SirAndrew710

Yep. I’ve PM’d my e-mail address to you.

Do you have one for one of the feeders?

I thought it was going to be numbered 199? Also, 610s for codes? Are 600s already used for something? I know there are a few oddballs out there (i.e. 300s-390s for RT Phase 1, 910s, 920s and presumably 930s for the Spirits).

Spotted 401 headed eastbound on Grant this morning. I only saw it from the side and rear, but I noticed it, too, has an orange sign (at least at the rear).

311 died while headed westbound on Grant shortly before 11:00 this morning (66-12, headed to Unicity). As we were at around Grant Park, I noticed the driver radioing Control about something, then when we hit Cambridge, he kicked us all off, saying the engine had overheated. He didn’t get a tradeoff and everyone who had been on board was forced to take the Polo Park that came fifteen minutes later. Fortunately, as I normally take the Unicity bus to the end of the route and switch buses, I was able to make it home alright.

Forgot to mention Route 91. Right now, it’s a 30-foot route exclusively, but that’s probably because right now, that bus does the 91 for 4 hours and then the 109 dial-a-ride bus for another three. I don’t see why that route couldn’t get 40-footers if they’re getting rid of the 109 and replacing it with extended hours on the 91, though looking at Google Street View imagery of the area, I’m not sure how 40-foot buses would be able to make that turnaround behind Sobeys.

Of course, at times, dispatch could do a much better job of making sure only certain buses do certain work at certain times. Just on Monday, I saw a 400 on an all-day 21 and I saw a Calgary bus doing an all-day 11 on a Sunday a while back. On the other hand, I’ve noticed that there are some weekday runs (29-12, 66-1 and 83-3 among them) that get 2010-2013 LFRs or XD40s almost exclusively, if not exclusively, and I haven’t seen or ridden a 40-footer of any model on an all-day 36 this change.

I wonder what sort of vehicles the feeders will use. Would any of them get small buses? The only current D30LF route that’s being replaced is the 94, but seeing as they’re using the XD60s for the BLUE line and you’ve mentioned that they plan to use the new 400s for the feeders, would they use 19- and 24-year-old buses, even if they’re smaller, on these routes if everything else is a year or less old?

A few observations: - 1.) The “changed routes” section includes the 74 and the 91, though looking at those maps, I don’t see any changes to the routes themselves. Why did they include them? Probably because of the schedule changes? - 2.) I noticed that the schedule on the Route 68 map includes Saturday hours, even though cuts to Saturday service on that route have been proposed. So, what’s going on there? - 3.) I notice the model bus in those photos is 391. I wonder if that gives us an impression as to which bus will work the first run.

With the 1996 D30LFs past their time and almost gone anyway, the 2001 D30LFs also getting old (in fact, once 914, 921, 922 and the remaining 400s are gone, they will be the oldest first-hand buses in the fleet) and a need for small buses on the DARTs and some feeders, I wonder if buying Enviro200s would be an option, seeing as NFI now owns ADL.

I just did some math on the 83. With Saturday service starting at 11 AM rather than 8 AM, that’s 5 runs from Unicity to Strauss (13.51 km) removed. 13.51 km * 5 runs = 67.55 km. 5 runs from Strauss to Unicity (14.46 km) would also be lost. 14.46 km * 5 runs = 72.3 km. They are also doing away with the short-turn runs from Crestview to Portage. There are five of those on Saturday nights, so 5 runs * 6.64 km for a northbound run = 33.2 km. Going back to Portage, the trip back is 6.77 km long, so that times 5 runs works out to 33.85 km, plus a sixth that runs from Unicity to Portage (10.21 km). I would think that another that leaves Strauss at 6:57 PM and goes all the way to Unicity would also be lost, so there’s another 14.46 km. The 83 runs from Portage to Unicity on Sundays, making seven trips in each direction. Headed to Unicity, 7 trips * 10.11 km = 70.77 km. Headed back, 7 trips * 10.21 km = 71.47 km. This would represent a savings of 373.81 km a week. Times that by 52 weeks in a year, and these cuts to the 83 would represent a savings of 19,438.12 km a year.

