MARTA handling increased volumes well with 99.5% On Time performance. (Atlanta: spring break, 2014)

[jsvh]

What Metro can learn from the Atlanta subway’s effort to win riders | Washington Post

In the wake of the collapse, MARTA ridership spiked 50 percent or more on the northern ends of the city’s transit lines, the agency said.

...

Even though the system was serving thousands more riders than normal, on-time performance was an unheard-of 99.5 percent, according to agency spokesman Erik Burton.

[ccdscott]

They performed even better with increased ridership. Crazy.

[PKCorey]

Do we really need another topic? Yeesh.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by ccdscott

They performed even better with increased ridership. Crazy.

Yeah, roads get worse with more volume (traffic congestion), but transit gets better (Improved train frequency) .

[Iconographer]

MARTA is looking like the shining star in all of this melee.

Keith Parker for President 2020.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Yeah, roads get worse with more volume (traffic congestion), but transit gets better (Improved train frequency) .

Until they lose a rail...

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Until they lose a rail...

Are you talking about the disruption Friday?

Early Friday morning, riders saw widespread delays after a collector shoe assembly — the paddles that draw power from the electrified third rail — caught fire, knocking down the proportion of on-time trips to 90.5 percent.

90.5% is still not bad at all with issues like that going. What would you say the "On Time Performance" of your typical car commute is?

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Are you talking about the disruption Friday?

I don't know about a disruption on Friday. What I'm saying is that when we lose a road, we have alternatives. If something causes both directions of a rail to become impassable, then the system stops for that leg. This is especially apparent in Atlanta's cross pattern, where there is no other alternative. In a city like London, one line can shut down and everything else keeps on moving.

Think of something worse...what would happen if something happened to Five Points station? The entire system would essentially become useless without getting out a station ahead, getting on a bus to a station past, then getting back on the train. Not exactly a solution.

90.5% is still not bad at all with issues like that going. What would you say the "On Time Performance" of your typical car commute is?

I don't have a typical commute since I commute any time from 6am-11am in the morning, and 5pm-1am at night.

Either way, I'm not really concerned with on-time performance, but with the ability of a system to respond to a major fault.

[JMatl]

That was a pretty good article in The Washington Post that jsvh linked to, thanks for sharing that.

I found this surprising: "The Washington region’s subway is suffering from massive ridership and revenue losses caused in part by chronic safety and reliability challenges, as well as efforts such as the SafeTrack year-long maintenance program to bring the system to a state of good repair. Metro ridership is down about 100,000 daily trips from peaks of 750,000 in 2009."

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I don't know about a disruption on Friday. What I'm saying is that when we lose a road, we have alternatives. If something causes both directions of a rail to become impassable, then the system stops for that leg. This is especially apparent in Atlanta's cross pattern, where there is no other alternative. In a city like London, one line can shut down and everything else keeps on moving.

Think of something worse...what would happen if something happened to Five Points station? The entire system would essentially become useless without getting out a station ahead, getting on a bus to a station past, then getting back on the train. Not exactly a solution.

If only one of the two tracks has a problem, then the alternative is to use the closest pairs of cross over tracks to single-track trains through that section. The alternative to a full heavy rail line closing, as you said, is to use a bus bridge. That is, that the roads are the alternative.

The problem, as I think you allude to, is our over reliance on too few methods of mobility. This is already painfully obvious with the closing of I-85. The surrounding roads and transit have held up so far, but spring break just ended and the park-n-ride lots are already filling up.

As always, it's about layers. Intercity rail, commuter rail, heavy rail, light rail, bus rapid transit, streetcars, arterial rapid transit, frequent bus services, local bus routes, circulators, bikes, walking, and even, to an extent, cars are all necessary. Together, they make layers that are capable of absorbing the overflow in times of emergency. There will certainly be a time when even a system like that is not enough, but the more layers, the more ability there is to absorb shocks to the whole transportation system.


What would have helped in a huge way, specifically for the areas most affected, is to not only have already extended the Red and Gold Lines north, but to have also implemented commuter rail lines. They could have easily taken the brunt of the downtowncentric traffic, while the heavy rail lines continued to serve the local needs, and acted as additional capacity. The buses would then be more practical at feeding people into the higher-capacity trains, since the stations would be closer.


I'm not happy it happened (though the morbidly curious side is having fun with the chaos ), but I am hoping this event acts as the much needed lesson that should have been learned in 2014: we need more than just the highways and our limited metro transit system.

I'm also hoping is that MARTA can keep up the strong performance, and dispel some of the stigmas associated with it.