BrianD

Oh...I seriously wouldn't recommend purchasing a retired BT unit.... ?

Cool...that was me then driving the big #58...lol 58 is one of the preferred buses to operate...all the controls work well

Depending what time of day you took the photos I was driving bus 58 on route 23 from 2-6pm

Brandon's On Demand is now operating with 4 buses.....Bus 5 was discontinued a couple of weeks back

This is so cool.... I never had an opportunity to drive 65 due to being hired after all the ex Calgary being out of service...65 was the last one around the yard...the city held onto it until 2018. I remember them firing it up and bringing inside before it was sent to auction.... mechanics said there was nothing wrong with it. The pic was taken Nov 26 2018 just after they fired it up after sitting for a number of months out in the back lot. It had been out of service for roughly a year.

With our 2010's the driver controls work excellent for the most part, doors are quick to open and close when commanded to do so, this is as huge plus....a couple of seconds doesn't seem like much but it adds up....this can and does make the difference of making a traffic light or taking an opportunity to merge back into traffic. The driver controls are nicely laid out too.....as for power and acceleration most of the 2010's are good, most have fresh engines....#52 is the only slug in the mix...needs an engine and it's low on power The 2016 Nova buses are driver comfortable as far as lay out and visibility however the doors are poor....they don't respond quick when commanded to open and close....(there are tricks a driver can do to help with this)... probably the biggest draw back to the Nova is the front door....it will not let you move the bus while it's open and they are extremely slow to open and close...fleet has been working on this issue and it seems on a couple of the Novas they have the front door working decent now. The Novas ride rough and bounce a lot due to the larger overhangs over the axles however they handle and corner nice. ****I've driven all four Nova's at different times recently...Fleet has vastly improved front door operation since the time of typing the original post...front doors now respond quickly when commanded to open and or close.**** The 2018 Xcelsior units are probably the least favorite to the drivers....passenger visibility from the drivers seat in the day time is poor...you an barley see the back door area and beyond....the stop request buttons are mounted to low, riders quite often bump them after boarding and heading to their seat. Doors are slow, Slow acceleration due to tall gearing and transmission programming. HVAC system is extremely noisy and gets tiring listening to it for 8 hours or more.

Yes they are aging for sure however the 11 2010's are by far the most driver friendly in the fleet and the most efficient and effective in stop and go transit ....

Well....this isn't surprising...communication leaves plenty to be desired

Hmmm.... I drive On Demand and I'm not aware of some of these changes, unless these changes happened last week ( I was day shift last week) ..... Bus 5 operates from 08:30-11:00pm and it will be gone soon.

It's getting better, much better than two weeks ago...lol Still lots of kinks to get worked out. Will it stick around?...who knows Currently it's taking more resources to maintain service, more buses and staff, etc.

Cool Video.... It's possible it hasn't ran in longer than 4 years...lol Some days we could use this bus in service ?

Do you mean bus 14, the restored 1957 unit that has been sitting in the city yard? It hasn't ran in at least 4 years....I've heard through the grape vine there might be a grant of some sort coming for the re-restoration of bus 14....The body is still decent but apparently the floor is bad.

I've seen that bus too. I think its 17

The way some of the current fleet are BT might need some of those old Calgary buses....lol

This old gem (1978 Orion I Brandon Transit Fleet #21) spent many years north of Brandon in Forrest MB as a non mobile Ice Cream Vendor...a few years back it was sold and moved across the road from this location and continued to be used in this manner. I passed through Forrest recently and old #21 is gone and it appears and old school bus has replaced it. I have no idea what or where it's ended up....hopefully the MTHA

I have no idea...lol This is so far above the driver level I doubt they would even say if a person asked.

There is a nice Pic of one of the Three D901A's Brandon had in the transit managers office. I'm currently laid off from BT but once and if I get back working there I'll take a picture of this picture and post it. I think the pic in the office is of bus #36

https://www.brandon.ca/public-notices-details?var=5911 Brandon transit is installing driver shields and resuming fare collection as of May 01 2020

The drivers area in the basement at the comfort station is very nice, also very modern. There is also a training room in the basement. I haven't been upstairs since completion in the office area but have been upstairs in the customer waiting area. The waiting area is small but nice, much more convenient for bus riders waiting for their buses to arrive. I agree ,the sidewalk is narrow where the wheel chair ramp is located.

Well... I'm back working at Brandon Transit for a few months

That would be interesting if they ended up in Brandon...having worked for Brandon Transit and driven a D35LFR, they were easier to operate, they felt like a sports car compared to a 40' bus. If the driver had a choice of buses to operate, (on occasion we did) they/we always chose a D35LFR.

They didn't (at the time of my employment with BT) stay on top of the maintenance the current fare boxes required...this is why 99% of them do not work properly.

Wow...I'm impressed!!! You have given this some thought!!! This should be proposed to the city.

This is correct. March 04 2019 Routes 19 & 16 will no longer exist and Transcab will be the option to service the area(s) these routes covered. IMO...Brandon Transit needs to revamp the entire route system. Change from the current hub and spoke system to an grid system with multiple transfer points through out the city. Brandon is getting to spread out to run the current system on a 1/2 schedule. A couple of the routes are extremely challenging to keep on time with during off peak ridership times and its all but impossible to stay on time during peak ridership times. BT operators are required to wait for all transfers from other routes. When a route is late arriving it holds up the other routes awaiting their transfers. At peak times this causes the entire system to fall behind which frustrates the riders as well as the operators. I recently left my job for 15 months as a temporary entry level BT operator. I enjoyed the job very much however I spent all 15 months as the last hire. I was hoping to eventually become full time however lack of funding and route cutbacks coming becoming full time was years away.

Yes the lone remaining Calgary bus #65 is still around parked out back with #49. I doubt it will ever see service again but who knows for certain. Its been moved around the yard a few times this summer. According to one of the mechanics it moved on its own power. He said there is nothing wrong with it. I've operated #50 a few times since it's return to service. It still works good. When it does get used it's usually on the Maple Leaf runs