M. Parsons Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 1026 has had that plate for some time now. I believe the plate was from 1010 if I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airwolf Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 How about this for an unusual spotting? 4265 yesterday was southbound on the QE2 at Lacombe. What would an ETS bus be doing THAT far south? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaintrolley Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Interesting...maybe it's stolen I doubt if it is a charter, as there is a range (I think 80 km) outside Edmonton that charters are allowed, unless an exception was made in this case. I couldn't find it on their website, unless there is no longer a range limit. (I think the range limit was (is) due to radio transmission / reception). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enviro_1203 Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 How about this for an unusual spotting? 4265 yesterday was southbound on the QE2 at Lacombe. What would an ETS bus be doing THAT far south?Going to BigRig? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCT-3122-D800-10240 Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 How about this for an unusual spotting? 4265 yesterday was southbound on the QE2 at Lacombe. What would an ETS bus be doing THAT far south? Mechanics road test!? I don't know Edmonton well enough to know if that would be a regular route for a mechanic to take a vehicle on a road test or not however...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaintrolley Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Mechanics road test!? I don't know Edmonton well enough to know if that would be a regular route for a mechanic to take a vehicle on a road test or not however...! Lacombe is another city, they don't test buses outside the city limits (usually) AFAIK.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awstott Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Likely going to big rig. That's a very long road test away from resources should there be a breakdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicinity Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 I recently rode the route 1 and 4 and boy those routes need higher frequency! They could easily both be every 10 minutes midday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueBirdVision Posted March 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 And a few things. They could use some more XD40's to backup. Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicinity Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 What do XD40's have to do with anything? How is that even close to relevant to anything I said? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Parsons Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 I recently rode the route 1 and 4 and boy those routes need higher frequency! They could easily both be every 10 minutes ! ETS is sending buses aimlessly wandering suburban routes instead. Having said that, I ride on a weekly basis 3 of those aimless suburban routes. Meanwhile, everyone else is stuck on overcrowded buses in the Downtown where there is actually demand for transit. A bit different tone than I usually use regarding suburban routes. 1 of the 3 routes does get heavy loads, the other 2 do pretty decent. 2 of the routes service a bus garage and I honestly believe that's why these routes have the service levels they do. I think it's ridiculous a suburban route is running before some main services Saturday's and Sunday's. But yes, core services are over crowded. ETS seems to have a phobia of scheduling consistent service more frequent than 15 minutes in this city. What do XD40's have to do with anything? How is that even close to relevant to anything I said? He's right. There's concerns about bus availability and down time, the 200's are beyond worn out. Need more buses = XD40's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueBirdVision Posted March 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 What do XD40's have to do with anything? How is that even close to relevant to anything I said?Well the 200's are beyond worn out. And like I said before. If the ridership on routes need more service. Order some more buses to cover that. Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk ETS is sending buses aimlessly wandering suburban routes instead. Having said that, I ride on a weekly basis 3 of those aimless suburban routes. Meanwhile, everyone else is stuck on overcrowded buses in the Downtown where there is actually demand for transit. A bit different tone than I usually use regarding suburban routes. 1 of the 3 routes does get heavy loads, the other 2 do pretty decent. 2 of the routes service a bus garage and I honestly believe that's why these routes have the service levels they do. I think it's ridiculous a suburban route is running before some main services Saturday's and Sunday's. But yes, core services are over crowded. ETS seems to have a phobia of scheduling consistent service more frequent than 15 minutes in this city. He's right. There's concerns about bus availability and down time, the 200's are beyond worn out. Need more buses = XD40's. If the 200's are in that shape. Order at least 27 buses to make sure bus shortages happen less often. And 4880-4888 are out and about 24/7. About the ridership increase it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicinity Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 If your increasing midday service you just keep some of the peak keys out for all day runs, you wouldn't need anymore buses. And from a legistic stand point you guys could use more shuttles on your outlying routes thus freeing some larger buses if needed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Parsons Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 