InfiNorth

Even with bike lanes, the ferries a very long way out of town.

Can't find any info... what's this about?

Alright, my first off-topic post in the general forum. I'm in charge of maintenance in a sailing co-operative, three boats. Our flagship boat was destroyed yesterday, a boat that I had spent almost six hundred hours restoring up to good condition. Just finished designing and building a new dodger, had replumbed it, deep-cleaned it, got the engine working again, sealed up all the leaky windows and deck fittings, replaced some of the lines, replaced some of the wiring, and I just started a reconditioning of the upholstery in preparation for the summer season where our members usually go out for overnight trips and I wanted the boat to be in good condition. While sewing some patches onto the backside of one of the cushions I got a phone call that the boat had run aground and so severely hit a rock that it was taking on water because of the angular torque put on the keel. Sadly this is a write-off situation, so I now have the distinct displeasure of cutting up a boat that I spent the last year bringing back to life because someone looked away from their navigation instruments for ten seconds too long and didn't look at the depth charts. 'm really choked up right now. Not even angry at the person who crashed the thing - he did a lot of work on the boat too, including the bulk of the engine work - but more sad about the whole situation. I learned pretty much all my keelboat experience on this vessel and she's gone forever because of one screw-up. Worst weekend in the last few years.

Sorry to ask as I always end up asking this... where did you come across this info?

Glad to see the 24/25 taking over the world's dumbest routing along the 11's suburb spin up on Admirals. ack when the 26 was a bit less frequent I made the mistake of once boarding an 11 because it said "UVIC" on it. Man was I in for a nasty surprise. I would love to see 70/72/75 increased year round. I commute on all three (75 usually weekly depending on my on-call locations), and they are always overcrowded. Always. Glad to see that the peninsula routes are being shifted... going to have to check the schedule to see what that means because their previous "adjustments" extended my commute by as much as half an hour at some times.

One of my biggest gripes about the original generation of NextRide was the total lack of planning regarding red "stop requested" indicator lights on the buses. On some buses still, you have to look towards the back doors to see the mid-bus indicator because there is no indicator at the front of the bus - and this doesn't even mention the issue that half the little mickey-moused-in red indicator lights they put in are already burned out/don't work.

Is large screen a low-volume prototype/demonstrator?

I'll be insanely impressed if they get the system into all the networks they plan on installing it on. That is a big list.

"As an example, the system will provide a heat map of what stops are used most, which will assist in future planning for bus shelters and new stops. Operators will see their routing and performance, whether or not they are running according to schedule." This is insanely detailed data. Is any of it going to accessible to the public? I would love to see this data in Victoria, in particular.

Do you know if VHA is getting an LRC and a REN car? They are both extremely unique and bizarre cars for Canadian rails and would be rather important to keep one of each around for preservation.

And also, since I'm a youngster, why this was? Was it to keep the entire (small) REN fleet based out of MTL?

Mainly that private sector cuts corners to maximize profits to shareholders/bonuses for CEOs, underpays employees, and won't serve the communities where it isn't immediately financially profitable (even if the social and environmental benefits are massive). Look at what has happened to BC Ferries over two decades of privatization. Or what happens when the private sector gets to decide to just cut every intercity bus overnight. Or when the private sector can't run a ferry that connects communities any more despite the alternative privately-maintained road is deadly. Or what happened to CN post-privatization. The list goes on. Privatization serves only one purpose: putting profits in the pockets of those who are already wealthy for a quick buck as a short-term win for the government pawning off the assets. BC Rail, CN, BC Ferries, Pacific Stage Lines, the list goes on of examples of why not to privatize. No way on earth you can convince me otherwise, unfortunately. The only example of privatization working that I've witnessed first-hand is BC Parks, and even in that case, only some of the contractors do a good job, the vast majority are typical lowest-bidder leeches. Other than that, Rocky Mountaineer is an exceptional example of how the government likes to just hand off great stuff that proves horribly profitable instead of holding onto something that works and making it work for the benefit of the people instead of for the benefit of some rich idiot's pocket book. Imagine if those profits instead went into public coffers and, say, helped subsidize regular rail services. We need a VIA Rail Canada Act that gives VIA actual power, instead of just giving up and handing VIA Rail to some company whose only motivation to do well is written in dollar figures, not societal wellbeing.

Also gotta love that they're dumping all this money in ahead of pawning off VIA Rail to the lowest bidder.

I'm not going to respond to other areas but the Confederation Line quip was very clearly a joke.

You're telling me that BC Transit couldn't have repositioned a few of their community shuttle-type buses? Those would also be easier to get serviced as an interim measure. This is getting silly. I really can't believe how long it has taken to get a single line (let's be real) transit service up and running. Is this Vancouver Island's small-scale version of the Confederation Line?