The map… now with a signature
On June 1, Metro will begin “Quickline” service along Bellaire from the light rail station at TMC Transit Center to just inside Beltway 8.
This is what I call “better bus” and what METRO once called “signature bus“: our local version of Los Angeles’ Metro Rapid: specially branded buses, using regular traffic lanes but stopping less frequently (at branded stops with “next bus” displays) to speed up the trip. The full trip (pdf) from TMC to Ranchester will takes 38 minutes instead of 52 by local bus; TMC to Bellaire will take 21 minutes instead of 34.
Unfortunately, our local version is rush hour only. In the morning, the buses run every 15 minutes from 6:00-9:00; in the afternoon, the first bus leaves the TMC at 3:00 and the last leaves at 6:00. That will leave commuters who have to work until 6:00 with a slow ride.
Faster trip times are good. But offering those times all day would be better. METRO talks of building a “transit habit” in the corridor. But real transit habits are built around using transit not just for commutes but for all the other trips in a day, and that’s made possible by service that’s the same all day every day (which also happens to be what METRO was planning when this service was first proposed in 2003). The last time I rode LA’s Rapid, it was 10:00 pm and the bus was packed.
METRO says this is only the first signature bus corridor; Gessner, Westheimer, TMC to Palm Center, and Northline to Tidwell TC are coming up, though no schedule has been announced. There are surely some more corridors that would make sense as well. The Bellaire service was originally scheduled to start in August 2008.
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