Edmonton is runs, not keys. Lets keep local terms in use. By your logic, you could just keep all buses out all day. What you're missing in reality is service hours. Edmonton could have 2000 buses, but it does them no good if the service hours aren't there to operate them. Indeed, we increased the SD-160 purchase for NLRT to 20 cars from 10 cars, but, the operating budget has been reduced so in the end we're not going to have the money to run those 20 cars at the start. Para transit vs. conventional bus is a moot point really. You need the service hours, and the greatest cost of operating a bus is the cost of the driver, not the operating cost of the vehicle. Sure, a para transit operator is a lower wage cost than a conventional operator. It would seem clear cut: Take the existing budgets, but buy a lot of para transit buses, pay those operators less wages, invest the "savings" into more service hours for conventional buses. First though, you'd have to look at the live cycle cost of a light duty (7 year), medium duty (10 year), and heavy duty (20 year). It would be a lot of work, but, I suspect the life cycle costs of 2 medium duty buses (Passport's) or 3 light duty buses (Arboc's) would be close to, if not more, than 1 conventional bus. At that point you've reduce the flexibility to operate your system as those para transit buses are only good in certain times and certain places whereas a conventional bus is good in most places most of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicinity Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 This does make sence and I don't understand you need service hour the reason I said that some rush hour runs could stay out for midday was because I was try to point out you don't need extra buses ( in reference to the xd40's previously mentioned ) in terms of increased frequency on a few routes during the midday. So sorry for any confusion, I was only trying to point out the one fact that if you have the service hours to increase route frequency during midday you wouldn't really need new buses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Marriott Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 The real cruel part of the situation is that there are enough buses on the route 4 corridor to run 10 minute service middays and weekday evening already; it's just not set up properly. The 4 is ever 15 minutes, and then the 94 and 106 are every 30 minutes, so there are 6 buses an hour on the Bonnie Doon to WEM section, other than the short variation between Meadowlark and the Whitemud. That's one of the more infuriating things about ETS is that rather than boosting service on the mainlines beyond 15 minutes they will instead create or enhance service on supplementary routes (such as the 15,73,94,106,120,134,135) which doesn't always mesh properly with the main route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board Admin A. Wong Posted March 15, 2014 Board Admin Report Share Posted March 15, 2014 Thanks to a tip from M. Siebert (do you have an account on this board?), I went out to get some shots of the New Flyer MiDi demo here in Edmonton: No clue on if ETS is demoing it, or if it is just passing through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Parsons Posted March 16, 2014 Report Share Posted March 16, 2014 No clue on if ETS is demoing it, or if it is just passing through. Might just be passing through. Given the decals for ABC, I would imagine it's going to be a demo ABC will be sending around the US. Hell, that might well be the first New Flyer demo for ABC! Although, on the other hand... why send it through Edmonton, unless it's heading to Alaska... even then, you'd think you'd send it on a ship... so Alask still really doesn't explain it being in Edmonton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board Admin A. Wong Posted March 16, 2014 Board Admin Report Share Posted March 16, 2014 It would make sense for the Edmonton & surrounding area transit agencies to at least check it out, we'll have to keep our eyes out to see if it is around here for a few days. ETS tested a bunch of buses of this size 9 years ago, but settled on the Passport units. Both Strathcona County Transit and St. Albert Transit did run the previous rendition of the New Flyer MiDi (Thomas SLFs). And Strathcona is currently operating the (very) big brother of the MiDi. While I can't see either of them going back to a bus of this size at this point in time, perhaps there are some interchangeable parts with the Enviro500s that would make operating these on lighter runs attractive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Parsons Posted March 16, 2014 Report Share Posted March 16, 2014 I doubt any interchangeable parts! I guess it depends how Strathcona and St. Albert feel after their SLF experiences! Given that Strathcona has outright gone away from anything less than 40' (give or take a parking lot shuttle or two). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board Admin A. Wong Posted March 16, 2014 Board Admin Report Share Posted March 16, 2014 I doubt any interchangeable parts!You're probably right mechanically, but hey at least the lights are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enviro_1203 Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 Midi 6903 is at Ferrier! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_harris01 Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 Here is my photos from ferrier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board Admin A. Wong Posted March 19, 2014 Board Admin Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 Cool, thanks for sharing those! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_harris01 Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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