Small Improvements: Metro Buses Announce Stops Served by Rail Lines

This past Sunday I was out and about, riding Metro’s line 20 westbound on Wilshire from the Westlake/MacArthur Park District and was startled as we approached Wilshire/Vermont that besides the usual verbal announcement for the stop a different deep bass voice interrupted to state “Connection to the Red and Purple Lines”. Continuing on at Normandie and also Western the same voice announced “Connection to the Purple Line”

This was the day service changes went into effect and I remembered Metro has said one of the key themes it is working to implement is connectivity and a focus on customer service as per the FY13 budget parameters

I was curious if this is isolated to the Wilshire District or includes the entire Metro Rail System and the Orange Line. Bruce Shelburne, Interim Executive Director for Rail Operations at Metro, in response to a query,informs me: “As part of the new system schedule changes, modifications are being made to the bus stop announcements to provide rail connections at the appropriate locations. Some of the bus stop locations do not necessarily match the names of the stations. Hopefully, this will help our passengers. This is system-wide for the rail stations. The Orange Line was not included for the June changes, but will be when the December changes go into effect.”

Shelburne credits Stephen Tu, a Transportation Planner in Operations Service Planning & Scheduling, as the driving force behind this change. Tu in turn credit’s Al Martinez (Supervising Engineer, Operations) and Martinez’s Advanced Transportation Management System staff for making all of the Automatic Voice Annunciator modifications that made this possible.

It was a good idea and Metro deserves some kudos for doing it.