SERVICE STANDARDS

[click here for Operating Statistics]

MISSION STATEMENT
To provide safe and efficient public transit service for the City of St. John's. To ensure that our employees have the support and resources to deliver an affordable. customer- focused service on a cost effective basis. To implement industry-leading technologies in the delivery of innovative service.

METROBUS VISION
We are a team of inspired employees who take pride and ownership in operating an exceptional public transit system. We proudly deliver an excellent choice of travel in our community that exceeds our customers' expectations.

SERVICE OBJECTIVES
Service Area Objectives - to locate transit routes so that 90% of all residences, places of work, and public facilities in the urban transit service area are within a 400 meter walk of a bus stop.

Minimum Frequency of Service - During weekdays and base periods, and during daytime on Saturdays, headways should be 60 minutes or less. During evening periods, Sundays and holidays, headway will be determined by applying a minimum loading standard of 25 % seated capacity per bus. Routes not meeting this standard will not be operated during these periods, and routes meeting this standard will have headways of 60 minutes or less during these periods.

Minimum Hours of Service - to operate the transit service so that passengers boarding a bus between the hours of 7:00 am and 10:00 pm Monday through Saturday can complete the trip within the service area.

PERFORMANCE TARGETS
Loading Targets - during all periods, maximum route section loading should not exceed 150% of seated capacity per bus. During peak and base periods, and on Saturdays, minimum route section loading should not be less than 50% of seated capacity per bus.

Schedule Adherence - during all periods, and at all time points and terminals, no bus should leave early, and 90% or more buses should be "on time", within 3 minutes late. There should be daily monitoring of these policies at main time points along each route.

Safety Standard - to operate the vehicles so that accidents on any route are minimized but do not exceed two accidents per 100,000 km.

Cost Recovery Standards - each transit route should achieve a minimum ridership performance of 30-35 passengers per revenue hour. For all periods, except Sundays, and Holidays, the revenue performance of each route should be 35% or more of total operating cost and the revenue performance of the total system shall be 45% or more of the total operating costs. When routes do not meet this policy, a report outlining restructuring recommendations will be submitted to the Commission for consideration.

PLANNING GUIDELINES
Service Area - a proposed new service area must be situated greater than 450 meters from an existing transit service. For each kilometre of route being considered in a residential area, at least 2,000 people should live in the catchment area of a proposed new route (i.e. live within a 450 meter walk of the routes). New service will be operated between 6:00 am and 9:00 am and between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm on weekdays if full service cannot be justified initially. Full service may be implemented in stages depending on the demand; peak periods first, midday periods second, Saturday third, evening fourth, Sundays fifth.

Revenue Hours Per Capita Target Range 1.0
Present Position: St. John's 1.06, Mount Pearl 0.25

Bus Stop Spacing - along any route the bus stop spacing should be no greater than 300 metres. and stops should be located at least 200 metres apart, except where there are a significant number of major ridership generators.

Bus Shelters - are provided in order to decrease the disincentive to waiting for transit. The primary function is to protect transit patrons from the weather both directly (e.g. rain) and indirectly (e.g. from splashing caused by passing vehicles). Shelters should not be considered at stops where the number of patrons boarding would be less than two (2) patrons per hour or 25 patrons per day.

Bus Shelters Target Range 15%
Present Position St. John's 7%

Bus Bays - the recessed bus stop is usually used on high volume arterial roads having high overall travel speeds, relatively long bus dwell times, and usually moderate to low bus volumes.

Revised February, 2001