DART
Starting Sept. 28, DART light rail riders will see increased service frequency on weekends. According to the transit agency, ridership reached approximately 80% of pre-pandemic levels through the last quarter. “This upward trend is marked by changes in rider behavior including more frequent weekend ridership,” it reported. “Customer feedback encouraged increased service frequency, and DART will deliver on this concept via the latest service changes.”
The agency will also improve bus service and make bus bay reassignments (click here for more).
On weekends, light rail trains on all lines—Red, Green, Blue, and Orange (see map, top)—will run every 20 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., up from the current service frequency; outside of these hours, service will remain at 30-minute intervals.
“The way our passengers utilize DART is evolving,” said Dee Leggett, DART’s Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer and one of Railway Age’s 2023 Women in Rail honorees. “Weekend ridership continues to grow—exceeding pre-pandemic ridership levels. This means our passengers are utilizing the system to reach more entertainment destinations and getting more out of DART throughout the week. This will be especially true as we enter State Fair of Texas season! This service change features increased rail frequency during peak hours on the weekend launching on September 28. We are excited to fulfill this long-standing request for increased service from our passengers, and this increased service frequency will carry on after the Fair concludes.”
Meanwhile, Flowbird on Sept. 11 reported that it will deliver 228 Astreo ticket vending machines for DART transit stations systemwide. The first set of machines is scheduled for installation by 2025. Full machine deployment is expected in 2026, coinciding with the completion of DART’s Silver Line construction (see map above). DART anticipates opening the Silver Line commuter rail service, which will connect Plano to DFW International Airport, in late 2025 or early 2026.
According to New Jersey-based Flowbird, its ticket vending machines feature “an intuitive LED color touch-screen display, high-capacity ticket vending, and account reload capabilities suitable for busy transit environments.” With an additional passenger information screen, the two-screen unit, it said, is designed to “simplify the ticketing process, making transactions more intuitive with real-time information on separate displays.” The machines also offer multi-lingual functionality and audio assistance, “ensuring accessibility for all users, including meeting ADA standards,” Flowbird said.
The integration of Flowbird’s machines with DART’s existing account-based ticketing system is important, according to the supplier, since its machines will connect with DART’s back-office platform, allowing real-time updates to user accounts. This ensures that riders can add funds to their accounts by inserting cash or using their bank cards at the ticket vending machines.
“DART is excited to bring this advanced fare technology to our passengers,” said Jamie Adelman, DART’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “The new TVMs [ticket vending machines] will enhance the overall transit experience, making it more accessible and convenient for all riders, including those who prefer to pay with cash.”
In a related development, DART President and CEO Nadine Lee on Sept. 6 reported that transit-oriented development in the agency’s service area generated more than $980 million in direct spending and spurred 10,747 jobs between 2019 and 2021, according to a recent study.
SFMTA
Muni trains will return to service on the two-mile L Taraval line between the Embarcadero Station and the San Francisco Zoo starting Sept. 28, according to SFMTA (see map below). Trains are scheduled to arrive every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 12 minutes on weekends.
This marks the completion of the five-year, $90 million L Taraval Improvement Project, a multi-agency collaboration with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and San Francisco Public Works to upgrade the corridor and improve safety.
Improvements include 11 bulb-outs to make pedestrian crossings safer; five new transit priority traffic signals; more than 175 new trees, median landscaping and public art; high visibility crosswalks; 22 new or extended safety boarding islands, so riders will no longer have to board directly onto the street alongside traffic; elevated platforms installed at key locations, as well as new curb ramps and Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) at intersections along the corridor; new track (replacing the original, nearly 50-year-old track) and a new Overhead Contact System (OCS); rehabilitated water and sewer infrastructure; new roadway along the line; and 71 new streetlights with upgraded LED lighting.
Prior to the service suspension in 2019, the line had approximately 30,000 riders per day, according to SFGate, which noted Taraval Street had been “listed as a high-injury corridor in the city’s Vision Zero plan.”
TransLink
To prepare for the future Oakridge Park redevelopment in Vancouver, TransLink, QuadReal, Westbank, and the City are upgrading the Oakridge–41st Avenue Station on SkyTrain’s Canada Line. Construction is set to begin Sept. 16 and expected to last approximately one year.
In 2019, Oakridge Park construction began on the site of the previous Oakridge Center shopping mall, as part of a 5 million square-foot redevelopment plan, according to TransLink, which provides SkyTrain automated rapid transit, West Coast Express commuter rail, SeaBus ferry, and bus services in metro Vancouver. This new development will include a 9 acre park; new community center; multiple residential buildings; more than 1 million square feet of new retail space, including a 75,000 square-foot food hall; and improved transit connectivity.
The developer, Oakridge Park, is paying for most of these upgrades, according to TransLink. Additional funding from 2022 for new escalators is coming through TransLink’s Capital Projects program.
Once the project is completed, Oakridge–41st Avenue Station will include:
- Two new escalators to improve customer accessibility at the station.
- A new street-level station entrance canopy for better weather protection.
- Direct underground mall access from the station for more efficient travel.
- New public art inside the station.
More than 7,000 customers use Oakridge–41st Avenue Station daily, and TransLink said that number is expected to grow as density in the area increases.
TTC
TTC subway stations by year-end will no longer offer free public Wi-Fi, The Canadian Press reported Sept. 12.
According to the Toronto-based news agency, “TTC spokesman Stuart Green said the transit agency has seen a 65 per cent drop in use of the TConnect Wi-Fi system since 5G connectivity for all carriers was introduced,” and “there are ‘concerns about the age of the technology and infrastructure’ related to performance and security.”
In an email to The Canadian Press, Green said: “When comparing subway trips to total logins, we know TConnect is only being used on two per cent of trips,” adding that “[w]e continue to work with Rogers to get the 5G network fully built out and we’ll explore opportunities to enhance connectivity on the TTC and improve the customer experience in the process.”
Rogers told the news agency that it proposed an update to Wi-Fi equipment, but TTC declined. “Green said it would have cost [C]$17 million to upgrade the infrastructure to improve performance and security issues which ‘does not feel like a wise investment,’” reported The Canadian Press.
Riders since late last year have been able to use Rogers’ cellular network “regardless of their carrier” in subway stations and in “tunnels mostly concentrated downtown between St. George, Bloor-Yonge and Union stations,” according to The Canadian Press, which noted that “[t]unnel service is also available between Sheppard West and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre stations.”
Separately, TTC earlier this month appointed Gregory W. Percy as interim CEO.
