Bumpy start for Metro Transit changes
Posted Aug 27, 2012 05:02:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Passengers catching a Metro Transit bus or ferry Monday will want to double-check their schedules and routes as the service makes several changes to their system.
The changes were supposed to have coincided with the opening of the new Dartmouth bridge bus terminal, but now Halifax Regional Municipality is pushing back the terminal’s completion date because of construction delays.
Construction on the $14.7 million facility began 11 months ago. It was due to open Monday. That date has now been pushed back to Sept. 17.
Metro Transit advises passengers that Google Transit reflects the new Bridge Terminal location being operational, although this is incorrect. Transit says GoTime will be reporting the scheduled time only, not real time, until the new bridge terminal opens on Sept. 17.
Some passengers say the GoTime glitch will not affect them.
“GPS is the worst thing ever,” said one man having a smoke at the Mumford Road bus terminal.
“I don’t use GPS actually, but thought it was great,” said Sylvia. “Especially for the new bus drivers and ferry operators, that would probably be quite helpful.”
As part of the changes going into effect Monday, Metro Transit is eliminating some services, changing some services and implementing some new ones.
The Woodside Ferry will no longer be conducting trips to Halifax at 9:37 a.m. and 9:52 a.m.
The Route 3 Mumford (formerly Manors) bus has been discontinued, while the 41 Dartmouth/Dalhousie and 42 Lacewood/Dalhousie have been reinstated.
The changes are causing some concerns.
“I empathizes with some of the people who take the ferry, because I do work with a lot of people who do use the ferry quite regularly,” said Sylvia. “Because we’re a 24-hour operation, some of them would take the ferry at eight o’clock at night.”
“The Number 3 has been going down in service,” said another passenger. “But the seniors might miss it.”
Metro Transit is also introducing a new high-frequency transit corridor between Portland Hills Terminal and the Bridge Terminal
This is expected to be one of several such corridors introduced over the next few years.
Community Transit:
Community Transit will be integrated with regular bus service; therefore Community Transit routes will be assigned route numbers as follows:
* Route 400 Beaver Bank Community Transit
* Route 401 Porter’s Lake Community Transit
* Route 402 Sambro Community Transit
Customers are advised that Community Transit buses will now only service designated bus stops. For a complete list of Community Transit bus stops visit www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/community_transit.html.
Portland Hills transit corridor:
* Schedules for routes 59, 61 and 68 have been staggered to provide 10 minute weekday frequency and 20 minute weekend frequency among the three routes travelling the Portland Corridor.
