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Edmonton and Area spotting and news


t_harris01

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22 hours ago, Matt Dunlop said:

Saw this on Twitter. Not sure if this has been posted yet. 

etsvicinity.JPGetsvicinity2.thumb.JPG.4eafcaa724654144c83dbf7b1fb05616.JPGetsvicinity3.thumb.JPG.4c6b1d8a15d403cecacdb82ac3c4deff.JPG

 

Nice looking bus!

I see exterior cameras on that bus. One above the operators window and another behind slightly above the front door.

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28 minutes ago, Chinese Daniel said:

What transmission they get on those vicinity? ZF or VOITH.

 

 

19 minutes ago, M. Parsons said:

Who know's. That's why no one answered when you asked a few weeks ago.

Exactly. How would we possibly know which transmission it has, just from looking at the photo? We don't have a good description either. All it tells us is that it got custom painted. It's impossible to tell, unless we have somebody on here who just happens to know, or if you ask that person on Twitter. Even then, it's not guaranteed that that person will know.

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  • 3 months later...

That looks like the same mock-up that visited Edmonton Calgary a few years ago. I still have a bunch of cardboard models of it. I actually thought it was metrolink's ion mock-up but the front ends are slightly different

Found this pic of Edmonton cab on the net and my cardboard model!

 

20180203_113620.jpg

photo-jpg1.jpg

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4 Vicinity's on the ramp at Mitchell today. 2008 was at Ferrier, and later spotted on driver training in the vicinity of Mitchell. I will be very surprised is the Vicinity's don't hit the road Sunday, or at the latest Monday.

What follows is a look at current Community Service operations, the struggles Mitchell seems to be having with their fleet, and how the Vicinity's might fit into the picture beyond this weekend. Although some of my observations have been good ol' boots on the ground spottings, without Transit55 this post would have required a lot more research by digging into individual route schedules.

What has promoted this is that over the last week or two 3 Passport have been running out of Mitchell. #14, 19, and 26. #15 had been there but has since migrated back to Ferrier at about the time #26 arrived.

Why are they there? I'm not totally sure. At first I though they were attrition replacements if Mitchell ran too low, if they have gotten to a point where they aren't going to put money into buses that are soon to be retired. 

ETS's has had a surplus of Community Service buses ever since they did some restructuring in SE Edmonton and drastically reduced the Community Service shifts. I believe the Union reported that 1/3 of all shifts were cut. The Remand Centre route was cut as well. Reductions on the 55 and 381.... There's probably other cuts too. Right now, there are only 5 Community Service buses on the road. You used to be able to find 4-5 alone in the Century Park area! 

This reduction in need has lead to a surplus I imagine, although, I haven't seen anything official to back that up.

2, 3, 12, and 18 are pretty much confirmed retired. Long term MIA are 1 and 5, and short term MIA are 9 and 10. That leaves 6 Glaval's in service.
(Long term MIA = 1+ month)

February 9 Synopsis
Mitchell

Glaval's- 5 (4, 7*, 8, 11, 13)
IC LC- 1 (31)*
Passport- 3 (15, 19, 26)
Passport HD-  2 (93, 94)

*31 C/O for 7. Fun fact. 93 C/O for 7 the day before. 

"Peak" bookout today was 10 buses from Mitchell. Considering Mitchell's peak fleet was 13 Glaval's, 3 IC LC's, and 6 Passport HD's for 22 buses, that would have been easy at one point and give them breathing room when a few buses here and there ceased running.
What gets interesting is what else is MIA at Mitchell.
Long term MIA 32, 95. Short term MIA 33, 92, 96, 97. Collectively, there are only 2 out of 6 Passport HD's in service right now. Granted, 92 has only been MIA for 9 days but 97 is just over 1 month and 96 just under 1 month.

Removing 2, 3, and 12 that left Mitchell with 19 buses which was doable. But take out everything else that is MIA... that left Mitchell with 6 Glaval's, 1 IC LC, and 2 Passport HD's. for a total of 9 buses when they need at least 10! I'd actually lay blame on the Passport HD's apparent issues with 4 out of 6 buses not in service for the need to move some Passport's to Mitchell. Today was literally 19's first day at Mitchell.

31 was actually a recent return. It had been MIA for a few days. I thought it was still MIA until I ran into it returning to Mitchell.
I have previously seen Passport's running on Mitchell runs as change overs, although, they would usually end up back at Ferrier.

