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Every route in the existing Halifax Transit network is changing. Whether that helps or hinders individual riders, remains to be seen.
Today the transit authority unveiled its Moving Forward Together plan, which details the changes alongside a colourful new route map. The site unfortunately seems to be missing any sort of trip planner, which would be helpful in a model like this that heavily focuses on transfers.
According to Halifax Transit, there will be no additional buses on the road, but as we’ve pointed out that’s not needed to provide better service. Improved frequency connections and more efficient routes will help improve everyone’s bus experience, HT says.
“In the midday, evenings, and on weekends, there is a heavy focus on the transfer-based transit model. During these time periods, transit users make diverse trips to a number of varied destinations and the transfer model offers the most efficient use of resources and provides the flexibility transit users need. During rush hour, when transit demand is largely focused towards employment centres, an extra layer of single-seat routes overlays the transfer-based model in order to provide single seat trips to employment districts such as Downtown Halifax, HMC Dockyards, and Burnside Business Park.”
Let’s take a look at a couple of busy routes to get an idea of what changes are coming.
The new Route 1 Spring Garden travels virtually the same path as its predecessor, but with two important differences. The bus will now travel both directions on Gottingen Street (rather than taking Barrington when coming into Halifax from the bridge), and it will no longer service Oxford Street after Chebucto Road. Frequency should be every 10 minutes, switching to every 30 minutes during “late evenings.”
The number 10 retains most of its previous route as well, but the new Route 10 MicMac will split into branches after the mall for which it’s problematically named. One branch will serve Westphall, the other heading to Montebello. Depending on the time and your destination, those extensions will run every 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes.
The 52 is now Route 3 Crosstown. That bus will run every 20 minutes (every 10 during rush hours) between Lacewood and the proposed Wright’s Cove Terminal in Burnside. Unlike the lengthy 52, this route no longer travels to Bayers Lake or several streets previously serviced along the back of Burnside.
Apart from the new routes, there will apparently be policy changes in the hours of operations, “new guidelines for bus stop amenities” and the proposed new Windmill Road terminal. It’s also planned for each Halifax Transit bus to be outfitted with an audio-visual display system to announce each upcoming stop. That’s routine in other cities, and long overdue in Halifax. It will offer improved accessibility, but also help to make sure no one misses a stop on an unfamiliar route.
None of these ideas will be implemented until 2016, and even then it will be over a five-year period. In the meantime, there’s plenty that could be simplified in the current proposal. Thirteen bus routes still service Barrington Street, for example. Thankfully the consultation process continues through to April.
Halifax Transit wants your feedback, so now is the time to give it to them.
“We’re embarking on an unprecedented overhaul to our transit system,” said HR director Eddie Robar in a press release. “I encourage everyone, whether they currently ride a bus or ferry or even if they don’t, to have a look at this new plan, tell us what they think, and help us make transit better.”
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This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2015.
Excellent changes. HT, don’t listen to the whiners, move forward!
Citizens who applaud these changes OBVIOUSLY don’t take the bus!!!!!!
Well, you ARE getting a chance to voice your opinions. What more do you want?
I wouldn’t mind having the money Transit spent on surveys, consultants and studies.
Nobody at HT ever heard of a straight line?
Look at #2 – what a complete meandering mess, no different from the current 2 and 4.
More direct routes, with feeder connections, for the love of gods!
The only feedback I had was that the “80 Sackville” should retain it’s name. Changing it to the “8 Sackville” is a horrible plan, that bus is iconic.
This was the last straw for me. I’ve waited in this shit hole of a town for YEARS hoping, praying that they’d get their act together. This new system is a joke, it’s the kind of clusterfuck that could only come from Metro Transit. They had 4 principals in their review and they fulfilled on half of one of them. so 0.5/4. I personally think the management took the money they were going to spend on the redesign and spent it on cars for themselves so they didn’t have to live with this new nightmare they’ve created. Nothing will ever get any better in this one horse town. I’m done with this fucking city, I can’t move yet but when I can Vancouver here I come and I’ll never look back.
It’s not Halifax, @hishighness, it’s your rage problem. Within 24 months of living in Vancouver you’ll hate everything about it too, because that’s how you seem to relate to your surroundings. (i.e., anger.)
And @michaelmurphy, comments in the media indicating service has been reduced in frequency are wrong–in many cases, frequency has gone up. And yeah, now you have to transfer–that’s how major metropolitan transit systems work.
Christ, people. So quick to assume is out to screw then over.
@pigeon, major metropolitan bus systems don’t run 10+ buses down the same stretch of road. Major metropolitan systems don’t have buses that run every 60 minutes out to the middle of nowhere because some people in a RURAL area who’d never take the damn things are mad that “their taxes pay for transit but they get no service” (I’m never gonna drive to Chezzetcook or Cow Bay but my taxes pay for your roads!). Major metropolitan systems provide their GPS and ridership data to their customers and the taxpayer because they aren’t in provinces with worse FOIA laws than Zimbabwe. There’s no comparison!
@M2A
You’re right on some of your points (exception: there are major transit systems that run rural routes, and fortunately, Halifax IS getting GPS data soon).
I was just saying that criticizing the system for requiring transfers is absurd. Even in ultra-dense urban areas with high ridership everywhere, transfers are needed. Like, if I’m at Penn Station in NYC, and want to go to the Museum of Modern Art, there is no direct way to get there, despite that they’re relatively close to each other in a super-dense city. I have to take a #7 train, then change to a G train at Grand Central.
So for people in one low-density suburban area to complain they can no longer get a transfer-free ride wherever they want is absurd. The people complaining about the 80 Sackville complaining is a case-in-point–the 80 is a terribly designed route right now. It makes total sense for the reimagined #8 bus to avoid the long-ass crawl down Robie to the universities and instead go straight downtown. (Ideally, though, it would stop at Mumford so people could transfer there for off-peninsula routes.)
Likewise, people complaining about the 402 being cut are being ridiculous. The ridership is barley there. It sucks if you rely on it, but the thing is, VERY few people do rely on it. The new plan doesn’t go far enough, but it’s a step toward making this a more urban-oriented transit system, and not enabling sprawl. It’s not enough, but it’s (somewhat) better.
A few suggestions:
-buses on main streets only, side streets can be walked to (not unusual to get off your bus and walk a bit)
-bus drivers are NOT information booths (if people need help planning their route to NOT ask a driver who is trying to leave, you are holding up 20-25 people with your questions)
-bus drivers should be able to drive in whatever lane is moving fastest (i.e. outer left on Bedford hwy) then switch lanes to where they are needed (i.e. j howe offramp)
-bus drivers need to stop waiting for cars to ‘let them in’ from bus stops; you have the right of way, use it
-free up that striped section at the bottom of Main merging onto Bedford hwy, my bus comes from main to Bedford hwy, waits 5 mins to merge, only to have to change back to far right to take kempt. Buses and emergency vehicles only, but give them the right
-make express buses real expresses. Limited stops, no need for the 30’s to stop on Gottingen to drop off (pick up only) if people are going from the hospital to north end take a 7 or 9. Express should mean quicker
-tow cars that impede buses, no more detours!
It looks like one F IN mess! Typical metro transit mess.