http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/08/work-begins-boulder-highway-rapid-bus-line/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/08/ace-rapid-transit-bus-service-exceeds-ridership-ex/
This is fantastic. What a great start! It's pretty nice because these lines appear to have almost all of the benefits of LRT, including private busways, island platforms, and those signals that tell you not to turn cuz a bus is coming.
Vegas was always interesting with their unique forms of bus transportation. Now, the article mentioned that the Deuce returned downtown (a great idea!). Did it also return to the Southern Strip Transfer Terminal? I was just wondering because the electronic wall display thingy (which is QUITE nice) was showing information for the Deuce and the 117. The display had a date of March 14th, though....
Very cool, thank you. How long before someone makes a model of that bus? We could show that video to the people who oppose BRT on the proposed CCT line in Montgomery County MD.
Don't get me started on the whole ACE/Deuce thing. The Deuce returned to downtown because a lot of things went wrong and it was the only way to stabilize the system. The Deuce WILL NOT and SHOULD NOT go to SSTT. It cost us $2.7 million to send it back to downtown and it will be almost that much to go to South Strip.
Perry: What's the real story?
http://www.masstransitmag.com/publication/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=11632
LOL, they picked up on that article? First of all the reporter is a total you know what. She's very anti transit in my opinion and she took advantage of a couple of passengers who said something and blew it out of proportion. We did not take the Wright vehicles away from the C Line because of anything that had to do with the Strip. Although our media person was trying to be PC about the whole thing, I'm the one that pushed for the regular buses to be put on that route because the Wright buses were not holding up well on the freeway. They weren't falling apart, but they were having power failures and it was felt that keeping them on the Strip and having them work out the bugs there was better than having a bus break down on the freeway. I'm the one that had the Plan B in effect with the New Flyer coaches and I'm the one that, after the first two days of service seeing what was happening since I was at the park and ride all day those days, said enough is enough and get those damn buses off of the commuter route.
I felt that it was more important to have service than the vehicle and anybody that chooses not to ride a route because of the type of equipment wasn't going to be kept anyway and they can stay stuck on the freeway while our buses pass them by in the HOV lanes.
I'm also the one that contacts a passenger directly if they have a complaint about the service because I'm not about to have them become a spreader of hate and be a cancer to us and make sure that they are taken care of. I've personally sought them out to ride in on their trip to chat about things and I've kept them as passengers.
I think we did a disservice not fessing up to the real problems, but I understand that it's a tightrope to walk on. The tourists will ride anything and since those services pay for themselves, I don't concern myself too much about what goes on down there. The real service is everything but the Strip and that's what I focus on.
Perry:
Your decisions sound like common sense to me. But that reporter demonstrates that common sense ain't common!
She likes to do anything that stirs up controversy whether it's the transit system, road construction or anything else that strikes a nerve. The guy that used to do this column before her was much more transit friendly. She's even unfriendly in person...I've had the displeaure of being in her presence and I needed to have my eyes washed out afterwards.
Hehe, ever since that negative article about is ran about the C Line, ridership is up about 10%. I guess bad press is better than no press....