Ferrier
2010 Passport- 6 (16, 17, 21, 23, 25, 27)
2011 Passport- 4 (34, 36, 39, 40)

So Ferrier's "peak" bookout is the same as Mitchell... 10.
Ferrier's peak fleet was 27 units. 
Again, you an see how there are quite a few spare units since the reductions!
Ferrier has 1 retired, 3 to Mitchell, long term MIA is only 37. Short term MIA though is quite a few... 22, 24, 35, 42, 43. 
That gives Ferrier 17 buses for the peak need of 10 buses. Before sending 3 buses to Mitchell, Ferrier had 20 buses. 

Now, "peak" is simply determined by looking at what buses show on Transit55 as having operated today. That doesn't mean that all 10 Ferrier buses were on the road at one time, but rather just refers to the number of individual buses that saw service today. It's possibly that weekend service might have a few more. It's also possible that I missed some buses simply because they might not be tracking on Transit55 for whatever reason.

 Now, things have changed a bit with Community Service routes for the upcoming signup. 
From ETS's website in regards to February 11 changes: "Plus, Routes 32, 114, 124, 321 and 325* will now use community buses."

32- 1 bus AM/ PM peak weekdays Ferrier/ Mitchell
114- 2 buses AM/ PM peak weekdays Mitchell
124- 2 buses AM/ PM peak weekdays Mitchell
321- 1 bus AM/ PM peak weekday Ferrier
325- 1 bus weekday evenings Ferrier/ Mitchell

The 32 and 325 could come from either Ferrier or Mitchell. Best case for Mitchell is 4 more buses needed, worst case is 6 more buses needed! I'm sure the vast majority of the first Vicinity's will run out of Mitchell given increasing bookout needs and their hodgepodge fleet.

The 114 is a very curious addition. Glaval's seat 21 passengers, Vicinity's 24. I'm wondering if certain routes will be guaranteed Vicinity routes because they can absorb extra passengers easier than a cutaway, with the 114 being one of routes. If they're changing the 114 to Community Service buses, I don't know why they just didn't replace it with the 317. I guess that might come with one of the major service changes.

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So, #07 has turned into a sad joke. Further looking at it's recent history, it was changed off Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. It didn't go out on the 2nd, but did on the 3rd. It was changed over with #26. That's possibly how 26 ended up at Mitchell.

It then disappeared until the 8th and 9th, both days it was changed over. 

Maybe ETS figured 3rd times a charm? 07 went out Saturday and was once again changed over for the 3rd day in an a row. It was changed over with it's rescue bus from a week earlier... 26.

6 runs it was sent out for, 6 times it was changed over. Only 1 day did it make it past noon. WTH!

#14 is now back at Ferrier, leaving just 19 and 26 at Mitchell. Wouldn't be surprised to see those repatriated to Ferrier if Mitchell does indeed get a whole fleet of Vicinity's.

Personally, I find it quite interesting to be able to track these changes within the fleet on an almost daily basis. First time we've been able to do it with ETS since Smart Bus was installed as this is the first major bus replacement since then. Of course, this is all thanks to transit55.ca!

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2 hours ago, M. Parsons said:

So, #07 has turned into a sad joke. Further looking at it's recent history, it was changed off Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. It didn't go out on the 2nd, but did on the 3rd. It was changed over with #26. That's possibly how 26 ended up at Mitchell.

It then disappeared until the 8th and 9th, both days it was changed over. 

Maybe ETS figured 3rd times a charm? 07 went out Saturday and was once again changed over for the 3rd day in an a row. It was changed over with it's rescue bus from a week earlier... 26.

6 runs it was sent out for, 6 times it was changed over. Only 1 day did it make it past noon. WTH!

#14 is now back at Ferrier, leaving just 19 and 26 at Mitchell. Wouldn't be surprised to see those repatriated to Ferrier if Mitchell does indeed get a whole fleet of Vicinity's.

Personally, I find it quite interesting to be able to track these changes within the fleet on an almost daily basis. First time we've been able to do it with ETS since Smart Bus was installed as this is the first major bus replacement since then. Of course, this is all thanks to transit55.ca!

I cant count the amount of times I have changed off 07 for various issues.

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19 hours ago, Enviro_1203 said:

I cant count the amount of times I have changed off 07 for various issues.

And what a piece it is. 07 went out today, I tracked it down for a photo. Sent a message out at noon that I'd better check to see if it made it past noon, and the bad joke continues as it didn't. Stopped tracking at 1153 with 13 eventually replacing it.

06 also was changed over with 25 out of Ferrier.

We did start off with 5 Glaval's on the road... and now all active Glaval's have been in service today. Yet there's only 4 on the road. 

So to update the Mitchell Scoreboard...

04- In service

05- MIA Dec 26

06- C/O

07- C/O

08- In Service

09- MIA Jan 24

10- MIA Feb 10

11- In Service

13- In Service, replaced 07

31- In Service

33- MIA Feb 3

92- MIA Jan 31

93- Presumably available

94- In Service

95- MIA Nov 13

96- MIA Jan 10

97- MIA Jan 7

14- Returned to Ferrier?

