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Transit 20

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shivers

shivers

Posted
Posted
On 9/15/2017 at 6:54 PM, Streety McCarface said:

Why will the 31 never get weekend service or peak service?

My guess is that that's because the route is almost completely empty off-peak, and for almost all of it there's another bus parallel, or within a small distance. Off peak, I'd guess it averages 1-2 people west of F-H, 1 through the Eastbridge neighborhood, 1 to Frobisher, plus the handful through the university area. Even AT peak it's pretty quiet outside of the King to Fischer-Hallman corridor - but that corridor fills up fast with short-haul trips.

 

On 9/15/2017 at 6:54 PM, Streety McCarface said:

There is no reason for a redundant route like the 92 to be present. [...] No one is going to take the 92 up Columbia

That's why the 7D and 7E are going away, the 92 is replacing them fully. Also bear in mind the number of people that are going to start taking buses between Laurier and the UW Ion station once the train starts running. Yes, it's a 1km walk to the WP station, but the number of people that take buses one or two blocks through the University corridor is staggering, and I don't predict that will change. (Still think they should have just put the WP station right at the south side of University Ave, for this reason. I'm betting WP station will be a ghost town off-peak. Not to mention future planning... I'm betting on an east-west LRT line on University in ~15 years.) I'm actually a bit concerned about capacity constraints on Columbia from F-H to UW, myself, if they clip the 92 off to just go from the Ring Road to Weber. At peak, I've seen as many as 50 people backlogged at Beechlawn, just a few getting on each bus, and that's with the 92's current routing.

 

On 9/15/2017 at 6:54 PM, Streety McCarface said:

Will the 12 through Lincoln Villiage be losing service when it's integrated with the 29? If so, people will be pissed.

The only people this will affect is the people going from Lincoln/Bridge directly to Westmount; probably a very small number. Anyone going from Lincoln or Bridge to the universities will still have a one-bus trip, just on the 29 instead of the 12. Anyone used to going from the west side of the route to Bridgeport Plaza will still generally be able to stay on the same bus since the 12 will interline with the new Weber route at Uni/King. If anything, there will probably be less short turning at Uni/King than there is now, because the number of people going to Lincoln is actually staggeringly low, so a lot of 12s turn back there at present.

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Streety McCarface

Streety McCarface

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, shivers said:

My guess is that that's because the route is almost completely empty off-peak, and for almost all of it there's another bus parallel, or within a small distance. Off peak, I'd guess it averages 1-2 people west of F-H, 1 through the Eastbridge neighborhood, 1 to Frobisher, plus the handful through the university area. Even AT peak it's pretty quiet outside of the King to Fischer-Hallman corridor - but that corridor fills up fast with short-haul trips.

 

That's why the 7D and 7E are going away, the 92 is replacing them fully. Also bear in mind the number of people that are going to start taking buses between Laurier and the UW Ion station once the train starts running. Yes, it's a 1km walk to the WP station, but the number of people that take buses one or two blocks through the University corridor is staggering, and I don't predict that will change. (Still think they should have just put the WP station right at the south side of University Ave, for this reason. I'm betting WP station will be a ghost town off-peak. Not to mention future planning... I'm betting on an east-west LRT line on University in ~15 years.) I'm actually a bit concerned about capacity constraints on Columbia from F-H to UW, myself, if they clip the 92 off to just go from the Ring Road to Weber. At peak, I've seen as many as 50 people backlogged at Beechlawn, just a few getting on each bus, and that's with the 92's current routing.

 

The only people this will affect is the people going from Lincoln/Bridge directly to Westmount; probably a very small number. Anyone going from Lincoln or Bridge to the universities will still have a one-bus trip, just on the 29 instead of the 12. Anyone used to going from the west side of the route to Bridgeport Plaza will still generally be able to stay on the same bus since the 12 will interline with the new Weber route at Uni/King. If anything, there will probably be less short turning at Uni/King than there is now, because the number of people going to Lincoln is actually staggeringly low, so a lot of 12s turn back there at present.

My experience with the 31 is that it's standing room only all the way from Eastbridge to WCI and beyond to the Universities during rush hours. I remember not being able to get on the 31 one day after school because it was so full. I think all routes should have weekend service at least every hour. There are a lot of high school students and university students in Eastbridge and clair hills that will use the bus if it's more convenient. 

I can understand capacity constraints on the University corridor, but I just think resources would be better spent on expanding existing routes, even if short turns must be implemented. With regards to the 12, there is 15 minute peak service currently through the Lincoln neighborhood. Will the expanded 29 see 15 minute peak service once the changes are made? I would argue that would make sense considering how crowded the 29 can be. 

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shivers

shivers

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Huh... myself, I think my all-time rush-hour record is about 25 people aboard the 31, as long as you exclude the two minutes approaching the university. Perhaps I've just gotten lucky.

