J. Hollingsworth

So... DRT has released information surrounding the service related Public Information Centres. The point is to guide the next 5 Year Service Strategy titled "The Route Ahead" The documents provided by DRT do not share many details about specifics, other than a map, some guiding principals and some service standards... but, that wont stop me from trying to interpret it here. It's worth noting, OnDemand isn't going anywhere... I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing depending on where it is or how it is used, but it is staying in areas that just simply can't financially support routes. Major stuff PULSE network expansion, (10 Years outlook) - 900 extended to Central Oshawa GO, - 901 extended to Windfield Farms (Development is booming up there) - 902 will be added to the PULSE network, same service pattern by the looks of it with frequent service between Oshawa Centre/Thornton Corners and Trulls, and 30 minute service between Thornton Corners and Bowmanville. - 915 and 916 will simply be converted to PULSE (much like the 901 was) with 15 minute service on weekends as well. Late Night Service and 24 Hour service Correct me if I'm wrong, but would DRT be the first system in Canada for a municipality of its size and a system of its ridership to implement 24 hour service? - It mentions talks of adding trips to the 900 and 901, and making OnDemand available until at least the last GO train throughout the urbanized areas of the region, not sure where the 24 hour service comes in, but we will see. - The 905 will have new trips later into the night, but no specifics. I assume this will be on the 905B to Port Perry and Uxbridge as this is detailed in the "rural" subheading - Rural OnDemand service span will be increased to match that of the 905. Other stuff Peak = 30 minutes or better in Peak only Local = 30 minutes Grid = 30 minutes or better 7 days per week, Frequent = 15 minutes or better 7 days per week The map DRT attached sucks and is really cluttered, no route numbers and lines of the same colour overlapping, (someone try to work out Bowmanville, thats my challenge to everyone) Things I can decipher, theres some route resurrections proposed over the next 4 years... Pickering 101 looks unchanged, but with local all day service 110B looks to form its old routing but on its own local route, New local service to current seaton developments along the currently unbuilt Rossland Road Extension north to Taunton and Burkholder Drive. Ajax New local service (211 presumably) from Pickering Parkway Terminal to Ajax GO via Pickering Parkway, Kingston, Church, Delany, Ravenscroft, and Westney. New peak route (219 presumably) from Ajax GO to Westney and Williamson via Westney, Ravenscroft, Williamson, Westney, Rossland, Ravenscroft. New local (circular?) route (217 or 226?) from Ajax GO that covers parts of the former 226 and 217 routes, including Lake Driveway, Westney South, and Clements Road. New peak route (215? presumably) from Ajax GO to Audley and Williamson via Salem. 291 looks to be classified as a local route, but I doubt its getting anything above hourly service. New local service (223 probably) its the old routing of the 223c, but running all day. Whitby 303, and the 308 looks to be coming back relatively unchanged New peak route (315 I assume) from Whitby GO serving areas included in the West Whitby Secondary Plan, Brock Street, Burns, Annes, Dundas, Des Newman, Rossland, Coronation, Taunton, Country Lane, Rossland, back to Whitby GO. New local route (312) from Thornton Corners East GO to West Whitby via Thornton, King/Dundas, Kendalwood, Nichol, Glen Hill, Dundas, McQuay... that it, where it goes beyond there isn't on the map, but as per the Ridership Recover Framework Phase 2, along rossland to Cochrane, then Bonacord back to McQuay Boulevard. New local 304 service from Whitby GO, along Burns, and Anderson into Brooklin, then Winchester, Cachet, Carnwith, Baldwin and Winchester back to Anderson and Whitby GO. This makes the 304 the Brooklin Local bus instead of the 302. The 302 in brooklin will now serve Baldwin, Vipond, Ashburn, Carnwith, Thickson, Winchester east to Simcoe and will loop at Windfield Farms, connecting to the 901 PULSE Simcoe. The 905 is unchanged in Whitby, but changes in Oshawa will be located below. Oshawa Some routes are back! all have some major changes, including changes to reflect the LSE GO Bowmanville Extension. New Local service (412) from Thronton Corners GO to Oshawa Central GO via Thornton Road, Adelaide, Fleetwood, Margate, Townline, Olive, Ritson and First. New Local service (411) from Thronton Corners GO to Trulls and Highway 2 via Laval, Stevenson, Gibb, Park, Hillside, Cuber, Bloor, Grandview, Townline, Gord Vinson, Meadowglade, Prestonvale, Glen Abbey, Sandringham, Trulls, Avondale, Sandringham, Courtice Road, George Reynolds, Nash, Trulls and return somehow. 403 looks unchanged, but loops at Thornton Corners GO via Gibb, Stevenson and Laval. 410 Extension from Coldstream to Conlin then Harmony down, 905A reroute Simcoe, Britannia West, Windfield Farms, Bridle, Britannia East, Harmony, to Harmony Terminal, New Local service from Durham College to Harmony terminal (417 probably) using Simcoe, Conlin, Harmony. Bowamnville... nope. Heres the map. remember, its all going to PICs' meaning, changes will likely take place once details are finalized, below the map is also a link to the presentation boards. https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/routes-and-schedules/resources/PICs-2021/RecoveryPlanPIC2021_Final_V2.pdf

