RZ350

It's about 12 years old I think

They found some too.

This is done at the request of the cities in question. BC Transit won't be operating any system outside of Victoria, and even HandyDart there is contracted out. For city budgets, its the easiest way to go. They have a fixed rate that they pay each month. this makes budgeting much easier. When you consider that many cities in the province are run by very conservative local governments, that see Transit as nothing but a necessary evil, straight forward budgeting is for the best. This is not to say that I agree with it, only that its very common for cities to want to "offload" these things, avoiding extra costs for pensions etc. Running a Transit Operation has many variable costs, and makes budgeting very difficult, especially when you consider the "need" to spend every budgeted dollar, so that the budget doesn't get cut the next year. Government budgets are NOT straight forward, and this is the kind of thing that they try to avoid. In a sense Translink is also an off loading of this type. The exception being that it is still a government entity, though the BC Liberals would likely have changed that if they could. Look at the BC Ferries fiasco. The cities have two options to choose from, contract the service out, or run it themselves. Most choose the former. Interestingly, the few that are run by the cities themselves are generally better services overall.

We have been advised that our new HandyDart units will be arriving in October. Now, bear in mind that these were originally supposed to arrive in the spring. and then the summer, and then September..... LOL

Damn, that is Sad news.

The Nova is mainly for covering breakdowns on the 66. BC Transit doesn't want the CNG buses used on the 66 for a variety of reasons including fuel. Bus can't be fueled in Chilliwack at this time. Also, not all the Chilliwack Full Time drivers have been trained on the CNG buses, so without that training they can't drive them. we've had to put the spare into service quite a few times unfortunately.

We've been told that construction start will be in 2023. not confirmed though

9318 has been in Abby getting some needed repairs, and is apparently being sent to Penticton, as a contingency bus.

4065 and 4066 are now in Chilliwack. 3005 and 3006 have been moved to Abbotsford, one will head to the contingency fleet, One may stay for training.

They are going to Chilliwack, so I am assuming that's the case.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Operators that are full time, are locked to respective systems, thogh ethey can bid into other locations, they drop to the bottom of the seniority there. they can do OT at both though, if properly trained. Casuals are the ones that work both regularly.

Installs have gone well, but there's some issues getting units logged in properly. Some Blocks also not working, yet. Training is also still ongoing. Looking good, just minor hiccups to sort out.

Not enough people trained I've been told. We shall see I will say that the system is pretty amazing from the Operations side, and will be a great tool for us.

Internally, sometime next week, looking at Tuesday

Nextbus going live soon, training has begun