If they could add all those codes for Rapid Transit, they could add a code for such emergencies - if there isn't already. I believe @Wpgtransit11-25 shared some codes with me that included one for emergencies. Anyway, I took a look at schedules for both my area and the East End, and I observed that the short-turn 89s (what do the signs on those say, anyway?) have timed transfer connections with the 47 at Sev, while the short-turn 83s (which only run between Ashern Loop and the Grace, signed “CRESTVIEW” and “PORTAGE” respectively - no Unicity for whatever reason) have connections with the 11 at Dairy Queen. In both cases, the connections are with both inbound and outbound buses. I wonder how well-used those connections are, especially the latter. Whenever I’m on the 83, if anyone else stays on past Quail Ridge, they’re usually looking to switch to the 21.

South Tuxedo, I could understand, seeing as it’s the same assortment of crescents and bays as the neighborhoods the current DART routes serve, but what about River Heights? The grid system is in use there and the stops on Tuxedo are greater than 400 meters from the stops on Grant. In fact, in some parts, the 10 is closer to the 11 than the 95 is to the 66.

So how would that work? Would it make a trip to the Outlet Mall and the Seasons, return to Taylor, serve South Tuxedo and Shaftesbury Park, return to the Seasons, and then head back to Taylor and continue on to Riverview? Also, the 98 doesn’t connect with the 74. I’m guessing you mean the 95?

Those train tracks are pretty active as well. How would it work? Just based on that map, I’d assume it would only do the Outlet Mall headed westbound and the Seasons headed eastbound?

Lodge was fixed last year and (looking at Google Street View) Bruce doesn't look much worse than some of the residential streets in Wolseley used by the 10. Even with 40-footers, the service hours I suggested (one bus every half hour, no evenings, no Sundays) mean they shouldn’t impact the road too poorly. Especially if they time the route in such a way that buses would be guaranteed to pass each other on Mount Royal, so that there would only be one at a time on each of Lodge and Bruce, if any. With regards to the noise, seeing as the newer buses run quieter than the older ones, I wonder if there’s such a way for dispatch to guarantee that only 600- and 800-series LFRs and XD40s would appear on that route, or at the very least that branch, outside of rush hour. The reason for every stop on Portage and Ness is for the sake of transfer connections. If you look at the map for the 110, every Route 10 and Route 19 stop is on there. People would not normally be able to use them anyway - the only stops on that map that people would be able to board at without having to phone in beforehand would be the Grace and the four 82 stops at Unicity. With regards to the Charleswood one, maybe something I should’ve considered was providing transfers between this DART and the 66 at Dieppe, with passengers boarding the DART there not needing to phone in. On that map, the only stops where one would be able to board without phoning in are the ones north of the river (both leaving Unicity and leaving the Grace), the ones along the parkway and (when the bus is traveling to or from Unicity) the two westernmost Roblin stops.

I’m not sure when you left Winnipeg, but in the last few years, that area has been changed significantly. St. James from Portage to Ellice was repaved and the section from Maroons to Ellice was also widened. The intent of that was to reduce congestion, though I’d have to ride the 77 at rush hour at some point to see what effect it actually had on transit in particular. I rode it at night (shortly before 9:00) last month and we had no issue getting through there, but rush hour’s always a different story.

And that’s part of the reason why I chose the routing I did. With the 77’s routing, it would cover Save-on-Foods, Old Navy and Best Buy as well as Home Depot, Chapters, Blue Cross and Polo. Plus, with a dedicated left-turn lane and a stop on the south side of the intersection, the Ellice-St. James intersection seems made for something like that. Except they can’t. Every 21 leaving downtown after 12:00 is always packed. I imagined that the 27 would have a similar relationship to the 21 and 24 that the 68 has to the 18 and 20, though I ride the 20 quite a bit and it’s always near-empty regardless of day and time, I rode an 18 at around 4:00 the Friday before last and only three other people stayed on past Cambridge (in fact, the 88 that I was on immediately before boarding that 18 had more people on board) and when I rode the 68 shortly after 2:00 this past Wednesday, there were never more than four others on board at any point between U of W and Renfrew. Whereas with the ridership the 24 and especially the 21 get, and the Old St. James branch of the 27 likely to run only once every half-hour or so (the 27 as a whole would run on a similar headway to the 14, but the branching would mean only one to Old St. James every 30-40 minutes and one to Silver, Berry and Polo Park, signed “POLO PARK… VIA FERRY ROAD” to avoid confusion with the 14, every 30-40 minutes), it would serve its purpose. I would imagine that there would be a 27 stop right in front of that new residential development on Lodge, so there’s a source of ridership right there. Anyways, here are the other two DARTs I teased yesterday. I had drawn up the 103 before Friday’s announcement, so I had imagined that it would run when the 82 was off the road and replace the short-turn 83s that run evenings and Sundays. However, the changes mean it could operate early on Saturday mornings as well, like the 101 and 102. The 108, on the other hand, was drawn up after the announcement, and so it would run at almost all times outside of rush-hour. It would serve as Ridgewood West’s connection to the rest of the city when the 65 isn’t running and south Charleswood’s connection to the rest of the city when the 98 isn’t running. It would only run to Unicity on Saturday evenings and Sundays, as otherwise the 66 or 98 would provide that link, and timed transfer connections with every other 11 would be provided at Unicity. Departures from the Grace could be synced with the 11 and 21 as well.

