Grande West Vicinity

[kadooment95]

Just curious, OC Transpo and BC's Translink put forward an expression of interest in 2008 for a conventional bus under 30 feet.  Grande West (Yaxing Motor Coach Company then) responded, and shipped over a demo bus.

What happened was, Translink trialled the 27.5ft version, and ended up buying a few over the years. Now looking at what OC's system will end up being once Line 1 in up and running,  I'm just thinking that a 30 or 35 foot version similar to what some other Ontario agencies have bought, would be perfect.

Thoughts?

[sdgta2008]

5 hours ago, kadooment95 said:

Just curious, OC Transpo and BC's Translink put forward an expression of interest in 2008 for a conventional bus under 30 feet.  Grande West (Yaxing Motor Coach Company then) responded, and shipped over a demo bus.

What happened was, Translink trialled the 27.5ft version, and ended up buying a few over the years. Now looking at what OC's system will end up being once Line 1 in up and running,  I'm just thinking that a 30 or 35 foot version similar to what some other Ontario agencies have bought, would be perfect.

Thoughts?

There are already LFS's on the way and they're to receive more Double Deckers.  Seeing as this was 10 years ago, I highly doubt OC Transpo will purchase any Grande West buses.

Another thing that must be taken into consideration is Transpo's close ties to Alexander Dennis.  Now that New Flyer no longer sells the E200 (former MD30/MD35), they're likely to purchase with them before Grande West.

[M. Parsons]

5 hours ago, kadooment95 said:

Just curious, OC Transpo and BC's Translink put forward an expression of interest in 2008 for a conventional bus under 30 feet.  Grande West (Yaxing Motor Coach Company then) responded, and shipped over a demo bus.

What happened was, Translink trialled the 27.5ft version, and ended up buying a few over the years. Now looking at what OC's system will end up being once Line 1 in up and running,  I'm just thinking that a 30 or 35 foot version similar to what some other Ontario agencies have bought, would be perfect.

Thoughts?

You're quite off base. BC's BC Transit had the demo unit. Translink only operates in the Vancouver region has no Grande West buses. Grande West designed the bus and with no one willing to produce it in North America, they went with Yaxing and a manufacturing partner (therefore, Yaxing only built the bus, and wouldn't have been the ones responding the expression of interest).

"Buying a few" also understates the number that have actually been purchased by BC Transit, which looks to be around 150 units.

15 minutes ago, sdgta2008 said:

Another thing that must be taken into consideration is Transpo's close ties to Alexander Dennis.  Now that New Flyer no longer sells the E200 (former MD30/MD35), they're likely to purchase with them before Grande West.

Of course, assuming that OC Transpo would purchase E200's before Vicinity's just because of apparent close ties with Alexander Dennis would be ignoring the fact that bus purchases usually have to be out to competitive tenders. Given that New Flyer gave up on the E200, and the scarcity compared to the Vicinity, I think it's safe to assume the E200 wasn't too competitive in other tendering processes across Canada. 

[Chris W]

10 hours ago, M. Parsons said:

Of course, assuming that OC Transpo would purchase E200's before Vicinity's just because of apparent close ties with Alexander Dennis would be ignoring the fact that bus purchases usually have to be out to competitive tenders. Given that New Flyer gave up on the E200, and the scarcity compared to the Vicinity, I think it's safe to assume the E200 wasn't too competitive in other tendering processes across Canada. 

It would make more sense getting the Enviro 200 here, as they are the 9m vehicle of choice in the Metrolinx Transit Procurement Initiative. However, Ottawa is not a part of that to my knowledge. As for the E200 here in Ontario, only two companies that are part of the Metrolinx consortium have actually purchased them, those being Orangeville and Simcoe County LINX. The Vicinity currently runs in Burlington (11), Cobourg (1), Orangeville (3, 2 demos, 1 production), Oakville (14), Midland (1), Simcoe County (4), Welland (2) and Hamilton (5+6 on order=11). In terms of customers in the province, Grande West outnumbers Alexander Dennis.

My question is, where would the city put 30 foot buses if they were to order them? I didn't think there were enough low ridership feeder routes to warrant purchasing them.

[dev161]

2 hours ago, Chris W said:

It would make more sense getting the Enviro 200 here, as they are the 9m vehicle of choice in the Metrolinx Transit Procurement Initiative. However, Ottawa is not a part of that to my knowledge. 

http://www.metrolinx.com/en/projectsandprograms/tpi/tpi_participate.aspx

OC is part of it now , that is how we got the Nova buses 

[wowzhao]

On ‎4‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 1:59 AM, Chris W said:

My question is, where would the city put 30 foot buses if they were to order them? I didn't think there were enough low ridership feeder routes to warrant purchasing them.

38 or 34 in Orleans could certainly use smaller buses during off-peak times. I take both in the evening and weekends and half the time I'm the only passenger on board.

Alternatively, they could consider expanding frequencies on some middle-of-the-pack routes (every 20 minutes instead of 30, etc.) and use smaller buses to compensate for lower ridership per bus?

[Flalex72]

11 hours ago, wowzhao said:

38 or 34 in Orleans could certainly use smaller buses during off-peak times. I take both in the evening and weekends and half the time I'm the only passenger on board.

Alternatively, they could consider expanding frequencies on some middle-of-the-pack routes (every 20 minutes instead of 30, etc.) and use smaller buses to compensate for lower ridership per bus?

The issue is that the biggest cost of a transit system is labour. Chopping 10 feet out of the bus isn't a significant fuel or upfront cost savings, but it limits what you can do with the vehicle.

[G.A]

They already used smaller buses in the recent past. I am not including the 30-35 foot Orion's. They had used a few Cutaways and I do recall them having an EZ Rider in the KFC livery. They were too small for the growing system. Even with the LRT, I doubt the system would want to utilize a bunch of short buses again.

[smallspy]

On 4/4/2019 at 7:47 AM, wowzhao said:

38 or 34 in Orleans could certainly use smaller buses during off-peak times. I take both in the evening and weekends and half the time I'm the only passenger on board.

Because the 20 minutes that you are on the bus is a significant indicator of how busy a route or run is?

 

Dan