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Bus layovers at TriMet's Beaverton TC

With increases in service, there has been issues at Beaverton Transit Center with operators not being able to find an open spot to park their bus and take a break. Each line used to have their own assigned bays, but TriMet switched to having 2 designated pick-up spots and the rest be layovers shared among all routes that use the stop in that direction. Extra service buses have to be sent somewhere else during peak periods, and it even led to the revelation that a bus had been abandoned for 24 hours after an operator failed to ensure that their relief was there.

TriMet releases underlying schedule data (stop 1, stop 2) and I searched for a way to chart time periods, finding Google Charts Timelines.

Notes:

The charts assume every bus arrives and leaves the layover area exactly on schedule (operators are allowed to arrive at transit centers up to 3 minutes early). TriMet could reduce the amount of spaces needed (and buses needed per day) by instituting fallback scheduling, which MAX utilizes. A later starting operator (#1) would not start at the garage with their own bus, but instead start at the transit center by taking over an arriving bus and letting that operator (#2) go to break (buses don't need breaks like people do). When #2 is done with their break, they would take over an incoming (third) operator's bus, and the cycle would repeat until #1 is back at the transit center and done for the day. A downside is that there would need to be more active management during disruptions, whether a single operator not making it back or severe delays affecting many buses.

By line group:

Upper: buses using outer, counter-clockwise direction (Lines 52, 53, 76, 78, 88); Lower: buses using inner, clockwise direction (Lines 20, 54, 57, 58, 61)

Using Google's default (random) colors

One color per line (52, 53, 76, 78, 88, 20, 54, 57, 58):

By Line:

By minute of day:

Bar graph possibly coming soon


By Jason McHuff, rctmail@jasonmchuff.net