15- Returned to Ferrier

19- In Service

25- C/O for 06

26- In Service

So, basically heading into the afternoon there's #93 ready to go in the garage, unless 10 or 33 come back... And yet, no Vicinity's yet. 

I'm sure there must be a reason, although I can't imagine what reason that is that prevents them from even sending out a Vicinity or two when they have this chronic piece of shit #07 they keep putting out and they keep changing over.

Most of the routes converted to Community Service buses just saw extensions to existing runs so that the runs were now extended into the peak periods instead of basically being 9:00-15:00 runs. Certainly some 114/ 317 combinations out there.

So far 19 Community Service runs. I believe there will be another 1 or 2 coming out in the afternoon. I believe one should be the evening 302.

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That's hilarious.

There's a good chance that the bus is being booked and not being repaired... just keeps on coming out and being changed off over and over again. This happens down here in Calgary. For example I'v book issues with a train and gets changed off and it keeps coming out getting buried in the next day's lineup. This can go on for weeks.

Who knows though that's just what happens out here.

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Well, the winner for the PM peak Community Bus out of Mitchell was....... 06.

Changed over at 11:12, sent out the 399 and back tracking at 15:15.

Curious of 93 joined it's dead comrades as it didn't get out today, despite ample chances.

Turns out the 302 is a crazy block from Ferrier. First time I can recall that non-HD Passport's have been up that way. 

It's worth noting the block 06 was on is also the first time in awhile Glaval's have been in the Boonie Doon area.

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Time for the morning Mitchell Update.

Vicinity- 0

Glaval's- All 6 usual suspects are out, including Lucky 7. 

The two active Mitchell IC's are out... 31 and 94.

Passport's... 21, 25, and 26 are out. 25 is the changeover for 6 yesterday, and 21 snuck in under the radar as being a Mitchell bus. First day was yesterday. On the 11th it was clearly a Ferrier bus (did a 340). Came out at 1030 yesterday. Kind of curious if it was an emergency transfer from Ferrier that morning?!

Spares at Mitchell right now is #19 presumably. No sign of #93 really makes me wonder if it shit the bed as well.

4 Ferrier loaners and 0 Vicinity's. 

This is the first time in quite some time that I recall 6 Glaval's out at once.

Edit: just realized the run 08 was on today actually had 4803 yesterday.

Edit 2: #21's block on Monday didn't start at 1030... it started at 9:00. Does that mean that Mitchell had 0 buses to send out until #21 was delivered from Ferrier? There's a lot of unknowns with just looking at online spottings... like the driver forgot to sign in. But, when you look all of the things but together... it really does look like there were no buses available.

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And your daily Mitchell update...

Lucky 7 is on track to finish 2 full days! Not only that, it was the first Glaval out this morning, and is the last on the road this evening.

04 bit the dust and was replaced with Ferrier #22, while #19 has returned to Ferrier, so, still looks like there will be 4 loaners.

And still no Vicinity's of course.

It's certainly a little bit less "exciting" with the return of a Passport HD, Lucky 7 not being changed over, and a lot of loaners, but probably more grief than Mitchell should have to deal with.

Watching these changes reminds of the days of tracking trolleys in their final days. Back then we relied on a lot of actual spottings and not much got passed us with simply eyes on the street. This time it's technology, however, I've certainly been out there seeing some of this some days.

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To finish off the week... 

Lucky 7 went back to it's old ways on Friday and received a change over by just after noon. 6 returned for the first time since it was changed over to replace #07.
Not that 07 was done quite yet. It was sent out on a PM 399. Whatever is wrong with that bus is obviously not enough to actually sideline it for any amount of time. Must just be something with it they don't want to fix, but causes drivers to want a new bus. 

Other than that, it was the 6 Glaval's which generally had been out, 31 , 93, 94 and the 4 loaners from Ferrier.

While things could be looking up for Mitchell with the entry into service of the Vicinity's, right now the Vicinity's might only allow for the Passport's to return to Ferrier. 

So far, there hasn't been a wholesale replacement of cutaways (only 1 day so far!) with Vicinity's at Mitchell, with 2 Glaval's, an IC LC (changing over a Vicinity), a Passport HD all making it out today. I can only imagine ETS might only bring out a few Vicinity's at a time to allow for teething issues to be realized, before actually retiring Mitchell's older cutaways en mass.

DSC00581.thumb.jpg.8693d2fede273089630e7d08852907ac.jpg
Figuring Glaval's on the 114 would be a rare sight in time, I headed out for one on Friday. Note that over time ETS's stupid branding effort by painting/ taping up the orange poles has gone by the wayside.

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