which routes will be cut and it is the people who have a weak voice that will get hurt the most.