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MaT

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I hope they build it with 60 footers in mind for the future. It would be cheaper to build it to accommodate them now than to go back and change it later on. If they were to build 40ft bus bays and want to convert some to 60ft bus bays later, they might have to redo whole sections in order to do it. 

If they do use the hospital grounds where that parking lot is, they can use the area closest to the road where the sidewalk is currently. They can make the bus bays where the sidewalk is and make them parallel to the road(similar to how they did the walkerville 8 at WITT), 60ft buses can use that section pulling. Can make that extra long bay for the 2 and the 1C, first in first out like it currently is at TMALL and DMALL. That would be half of the island bus terminal, the other side of it can be 40ft bus bays and can have as many bays as needed.

So say a straight bay on the north end of the terminal to accommodate 2 60ft buses(can potentially expand furthur to accommodate another 40ft bus if a future need arises), and the south half of the terminal can have the 40ft bays.   North side can be the Crosstown 2 and the 1C transway and the south side can be the Central 3, Central 3 West, and the South Windsor 7. Can do that as a start and have it towards the west end of the parking lot(Where there is currently a bus stop) so if they need to expand it in the future for more bus bays they can go east.

It can look something like this as an island terminal(wont look right on a phone)
(Where the current bus stop is in front of the hospital on the north-west side)


60 Foot Bus  |  60 Foot Bus (One long straight bus bay similar to walkerville 8 at WITT) (north side)                                               Can expand this direction later 
-Island with bus shelters and possibly building for drivers/passengers etc)-     
40 foot | 40 Foot | 40 Foot (40 ft bus bays)  (South Side

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I doubt they will build that terminal to accommodate 60 foot buses.  They dont have the money for a new garage or upgrades to accommodate 60ft buses. Lets hope the new terminal has bathrooms for the customers and drivers.

the old terminal at college ave didnt have customer bathrooms we had to walk up to McDonald’s to use their washrooms.

That will be my point on Thursday at the open house meeting. 

 

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Theyre in the middle of doing a whole bunch of upgrades at the garage as it is. And while were talking about it they actually might be able to fit a 60ft hoist in there. 

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On 2/27/2018 at 3:15 PM, MaT said:

580 is here!

 

Edit: 578 is also here

20180227_151259.jpg

 

 

And also there is a tender up for a service review consultant on the city's website.

https://www.citywindsor.ca/Lists/Tenders/Service Review Consultant for Transit Windsor/55-18, RFP, LETTER Service Review Consultant.pdf

 

 

Mat you have a collectors photo of 580 as the new buses are being renumbered starting at 8001 on.

 

 

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I do understand that there have been previous articles posted by MaT as it relates to the possibilities of Regional Transit. So perhaps this could be a precursor to it anyway.
Anyone know what would be retired from this Nova order specifically?

Edited by newflyerinvero
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On 3/10/2018 at 7:48 AM, MaT said:

Apparently its because there wasnt enough numbers in the 5XX series to fit 26 buses. I dont know, either way, these novas are going to be the 8XXX.

8001 was in service today doing a Senior Special, this was numbered 578 from the plant.

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From the Windsor Star!

 

Big boost in public transportation funding called 'game changer' for Transit Windsor

 

A plan that will see the two senior levels of government invest over $100 million in Windsor’s public transportation system is being called a game changer.

“This will give us a chance to accelerate public transit so much,” said city councillor Bill Marra, who chairs the Transit Windsor advisory committee Bill Marra. “That’s a lot of money for public transit — that’s a game changer.”

Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Amarjeet Sohi announced Friday that Windsor would be receiving $57 million in federal funding and $47 million from the province over 10 years as its share of the Investing in Canada plan. The city will kick in a portion as well, with the objective of the overall spend being to transform the way Canadians live, move and work. 

 

“This is the largest infrastructure investment the federal government is making to support numerous communities to build better public transportation systems,” Sohi told The Star in a phone interview. “These are significant investments and changes we are making to enable municipalities to build infrastructure they need.”

