Brampton Transit/Zum

[doady]

Why yes, I do see something wrong and strange about your that!

8.5 minutes Viva blue service at peak hours?!

I took the liberty of checking today's Viva Blue Schedule, and here is the 5:00 hour, leaving Finch Station northbound.
.

My bad I thought the 4 minute service was just between Highway 7 and Finch. But still most of the time (i.e. outside rush hours), the 15 minute Blue service pales in comparison to the 7.5 minute service that will be offered for 501/Orange.

I don't consider 501 and Orange to be a joint service. It is a still seprate routes and unneccesary overlap and a waste of resources. Is York Region even paying Brampton for this? If not, then they should.

 

[RedRocket191]

People are saying planners at BT are incompetent? I grew up in Brampton, and I can honestly say BT has improved immensely. BT still has problems with connecting routes, but the planners are not incompetent.

I do not think it's a huge service improvement over the 77. There is still a large number of riders who want to travel east of Jane St. 20 minute peak service is terrible.

No no, I was just saying that people tend to throw around the word "incompetent" more and more in this day and age when they don't agree with the rationale for a decision.

Just a general observation.

I'm still in Brampton and I've seen it get better and better each year.

I'm sure they are a lot of people who want to go east of Jane Street, but I would like to know where they are going. Were people going to Finch because they wanted to go to Finch, or were people going to Finch because they had no choice? The professional planner in me would like to see a comprehensive origin-destination study.

 

[ShonTron]

Indeed, Red Rocket, but you're not a Brampton resident, but I'll excuse it because you are a part of Greater Bramptonia, as are a few people I know.

Brampton Transit was a joke up to five years ago. Susan Fennell, a old-school Progressive Conservative has emerged as a champion of transit, of parks and recreation, and of downtown, unlike many of Brampton's mediocre-to-bad-to-criminal (ie Paul Biesel) predecessors. Despite being slightly right-of-centre, she has brought a lot of progress, though there's lots of work to do.

In 2011, we will look forward to the second Zum route to Square One. In 2012, a third route will run to Humber College along Steeles. Mississauga will take care of Dixie, from what I've read. BT has extended the 2, 7 and 15 into Mississauga to connect to MT routes in the last few years and extended the hours of the 11 to Humber College, and introduced the 51 to the Meadowvale business park and the 101 to the airport so the connections to other systems are light years ahead of what they were in 2000, when only the 14, 18 and 30 went into Mississauga, and the 11 to the almost pointless Humberline loop.

 

[RedRocket191]

When I sleep in my bed my left arm hangs over into Brampton

 

[Justin10000]

May 2005 will be remembered as the month Brampton Transit took steps to become a decent transit system.

 

[TOareaFan]

IIRC there's a subway being built to York anyway.

When it opens, it would give Brampton the opportunity to peel back the service to terminate at the new subway station....but until it does it just makes so much sense to take Zum temporarily to Downsview and establish the service as a subway connector.

Given how much progress BT has made over the years I have to assume there is a very good reason they are not doing this.....just no one seems to be able to put a finger on it.

 

[Justin10000]

Might have to do with the fare agreement between YRT, and TTC for riders between Downsview and York University.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

IIRC there's a subway being built to York anyway.

That's still many years away. We can plan for today and tomorrow can't we?

The subway is going to york and yet VIVA serves Downsview and TTC built the busway connectiing York to Downsview. Are these poor planning moves?

 

[jwill]

I suspect its partly a matter of there being little demand. Even with the cheaper fare, how many people want to ride a semi-local bus like Zum from Bramalea to the subway when GO has very similar but faster routes to Yorkdale and York Mills? It made sense on the old 77 route to take riders from Highway 7 to Finch Station, but I doubt too many people went all the way from Brampton to Finch. People on the western half of Highway 7 can wait for Viva Orange if they're headed for Downsview.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

I suspect its partly a matter of there being little demand. Even with the cheaper fare, how many people want to ride a semi-local bus like Zum from Bramalea to the subway when GO has very similar but faster routes to Yorkdale and York Mills? It made sense on the old 77 route to take riders from Highway 7 to Finch Station, but I doubt too many people went all the way from Brampton to Finch. People on the western half of Highway 7 can wait for Viva Orange if they're headed for Downsview.

Route 77 was routinely packed in the am peak from Brampton and those passengers rode all the way to Finch so you can't say there is little demand for a connection with the subway. Furthermore I saw the odd passenger transfer to/from 77 and VIVA orange to get to Downsview.

 

[RedRocket191]

Route 77 was routinely packed in the am peak from Brampton and those passengers rode all the way to Finch so you can't say there is little demand for a connection with the subway. Furthermore I saw the odd passenger transfer to/from 77 and VIVA orange to get to Downsview.

Absolutely it's packed. It would still be interesting to see why these people are going to Finch though. Are they going because they don't know they can get to downsview, because they actually want to go to Finch, or for some other reason?

As for the GO option, price could be a reason why more people don't use that service. Perhaps they can't afford it, or perhaps they knowingly choose the 77 to save money. Just go to the states for Black Friday and you'll see how crazy people get to save money.

 

[TOareaFan]

Absolutely it's packed. It would still be interesting to see why these people are going to Finch though. Are they going because they don't know they can get to downsview, because they actually want to go to Finch, or for some other reason?

As for the GO option, price could be a reason why more people don't use that service. Perhaps they can't afford it, or perhaps they knowingly choose the 77 to save money. Just go to the states for Black Friday and you'll see how crazy people get to save money.

It is a long time since I did either so this is more a question than a statement but frequencies could come into it.

If the GO to York Mills is 20 minutes faster but runs on half hour frequnecies (does it?) you might board that cheaper BT bus knowing that you will be at the subway quicker than you would by waiting another 30 minutes for the next GO bus.

edit...just checked the schedule.....seems the GO express buses from Bramalea to Yorkdale/YM run much more frequently than half hour so this probably does not explain it at all. Other than cost, not sure why someone would pass on a GO bus at 6:30 a.m. that gets to YM at 7:25 to board a "77" that gets to Finch at 7:45.

That said, I stil think that connecting the Zum to the subway makes sense....others here have pointed out that some people will use it (wether I can explain it or not) and transit to transit connections make more sense to me than transit-transit-transit connections

 

[RedRocket191]

Maybe my group of friends are just really, really cheap?

 

[DKsan]

From Saturday's Zum-Zone:
Inside of new Bus:

Front of the bus from the inside:

Front of bus from outside:

Side of bus:

 

[ShonTron]

There is one benefit of a shorter route 77. The route was so long that it was notoriously unreliable,and I would hope a somewhat shorter route would be more manageable. If you are traveling from BCC east, yes, there will be an extra transfer, but from points between BCC and Downtown Brampton, the number of transfers to go to Finch are the same, or to Sheppard-Yonge, transfer to the 196A at York. It isn't a big deal, especially when the rush hour crowd heading to the subway will benefit from the rare counter-peak bus crowds on the 196.

The 101/192 is a good combo as well. I've tried that route before.