Unloading Only

2 hours ago, ThomasW97 said:

No, i corrected you, its a fb group, not its an fb group

Actually...

I guess we will start seeing "99 UBC RAPIDBUS" on the headsigns now

So, the "blue ExpressBus" is the new suburban livery, and the "green RapidBus" is the new artic livery?

It will be sad to see the Orions retired, although I imagine the 2009 ones still have quite a bit of time left. Is the idea to replace the 2001 ones with the Nova Suburban / double decker orders that are coming up?

Spotted WVMT 996 going westbound on university blvd with a "special event" / "250 Vancouver" headsign. Also some other "special" WVMT buses at UBC over a weekend recently.

Apparently T-Comm is running in "fallback mode" at the moment, which means request-to-talk is broken and everyone can hear each other. This also appears to be affecting the real-time bus position information, but not as much the real-time stop information.

I imagine this is because they're doing maintenance on their opensky cellular system. I wonder what the backup system is, perhaps plain FM?

Does this mean that the new blue / green livery will generally be seen on any routes that run artics (B-lines, non B-lines, etc..)? I guess we don't know what depots these are going to yet. Also can someone tell them to please stop with these terrible looking colors?

37 minutes ago, buizelbus said:

Confirmed all units in the idiotic green and blue via a email to TransLink.

So this is going to be a real thing then ...

48 minutes ago, Express691 said:

Gonna spark this discussion:

The pipeline explosion in Prince George may or may not have an effect on CNG buses, at least thru tomorrow. 

TransLink, and further public transit, is not considered as an "essential service" which contradicts this claim made on a Global BC article.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4535457/bc-natural-gas-conservation-explosion/
 

Sound Transit has set up an immediate action plan for reduced CNG usage. 
https://m.soundtransit.org/node/19153

I was wondering about that. I guess there's no way there is enough spare diesels to cover for the CNG buses. So, if the gas runs out... we just get a big (temporary) service cut? Also, does this mean every restaurant in Metro Vancouver will be closed?

Fortis says one of the two pipelines is back online now, so hopefully that means no gas shortage, though. See https://www.fortisbc.com/NaturalGas/Alerts/Pages/Service-Alert.aspx

So it looks like translink has approved a private operator to run an express bus between UBC and Surrey. "Surrey B-Shuttle" lol

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-b-shuttle-ubc-express-bus-route

6 hours ago, Ninja Bus Fan said:

Basically ^^ So don’t worry. I did went by HTC earlier and did not see 16120 their tho, but did see 7115 parked in the BO tracks. 

I rode 7115 for the first time a week ago after it ended up back at HTC. Glad I took the chance while I had it. It sounded in quite good shape then, better than most D40LF. According to T-Comm it was last seen at 6:20pm today, so I guess you saw it sometime between then and 7:30?

2 hours ago, Express691 said:

I was not expecting any more D40LF to make it into the wintertime, but that's looking more and more like that will be the case.

You're expecting every one of the D40LF to be retired this year?

2 hours ago, Brando737 said:

As for seniority, I'm not sure how that would be handled in this situation.  I'm sure they would try to accommodate as best they could since this would be forced and not voluntary.

The further rumor information wrt this is that the operators will keep their senority, with numbers maybe assigned based on the date they started employment. "Some of the CMBC guys won't be happy, but they'll deal with it"

Some rumors from the rumor mill:
 

CMBC is going to take over all of WVMT's routes in the next few years, leading to its complete elimination.

The reason why the bus barriers are being installed is because the BC WCB demanded it, even though nobody actually wants them. This is also why all future buses will be delivered with air conditioning.

[citation needed]

10 hours ago, Ninja Bus Fan said:

Earlier this year I got on a VCC Clark train at Metrotown and hearing " This is a Expo Line train to VCC Clark " was strange but cool to hear. I thought it was just a glitch but the train actually went to VCC Clark. It was really weird riding a 6 car MK 1 set on the Millennium Line. 