I drew these first two up in response to the announcement of the removal of the Spirits. One’s an extension to the proposed 23 to make up for the loss of the connection between Broadway and the Forks, while the other’s a reroute of the 38 to make up for the loss of service to the Exchange. Both routes headed in both directions would follow routings currently used by the Spirits. The only issue I see is the former’s right turn from EB Broadway to SB Garry due to the separated bike lanes on Garry. A while back, I rode a 300-series XD40 on Route 2 (?) and I don’t know how that bus made that turn. Though considering ridership on the City Hall/Broadway branch of the 29 (less than I see on the 2), maybe D30LFs are all that route would need? I will also use this opportunity to revisit one of the first routes I created. When I first drew up the 27, I imagined that it would run to the Forks on weekdays when the Spirits aren’t running and William Stephenson and Westbrook otherwise, even on Saturday mornings. However, I re-drew it to take a direct path to and from the Forks via Portage East in both directions. I also added another branch of the 14 to Polo Park, which I’d seen proposed by @armorand previously and is a smart idea, which would be worked by all service Monday-Saturday until 7 PM and let the 27 handle west-most Ellice, while buses would alternate between going to Polo and going to Ferry when the 27 is not running. I also drew up a DART for the St. James area, which would operate when the 27 is not running and include timed transfer connections with the 14 at Polo. I will post two more DARTs to replace the 82, 83 and 98 tomorrow.

I actually drew up two DARTs for St. James, I’ll post them both tomorrow. They couldn’t combine the 82 and the 83, as the latter goes east of the Grace - with Murray Park and Sturgeon Heights representing the two destinations that attract the most ridership - but a combined 82 and 98 is basically how those two route currently work with the interlining. Maybe run the 98 to Unicity at all times and run buses in a giant circle (to Unicity as an 82 and back to the Grace as a 98 or vice-versa)?

Brandon is the new one, Fort Rouge the one right along Osborne.

What’s ridership like on the Nairn/Regent corridor express routes, anyway? I wonder if it’s like the Portage corridor, where the 21 and 22 have more ridership than the 24 and 25, which in turn have more ridership than the 67.

Looking at the three West Winnipeg feeders, all of which are being affected to some degree, I’m surprised to see the 98 get cut on weekdays, but not its sister route, the 82. Whenever I’m on that bus (leaving Unicity at 11:22 AM), it’s empty apart from me more often than not. I’ve never ridden it on a Saturday, but whenever I see that (40-foot) bus, it’s empty. I did ride an 83 on a Saturday a while back (leaving Unicity at 12:55 PM), and east of the Grace, there was no-one else on board. There weren’t too many people on there with me west of there, either. Even this past Thursday, when I was on the one that leaves Unicity at 11:07, there were never more than two others on there with me and I had it to myself from Sturgeon/Silver until I got off, but they’re not making any changes to that route on weekdays because industrial workers, RRC students and Sturgeon Heights students are the only reason that route’s in the black (assuming it is).

They make another multi-million dollar surplus and cut service anyway. Unbelievable. Considering the changes to the 82 and 83, it’s a good thing I rarely need to take the bus on weekends. I wonder how the 82’s schedule (unchanged since 2004) will be affected if they’re reducing the 98 to rush hour only, seeing as those two routes interline at the Grace outside rush hour. Getting rid of the Spirits as well. Route 3 will not be missed, but what about 1 and 2? Those two are fairly well used. I’d assume they’ll fill one service gap by running the 38 to the Forks during all service hours, but what will happen to service in the East Exchange, currently provided by only the 1 and 2? Or service to Broadway, seeing as the City Hall branch of the 29 doesn’t, and the 23 won’t, operate on Sunday? Somehow, the DARTs will stay despite being targeted for cuts in the past. As are 68 and 84.

This seems like a good opportunity to début one of the new arrivals, but if they want to use the XD60s for the BLUE Line, I’m going to go with 388. A chance to redeem itself for the mud incident.