2021 Wake Transit-Funded Bus Services Annual Performance Review – Town of Cary Discussion Disposition Matrix Project Route/Project CAMPO Question Project Sponsor Response/Disposition Sponsor Route 4: High House Road's productivity is starting The Town discussed the myriad of challenges facing Route 4’s performance. These include a hit to ridership during the pandemic as a result of not to rebound from its pandemic slump. Does current serving the Cary Senior Center next to Bond Park. During the quarters in which the senior center was not served, on-time performance was stellar. The ridership data follow the trend of relatively stronger senior center poses operational challenges via an unprotected left turn on High House Road and due to the pace of boarding and alighting. Service TO004-A: Sunday Service – mid-day and weekend ridership? If not, how do you providing direct access to shopping centers and residential communities that deviates from the route’s directness of travel along the corridor has also All Routes, Holiday Hours explain the increase in productivity? While posed challenges to successful on-time performance. Town staff removed a U-turn on Maynard Rd and has recommended removing some of the and Extended Paratransit; productivity is improving, Route 4 is still not where it shopping center deviations to increase on-time performance. It was further noted that a good amount of the on-time underperformance noted in Q3 of TO004-B: Increase Midday should be, and neither is its on-time performance. FY21 could be a result of operator error, as service changes with new turn-by-turn instructions were initiated during the quarter, and it takes time for Frequencies How does the Town plan on increasing productivity operators to get used to the changes. Town of Cary staff has not dug into time-of-day ridership data for the route to understand ridership performance by and correcting on-time performance in this western day, but like the other systems, it has generally been observed that peak period service, which caters to more discretionary riders, has likely taken the Cary market? biggest hit as a result of the pandemic. TO004-A: Sunday Service – Town staff attributes this route’s success to its varied and distributed land use patterns and a cornucopia of highly transit-supportive points of interest. All Routes, Holiday Hours Route 5: Kildaire Farm Road has displayed a Additional bus stops and associated enhancements will be installed in concert with a Town water main project along the corridor. When complete, this and Extended Paratransit; remarkable resiliency through the pandemic. To will be the Town’s first legacy corridor to boast 100% ADA-compliant bus stops. Staff also noted that productivity on this route may appear slightly lower TO004-B: Increase Midday what does the Town attribute its success? than usual, because the route’s span was recently increased by 30 minutes. Frequencies TO004-A: Sunday Service – The Town’s Route 6 will enter a new development period because the service changes that took place beginning in Q3 of FY 21 amount designation as a How does the Town foresee productivity changing All Routes, Holiday Hours new route. Service changes initiated in Q3 of FY 21 altered the route from directly serving many trip-generating origins and destinations that it has for Route 6: Buck Jones Road after its service and Extended Paratransit; previously served. As a new service, the market will have six (6) quarters to mature, before being measured against the Wake Transit performance Town of Cary changes? What kind of contributing factors are TO004-B: Increase Midday targets. Route 3 will also be kicked back to a developmental period, as its service changes initiated in Q3 of FY 21 cross the established threshold in the impacting its productivity? Frequencies adopted Service Guidelines and Performance Measures. TO004-A: Sunday Service – All Routes, Holiday Hours and Extended Paratransit; The other routes in development periods (1,3, 7, & CAMPO staff and Town of Cary staff discussed the functionality of the Apex-Cary Express existing before the initiation of the Western BRT corridor and TO004-B: Increase Midday ACX) still need some time to mature, but if there are commuter rail service. The Town staff mentioned that while the express service is not getting much traction, through surveying ridership, staff has Frequencies; TO005-H: any questions or concerns, now is the time to discovered that the corridor could be better served (pre-BRT) as a local route. Weston Parkway Route; address said concerns. TO005-BE: Apex-Cary Express 2021 Wake Transit-Funded Bus Services Annual Performance Review – GoTriangle Discussion Disposition Matrix Project Route/Project CAMPO Question Project Sponsor Response/Disposition Sponsor Route 100 was noted on the initial Wake Transit Route Performance Trends Report provided to the TPAC Planning & Prioritization