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Misc. OC Transpo & STO Questions & Discussion


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6 hours ago, Flalex72 said:

I'm surprised Eagleson isn't on the list, but it may not have the communications infrastructure readily available like the others do.

925 is an interesting location. It's the oddball customer service centre already - you just walk in and basically one of the call centre agents also handles the occasional customer, it's obviously not in a very accessible or busy location. I wonder if the purpose of having one there isn't more to troubleshoot, test and train using the video chat with customer service since they're in the building.

I can see them potentially adding a stop for the 19 just outside of it, but otherwise it’s almost useless since just to get to 925 you either walk 5-10 minutes from the 40/42 or you get a drive there. 
 

as for eaglesson I believe you’re right. There isn’t much there except the shelters and a couple lights, what would make sense is to pop one on each side of eaglesson for commuters to load up the card on the way home if they choose 

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11 hours ago, Flalex72 said:

925 is an interesting location. It's the oddball customer service centre already - you just walk in and basically one of the call centre agents also handles the occasional customer, it's obviously not in a very accessible or busy location. I wonder if the purpose of having one there isn't more to troubleshoot, test and train using the video chat with customer service since they're in the building.

I remember before 925 was opened, I would just walk right in the front door of 1500 St. Laurent if I needed something that the other customer service locations couldn't provide.  This was back in the 1990s.  I imagine that 925 was opened to provide a customer service location once 1500 became a secure facility.

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On 12/2/2021 at 2:59 PM, GTAmissions1 said:

A follow-up regarding ticket vending machines along the Southeast Transitway (Lycée Claudel to South Keys). Tweet attached for reference. 

The aim is to have Billings Bridge online by Christmas at the earliest. January at the latest along with adding a few more locations on the list.

New locations are:

  • 925 Belfast
  • Place D'Orleans
  • Innovation Park and Ride
  • Terry Fox 
  • Fallowfield 

15 more locations are planned to be added in 2022. List to be confirmed once available.

 

I can understand the frustration especially if outside the Confederation or Trillium Line stations. Ottawa International Airport has a ticket vending machine too.

One time, I got off at Fallowfield instead of Ottawa Station on Tremblay because the train arrived 20 minutes early. Had to pay regular fare to reach a ticket machine in downtown for a multi-day pass. The assumption is that people would buy either fare or day pass on-board the bus, but the fare strategy never was adjusted to accommodate multi-day passes which can only be purchased through a machine. 

Never forgot those struggles having to ask the operator for a day pass paying via Presto card and making sure he pressed the right button to enable the transaction. 

The one at Terry Fox is inside the large waiting room

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I was wondering what the exposed?of wire was for last winter.

 

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I remember going o 1500 ST Laurent to pick up Bus schedules. They had the entire bus routes that where printed even the 500 routes. In all honesty I dought these will come back at any customer locations. With todays Bus Apps , Text 560560 and other internet options I really dought they will go back to print "Pocket" time schedules. As well it'll save printing costs. 

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16 hours ago, Waiting for 30 Minutes said:

You're going to love this, though...it's outside the main entrance.

I mean - that's where I would put it. Might as well make it accessible 24 hours a day, and there really isn't room to put it inside. If they need to do some training, it's a lot easier to step outside than it is to drive to St. Laurent or Tremblay.

12 hours ago, tomsbuspage said:

I remember before 925 was opened, I would just walk right in the front door of 1500 St. Laurent if I needed something that the other customer service locations couldn't provide.  This was back in the 1990s.  I imagine that 925 was opened to provide a customer service location once 1500 became a secure facility.

925 is the newest OC Transpo building - it was previously Euro Tile and Stone OC Transpo bought it and opened in 2016. 1500 has been secured for a lot longer than that, customer service was previously at 875 Belfast.

4 hours ago, Oc4526 said:

The one at Terry Fox is inside the large waiting room

DFFC0A5A-98A4-4D22-8988-7AAF15CD66D1.thumb.jpeg.c930db48143e960458ef0e8070fd752a.jpeg

 

I was wondering what the exposed?of wire was for last winter.

 

That spool of wire has been there for years.

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14 hours ago, MCIBUS said:

I remember going o 1500 ST Laurent to pick up Bus schedules. They had the entire bus routes that where printed even the 500 routes. In all honesty I dought these will come back at any customer locations. With todays Bus Apps , Text 560560 and other internet options I really dought they will go back to print "Pocket" time schedules. As well it'll save printing costs. 

I hope the printed timetables and maps come back after this COVID mess has passed.  Not everyone has a smartphone or internet access, especially seniors.  Data plans with Bell, Rogers or Telus start at $80 per month, and that is an amount many people cannot afford.

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9 hours ago, tomsbuspage said:

I hope the printed timetables and maps come back after this COVID mess has passed.  Not everyone has a smartphone or internet access, especially seniors.  Data plans with Bell, Rogers or Telus start at $80 per month, and that is an amount many people cannot afford.

True, but the way everything going it appears that more and more things are going towards technology. Just look at TV everything's going towards streaming services and a lot of people are "cord cutting"? People are texting instead of actually talking to some on on the phone. And al lot of other social media, MP3 players etc.

Don't get me wrong I'm still for the printed schedules, I'm still 'OLD SCHOOL' but hey things are changing like it or not.

