Soooo.
How did they make it popular? The article never really answers the subject.
Did they make the seats more comfortable? Set up a better pattern of routes somehow? Better environmental controls inside, less noisy inside? Let it go further out in to more rural areas?
Personally, making it easier to know the schedule/more predicable... doesn't do much. On google maps, I can get the schedule of any buses near where I am. I can get that on my phone from the website for the transportation org. Always could.