bus 410 Express

…or how to do more with less

the bus route 410 in red, and a suggested express route, 411 in yellow

The route 410 linking New Westminster (22nd station) to Richmond is one of the most popular suburban route [2]. That is, it achieves several goals in addition to link two suburban communities:

• provide service to largely residential area of Queensborough neighborhood
• provide service Along Cambie road in Richmond, mixed residential and industrial areas
• provide service Along Railway to Stevenson in Richmond

Thanks to its patronage, the route has seen an increase in service which is as frequent as 7/8mn weekday, much better than other local bus routes in Richmond. Since the route is quite long, average trip length is 1h03mn, with numerous stop, and the vehicle requirement is quite high [1].

number of bus 410 on the street according to the time of the day (1)

Obviously, the local service, thought useful, makes the more regional New Westminster-Richmond center connection painfully slow.
The table below gives you an idea of how much longer time it can take between the Hwy 91 exit at Westminster highway in Queensborough and Richmond Brighouse (number from Translink for an arrival at 9am weekday at Brighouse), consider you have good chance to have to do the ride in a standing room only 410 bus!

route
bus 410										40mn
bus 301										22mn
car										15-20mn

Not only, the current option makes for a long and unappealing trip for the rider, it makes also for a low productivity route!

As the frequency of other local Richmond bus route suggest, the enhanced service on 410 is mostly justified by regional transit…that is boarding per operating hour is probably nothing to celebrate.

The 411 Express

What we suggest is an express route between New Westminster and Richmond, let’s name it the route 411, marked in yellow on the map above (it is an express route stopping only at selected stop suggested in white circle).

• The route could follow the route 301 (dashed yellow line), but we could prefer the solid yellow line thru road number 6 and westminster highway, since the exit of Highway 91 at Road 6, allows the route to connect with the eastearn part of Richmond (current route 410, and C96) with no real significant penalty time, considering the final destination
• Like the 301, The route 411 stop at Westminster highway in Queensborough, to provide connection with this community
• We assume the route above involve a ~30mn trip versus 50mn with the current bus 410

That is a 411 run could be 30mn versus 1h03 with the 410. In clear:

• for the cost of one 410 run, you could have 2 411 runs.

The strength of the proposition:

Considering that

• the most busy locals route in Richmond have in the vicinity of 165 runs weekday,
• and that a frequency of 7/8mn (as currently on 410) versus 10mn will make no noticeable difference in term of user experience.

A redeployment of some runs from the 410 toward a 411 could not affect adversely the local bus service be in Richmond or Queensborough, but indeed could dramatically improve the regional connection.

without adding on operating cost, you could dramatically improve the New Westminster-Richmond connection in term of speed and offered seat, and de facto increase the buses productivity

We suggest a 411 peak hour express route, running every 20mn during peak hour:

• that is 3 run per hour, requiring 4 vehicles

That can apriori be bought by reduction of service on route 410 from 8 run/hour (7-8mn frequency) to 6 run/hour (10mn frequency) per direction.

In fact, with 211 runs versus 184 runs for the second most frequent 400 serie bus route (route403), around 54 hours of operating hours could be redeployed to a route #411, and still keeping the route 410 at decent frequency standard. That could be enough to provide a full day 20mn frequency rapid transit service between Richmond and New Westminster:

It is not necessarily the tradeoff we recommend but it illustrates that there is lot of room for an express route funded by reallocation of bus 410 operating hour, this without compromising the integrity of the later:

The Suggested 410 and 411 route service

An express route, even if peak hour only – like the route 44 used to be – could be enough to attract new choice customer and make happier current one, this on a route able to relieve Queensborough bridge congestion, and more generally congestion in New Westminster.

Below is the suggested timetable for the 2 bus routes, 410 and 411 operating without increase in operating bus hour compared to the current situation (410 only)

bus 410 – 22nd station → Brighouse → Railway

22nd station → Brighouse travel time 35mn to 55mn
5h	6h	7h	8h	9h	10h	11h	12h	13h	14h	15h	16h	17h	18h	19h	20h	21h	22h	23h	0h
31	03	03	03	03	05	05	05	05	05	03	03	03	03	03	03	03	16	16	49
51	13	13	13	17	17	17	17	17	17	13	13	13	18	18	18	18	46	46
	23	23	23	29	29	29	29	29	29	23	23	23	33	33	33	46
	33	33	33	41	41	41	41	41	41	33	33	33	48	48	48
	43	43	43	53	53	53	53	53	53	43	43	43
	53	53	53							53	53	53

bus 411 – 22nd station → Brighouse

22nd station → Brighouse travel time 30mn
5h	6h	7h	8h	9h	10h	11h	12h	13h	14h	15h	16h	17h	18h	19h	20h	21h	22h	23h	0h
40	00	00	00								00	00	00
	20	20	20								20	20
	40	40								40	40	40

The exercise shows there is significant room for bus service improvement, even in financial restraint time…

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[1] Compiled from Translink gtfs data weekday, April 2010

[2] According TransLink’s Regional Transit Model, Final Model Development Report – Phase B: 2007 and 2011, PTV America Inc. and Translink. vancouver December 2008: bus 410 were carrying more than 11,000 riders/day in 2007, second only to route 135 and 106 in suburban area, and noticeably more patronized than B line 97.