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| VIVA Blue, A Model For Limited Stop Service!
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VIVA Blue, a service that has caught on with many people in York Region, has seen many great strides in ridership increases and headway increases. Even though all the fancy features on VIVA such as free Wi-Fi, tables with big comfy chairs, (Great to enjoy your bagel and coffee in the morning :) ) and that leaner in the articulation joint. VIVA also offers elements that all rapid transit systems should have..... All door boarding, Auto stop announcement, speed, frequent headways. The only thing VIVA does not have is it's own ROW. (Right Of Way)
VIVA as a whole in my view hasn't met my expectations on all of it's routes. VIVA Green, has been reduced to rush hour service from Don Mills Station. VIVA Green's route coverage is nothing to be bragging about in my view. VIVA Green goes through an industrial area in which is all about the automobile, and if you have used Warden Avenue north of Steeles you will know what Iam talking about. VIVA Green needs to go further east on HWY 7 to the current VIVA Purple terminal at Markham Stouffville Hospital and then to the future terminal, Cornell. VIVA Green needs to use as much real estate and coverage to counter the lack of ridership.
VIVA Pink has some good ridership but it is only being used during rush hour, I don't know why for sure, but to make an educated guess VIVA Pink is the only VIVA route that enters Unionville Go Station on the Stouffville line, which in turn only runs during peak periods. Another explanation is that a transfer free trip east of Yonge St. would promote the use of VIVA and discourage the use of the car by having a great service. And lastly there could be capacity issues on VIVA Purple but I have yet to see the numbers that would promote this kind of situation. VIVA Blue is starting to choke on it's sucess and VIVA Pink provides an alternative south of HWY 7. Looks like I answered a lot of questions regarding VIVA Pink, but midday service needs to be seriouisly looked at.
VIVA Purple is the big east-west route along HWY 7, but going to only York University in the west. VIVA Purple has had ridership sucess during specific serivce periods, and the extensions east will no doubt increase ridership. After 8 p.m. I have never witnessed more then three passengers on a bus, looks like more marketing will be needed.
VIVA Orange is unique because no one rides it to and from Downsview Subway Station. Most of VIVA Orange's ridership comes from transfers to and from VIVA Purple, and from York University students. I will be frank I have never rode VIVA Orange, as it is the only VIVA route I haven't used but this is something people in the city of Vaughan should look at because, the connection to Downsview Station is a dandy as that portion of the subway is under used compared to Yonge st. and you can get a seat and have a comfortable commute.
VIVA Blue is the only VIVA route the uses the Van Hool 60 foot buses and it is a good thing too because those buses are always packed. VIVA Blue is regarded as the cream of the crop of VIVA services but people seem to forget all the other services before amalgamation of the transit systems before YRT. You had Yonge Go serivces (only one route remains only during rush hour) Richmond Hill services, Markham and Vaughan. Oh don't forget Brampton transit who still has services on Yonge St. from it's Bramalea terminal. The ridership on all of these routes was moderate but now VIVA Blue and VIVA Pink (south of HWY. 7) is the primary transit on Yonge St. north of Steeles with a few local routes to serve between VIVA stations.
As the title of this entry suggests VIVA Blue is NOT, a Bus Rapid Transit in the traditional sense. The service is in fact in the scope of a glorified Limited Stop Service. With the before mentioned perks other authorites could throw together a premium service dirt cheap. The closest example in the city of Toronto's TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) is route 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket route. The service came together in the advent of the opening of the brand new Sheppard Subway line. The Sheppard subway was originally was to be going to Scarborough Centre station. The Harris Conservatives destroyed it beyond Don Mills Rd. so a gap had to be created to connect the dots, Hence route 190.
The reason I bring this up is because if you think about it, a bus route that stops as frequent in terms of distance of a subway means higher speeds and higher ridership. Dwell times (times of boarding and unboarding at stops or stations) is a problem as it doesn't use all door POP boarding. (proof of payment) So no ticket vending machenes at stops. This route was orignally designed as a gapper between the two points but now theres a lot of new customers to transit who use this service in the middle of the route and helps feed the Sheppard subway. The hours of operation and headways have increased by 300-320% and it is continuing to climb. Calgary Transit did this before they built it's C-Train to build ridership on it's LRT corridores, and when the LRT opened they had good ridership to start with and an increase of it's ridership as the LRT was opened. Now Calgary Transit has some asphyxiation to solve as ridership is over capacity on it's route 201. Hey TTC, Calgary is the model you should use on building Transit City ridership!
There wont be any LRT on Yonge Street's future but a subway is. Move Ontario 2020 made that real so now VIVA Blue has a job to do in terms of gathering ridership and make sure this overkill of an extension doesn't cost a lot of money to the taxpayer in terms of operating costs. VIVA Blue is the model and we need more of this throughout the GTAH. (Greater Toronto And Hamilton) Limited stop service is key in terms of building ridership before any BRT and LRT construction begins this helps us get forward! If we can't build BRT LRT, fine at least we have something this is good.
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Posted by mkproject on 2008-03-05 06:58:46 | Rating: | Views: 352
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A few historical points regarding VIVA and where it is today...
VIVA Green was originally an all-day service between Unionville GO Station and Don Mills Subway station, running as far east as VIVA Purple during rush hours. Ridership on this route was not enough to maintain this, so it was cut back to what it is now until development along Enterprise brings the demand back up. Since this cutback, the need for all-day service to Don Mills station caused YRT to change the schedule for route 90 (Leslie) to operate to the subway all day Monday to Saturday.
While VIVA Pink provides a nice transfer free trip from the east to Finch station, that is not its only reason for existence, otherwise it would operate at all times. Peak service ridership over the south Yonge and east Highway 7 part of the network requires additional buses to be in service, making such an "interlined" route beneficial. Ridership outside of peak hours does not warrant the operation of this route, and it is fully covered by Purple and Blue.
VIVA Blue has runs, usually using the 40-foot model buses that runs only as far north as the Bernard Terminal (just north of Elgin Mills) to provide some additional capacity to this part of the route.
VIVA Purple originally continued west of York University to Martin Grove during peak times, interlining with Orange over this section, but ridership showed that Orange provided the level of service needed on its own. At the same time this was cut back, the extra buses freed up by the change were added to Purple between Richmond Hill Terminal and York University to provide additional needed capacity.
VIVA overall was reasonably well planned out and has been evolving to accomodate travel patterns that were not originally expected. The huge accomplishment that VIVA has made is that it has attracted many new riders of the type who would "never take a bus". They are moving towards the reserved lanes, and there will be two open houses next week (June 17 and 18) at the Premiere Ballroom and Convention Centre at 9019 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill (one block north of Highway 7). Both will held from 5pm to 9pm and will cover the Highway 7 transitway from Yonge to Kennedy as well as the status of the Yonge subway extension.
One other point: about the 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket: this service was not created with the opening of the Sheppard Subway. It was preceded by a "city centre" route that ran between Sheppard station (now Sheppard-Yonge) and Scarborough Centre. Originally, this service used the 401 but was later moved to Sheppard. The "route 190" designation may have been created when the Sheppard Subway opened.
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Posted by calvinhc
on 2008-06-11 08:34:55
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