Subcommittee as reverting back to an 18-month developmental period beginning in the 2nd quarter of FY 21. However, further examination of data and discussion with GoTriangle staff revealed that the service changes made to the route in the 2nd quarter of FY 21 did not cross the necessary threshold established in the adopted Service Guidelines and Performance Measures for the route to be kicked back to a developmental period. The performance trends report will be modified to remove Route 100 from a Do the changes to GoTriangle Route 100 in developmental period. Q2 of FY 21 rise to the level of “Significant,” triggering a new development period? Remove the RDU Airport shuttle from the report. It is duplicative with the service metrics reported for Route 100 and should not be portrayed as a completely separate unit of service. What is the relationship between the reporting deliverables as shown in the “Wake Transit – Route Performance Trends” for Route 100 TO005-A: Route GoTriangle’s core routes experienced less impact from the pandemic than the more employment commuter-oriented and peak hour routes because and the RDU Shuttle, and is there duplication 100 Frequency and pandemic/recovery travel patterns have emerged which show more ridership resiliency during weekday midday/evening and weekend services. GoTriangle’s in service metrics being reported between the Sunday Span weekend ridership is very similar to pre-pandemic levels. GoTriangle’s midday and evening service ridership is barely 10% less than pre-pandemic ridership, while two of them? Improvements weekday peak service ridership has declined significantly. It is important to note that Wake Transit tax revenues are supporting enhancements made to off-peak midday and weekend service on Route 100, which GoTriangle staff has stated has maintained its prevailing level of productivity. The Wake Bus Plan Update is Route 100 did not meet its performance scoped to review the resiliency of peak hour commuter services. targets for Boardings per Hour/Trip and Cost per Boarding, both before the pandemic and Another factor contributing to Route 100’s resilience and improved performance is that Route 105, which normally serves much of the same transit travel market at during the recovery. However, recently its Route 100, has not been in operation and continues to be suspended. This reduction in partial duplication of service has allowed Route 100 to attract trips that productivity has improved. Please postulate would likely otherwise be provided on Route 105. This service change, along with the conversion of Route 100 to being a more direct trip between downtown as to why. Raleigh and the Regional Transit Center (RTC), with service to RDU Airport being provided as a shuttle from the RTC, has allowed Route 100 to retain/attract riders, leading to higher productivity. GoTriangle is waiting to determine next steps for the future of Route 105. It is important to note that Route 100 is neither underperforming nor overperforming. The timing of the service changes was not great in terms of having the ability to drive or incentivize ridership while trying to maintain the health and safety of passengers in response to the pandemic. CAMPO & GoTriangle Comments 300 305 310 GoTriangle staff is looking at increasing marketing and TDM efforts when appropriate due to the global pandemic. X X X TO005-B: Route Working with Town of Holly Springs staff to better understand community need and to improve reliability X 300 Improvements; When all-day service begins on Route 305, the service will more adequately and suitably serve the true travel market for that GoTriangle TO005-AC: The productivity of routes 300, 305 and 310 corridor. It has been and is currently very difficult to expand service as a result of an operator labor shortage and the X Improvements to was impacted due to major service changes pandemic. Route 305: Holly and the pandemic. What, if anything, can be Focus marketing and outreach on the all-day markets to better fit with observed ridership trends when appropriate due to the X X X Springs-Apex- done to increase productivity during these pandemic. Raleigh; & TO005- new development periods? GoTriangle staff has stated that the major service change to Route 300 improved slightly with respect to the cost per boarding X: New Route 310: performance target compared to pre-pandemic performance and by almost 50 percent compared to Q1 of FY 21, which was RTC-Cary at the height of the pandemic’s onset. Route 300 functions as a market builder for the upcoming western BRT from downtown X X Raleigh to downtown Cary. Staff recommended studying that interim market, as well as the market between downtown Cary and the Regional Transit Center (for Route 310), more closely during the upcoming update to the Bus Plan, as there are a lot of competing services within the overall corridor. A comprehensive analysis is necessary.