Calgary Transit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Calgary Transit is the public transit service which is owned and operated by the city of Calgary, Alberta. In 2005, an estimated 119.5 million passengers boarded approximately 920 Calgary Transit vehicles (Service Population: 956 078) and provided 2.03 million hours of service (2.12 hours of service per capita).
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[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
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 west of Shawnee Gate).
Future extensions planned are McKnight-Westwinds Station on the northeast line; Crowfoot-Centennial Station on the northwest line located directly west of Crowfoot Town Centre in the median of Crowchild Trail; 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); 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).
[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). Calgary Transit will begin using articulated buses on the BRT line and other high-capacity lines in 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 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 terminous seven days a week.
[edit] Other information
Calgary Transit currently operates about 160 bus routes with about 830 buses of which 460 are low floor , and 116 light rail vehicles, 84 of which are Siemens-Duewag U2 model cars, 32 of which are more recent Siemens SD-160s.
The current bus fleet includes:
- General Motors Diesel Division Buses T6H-5307N (New Look) (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982) About 150 remain, slowly being phased out
- MCI TC40-102N (Classic) (1991, 1992) 107 units
- MCI TC40-102A (Classic) (1990-1991; ex-Connecticut Transit) 10 units
- New Flyer D40 (1992) 10 units
- New Flyer D40LF (1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) 460 units
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.
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] External links
