Calgary Transit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Calgary Transit
logo
Founded 1909
Headquarters Calgary, Alberta
Service area Calgary, Alberta
Service type Public Transit
Fleet 960
Daily ridership 500,000
Operator City of Calgary
Web site Official site
This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Calgary Transit is the public transit service which is owned and operated by the city of Calgary, Alberta. In 2006, an estimated 129.7 million passengers boarded approximately 960 Calgary Transit vehicles (Service Population: 991,759), which thus provided 2.15 million hours of service (2.17 hours of service per capita)[citation needed].

Contents

[edit] History

What would eventually become Calgary Transit began as the Calgary Municipal Railway in 1909, with twelve electric streetcars serving what was at the time a city of 30,000. This streetcar service expanded throughout the next thirty years (including the Depression) until 1946, when the company was renamed to Calgary Transit System as gasoline-powered vehicles began replacing the local streetcars (as was common at the time). Eventually the electric trolley lines were phased out together — to be replaced by diesel buses. In 1972, CTS assumed its current name of Calgary Transit.

Between the early 1970's and 2000, Calgary Transit had a three tier bus service. Standard bus routes were identified with white bus stop signs. Blue Arrow bus routes, marked by blue signs, provided limited stop, and all day service to suburban neighborhoods from the city centre. Express service was indicated with red signs and provided extremely limited bus service to the far reaches of the city during peak hours only. These tiers have been slowly phased out, since Calgary Transit began expanding C-Train lines and capacity and implementing BRT service.

[edit] The CTrain

Calgary Light Rail System Map
Calgary Light Rail System Map
A C-train at the Somerset-Bridlewood station
A C-train at the Somerset-Bridlewood station
CT New Red and White Livery arriving at Anderson Station 2007-07-18
CT New Red and White Livery arriving at Anderson Station 2007-07-18
Main article: C-Train

On May 25, 1981, Calgary Transit became one of the first transit systems in North America to operate a light rail system — the C-Train, on which construction had begun in 1978. The original line (referred to internally as the A Line, and externally as Route 201) ran from Anderson Station (just north of Anderson Road in the south end of the city) to Downtown Calgary.

In 1985, a northeastern-bound line (B-Line / Route 202) was opened, running from downtown to Whitehorn Station (just south of the intersection of McKnight Boulevard and 36th Street in the northeastern quadrant of the city), and in 1987, a northwestern-bound line (C-Line / part of Route 201) was opened in time for the 1988 Winter Olympics, running from downtown to University Station (directly east of the University of Calgary campus, between 24th and 32nd Avenue on Crowchild Trail).

In 1990 a 1 km extension of the northwest line to Brentwood Station (south of Brisebois Drive on Crowchild Trail) was opened; in 2001 two new stations — Canyon Meadows Station (north of Canyon Meadows Drive and west of Macleod Trail) and Fish Creek-Lacombe Station (south of Bannister Road and west of Macleod Trail) were added to the south line; on December 15, 2003, Dalhousie Station (south of 53rd Street in the median of Crowchild Trail) was added to the northwestern line.

On June 28, 2004, two new stations for the south line opened: Shawnessy Station (south of a brand new interchange at Macleod Trail and Shawnessy Boulevard) and Somerset-Bridlewood Station (south of 162nd Avenue and just north of Shawville Gate).

On December 17, 2007, an extension has been made to the Route 202 northeast line (first extension ever on the history of the line) from Whitehorn to the new McKnight-Westwinds Station.; Future extensions include the Crowfoot Station on the northwest line located directly west of Crowfoot Town Centre in the median of Crowchild Trail (Completion Fall 2008); Saddle Ridge and Martindale on the Northeast line (Completion 2011); Tuscany on the Northwest line in the median of Crowchild Trail at Rocky Ridge Road (Completion 2011); a new west line running west from downtown to 69th Street West (which would presumably be known as D-Line and an extension to Route 202) (Completion 2012-2013); and a new southeast line running from downtown into the communities of Douglasdale and McKenzie in the southeastern portion of the city (E-Line / possibly Route 203).

On July 18, 2007, with little fan fair, Calgary Transit officially unveiled a new red and white livery for its C-Train and Bus Rapid Transit fleets.

[edit] BRT

On August 30, 2004, Calgary Transit opened a bus rapid transit line to operate future C-Train routes (the D-Line and an as-yet unplanned northbound line), using conventional buses until articulated buses entered service on 25 June, 2007.

Calgary's BRT line incorporates only a few features that a true BRT has to offer. Limited stop service, direct routing and traffic signal priority systems are among these features. The BRT, also known as Route 301 runs in regular traffic, uses regular buses (sometimes articulated buses) and uses regular bus stops, with the exception of being painted red. Since the opening of the route, service enhancements have been made several times as the route has gained popularity from transit users. Such service improvements included increased frequency, and service until 12:00am to both the West and North terminus seven days a week. A future BRT line that will service the future Southeast LRT corridor will begin service in 2009.

[edit] Current Service

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can (September 2007).

See also: List of Calgary Transit bus routes

Calgary Transit currently operates about 160 bus routes with about 830 buses of which 488 are low floor, and 156 light rail vehicles, 84 of which are Siemens-Duewag U2 model cars, 72 of which are more recent Siemens SD-160s. In 2006-2008 a total of 40 new Siemens SD-160 LRV's (Unit #2233-2272) were delivered and are now mostly in service as of March 2008.

The current bus fleet includes:

An additional order of 50 New Flyer D40LF and 15 D60LFR buses for 2008 has arrived and is mostly now in service. [1]. A further order of 30 D40LF and 20 D60LFR buses was announced by New Flyer in March of 2008[2] for delivery at a future date.

In 2006 an order for ElDorado National EZ Rider II buses was placed to supplement the fleet for use on medium ridership routes; 12 of these vehicles are also now in service supplementing the community shuttles on some routes.

In addition, there are about 100 shuttle buses used on routes with lower ridership. Most of these vehicles are based on the Ford Econoline E-450 platform with various bodies from Crestline (GCII, Aerotech) with an exception of four units having Corbeil bus bodies.

The well developed C-Train system along with several mainline bus routes provide the backbone of the system while many feeder bus routes and express services act to complement this backbone service. Service frequency and service hours on the C-Train and busier bus routes is typically from 5-30 minutes with operating hours of about 5AM-3AM. Most feeder bus routes run at 15-45 minute intervals with similar operating hours on most routes and reduced on others. In addition there are many rush hour only services, some are feeder routes and some are express routes, these usually run 10-30 minutes apart.

[edit] Fares

Calgary Transit currently operates as a single fare zone, with a flat rate fare for all standard service including bus, BRT and the CTrain. As of March 2008 a single adult fare is $2.50, or $1.50 for youth. Monthly passes are also available, with youth passes for $50.00, and adult passes for $75.00.

In cooperation with many of the post-secondary schools located in the city a Universal Pass ( UPass) program is offered to all students, paid as part of their tuition.

[edit] Premium Routes

Premium express routes to communities which are located beyond 20 minutes from an LRT station have an additional $0.50 surcharge per ride, including for monthly passes. These surcharges will be dropped when these routes are brought within the 20 minute service area as the CTrain network expands.

[edit] Transfers

Proof of fare from the CTrain, or a transfer from a bus is valid for 90 minutes from the time of issue, for any transit service.

[edit] References

  1. ^ New Flyer Press Release October 22 2007
  2. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


Languages