 

Heck even it transit -Electric buses(Battery), Presto cards, paying fares with your credit card at fare gates, GPS for tracking your bus, WI- FI on transit.

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On 12/4/2021 at 12:11 PM, Flalex72 said:

I mean - that's where I would put it. Might as well make it accessible 24 hours a day, and there really isn't room to put it inside. If they need to do some training, it's a lot easier to step outside than it is to drive to St. Laurent or Tremblay.

From a humanity standpoint (as well as the poor blokes that have to service the machines), I'd prefer them to be inside a vestibule between two main doors, like how some banks have their ATMs.

On 12/3/2021 at 11:42 PM, tomsbuspage said:

I remember before 925 was opened, I would just walk right in the front door of 1500 St. Laurent if I needed something that the other customer service locations couldn't provide.  This was back in the 1990s.  I imagine that 925 was opened to provide a customer service location once 1500 became a secure facility.

1500 St-Laurent didn't become a "secure" facility. Respective departments expanded and/or relocated, and more space was needed to accommodate them. The only real "secure" facility on property is 875 Belfast.

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1 hour ago, JackoJacko said:

Why were STO buses 0701 and 0702 converted into diesels? This is just a question I have always had ever since I heard they turned into diesels.

If I recall correctly, The batteries at the time were nearing the end of their life cycle and it was cheaper to convert the two then replace them. (0701 & 0702 were first gen Hybrids)   Someone can correct me if I’m wrong. 

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On 12/13/2021 at 11:07 PM, JackoJacko said:

Why were STO buses 0701 and 0702 converted into diesels? This is just a question I have always had ever since I heard they turned into diesels.

To be honest I don't really know but my feeling is that the hybrid technology at the time wasn't as reliable as it is today, leading to those buses being in the shop more often than their non-hybrid counterparts. Because of their differences from other vehicles, mechanics probably required specific training to work on the buses and it was probably deemed not worth it to give all mechanics extra training that only applies to 2 vehicles on the fleet, especially considering that at the time of conversion to diesel, the STO was already operating a pretty diverse fleet (Classics, 2nd, 3rd & 4th gen LFSs, LFSAs and 2015+ LFS HEVs) which probably all required specific training, making it a pain to add yet another model that represented less than 1% of the fleet to that list.

Parts supply probably had an influence as well, since they like to have parts on hand for just about everything, I'm sure they didn't like having a bunch of 07 Hybrid parts taking up valuable space in the warehouse and rarely getting used.

 

As I said, that's my theory.

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So when does OC start closing stops? Yet again, 85's are piling up at Carling/Grenon because the drivers stop and lose all momentum and jack knife or fail to climb. 6436 was beached around 5 PM, reporter showed up at the same time the next 85 run was due so 6485 and 6388 were both running as 85 Gatineau's. The driver of 6485 thought to stop just to stop about 50M ahead of beached 6436, and too got stuck because the driver stopped literally at the hills peak resistance to climbing. Like I'm sure these drivers must have done enough 85 runs in their career to know that Carling Ave. Hills will get you beached if you serve a stop at the base of the climb, and they don't need control or a supervisor to tell them that.... But I guess not.

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1 hour ago, Loud-Invero said:

So when does OC start closing stops? Yet again, 85's are piling up at Carling/Grenon because the drivers stop and lose all momentum and jack knife or fail to climb. 6436 was beached around 5 PM, reporter showed up at the same time the next 85 run was due so 6485 and 6388 were both running as 85 Gatineau's. The driver of 6485 thought to stop just to stop about 50M ahead of beached 6436, and too got stuck because the driver stopped literally at the hills peak resistance to climbing. Like I'm sure these drivers must have done enough 85 runs in their career to know that Carling Ave. Hills will get you beached if you serve a stop at the base of the climb, and they don't need control or a supervisor to tell them that.... But I guess not.

Ahh brings back memories watching 85s get stuck on that hill so many times when I lived in that area. 

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On 12/18/2021 at 6:11 PM, Loud-Invero said:

So when does OC start closing stops? Yet again, 85's are piling up at Carling/Grenon because the drivers stop and lose all momentum and jack knife or fail to climb. 6436 was beached around 5 PM, reporter showed up at the same time the next 85 run was due so 6485 and 6388 were both running as 85 Gatineau's. The driver of 6485 thought to stop just to stop about 50M ahead of beached 6436, and too got stuck because the driver stopped literally at the hills peak resistance to climbing. Like I'm sure these drivers must have done enough 85 runs in their career to know that Carling Ave. Hills will get you beached if you serve a stop at the base of the climb, and they don't need control or a supervisor to tell them that.... But I guess not.

The five stops were officially closed Saturday at 16:01 until Sunday at 11:38. Exception was Montréal/Den Haag, which was reinstated Sunday at 11:52.

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1 hour ago, Oc4526 said:

Not sure when it happened. However the eb stop at Richmond/Churchill was moved to the west side of the intersection (across from the church). I’m wondering if the Works & Savoy Brassiere had a say in the move. 
E9AE094B-A5B0-4625-9E6F-9B4AA1C54DC3.thumb.jpeg.e65f659052a0e60e237f5742b51b121a.jpeg

Happened at least a couple months ago, I’m not sure of the reason but it might of been a safety concern as buses used to have to cross the intersection and often wedge themselves into a spot between cars. This stop is a lot more functional 

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