College St bus stop changes

Started by smitho, January 30, 2014, 10:25:12 PM

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smitho

Around 0810 this morning, noticed a gang of contractors and several ACTION field supervisors who were gathered near the site of the new northbound bus shelter on College St, opposite the University of Canberra South Gate...physical construction work was in its very early stages.

Meanwhile (as reported by ACT bus spotter), on Haydon Drive, men were repainting the formerly scruffy and recently relocated southbound bunker near the Haydon Drive/College St intersection.

Barry Drive

They dug up some of the recently-laid concrete in order to put in the tell-tale 4 holes for a standard AdShel.

All new stops will enter service Monday morning. (Hopefully the stop GPS footprints are being updated over the weekend.)

smitho

Dropped off a punter at thge new Radford northbound stop this morning and she was able to tap off there with no problems.

The two remaining College St bunkers stops will be closed to traffic on Sunday 2 Feb, at which stage the new "transitway" stops on College St and Haydon Drive will be commissioned.

Barry Drive

#3
In what could be a record, the new AdShel went in the next day. In related news, the AdShel on Marcus Clarke St (which was closed in March) has been removed.

Quote from: smitho on January 31, 2014, 03:22:48 PM
Dropped off a punter at the new Radford northbound stop this morning and she was able to tap off there with no problems.
Stop doesn't open until tomorrow! On Friday I saw a woman waiting at the stop despite there being THREE red signs saying that the stop was closed. To make matters worse, a bus actually stopped for her.

Based on the GTFS data, there may be some problems with the Haydon Drive northbound stop. (Problems in the sense that the stop hasn't been defined.) The timetable / NXTBUS SMS for the southbound stop (#4005) may also show buses that don't pass the stop, such as 3 7 30 31 56 58 59 & 71.

UPDATE: ACTION re-issued their GTFS late Friday to include stop #4188 which is the new Haydon Dr stop. Transittimes app doesn't seem to be correct, but raw GTFS data seems OK.

ajw373

Quote from: ACTbusspotter on February 02, 2014, 03:13:06 PM

Stop doesn't open until tomorrow! On Friday I saw a woman waiting at the stop despite there being THREE red signs saying that the stop was closed. To make matters worse, a bus actually stopped for her

You mean a driver saw that she was waiting and went out of his way to provide some customer service. Good on him/her, so hardly making matters worse.

Buzz Killington

3 or 4 signs, plus the shelter and seat being taped off wasn't enough to stop people waiting there again today.

ajw373

Maybe they think it is the shelter that is out of use not the whole stop. Not everyone is as savy as a bus enthusiast and this may come as a surprise not everyone can read english.

The Love Guru

Well we shouldn't go out of our way for people who don't read English. You come to a country with English as the language then expect the signs to be in English. I wouldn't go to China and expect the signs to be in my native tongue.

ajw373

Quote from: The Love Guru on February 04, 2014, 09:16:24 AM
Well we shouldn't go out of our way for people who don't read English. You come to a country with English as the language then expect the signs to be in English. I wouldn't go to China and expect the signs to be in my native tongue.

There are plenty of born and bred Aussies who cannot read properly either. Now not saying you should be expected to go out of your way, but if someone does then they should be appluded, not chastised as ACTbusspotter did.

Barry Drive

Even if they can't or won't read the signs, they will quickly  understand once buses don't stop for them. That is why it is NOT good "customer service" for drivers to service closed stops: it doesn't give passengers a consistent message.

It would be different if the stop was not clearly marked: but in this case, there were signs put up last week stating the stops would close on Sunday as well as signs on the new stops to say they were not in service. Other than removing the blades on the closed stops, I fail to see what more ACTION can do.

ajw373

Simple, have a grace period and provide some customer service.

Barry Drive

The bunkers at the old stops were dug up and removed two weeks ago. All that remains are the bus stop posts (without blades) and the skeleton of a bin.

Since I don't drive that way regularly, it is still unusual to not stop at the former City-bound stop.

Barry Drive

Quote from: ajw373 on February 04, 2014, 10:10:04 AM
Simple, have a grace period and provide some customer service.
Or you can put up multiple signs saying stop not yet in service which show the opening date.

The standard AdShel on College St opposite UC has (again) been relocated and is now at the Radford College stop. There is speculation that UC is getting a mega-shelter, but since it wasn't mentioned in the budget I'm not sure if it will happen anytime soon. Unless UC is paying for it