Maintaining Bus Stops is one of the ongoing expenses that transit districts must keep up with. There are several pieces that make up the maintenance of bus stops. The most
obvious are the workers in the field, then there are the people supporting and managing them in the office. Field Workers:
Some districts use their own staff, while others rely on staff from the local governments. There are advantages to both, depending on the size of the district and the number and location of the bus stops. Field workers need a complete set of tools available to do the work required, whether it is cleaning up around the stop, or installing a new sign and pole. Depending on exactly what the workers do, the number and type of available tools needed varies a lot.
Example list of tools that might be handy to have:
- Transportation, usually in the form of a light truck.
- Ladder
- Hand Tools such as wrenches (spanners).
- Brooms
- Some form of small crane or boom for moving benches & trash cans.
- Coring Machine (can be handy for cutting through concrete to put up a new pole).
- Paint & Brushes/Rollers/Spray Guns (useful for putting in Red Curb or for covering over Graffiti).
- Cleaning Supplies
If a district is large enough there might be several crews who each do specialized duties. Example, one crew might be responsible for collecting garbage from the trash cans while another might
be responsible for removing graffiti. Office Staff: These are the people who decide where to place the bus stops, and who respond to complaints from the public about bus stops. They
normally generate the work orders for changes, repairs, etc. to bus stops that are sent to the field workers to do. They also normally handle all the paperwork for ordering new signs, benches, etc.
The office staff frequently works closely with the scheduling and planning staff so that stop that need to be changed because of various routing changes can be made as smoothly as possible. They are
also the ones who contact the local jurisdictions and property owners when stops are going to be added. They often times also maintain lists for such programs as "Adopt-A-Stop", or other agreements
about the bus stops such as advertising shelters or trash cans. One thing that can be very useful to both the field workers and the office workers, is a good knowledge of where the bus stops are located,
and what facilities are supposed to be located at each stop. This is becoming more important as more systems are installing automated public information systems and new radio systems that can track
where the buses are (AVL Systems). It is vital if you are going to use most forms of Automatic Passenger Counters (APCs) to track ridership. This can be done in the form of maps, or in the form
of some sort of database. Both have their uses for the people who need information about the bus tops. More on bus stop inventories can be found here. |
