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Dear mayor Savage and HRM regional councillors: It’s More Than Buses is asking Regional Council not to vote on Halifax Transit’s Moving Forward Together plan without seeing much more information about it. We would like Halifax Transit to provide more information about how many people will be able to use this network to make easy trips to key regional destinations.
The backbone of the plan is Halifax Transit’s proposed corridor routes—10 routes with frequent service for most of the day going to Sackville, Bedford, Spryfield, Halifax, Eastern Passage, Burnside and Dartmouth. In theory, these routes should form a transfer-based network, where short wait times make it easy to transfer from one route to another in several directions.
That route structure would give many people easy access to jobs, schools, shops and services all over the region. That is why in the fall of 2013 the public asked Halifax Transit for a transfer-based network, which would have huge advantages over the current system. It could allow trips from any major corridors to most major destinations on much simpler routes. Imagine being able to go from Bedford to Burnside without having to go through downtown Halifax.
However, Halifax Transit’s plan makes trade-offs that pull back from the idea of a full transfer-based network. The plan does that to maximize the number of people who can have no-transfer rides to downtown Halifax during rush hour. That could be useful.
But the trade-offs also have downsides to consider. First, because so many corridors go to downtown Halifax, the new plan has too many routes on Robie, Spring Garden and Barrington. Those overlapping routes use buses that could be deployed elsewhere. Second, there are few crosstown corridors—routes that would give people from across HRM quicker trips to key destinations like Bayers Lake, Burnside, Main Street Dartmouth, downtown Dartmouth and Woodside. Third, the northern end of Barrington Street has been left off the corridors entirely, limiting access to Mulgrave Park, CFB Halifax and the Irving Shipyard.
Maybe Halifax Transit chose the right trade-offs. But without more information, neither you nor the public can know. You need to know the answers to questions like these: On the new network, about how long will it take to get from Spryfield to Bayers Lake at 7:45 in the morning? How long will it take to get from Mic Mac Mall back to Eastern Passage at 9 at night? For Mill Cove, how many useful places can a bus rider get to in less than 45 minutes?
So we are asking you not to vote on the Moving Forward Together plan—at least not yet. Instead, direct Halifax Transit to provide clear information on estimated travel times and access to jobs on the proposed network.
We know getting this data will be labour-intensive and will take a lot of time. But the stakes for the corridor routes are high. They will be the backbone of HRM’s transit system for decades to come, shaping the system’s growth for at least the next 30 years. Let’s take the time to get them right.
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This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2016.
we’re potentially losing our hard fought for route from sambro (crystal crescent beach area) to spyfield because of low ridership. low ridership not because there are not enough riders but because of a poorly thought out schedule on halifax transits part, that does not target the appropriate user demographic. this bus could be running near full if the schedule were tweaked to target the evening part time/student population and weekend beach-goers. i agree…lets get this right before moving ahead!
I’ve given up on this stupid transit authority and this stupid council, and as soon as I can afford it I’m giving up on this stupid city too and moving out West.
If you’re moving “out west,” hishighness, you better go all the way to Vancouver if you want to find any decent transit.
More information is definitely needed. They claim that the transfer based system will quicken times, but they failed to provide any sort of time tables when they were asking the public for input. How do we know if the new routes will work if we don’t know connection times?
An example: I currently take the 54 from Tacoma to Alderney Gate. Takes about twenty minutes. The new plan does something weird where they’ve eliminated the 54 and combined with the 10 and only goes to Micmac. Which means, I’d have to take that, then transfer to the 55. Well, unless the 55 is sitting there waiting, no matter what, it’s going to take longer than the direct route I’ve been using. So, how is that shorter?
Also, they’re taking away the Portland Hills and Penhorn stops for the 56 and instead sending it to the bridge terminal. So, I guess no one on this side of Micmac wants to go to Dartmouth Crossing? I’m certainly not going to take a bus to the bridge then backtrack up to DC. It already takes too long to get to DC, I’ll just stop going there.
It would have been nice if they’d actually asked people who use transit for more than just getting to work what kind of routes we use and places we try to get to. As you said in the article, how many useful places can we get to in less than forty five minutes? The answer- not many.
Killing the 54 is a bad move, to get back from the ferry, to where a lot of ppl live (past Roleika into tacoma) is already frustrating with crap services on weekends.
Much less getting home from getting groceries at an affordable place (hell no am I shopping at Sobeys) is very difficult, especially if your physically disabled.
NO wonder so many are buying cars when possible, no wonder so many between the ages of 22-50, are leaving the HRM.