I don't know what their plans are for the 29 schedule, and I haven't been on it often enough to judge crowding. Given that right now the 12 only departs Conn Mall twice an hour except for a couple AM peak buses, and northbound PM peak buses either short turn or change routes, it seems logical to guess that the whole route will be 30 minutes all day. Perhaps they'll add a couple short turn buses from CM to Uni/King or to the new UW station at peak.

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Streety McCarface

Streety McCarface

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25 minutes ago, shivers said:

Huh... myself, I think my all-time rush-hour record is about 25 people aboard the 31, as long as you exclude the two minutes approaching the university. Perhaps I've just gotten lucky.

I don't know what their plans are for the 29 schedule, and I haven't been on it often enough to judge crowding. Given that right now the 12 only departs Conn Mall twice an hour except for a couple AM peak buses, and northbound PM peak buses either short turn or change routes, it seems logical to guess that the whole route will be 30 minutes all day. Perhaps they'll add a couple short turn buses from CM to Uni/King or to the new UW station at peak.

 

Recently, on the way from Eastbridge to the Columbia street corridor, I count usually 35-36. 15 or so WCI students, 8-10 St. David students, and 10+ (depending on how many are at the King/Columbia stop) UW students. 

I also think that there should be a Northfield Dr/Westmount Rd. Express Bus, as the 8 and 12 has a high enough ridership to justify such a service. Oh well, we'll see what time brings us. 

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kt808

kt808

Posted
Posted
On 9/17/2017 at 1:28 PM, Streety McCarface said:

Recently, on the way from Eastbridge to the Columbia street corridor, I count usually 35-36. 15 or so WCI students, 8-10 St. David students, and 10+ (depending on how many are at the King/Columbia stop) UW students.

There's the rub. You are looking at the one trip that goes past the two high schools in time for morning classes. Just wait a half-hour and look at how many are riding the next 31 after the school kids are all gone. That's a more accurate barometer of patronage, and I'm willing to bet it's not that crowded.

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Streety McCarface

Streety McCarface

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On 9/27/2017 at 1:46 PM, Transit 20 said:

no there is only 6 23xx with the new fare boxes thats only 6 that will get them

20905 is a Cambridge bus the Cambridge buses dont have the new fare boxes yet

That still doesn't explain why some buses (even 217**s) which are clearly from Kitchener have been issuing old-style transfers despite being outfitted with new fareboxes (most notably all new flyer buses). Do you know if this is because of slow transfer issuing speeds associated with the new fareboxes?

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kt808

kt808

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I've been told the old transfers and transfer cutters are still around in case the farebox runs out of paper or malfunctions in some way. That's why the 2017s have them. Cash can still be put in the ticket canister, and manual transfers issued. However a number of drivers continue to issue the old school transfers due to how slow the printer is.

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shivers

shivers

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Posted

The rate at which the new fareboxes glitch out is still pretty high. I'd guess that on any given day, half of the fareboxes experience some sort of problem. Including a heck of a lot of cases of one bug that prevents rebooting the farebox. Unfortunately, the size of the backup battery or capacitor in the new fareboxes means that the bus has to be off for about half an hour before the farebox shuts down on its own, so if that glitch strikes, that bus has it for the rest of the day.

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Transit geek

Transit geek

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, Transit 20 said:

Shields coming to GRT the 2 buses with them are 21719-21720.

 

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/7961014-grt-rolls-out-buses-with-driver-shields/

Something the TTC has had for close to a decade: http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ttc-considers-barriers-after-hammer-attack-on-bus-1.316969

16 minutes ago, Transit 20 said:

Shields coming to GRT the 2 buses with them are 21719-21720.

 

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/7961014-grt-rolls-out-buses-with-driver-shields/

Something the TTC has had for close to a decade:  http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ttc-considers-barriers-after-hammer-attack-on-bus-1.316969

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Transit 20

Transit 20

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transit enforcement starts at GRT.

 

http://www.grt.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=5103c064-eb7f-435b-ac9a-087ba740a224&feedId=bbee2b8e-91b6-4696-8c3d-481dbf28de8e,24b9d7cd-762a-4496-ad74-4e816cb9adc8,d23e5a74-6488-4978-9740-594267f59ea8,38cb3425-641c-49a2-a83b-f03081ea8431,31820c97-a4b0-4704-ab8b-7c088247077a,69a9e0f5-98d5-4bcc-8f1e-5537cb4c997b

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GregB

GregB

Posted
Posted

Hi there! Thanks for your reply. I know they are always accepting applications, I may not have worded it right. I am wondering if they have any information/testing days coming up or if they wait until they have enough qualified applicants to get a group together? 

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