I was pretty sure it was 6 total in Rush hour but I may be confusing the 3rd Whitby bus with the Whitby unit that’s a RAD in Peak at the OC

In peak the 302 uses 5 buses The 905 uses 6 and the 917 uses 3 Whitby buses. They’ve still got plenty of vehicles laying around to meet demand and a healthy spare ratio

Yes. It makes sense, they have the least fleet requirements, and lots of extra units laying around, hence the 89xx’s and 2008s retiring there. There are still a few active 2007 units and still plenty of 2008’s active

I’ve noticed dwell times at stations seems to be a little bit longer with 6 and 8 car trains compared to 12s, I assume that’s due to the quicker acceleration of the smaller trains.

All the time. Just like the novas

so... yeah. 2008 D40LF buses are now retiring 8450,8457 and 8458 are all up for sale on GovDeals.

Trent and Ontario Tech/DC do not pay a single penny towards DRT’s operations of any route serving the campus. A significant stream of revenue for DRT is the UPass agreement, but there’s no promise of any type of service from that agreement. If you re-read my post, it says that if they’re to bring back the 910 it would be through an extension of the the 917. However, at this time, there is no plan for any returned service along Thornton. There is also no plan for any extension of the 917. this is all based on DRT’s ridership recovery framework, and information from the TEC and TAC committee meetings and agendas. DRT has made it clear, we are never returning to the old network and that all new additions will be planned with this network in mind. In April they are launching service related Public Information Centres that Will likely indicate DRT’s plan for September 2021 service changes and the service forecast for 2022 Other item to note, 8975-8980 have all now been retired and ones that haven’t already are in the process of being auctioned off. 8981 and 8436 are retained as Pandemic Mobile clinics

That doesn’t mean DRT is planning more routes, the 901 and 905 offer the connections from the OC, and Whitby GO, the 304 could return as per DRT’s plans, that’s still decent connectivity, if the 910 came back in its routing, it would be an extension of the 917.

DRT as of right now has no plans to bring back the 910, it’s better served by the Simcoe Corridor anyway, the 910 used to run down Simcoe to Rossland previously and now with the B, in the future I’d like to see a new 417 service that would operate from the OC to Harmony Terminal DC using Thornton and Collins Road the 417 prepandemic was one of the highest ridership weekday routes

Is 164 still around?

For me, OnDemand has been reactively intuitive, sometimes pickup times are a bit earlier than it says, suddenly you’ll get a notification that the driver is arriving, it does have to be booked on the same day, but that can be as early as midnight, Most zones are Pickup, then take you too a terminal, in Ajax, I think all zones take you to the GO Stations, they now have individual OnDemand Zone maps that show each zone, all the pickup stops, and all the places it will bring you, here’s a link to that: https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/about-us/our-services-tiles.aspx#On-Demand-maps---current Overall, as long as you use the app and you ensure you’re at the bus stop on time, you should have a good experience! Also, at least for now, Contractor cabs (Sedans and Minivans) dont have presto equipment and that results in a free ride.

UPDATE: Turns out Hudson Transportation is a not who I thought it was, It is actually the company that owns Circle Taxi in Whitby, they (according to their website) have experience operating a large fleet that can be branded for the needs of any service provider... lets see if that's true, they'll begin operations in just two weeks.

Region of Durham Awarded the 11+3 month contract for OnDemand co-operation to Whitby company “Hudson Transportation Inc.” for a cost of $1,147,806.72 in the past they’ve seemed to be involved heavily with software, but also charter, shuttle and airport bus, sedan and van services. might work out being better than the current service and vehicles than what is currently offered by Coventry.

https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/about-us/our-services-tiles.aspx#Individual-route-maps---effective-April-5 the schedules are here

I’m aware, it moved back two days ago

All 2006 and nearly all 2007 D40Lfs are retired. 8466 has returned to Westney after spending more than a year at Raleigh. This move leaves Raleigh with no more 84xx D40Lfs.