Was this during one of those "modified service" things for maintainance?

10 hours ago, GORDOOM said:

Expo Line single-tracking on the inbound track between 29th Ave. and Royal Oak, because of broken-down maintenance equipment on the outbound track.

5 hours ago, Unloading Only said:

Interesting... is this from track work last night that they didn't get cleaned up in time?

Looks like the maintenance equipment has been moved to the outbound track between Royal Oak and Metrotown, and the outbound trains are going around it through the pocket track right there. Also, the train I was on announced "This is a Millennium Line train to Production Way-University" at Patterson and Metrotown, which I thought was a bit amusing. I assume this was turned on this morning because of the single tracking, and the incorrect line announcement is an artifact from the old service pattern. And apologies for the double post.

1 hour ago, Express691 said:

In all honesty it shouldn't take long to get into Surrey Central from Vancouver (40 minutes on skytrain each way)

Most of my friends would never understand why I would take an hour 20 minute skytrain ride to see a specific type of bus.

5 hours ago, GORDOOM said:

Expo Line single-tracking on the inbound track between 29th Ave. and Royal Oak, because of broken-down maintenance equipment on the outbound track.

Interesting... is this from track work last night that they didn't get cleaned up in time?

2 hours ago, martin607 said:

They are looking ten years ahead. At the moment there is a heavy political sell for battery buses, so everybody has to appear to be thrilled about the prospect. But as I said above, a lot of the economic case for battery buses is based on optimistic assumptions. Battery prices massively lower, lower purchase costs, absolutely problem-free maintenance etc. Reality may turn out differently. Cost reductions may not be nearly so good as predicted, and productivity problems (e.g. lower range than promised, charging downtime problems etc.) may raise capital and labor costs.

Yeah, the political goal of "zero emissions by 2050" (or something) is really pushing the battery buses right now. Zero means no diesel or CNG at all in the fleet, so that's what the plans are...

4 hours ago, nname said:

https://www.translink.ca/-/media/Documents/about_translink/governance_and_board/council_minutes_and_reports/2018/september/2018_09_21_public_agenda.pdf

From page 30 of this document, seems like it is the current plan.  Trolleys will be replaced with trolley in 2027-28.

Page 7-29 are also an interesting read.

Looking at page 17 of that pdf, trolley buses are way more expensive to buy than any of the other options. Is that just because they have such low production volumes compared with the diesels? The "adjusted" trolley bus metric is also interesting. That seems to imply that trolleybuses typically have a lot more service hours per day than the diesels?

On 9/14/2018 at 1:44 PM, Unloading Only said:

I understand why it's necessary, but it's still a bit sad to see this. The barriers really impede interaction with the driver, and have that feeling of barred windows, or a jail cell.

Thinking about it a bit more, I wonder if any thought has been put into the psychological effects of the driver barriers. I can't imagine it is very pleasant to be trapped behind there all day, and for many drivers I've talked with, interacting with customers is an important part of the job to them. I took a particularly long trip on transit today, and I ended up having two great conversations, neither of which would have happened if the barriers were installed. Is this the end of saying "hello" and "thank you" to the bus driver?

2 hours ago, MCW Metrobus said:

That's because there wasn't. I never said that the bus was actually running the route!  

Really want to see a community shuttle run one trip on the 99 for april fools day

12 minutes ago, Matt Dunlop said:

Not related to this bus order, but are the 2019 deckers going to have driver shields? 

It looks like the plan is for all future orders to have them, so I would suppose so.

On 9/5/2018 at 9:59 PM, Brando737 said:

All current and future bus orders are supposed to have the barriers factory installed.  At least that's the plan. 

All current Xcelsior's will begin to be retrofitted shortly over the span of 6 months to a year.  Trolley's may follow soon if the temperature study hasn't come back as being negative.

I understand why it's necessary, but it's still a bit sad to see this. The barriers really impede interaction with the driver, and have that feeling of barred windows, or a jail cell.