BRT 101: A quick primer on Saskatoon's future bus rapid transit system

Saskatoon's bus rapid transit (BRT) service isn't expected to launch until June 1, 2025, so people can be forgiven for not being aware of it.

But with an estimated price tag of $120 million a good chunk ofwhich would be shared by the federal and provincial governments the BRT and its details may be worth a refresher.

CBC News spoke with Jim Mcdonald, the director of Saskatoon Transit, and Rob Dudiak, the city's BRT project leader, to get the lowdown.

Here's what you need to know.

Where's it going?

Three new BRT lines will join the current Saskatoon Transit bus map.

The Red Line will start in the Blairmore area on the city's west side, run east along 22nd Street then head downtown before ending southeast into the Briarwood neighbourhood.

The Green Line will also run east-west along 22nd but will begin in Confederation Mall and, after going through downtown, head northeast to the University Heights area.

Some of the 22ndStreet stops on the Red and Green lines will be identical, "so you can imagine that [the frequency of stops there]would go down from 10minutes to five minutes," McDonald said.

A north-south Blue Line will go from Lawson Heights down to the Stonebridge area.

Putting the "rapid" in bus-rapid-transit

Several elements are key to making BRT buses faster and more reliable than the Saskatoon Transit buses running now.

Traffic lights at 90 intersections falling within the future BRT corridor will be upgraded with optical detectors. These will allow for what's called transit signal priority (TSP).

In a nutshell, if a BRT bus is running behind schedule and approaching an intersection facing a green light, the TSP detectors will sense this and extend the green light to allow the bus extra time to get through the intersection and make up time.

At a select number of intersections, a queue-jumping signal will give BRT bus drivers the early, exclusive right to cross an intersection. The signal, flashing above the red light, will appear as a white vertical line on a black background. All other drivers will face red lights.

BRT buses will have lanes to themselves on two stretches of roadway totalling 2.7 kilometres: one on First Avenue, another on College Drive near the University of Saskatchewan.

Buses will share the road with other drivers on the BRT network's remaining 35.3 kilometres.

How rapid are we talking?

The city measures bus service in terms of "headway,"the time between one bus leaving a stop and the next bus' arrival at that stop.

The plan is for the BRT to offer a system-wide headway of 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST and 20 minutes during the rest of the day.

Electronic boards at BRT stops will advise passengers of bus' impending arrivals on a minute-by-minute basis.

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By comparison, some Saskatoon Transit buses currently have a headway of 60 minutes on weekends.

In other parts of the city such as Eighth Street E., Saskatoon Transit has been working to cut the headway downtown to7.5 minutes during peak traffic hours.

Don't take the word "rapid" literally, though, as some people consulted by the city have. BRT buses will still have to follow all speed limits.

Press here for heat

The city will build 85 station platforms for the BRT service featuring bright, well-lit shelters with room for about 10 people.

Passengers waiting in shelterswill be able to press a button for on-demand heat coming from the ceiling.

Public art is expected to be featured at the stations.

What's next

The city is working out the project's detailed design, after city councillors made some key routing decisions earlier this year.

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Construction is expected to begin in 2022, with the full line launching on June 1, 2025.

Questions?

Send them to guy.quenneville@cbc.ca and we'll seek an answer from the city and update the story here!