Metro:
Better communication on all fronts, with the public, and with other agencies.
Review, revise, and update adverse weather routing information. Publish updated adverse weather routes on-line and in paper schedules during the next schedule revision. The revisions should reflect issues like probable street closures and re-routes around known trouble spots.
Have a published “stage 2″ and “stage 3″ plan if conditions are bad enough that the adverse weather routes aren’t enough. IOW what will be running if say all the articulated coaches have to be pulled from service, or what areas can expect to have chained shuttles.

Streetcar:
Learn some lessons from Portland and Tacoma Link. Buy some torches or other equipment for unsticking frozen switches. Update your damn web site and send out a media release if you have to shut down (and when you get running again).

Sound Transit:
Everything that applies to metro applies to you. Also learn to keep your web site up, especially under load.
Good job keeping Tacoma Link running and Sounder mostly running.

WADOT:
Excellent job all around. Especially on the communications front.

Finally I’d like to give everyone who was out there on the line trying to clear the streets, keep the lights on, or keep the buses/trains running an A+. You busted your asses and did the best you could with what you had.

perhaps adding some automation to the rider information system about bus routes might also solve the human-intensive / busy signal side of the problem. key in your route number and the computer voice will give you the info from the web site.

it seems bogus and disappointing to simply say “metro has no idea what’s going on when things get a little out of whack” – god help us in a real emergency.

metro’s execution on projects like this seems to match their service performance – slow, spotty and unpredictable.

http://onebusaway.org/where/stopNumber.html

Also, I’ve seen these popping up recently:

http://www.orphanroad.com/blog/2008/11/one-bus-away

Hmmm…that onebusaway looks even better than the MyBus texting app if you get every stop and not just a few. But is this in anyway associated with Metro? I’m guessing it’s not. You also kind of have to be in the know in order for it to work. It’s not like this number is posted at the stops.

If we want to get really low-tech (which is fine by me), it seems like the easiest/cheapest thing to do would be to have the top of the paper Metro schedule at each bus stop say something like, “Where is my bus? Call 206-555-5555, txt 55555, etc.” Since this is most likely not associated with Metro, therein lies the issue. With the addition of GPS to the buses as mentioned in the article Oran linked to, I imagine it could get much easier to do such things.

Also, rather than giving reroutes as a list of streets, full of abbreviations—e.g. Northbound Reg Rt to WB NW 85th St/24th Av NW, L on SB 24 Av NW, R on WB NW 80th St, R on NB 32 Av NW, R on EB NW 85th St to regular route—why not click out a route on Google Maps, save it and link to it? It shouldn’t take more than a minute per reroute once the mapper got used to the system, and it would be so much more user-friendly. As given above, reroutes are difficult to read, and when combined with street names that riders may not know (because they’re not streets they regularly travel on) it can be difficult to figure out certain reroutes, even when Metro deigns to publish them.

Oran, I know it has been brought up before (by me numerous times) and I know they say it is coming, but I am going to keep bringing it up until it is DONE! They said (just like ORCA) that it’d be done years ago, and they didn’t do it. Now I don’t know what is going on inside Metro, but I’m worried it won’t happen due to budget constraints. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather see current service levels maintained than a drop in service to facilitate the new comm system, but I still hope that this can get done, and get done soon.

End of off-topic rant.

You are also right that not everyone has internet access when they are standing at the stop. That’s why http://onebusaway.org/ has a phone number you can call to get real-time status for any and every stop. We’re working to integrate reroute information so that it can tell you “Not in service, closest stop is X” just like you suggested. Of course, if you don’t have a cell phone, then this won’t help either.

And in response to Brian above, I agree, that the BusView is kind of just a cool gee-whiz thing. The myBus.org txt messaging is cool too and a bit more useful since you can be out and about and still get the info you need. But my problem with these online tools (and the txt tools to a lesser extent) is that it requires you to be _online_. You leave out people without this access at their fingertips or at all.

The best thing in the world would be to have actual signs at stops telling you when the next bus is coming. Like the SLUT does and as I would assume LR would do. Sure, doing this with rail is most likely an order of magnitude easier/cheaper. But does anyone know if it has been done anywhere with buses? You could then also perhaps “push” messages to certain stops during these times and say, “Not in service, closest stop is X”. You get the message right where it needs to be, at the bus stop. Two birds with one stone. This is not only gee-whiz, but actually useful!

Tacoma Link operators, system technician, and supervisors worked 24 hours a day for five plus days to keep the system going. Tacoma Link was prepared by monitoring the weather, pre-testing equipment, and buying necessary supplies. They ran trains all night to keep the overhead contact system warm and tracks open and staff worked shoveling snow, throwing switches, making repairs, mopping up water, spreading deicer, etc. Just so there would be “no impact” for the customer.

“No impact” was dozens of hours of overtime (that resulted in four people getting sick) but Tacoma Link stayed within 10 minutes of schedule. They also had no accidents or injuries during the snow and no reportable accidents all year…