Large Cat

I for one am happy about this. They'll be able to extend the 96 to White Rock, get traffic priority measures in place (the most important element for any improvement), and build out the Skytrain.

What I'm wondering is how soon the D(E)60LFR's and the other XDE60's are going to be repainted. If they do this rebranding they'd better do it right and not have half the buses in the old colours for another 8 years. I also hope we don't end up seeing these booked out on non-B-Lines, as that would entirely defeat the point. The point with branding is to be consistent and not allow for a huge ugly lag.

As long as we don't see any "B-Line to Oak"s...I can accept this.

Oh yes, yes it most certainly can.

I might have posted this list before, but: 1. "Nova neck" -- the driver's seat is too far forward of the front door, so greeting passengers is ergonomically difficult 2. The T-Drive Novas have extremely jerky transmission. Not true of the non T-Drive diesels, though. 3. The HEVs are really slow accelerating, especially on hills and with full passenger loads. 4. Subjectively: Novas are ugly. Those are the intrinsic sucky factors according to me. From a passenger perspective, Novas are generally pleasant to ride, and the wide front door area can be helpful for stroller/scooter users. There are issues with the current Nova stock's rear doors opening/closing extremely slowly, and with the crappiness of the rear door sensors, but these issues are not intrinsic to Novabuses. The non T-drive Nova diesels with push bar rear doors don't seem to have this issue at all. The greatest positive about Novas is the superior windshield wiper control location compared to New Flyers.

The order wasn't rejected?

They'd better follow this up with real Olympic-level traffic priority measures or the rebranding will be a complete flop.

Did they seriously order T-Drives? Anyway, nice photos. Thanks.

They should approve a "West Van 8-Shuttle" too. (And drop the 258)

Agree. The snake of death.

Or the N13 - Newton Exchange > Langley Centre via Surrey Central

THIS is fantastic. Still some dark blue/charcoal so that it matches the rest of the fleet, but with a speedy orange that solidifies the B-Line branding begun on Translink's system maps and ID posts.

Nightbuses that often get full with passups leaving downtown (on Fridays and Saturdays at least): N17, N19, N20 When BTC tags N17's on the end of Nova blocks, there are definitely passups. Even worse if a Nova is on an N19 (or one of Surrey's D40LF's). Nightbuses that are well used but don't usually get crush load full, except e.g. on Fireworks, New Year's Eve, Halloween, etc.: N8, N9 (although it does often use artics), N10, N24, N35 (almost always artic service) Nightbuses that are really quite underused, often even on weekends: N15, N22 Please correct this list if it's inaccurate.

They're also adding 3 artics from West Van, although they'll have to run all of the 257's as well now too, including the service increases. That said, it will be a godsend for ferry passengers for BTC to be doing all-artic service on the 257. It has really been a travesty to have 40-footers on the route at all.