Large Cat

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.

Loving the changes. The 100 and the 41 really need help, lol. The evening 43 is long overdue. Glad Surrey's getting lots of attention. Still can't figure out why that one stop on the 145 didn't have ADB for so long. What could the reason possibly have been? I tried so hard to find an answer but nobody had one. At least it's being fixed now.

The masses rejoice!

Don't make me salivate. Imagine VTC with only air conditioned XD40's and BAE's.

As of September VTC will operate the 32. Believable or not, that seems to be what they use. They'll have to downsize soon though if they end up losing part of the lot.

If these buses really have push bars, they will likely be just as good for both drivers and passengers as Xcelsiors. To be perfect, the bus must have the following features: -air conditioning -a good rear seating layout (side facing seats with lots of standing room) -push bar rear doors (that close in a reasonable amount of time--HEV's have been terrible at this) -logical windshield wiper controls, unlike basically all New Flyers (previous Novas were already good at this) -decent acceleration despite being hybrid (so far XDE's have been much better at this than Nova HEV's)--this one remains to be seen Are we at this point yet? Have the people ordering buses learned? We'll see. In 2019, where will we be seeing these buses? -2, 15/50, 22, 25, 32, 33, 84 -trolley dieselizations -possibly 26, 27, 28, 29 if they go to VTC/Silvertree (unlikely) -41 will be trolley Slightly off topic, but I'm really hoping the 25 and 84 will see artic service at some point in the nearish future. In that case, the need for non-trolleys at VTC would dwindle to just the 2, 15/50, 22, 32, and 33.

Can anyone tell if it has push-bar rear doors? Not entirely clear from the photo.

I don't know, but I've sent in complaints about it, and I've gotten an answer back saying that "the system on that train was inspected and it was discovered to be working according to specifications". No other explanation for the suffering. I can interpret that in two ways: 1) the A/C system is actually already more powerful, but they are intentionally not running it on a cool enough setting. 2) the A/C system was designed to work to the current operating specification (as a maximum) and cannot be made any cooler by changing settings. And now with this announcement, it is revealed that the best interpretation is probably the latter. That actually makes me somewhat less angry, because the terrible temperature/humidity in the trains is due to a single past decision, rather than a constantly recurring sin of negligence. But I'm glad it's something they'll address with new orders.

From a few specific instances I've seen over recent month-long periods, these signs are now being put in place when it is discovered that an error was made on a sign already put up, but the sign shop doesn't have time to print a correct one by the next day. They may be used for other things too, but that is the only occasion I've seen them so far.

I was really hoping they would go with Charcoal for all new buses. Maybe it's just how hideous the current suburban livery is, but I really prefer having a consistent paint scheme across the fleet. We've been getting so close, but now new orders may screw it up. Maybe though the new suburban livery will be close enough to Charcoal to satisfy me.😏

New Nightbus hub at Granville and Georgia (see details on Service Changes page) Basically, all outbound nightbuses are now stopping at Granville and Georgia, either WB (N9, N10, N17, N24) or EB (N8, N15, N19, N20, N22, N35, plus the inbound N24 Downtown). Here is an updated list of downtown termini for each nightbus. New termini are in bold; the other routes have the same terminus but an added stop and slightly modified routing. -- N8: WB Pender NS Howe N9: NB Seymour NS Dunsmuir (outbound routing of N9, N10, N17 is now via Seymour, Pender, Granville, Georgia, Howe--should lead to some interesting right turns onto Georgia, esp. when artics are involved ) N10: NB Seymour NS Dunsmuir N15: SB Howe NS Dunsmuir N17: NB Seymour NS Dunsmuir N19: SB Howe NS Dunsmuir N20: SB Howe NS Dunsmuir N22: EB Georgia NS Granville (this driver will be fielding a lot of questions LOL) N24: SB Howe NS Dunsmuir N35: WB Pender NS Howe -- Nowhere on the website is it mentioned that none of the nightbuses will stop at Granville and Georgia on inbound trips (except the N24 Downtown as before). People now have to walk a few blocks upon disembarking in some cases. For example, when transferring from the N9 Downtown, N10 Downtown, or N17 Downtown to any of the other nightbuses, one has to walk at least 2 blocks from Seymour and Dunsmuir to either Howe and Dunsmuir or Granville and Georgia. But this is the worst case, and it could largely be resolved by adding a stop at NB Seymour NS Georgia, now that Telus Garden is basically finished--they just have to move the wires over for the trolleys, with construction starting soon on the other side of the street for the new tower. I can also see N24 riders waiting on the wrong side, similar to inexperienced 240, 246, etc. riders during the day--there should really be an extra note on the EB stop informing/reminding riders that they need to cross the street for the N24 to North Van). Overall this change is a great decision and will absolutely make things easier for the majority of nightbus riders.