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2018 Standard 40' Bus Procurement


Express691

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1 hour ago, Blue Bus Fan said:

I personally think STC will loose the Orion V to RTC and PCTC in favour of the low floor highway coach because the 301, 503 service more of local settings on extreme long route.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. 

 

1 hour ago, Blue Bus Fan said:

The ExpressBus stickers mean nothing in my opinion.

I agree with you. They are useless. Nothing but a waste of money. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Form B Price of Work

Upon looking at the above Excel spreadsheet, the estimated quantity for vehicles under "Optional Vehicles Price 2018" and "Optional Vehicles Price 2019" are 94 and 59 units, respectively. It also highlights 10 diesel units for West Vancouver as well.

If one does the math and adds the 1996 and 1998-2001 D40LF orders together, it amounts to 289 total units. Doing the same with the 136 forty-foot units from the 2014-2017 order, along with the 153 units from the 2018-2019 order also yields 289, giving us a supposed 1:1 replacement ratio. Therefore, no service expansion units so far, unless it is by means of deferred retirements or presumably an entirely different order.

Note that the math above does not include the C40LF conversions or the Orion V's. Completely speculation on my part, please take this all with a grain of salt.

It is still uncertain that all our beloved D40LF's will be gone by 2019. Other than mechanical issues, the cost of keeping them becomes prohibitively expensive... It still makes me happy inside whenever I see one around the corner pulling up to my stop, from the abundance of Novas. Ah, memories. Nothing wrong with them as long as they are still around right? haha 

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First, I think you're correct that not all of the D40LFs/C40LFs will be gone by 2019. I suspect that many of the Cummins-powered units will still be around, though the Detroit Diesel-powered units will pretty much all be gone. (But 7115 the Immortal will still be here! ;) ) Also, I suspect that very few of the Orion Vs will have been retired by then.

That being said, though, remember that in addition to this tender, there's a tender for artics still to come. I wouldn't be surprised to see a substantial increase in the number of artics in the fleet, to convert chronically-overcrowded FTN routes such as the #25 and #502/#503. It wouldn't be the first time TransLink did this: remember that the 2012 XDE60s were ordered to replace forty-footers.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, cleowin said:

Interesting, the diagram for the hybrid is a Nova LFS HEV with the charcol livery. Not sure if that means anything.

the diesel option is a d40lfr,

cng is a c40lf?

The CNG diagram is actually an F40LF. Most evident in the rear, since I initially thought this was a C40LF with a large fuel capacity.

image.thumb.jpg.967d1224f385b99a14f741044abaaa1c.jpg

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1 hour ago, Express691 said:

Reading the document again, a rear window has been specified for the initial 93 vehicles. Really strange from our standpoint.

There have been a few things like spelling errors and other oddities that have been identical in the past few bus RFPs that puts me in the camp that they've just been using the same template for each and aren't 100% on editing the small details for the particular order.

Realistically it's not like NFI and Nova throw up their hands and say "Well crap, we can't bid. We don't have back windows that fit the spec!"

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3 hours ago, Meraki said:

There have been a few things like spelling errors and other oddities that have been identical in the past few bus RFPs that puts me in the camp that they've just been using the same template for each and aren't 100% on editing the small details for the particular order.

Realistically it's not like NFI and Nova throw up their hands and say "Well crap, we can't bid. We don't have back windows that fit the spec!"

Don't forget the livery screw-up on the 2012 orders!

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On February 12, 2017 at 0:47 PM, GORDOOM said:

First, I think you're correct that not all of the D40LFs/C40LFs will be gone by 2019. I suspect that many of the Cummins-powered units will still be around, though the Detroit Diesel-powered units will pretty much all be gone. (But 7115 the Immortal will still be here! ;) )

The D40LFRs should still be around and 7115 would probably be around forever as a museum bus (one of the operators told me they were saving it for the museum)

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2 hours ago, buizel10 said:

Would be interesting if another company other than NFI or Nova got it though...

But who? Are there even any other major manufacturers of heavy-duty transit buses for the Canadian market anymore? Gillig doesn't sell to the Canadian market at all; Van Hool has several models approved in Canada, but doesn't have any facilities up here and doesn't get many orders; I don't know if Alexander Dennis has any models approved up here apart from the Enviro500, which is not what TransLink has in mind for this order.

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1 hour ago, GORDOOM said:

But who? Are there even any other major manufacturers of heavy-duty transit buses for the Canadian market anymore? Gillig doesn't sell to the Canadian market at all; Van Hool has several models approved in Canada, but doesn't have any facilities up here and doesn't get many orders; I don't know if Alexander Dennis has any models approved up here apart from the Enviro500, which is not what TransLink has in mind for this order.

Thats why I said it would be interesting. Also the LFS Suburban could replace the Orion Vs.

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2 hours ago, buizel10 said:

Thats why I said it would be interesting. Also the LFS Suburban could replace the Orion Vs.

I would much rather have LFS Suburban over our current Orion V's... people over 6 feet are in pain for the whole ride in its current configuration (unless you're the driver)! 

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Living in Montréal gives me the opportunity to try our new LFS HEV 4th generations and they are pretty slick - they seem a bit noisier than the diesel model but also have good acceleration... or the STM drivers pound the accelerator ;). Either way, I do hope NOVA managed to sort out the issues that the CMBC has with its 2nd/3rd gens and is willing to order more! 

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With Addendum No. 3, a few revisions have been made. Just a few notes below:

  • The West Vancouver order has been expanded to include options for another 10 units, 5 each for 2018 and 2019.
  • No changes to the original 94 units and 59 options for TransLink.
  • A white destination sign and an operator barrier have been added only as optional items.
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On 2017-01-17 at 11:39 PM, Dr. BusFreak said:

(Re: Express bus branding) I agree with you. They are useless. Nothing but a waste of money. 

I actually think that there is a versatility to having an "Express bus" branding on our express buses. The problem is they are misplaced by being on the side of the bus and at a size that seems to be aimed at bus passengers, as opposed to actually communicating "this is an express bus" to the surrounding drivers/passengers in vehicle traffic, which is a far more powerful use of the branding.

I think there's room to retain the branding, but it might be useful to move it to a place where the message has much more of an impact/reach. Also I am noticing many buses these days (even non-highway routes like 337) just put EXP on the rear destination sign, which does somewhat replicate the effect.

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The other problem with an "ExpressBus" branding is that it creates a sub-fleet, limiting operational flexibility for no reason (absent other changes to the coaches). This is presumably the same reason why TransLink never did a B-Line version of the Sweep-R.

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2 hours ago, GORDOOM said:

The other problem with an "ExpressBus" branding is that it creates a sub-fleet, limiting operational flexibility for no reason (absent other changes to the coaches). This is presumably the same reason why TransLink never did a B-Line version of the Sweep-R.

Agree. 

Actually, I think the "EXPRESS" PR code in the destination signs should serve this function very well. The problem is, the company has never mandated when it should or should not be used, so drivers turn it on and off ad hoc and to their own preference. Sometimes they forget to turn it off and so you get "Express" N17s and so on. I think that's a major reason why the express branding has lost its meaning. At the very least, I think the company should make the PR code change automatically at the same time the destination sign changes to/from an express route, while allowing for drivers to override it temporarily to add a more important PR (Bus Full, etc.). It would still take a while for passengers to start trusting that it means anything though. But it's important, because even some policies (request stop on non-express routes after 9pm, for example) depend on whether the bus is officially express or not at that time. 

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