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York Region Transit: Viva service thread

BMO said:
It costs more $$ to run a half empty express bus to York U from RHC then to run a local bus that has numerous people boarding and alighting. This is why express routes in YRT cost a special fee. There likely isn't demand for such an express route because the 52 407 GO bus duplicates the service. http://www.yorku.ca/trnsprt/publictransit/gotransit.htm
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A student fare on the GO to York from Richmond Hill Centre is $4.39, $5.14 if connecting from another YRT service. A YRT (407) express fare is $3.80. If they charged such a fare while having the route just take Highway 7, it would likely get quite a few takers - not to mention bring in some nice extra revenue for YRT.

I'm not saying that the Viva should skip Promenade, but I am saying there is more than enough through passenger demand from points east of the Promenade to York University that a branch or route would be well used. Rather than looking at stats and figures, try actually riding the line and pay attention to how passengers use the route.
 
Judging by the near universal displeasure of the idea of renaming it, I don't see it happening. Doesn't mean that Pioneer village shouldn't have been Steeles West however.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the Dufferin routing had the same over-all travel times and still allows for connections to York U. its 4.2km from Steeles & Dufferin to Steeles West, and 2.7km to Pioneer Village. (god I have that name) The increased speed of the subway probably makes up for the slightly out of the way trip.
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How do you figure that travel times would be comparable to the existing TTC Dufferin North bus if the new YRT replacement has to run west on Steeles to Pioneer Village station adding an extra 8 km subway ride along the extension when the 129 runs straight south to Downsview now?

As for ppl heading to York, they can't expect a one-seat ride if it means inconveniencing more ppl than it helps.
 
its a 6km subway ride, with 3 stops between Steeles West (errr.. Pioneer Village) and Downsview. the time difference at most will be a minute or two, and overall travel times will be more reliable. Dufferin is horrid for traffic on that stretch anyway with everyone coming off the Allen.
 
BMO said:
The 90 (which the VIVA Green will replace) is one of the better performing routes. VIVA green when it started was a disaster, this is true. Same with VIVA Orange. I believe these changes will change that. Purple and Blue have really good ridership for a YRT route.
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The new viva Green won't be replacing the 90.. It will be in addition to it. And from what I have heard, the Green may only operate peak hours only. And also of course it will change things. They will be "transferring" ridership from an already well performing route/section and saying, see Viva is doing well.... when all they've done is transfer ridership from the already well performing route! False Viva improvement numbers if you ask me. The region is all "viva, viva, viva". Always has been since it came along. They don't give a rats ass about the YRT routes... all the cuts and changes within the past few years will prove/show just that. Viva is their "baby" and the YRT routes are just their "back burner" considerations. They need to make Viva look good. Even though cost recovery went down the shitter when Viva was launched and continues to this day.
 
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Electrify said:
THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO RUN ALONG HIGHWAY 7 INSTEAD OF THAT STUPID DETOUR TO THE PROMENADE!
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THIS. THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE! AMEN.

Please, for the love of god fork the Viva route and give people who don't care about getting a tour of residential areas and watching a pile of high school students skip paying a fare to jam onto a bus to get a free ride to the mall.

This detour is the exact reason why I stopped taking the Viva in favour of the GO. From RHC, the GO bus takes 15 minutes to York, while Viva takes 30-40m. Why? I've timed it. The detour down Bathurst leads the bus to get stuck in all kinds of traffic during rush hour and it forces it to go through this round-about of a terminal that doesn't even allow the buses to turn left out of the terminal directly anymore so they have to do a loop and head back to the mall exit to compete with other cars trying to get out too.

Not for me, nope. Because of that, and with Viva fares reaching the upper limits of stupid, I'm just sticking to the GO for the foreseeable future.

I'm just glad to see someone share my pain for once.
 
just_chillin said:
The new viva Green won't be replacing the 90.. It will be in addition to it. And from what I have heard, the Green may only operate peak hours only. And also of course it will change things. They will be "transferring" ridership from an already well performing route/section and saying, see Viva is doing well.... when all they've done is transfer ridership from the already well performing route! False Viva improvement numbers if you ask me. The region is all "viva, viva, viva". Always has been since it came along. They don't give a rats ass about the YRT routes... all the cuts and changes within the past few years will prove/show just that. Viva is their "baby" and the YRT routes are just their "back burner" considerations. They need to make Viva look good. Even though cost recovery went down the shitter when Viva was launched and continues to this day.
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If a line is doing well, it's a natural progression to a higher order of transit on the route. Why does the 97 on Yonge still run if there's a subway along the same route? Because it provides local service and the subway provides faster express service. Just like people say to do BRT then do LRT then do Subway I think providing mixed traffic limited stop bus routes on good performing routes is a good way to improve the service gradually.
 
ShonTron said:
I don't think Brampton provided input (and I hope Brampton didn't yet). I don't think splitting the 501 and 501A to separate subway termini is all that smart.
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I checked with Brampton Transit. They confirmed that there current plan is to have the 501 go to VMC while having the 501A go to Pioneer Village so i guess YRT did consult brampton
 
Wow Viva blue is down 6% ! Pink is improving but the ridership is still so low .. (also in the sense that small jumps impact the % in big ways) purple was stable.

I don't think the rapidways are going to help a great deal at all, to be fair the small part open now Baybiew -> 404, really won't encourage anything we'll need to see once more happens.
 
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