Metro Announces Service Restoration Plan

Yesterday, Metro announced their preliminary restoration plan for Metrolink and bus services that will be occurring for 2010. Starting on June 28, several bus routes will be increased in frequency (#70 Grand, and #95 Kingshighway, for example) and the rush hour Metrolink schedule will be increased from every 15 minutes to every 12 minutes (i.e. 5 trains per hour instead of 4 trains.) More details can be found on the Citizens for Modern Transit website. The September and November bus restorations will be more extensive but will require more people and equipment. They will actually be hiring more people which is a good thing! That sure beats them firing over 600 employees.

I will be curious to see how they tweak the current four Metrolink times during rush hour to become five. Before April 2009 they were running every 10 minutes (6 trains per hour) but because of single tracking across the Eads Bridge during its renovation they cannot increase the frequency quite that much. So moving from 4 trains an hour (for example :00, :15, :30, :45) to 5 trains an hour (:00, :12, :24, :36, :48) means one arrival time should stay the same, one will be pushed forward 3 minutes, another would be pushed back 3 minutes, and the one time 30 minutes after the "fixed" arrival time is replaced by two times, one 24 and one 36 minutes afterwards. I will be curious to see if the train I usually ride will be any less crowded or not after the June 28 changeover. I believe a lot will depend on the timing. If the train you usually ride is the one that now has been replaced with two arrival times 6 minutes before or after the old time, it will likely be less crowded, but if it the train on the arrival time that has not changed I bet it will be the same old people at the same old time. It will just be two months and we can see what will happen!

Comments

Courtney said…
Thanks for the post, Hugh. To try to answer you question (maybe!), it will depend a lot about the increased overall convenience of the system, not just MetroLink times. That was one of the complaints of the reduced service was prohibitively long connection times, so people were less likely to use varied modes - trying to combine MetroBus with MetroLink to get around more. So the new schedule works around the mantra of connections. Making that work will be key to a successful restoration to help build up ridership.

I look forward to a future post to see what you think about the increased service and how it affects your commute.
11:59 AM
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