I will drop this here, I’m not an Oakville expert, but I did see this on bid&tenders, an RFI for 25’ and 30’ electrics for “specialize and Demand service” and the charging equipment. https://oakville.bidsandtenders.ca/Module/Tenders/en/Tender/Detail/a03b2b65-4081-4ece-b37f-9109c6951508 Currently that is the only active tender out for an RFI for electrics

I confirmed with DRT the current buses on order including these ones 6117-6119 are three growth buses sent to DRT and are fully funded by insurance claims due to the fires that had happened in 2019 and 2020, included is 8563 which is unknown it’s status, but is still on DRT property. The three new buses are headed to Westney 8 Growth 40’ PULSE buses are coming as part of the ICIP project for the Simcoe street rapid transit corridor 6 Replacement 40’ PULSE buses are part of 13 replacements over 3 years. These are meant to allow conversion of the 8600s to conventional service to accumulate less miles. lastly, 2 Artics are coming (9106-7) that are growth vehicles for the 900. That means before conversion, the PULSE fleet will have 52 buses in it, enough to theoretically run Highway 2, Simcoe and Taunton, if they wanted to, (but they’re not) 6117-6119 are pending delivery in the next 1 or 2 weeks, all of the rest are coming in May-July

Interesting, I’ll have to look back at some reports to try and determine how many are coming, all I was aware that was on order as of July 2020 was 8 Growth PULSE 40’ 5 Replacement PULSE 40’ and 2 Growth PULSE 60’ maybe the 5 PULSE replacements got turned into 5 Conventional replacements

Looks like DRT is looking for their long term service provider for the roughly 70% of OnDemand service that is contracted out. Currently three service providers operate in Durham Region aside from DRT themselves, - Durham Rapid Taxi (Rapid Taxi and Blueline) - Circle Taxi - Island Taxi (for north Durham) This looks to ideally change that, the current temporary contract is rather limiting on what control DRT has on the operators, the vehicles and how many are provided. With the new contract, DRT has control over some of these things, some items specifically mentioned include affixing payment technology inside the vehicle, affixing DRT branding to the sides of the vehicles, and allowing DRT to set the service and minimum vehicle levels. This includes also that a range of shuttle buses, Vans, Mini Vans, SUVs and Sedans can be used and that at least 10% must be wheelchair accessible. interested bidders include a couple notable ones, Voyago - Operates transit in St. Thomas - London and some other areas, Driverseat - Currently provides service in Owen Sound and is predominantly airport shuttles Via Transportation - Provides Vehicle for Hire services in other cities in the US such as Chicago, New York and Washington interestingly Pacific Western has also expressed interest in this contract, not sure to what extent, contractors are also allowed to subcontract out the work as long as all responsibilities are met. the contract is for Late March to February 28, 2022 and has three 1 month extensions as an option. included is also an attachment with OnDemand ridership averages in the highest period of ridership and provides a forecast for ridership until the end of the contract. https://durham.bidsandtenders.ca/Module/Tenders/en/Document/Download/5f061a57-2e13-4cbb-85fb-739f890c2428?Ignore=True

Well considering 3100-3249 is only 150, let’s see what the next 100 are

It appears some 2010 D60LFR buses have been converted to MiLocal service, an expensive repaint considering MiWay doesn’t seem to care where express and local buses end up

It’s all available publicly on the Region of Durham’s website under the council and committee calendar, DRT even tweets out the link for the agenda on their Twitter, but it’s up on the regions website the Friday before each meeting here’s the link to the agenda and all the reports https://calendar.durham.ca/meetings/Detail/2021-02-03-1330-Transit-Executive-Committee-Meeting/cc63e3ef-c589-4c40-8427-acbf00f72032 Updated: sorry there’s the agenda you were directly referencing, the first one is from February, Here’s January TEC https://calendar.durham.ca/meetings/Detail/2021-01-06-1330-Transit-Executive-Committee-Meeting/fadad630-7ee3-430c-8dbb-aca000c2188c and January Works https://calendar.durham.ca/meetings/Detail/2021-01-06-0930-Works-Committee-Meeting/88c970f0-5de3-49e3-aa93-acb10103d307

Some 2007 New Flyer D40LF’s have begun retirement 8440 and 8444 are up on GovDeals