The Milwaukee Transit Riders Union was featured in an article in today’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. We have raised concerns about the scheduled trip time from Downtown to Bayshore on the new Green Line being significantly slower than former 15 service.
New express bus routes not always faster, passenger group says
Early trip from downtown to Bayshore 27% longer, group says
By Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel
Jan. 30, 2012 |(8) Comments
A passenger advocacy group says one of Milwaukee County’s three new express bus routes actually would be slower than the regular route it partly replaced.
Based on an analysis of old and new timetables, the Milwaukee Transit Riders Union found that an early morning trip from downtown Milwaukee to Bayshore Town Center in Glendale would take 38 minutes on the new Metro EXpress GreenLine (Bayshore-Airport) – 27% longer than the 30-minute trip on the same segment of the old Route 15 (Oakland Ave.-Kinnickinnic Ave.).
But a Milwaukee County Transit System spokeswoman says the timetable comparison is misleading because Route 15 was running far behind schedule. When those delays are taken into account, the GreenLine will provide faster service, bus system spokeswoman Jacqueline Janz said.
The GreenLine and its Metro EXpress sisters, the RedLine (Capitol Drive) and the BlueLine (Fond du Lac Ave.-National Ave.) debuted Sunday. They are part of a plan that leverages $19.1 million in federal funds over two years to avoid deep service cuts that otherwise would have been forced by a $6.8 million cut in state aid.
Each of the new lines partly replaced regular routes, but with less frequent stops. In some places, the local routes are still running on the same streets, giving riders a choice between regular and express service; in other places, only the express routes are running, requiring riders to walk farther to and from bus stops.
In related changes Sunday, the transit system eliminated three routes – Routes 11 (Holton St.-Greenfield Ave. / Howell Ave.), 18 (National Ave.-Greenfield Ave.) and 68 (Port Washington Road). The system created two new ones – Routes 52 (Clement Ave.-15th Ave.) and 56 (Greenfield Ave.) – and shifted some others to cover nearly all of the same territory. Only a few segments, notably the Lake Drive branch of Route 68, were dropped altogether.
The changes affect more than 1,000 bus stops. Transit system customer service agents are staffing a special hotline, (414) 937-0460, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily to field riders’ questions.
For its analysis of the changes, the grass-roots riders union compared timetables for each express route and the corresponding local route at five different weekday times – early morning, morning rush hour, midday, afternoon rush hour and midevening, said riders union organizer Samuel Jensen.
Two of the three express routes came out ahead, Jensen said. From N. 124th St. to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the eastbound RedLine was up to 12% faster than Route 62 (Capitol Drive), particularly in rush hours, he said. And from N. 12th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. to W. Congress St. and W. Fond du Lac Ave., the northbound BlueLine was up to 16% faster than the old version of Route 23 (Fond du Lac Ave.), logging its best time in afternoon rush hour, he said.
But from N. Water St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. to Bayshore, the northbound GreenLine was slower than the old version of Route 15 at four of the five times measured, with no change in travel time during afternoon rush hour, Jensen said.
“It kind of defies logic and transit practice” for an express route with limited stops to be slower than a regular route that stops every two blocks, Jensen said.
That analysis, however, doesn’t take into account how unreliable Route 15 had become recently, Janz said.
“It was not operating correctly,” Janz said. “It was not operating to the schedule.”
Exact figures on delays were not available Friday or Monday, Janz said. But transit planners found several factors slowing the Route 15 buses, she said.
From September 2010 to September 2011, average weekday ridership rose 11%, from 7,866 to 8,764, Janz said. Some of those new passengers were Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design students riding the bus from a new 182-unit east side residence hall to the school’s Historic Third Ward campus, she said.
Also, the number of riders using bicycle racks on Route 15 buses shot up 71%, from 7,460 in 2010 to 12,743 in 2011, Janz said.
More riders and more bikes means more time loading and unloading buses, Janz said. Other factors, such as traffic and new businesses, also could be affecting ridership and speed, she said. The GreenLine schedule takes all of those factors into account, resulting in a more realistic timetable and service that is faster in practice, she said.
Jensen remains skeptical. He says the bus system should have consulted riders in designing the new route.
Janz said transit planners did take passengers’ views into account, including comments from the riders union, along with input from county officials and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. Transit staffers now are riding the buses and talking to riders about how the changes are working, she said.
Both Route 15 and Route 23 survived on the revised transit system schedule, but with altered routes and names. They are now Route 15 (Holton St.-Kinnickinnic Ave.) and Route 23 (Fond du Lac Ave.-National Ave.).
(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, January 30, 2012, http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/new-express-bus-routes-not-always-faster-passenger-group-says-g73vgar-138372034.html)
The Transit Riders Union believes that the schedules should be changed to reflect the decreased number of stops and increased weekday frequency on the Green Line. We don’t think making the route unnecessarily slow is a good way to deal with issues with buses running off schedule, and will be keeping track of the performance of the new route over the coming months.