METRO's Dual Trip Planner

[kylejack]

This will show you what buses to take on the existing system and on the System Reimagining system (starting August 16th).

http://ebtwebservices.cloudapp.net/D/External/ServiceChangeTripPlanner

[mfastx]

This is really neat.  Thanks for posting! 

[j_cuevas713]

I'm checking out some of these trip times and they seem a little long considering the new system alignment

[terra002]

Yea, this change doesnt help me at all. Every route I plugged in took a few minutes longer. I have ridden the rail numerous times, but never the bus. I lost my car in the flood so I tried to start taking the bus, who has time for that! It takes forever to get anywhere. I needed to get 11 miles, from westheimer and montrose to westheimer and wilcrest, it was going to take an hour and a half. Thats ridiculous...

[Ross]

When my car was in the shop after Allison, I took the bus to work. A 15 minute drive became a 45 minute trip. Mass transit may get you there, but not always as fast.

[samagon]

It's mainly the bus system. It slow and you can't rely on the scheduled intervals between buses. This isn't a metro problem, I have experienced this in any city I've ridden a city bus.

 

Every experience I've had with the light rail in this city, and fixed guideway transit in every other city, you can absolutely rely on the scheduled interval between transit.

 

So yeah, you can expect it to take a bit longer, but if you could reliably count on the train to be in the station at 8:01 am, and get you to your destination at 8:48 am, even if you could count on your car leaving your garage at 8:20 and arriving at your destination at 8:50, maybe it makes sense to add the extra minutes to your commute to not have to pay to park, not have to pay for gas, just sit there and veg out for a while, etc.

 

With the buses though. I can walk out of my house at 7am, go to a bus stop, maybe the bus already came by 15 minutes early, and the one behind it is 15 minutes late, so now I might wait till 8am just for a bus to arrive, when there's supposed to be one every 30 minutes. then it takes more than 45 minutes cause the bus stops at every intersection to load/unload. Maybe I should have left my house at 6:45 instead. Buses suck.

Edited July 10, 2015 by samagon

[MaggieMay]

I've been riding the bus for years & have found that they're generally on schedule in the early morning.  The stop is one block away & they come every 15 minutes or so.  They are sometimes late but almost never "early."  

 

The new system will cut buses on that (renumbered) route by 50%.  Another feature--they apparently won't be "scheduled."  On arriving at the stop, I can scan a doohickie & tell when the next one is due.  Which will be great for later in the day, when they definitely get off schedule.  Or evenings & weekends--when a schedulef bus will just not appear--or, my favorite, a bus with the destination sign "TO GARAGE" will zip by about the time the last bus was scheduled.  I've learned that, if I'll need to return home latish on a weekend night, it's best to have cab fare.  No matter what is "scheduled." 

 

But, as I said, my bus has been on schedule early in the morning.  Knowing the schedule lets me know when to set the alarm, how quickly to get dressed & when to leave the house.  The new setup sounds counter-productive for getting to work.  Other riders & most of the drivers agree.  Oh, well.  Buses will be free for that first week....

 

Light Rail is never "scheduled."  A train comes by every 5 or 6 minutes at "peak" times--until 7 PM Monday through Friday. With such frequency, it works fine.  (Well, there's the occasional "incident.")  The train's less frequent in the evening & on weekends.  (If only they would stop sending single car trains on weekends--they tend to be packed.) 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2015 by MaggieMay

[Keith Harrow]

I've been riding the bus for years & have found that they're generally on schedule in the early morning.  The stop is one block away & they come every 15 minutes or so.  They are sometimes late but almost never "early."  

 

The new system will cut buses on that (renumbered) route by 50%.  Another feature--they apparently won't be "scheduled."  On arriving at the stop, I can scan a doohickie & tell when the next one is due.  Which will be great for later in the day, when they definitely get off schedule.  Or evenings & weekends--when a schedulef bus will just not appear--or, my favorite, a bus with the destination sign "TO GARAGE" will zip by about the time the last bus was scheduled.  I've learned that, if I'll need to return home latish on a weekend night, it's best to have cab fare.  No matter what is "scheduled." 

 

But, as I said, my bus has been on schedule early in the morning.  Knowing the schedule lets me know when to set the alarm, how quickly to get dressed & when to leave the house.  The new setup sounds counter-productive for getting to work.  Other riders & most of the drivers agree.  Oh, well.  Buses will be free for that first week....

 

Light Rail is never "scheduled."  A train comes by every 5 or 6 minutes at "peak" times--until 7 PM Monday through Friday. With such frequency, it works fine.  (Well, there's the occasional "incident.")  The train's less frequent in the evening & on weekends.  (If only they would stop sending single car trains on weekends--they tend to be packed.) 

 

The buses will be scheduled.  They have draft schedules on the website.