Little Transit - Systems for Any Town: Episode 5

Public transit isn't just for big cities like Salt Lake. We examine the bus networks of Cache Valley, Utah and Great Falls, Montana. We pick apart the key factors that made these systems successful, and we offer some suggestions to improve service and quality of life for riders. (Great Falls's system (pop. ~65,000) is more successful than Boise, Idaho's system (pop. ~340,000)!) Huge thanks to our new (and only) patron Mike Christensen! Mike, we'll give you a shoutout on air next episode. The support is much appreciated. Links and stuffs Merch:https://shop.trlpod.com/ Twitter:@TheRedLine_pod YouTube channel:The Red Line Podcast Spotify:The Red Line Podcast Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/theredlinepodcasters Email:[email protected] Website:https://www.trlpod.com/ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:35 Theme song ♪ 01:04 Cache Valley Transit District (Logan, UT) [1] [2] [3] [20] 02:02 Original service (1992) 02:47 Service expansions (1992-1997); 1 million riders a year 03:32 Merger with Cache Valley Transit District (2007); 2 million riders a year[4] 04:34 Remarkably cost-effective[4] [5] [6] 05:17 What's Cache Valley doing right? 05:23 Frequency & Saturday service[7] 06:04 Service spread out, not hub and spoke[8] 06:37 Did we mention it's free?[9] 08:01 Great Falls Transit District (Great Falls, MT) [19] [21] 08:16 Pretty unchanged since starting in 1982[10] 08:50 Innovative timed transfer system 09:36 They don't have bus stops 09:57 30 min. typical frequency 10:34 Two-seat ride to anywhere 10:52 Ridership growth 11:48 Comparison to Boise's bus system[11] [12] [13] 13:01 Review of what Great Falls does right 13:53 It's colddddddd 14:59 Conclusions? 15:07 No one-size-fits-all solution 15:58 It's not big city transit, but it can still be good 16:43 What we think small cities could improve 16:54 Streetcars![14] [15] [16] 18:14 The government likes paying for streetcars right now 18:46 Trunk rail routes 19:26 Run it like a trolley—no stations! 20:05 Get that 15-minute frequency 21:19 Internet integration, tracking[17] [18] [21] 22:32 Ridership would get better 23:08 Help out tourists; Great Falls airport service 24:41 Recap 24:54 Transit can serve any size town 26:22 Outro References & notes [1] Logan, UT population:52,778 (in 2020) [2] Cache County, UT population:133,154 (in 2020) [3]Cache Valley Transit District: History [4]Federal Transit Administration: Cache Valley Transit District 2019 Annual Agency Profile [5]Federal Transit Administration: Utah Transit Authority 2019 Annual Agency Profile [6] CVTD's service area is about 100,000 (not 150,000); see[4] [7]Cache Valley Transit District: Routes & Schedules [8]CVTD: System Map [9]CVTD: Zero Fare [10] Cache County population growth:Wikipedia: Cache County, Utah § Demographics [11]FTA: Great Falls Transit District 2019 Annual Agency Profile [12]FTA: Valley Regional Transit 2019 Annual Agency Profile [13] More accurately: Great Falls gets a third of the rides with about one sixth the population, compared to Boise (see[11] [12] ) [14]Siemens: Cutting-edge hybrid S700 streetcar is game-changer for Charlotte Area Transit System [15]YouTube: Detroit QLine Streetcar - Battery Powered! [16] Article with a picture of a FrontRunner train's yellow striped snowplow:Deseret News [17]TransitWiki: General Transit Feed Specification [18]Transit App [19]Wikipedia: Great Falls Transit [20]National Transit Database: Cache Valley Transit District [21]Great Falls Transit District website