Large Cat

I like deckers. I like sandwiches. Double decker sandwiches....

So to get things straight, all 100 of these cars will be acquired independently of the Broadway extension? There will be more cars coming when the Millenium Line gets longer, on top of these? If so, awesome. If not, nawesome.

But adding weekend service with the same span and less peak trippers shouldn't require additional artics...could it be manpower? I'm heartily waiting for my Duffin's Donuts express to be born.

Can anyone explain to me the difference between "Fleet Overhaul Watch" and "Translink Refurbishments"? Since we all expect each other to stay on topic it would be nice to know.

Shaping up to be a fun year. Electric bus trials, new cng buses in Surrey, hopefully a full B-Line on 41st by January or April. Maybe they'll start construction on the Broadway extension too before the end of the school year. I would love to see future 40 foot diesel/hybrid/cng orders go 100% to battery buses.

I actually don't think 2 lanes of car traffic would be too little, and I think a reduction in those lanes wouldn't be catastrophic, just like it won't be for traffic in Surrey (the potential for train on car collisions being a different story). I agree that separated lanes could be worked out very nicely with the median supports, and I wish this were done on North Road for the Evergreen opening. That said, having strategic bus lanes PLUS a full separated cycle track all the way down Broadway would be better than just one or the other. The reason for using 9th, and then cutting across underground to 10th and Sasamat, is that the most strategic location for a station at the Jericho Lands development is at roughly Broadway (9th) and Crown. Having a station there vs. just at Alma would lead to mode switches for hundreds, even thousands of new residents at the two development sites. 5 minute walk vs 15 minute walk up a hill makes a big difference.

Good point. That IS weird. Why has Bombardier been so awesome for us and not for TTC?

I would also love it if the Broadway Extension to UBC were completely elevated, given that I don't think Skytrain even has a bad effect on the aesthetics of streets/neighbourhoods generally, and given the awesomeness of the view from a lot of the current stretches of track, a view that warrants the "Skytrain" brand name itself. If it cost less too, that would be an added bonus. But there are a few things to consider: -The Millenium Line currently ends at the level of the Grandview Cut, which is as low as you can go in Vancouver, and the elevation rises steeply between Emily Carr and Main and Broadway, too steeply for the elevated tracks to slope up to probably. And the elevation rises again once you pass Alma, whether they take the 10th alignment or the Jericho Lands alignment. These would be difficult to do elevated. -The original Expo line was mostly built along an interurban corridor, which left a lot of space for guideway construction along the whole route, and the Millenium line was (mostly) built through industrial land along railroad tracks or in underdeveloped areas next to Lougheed Highway (excepting Brentwood area where it runs down the centre of Lougheed). But building elevated along Broadway until Alma would result universally in reallocation of road space and/or sidewalk space for everyone. It would be akin to building Skytrain elevated down Georgia downtown, in that it's a totally built up and saturated area already. Even if the public accepted this it would be more ideal to save the road space for additional uses (widening sidewalks, separated bike lanes, bus lanes, or just for car traffic), as Translink is planning to do on Broadway once the extension is complete. That said, it's pretty clear the eventual UBC portion will be elevated or at grade on the medium of University Boulevard. The Jericho lands portion will probably have to be tunnelled even if they could close 9th to vehicle traffic to build a guideway there, since the trains can't climb steeply enough before the Jericho Lands station location (likely need escalator/elevator supplements) and will need to continue a gradual climb from there to get high enough for the Sasamat station location. After that the elevation should be equal enough to raise the train up onto a guideway going into the UEL. Overall it seems mostly to be geographical parameters, as well as a desire to use highly developed space to its maximum array of uses, that motivated the tunnelling conclusion. If aesthetic reasons were the only factor, who knows what sort of choices they might have been pushed to... (cough Surrey :0)

I tend to agree. Really the only legitimate reason I prefer the Xcelsiors right now is because of the air conditioning, the rest being a preference for the appearance, and minor things like the lower front door step height. It's also good to seriously consider buses from both companies, just to keep the other one on its toes to do better. Otherwise you might end up with a fiasco a la Toronto's Bombardier streetcars....

Wow, this is great news. I thought Vicinity was the only low floor / ramp-equipped shuttle bus available so far. Looking forward to seeing these in service! They have air conditioning, right?

Similar requests for novabus N17 trips on Fridays/Saturdayshave been denied...

What I meant was, the 49 seems to be receiving a really big service increase. Given that Novas are already seen on the 49 out of VTC from time to time, even with 25 dedicated XDE60'S, will transferring all 25 to Richmond even be enough to cover all of the new service with artics as well? If not, where will the additional artics come from? If we can't answer these questions we might have to assume there will be 40 footers on the route.

49 goes to 5-6 minutes all day...do you know the times when this begins/ends? I'm assuming it won't be like that until midnight, but even midday hours that would be pretty phenomenal, basically doubling the frequency. Would really help post-pm peak as well, since service can still be really inconsistent up until 9 or 10pm. Also wondering if Richmond will be operating with 40 footers on the route as well given this increase.

Things I want to see in these buses: -no more straight diesels, except for PTC-bound Burnaby Mountain artics if those are included. The XD40's have really bad reviews from drivers on top of being worse for the environment and louder than the XDE and XN's. Did they just buy the Richmond XD40's to try them out? If so, they have their answer for future orders. -fast kneeler/ramp switches (no delays before lowering, etc) -air conditioning, although it seems like a given at this point. -rapid mode controls for all of the 40 footers (and retrofit all the others! we need all door boarding ffs!) -keep using push bar rear doors -more control for the driver over the electric front door's involuntary 'reset' motions (a safety problem introduced with the Xcelsiors) Other than that, I actually couldn't care less which company wins the bids. It would be cool in a way to still have a diversified fleet, although on the other hand I do sort of like the idea of a full set of different Xcelsior variants doing everything, but in the end it's not that important. The paint scheme we have is good enough to make the fleet look uniform and attractive once the older paint scheme buses are retired. (sorry, the Orions' paint scheme just looks hideous to me. And I won't cry when buses like B8010 are retired :)).

Too bad about the slow ramp. But, can we agree it's better than on a high floor shuttle where the driver has to exit and supervise the external side-ramp for at least 5 minutes? The ramp will look a lot less problematic on routes where the Yaxing isn't replacing an already low-floor bus. Which isn't to say it shouldn't be faster.