 

Transit Windsor has been working on a master plan for a number of years and, after presenting it to council, was recently asked to complete a phased report. As part of that effort, Transit Windsor received $10.2 million last year. Transit Windsor executive director Pat Delmore said that money is being used to “revitalize” the system, with 24 new buses purchased and 120 new bus shelters to be installed throughout the city as well as investments being made in updating bus facility and maintenance areas. 

“No definitive decisions have been made, but we do have a lot of ideas and plans,” Delmore said of the new funds just announced. “We are doing a service delivery review right now which we expect to be our road map to the future over the next 10 years.” 

 

The review is taking an in-depth look at the system, focusing on things like bus routes and highlighting areas that are currently under-serviced as well as looking at the future growth of the city.

Marra said the funding will help Transit Windsor to improve its system while investing in technology that will provide riders with things like real-time access to information, for example informing riders about bus arrival times. He said there has been some significant recent improvements in ridership with an agreement with the University of Windsor and by expanding service into LaSalle. 

 

 

“This allows us to start making a case for a regional transit system because the resources are now going to be available,” Marra said. “It’s exciting for a number of reasons. And I think for the Windsor Essex area this truly could be a game-changing investment because it allows us to do a number of things and do it over a short period of time.”

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said the funding will provide a nice boost to the city’s public and active transportation systems. He said details are still scarce on how the money will be allotted over ten years. One of the hopes, however, is to use a portion of it to connect Windsor’s cycling infrastructure to the city’s public transit system. 

“We are hoping to upgrade our system, provide better service and transit and I’m sure there are many ways for us to do that,” Dilkens said. “In addition, how can we improve the cycling network to be able to allow folks to access by bicycle the current transit stops? So you add the active transportation to it and it could become a very exciting announcement.”

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I also noticed that in the Windsor Star article there, 8001 is picture as the UofW Via Rail shuttle. I knew they wanted to do that shuttle but I never seen anything on their site about it so I had no idea they had actually started doing it.

As for the express, I wonder if they are doing that as a measure to try and assist with the overloading? It gets full and they express to the destination?

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6 minutes ago, MaT said:

I also noticed that in the WIndsor Star artile there, 8001 is picture as the UofW Via Rail shuttle. I knew they wanted to do that shuttle but I never seen anything on their site about it so I had no idea they had actually started doing it.

 

As for the express, I wonder if they are doing that as a measure to try and assist with the overloading? It gets full and they express to the destination?

The new buses did not come equipment with some of the I.T. equipment  which is being done at the garage, so they are used for senior specials, tunnel bus and express services where they don't have to announce the stops til the I.T. equipment is installed.  

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23 minutes ago, MaT said:

I also noticed that in the WIndsor Star artile there, 8001 is picture as the UofW Via Rail shuttle. I knew they wanted to do that shuttle but I never seen anything on their site about it so I had no idea they had actually started doing it.

 

As for the express, I wonder if they are doing that as a measure to try and assist with the overloading? It gets full and they express to the destination?

The UofW VIA shuttle is part of a contract the UWSA (uWindsor student union) has with Transit Windsor that provides these shuttles. Other shuttles include the late night shuttles from Thursday-Sunday nights. They are intended for students to use perhaps that's why it isnt't posted on the website.

 

8004-3.jpg

As for the express, a friend of mine saw it around 4:30pm at the University 1C stop on Friday.

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  • Ahhh ok thanks for the info! I also noticed today that the area around the garage is so full of buses that theyre storing some of the new buses over by the salt storage next door near the central bridge. I got pictures of them too, one of them here. Pictured is 588, unumbered, 589, 592 and 593.

     

     

    EDIT.  Web portal is up now!    https://windsor.mytransitride.com/Home/Desktop

     

     

    im sure its still in testing phase but we can see the buses online live now! and it says what number the buses are! :D:D  BTW I dont think all the buses are on here either.

20180326_185411.jpg

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18 hours ago, newflyerinvero said:

I'm curious what buses would be retired other than the ones we know about (the VIs and the two remaining Classic which aren't officially retired) (?). 

Any specific information available at this time?

The first-gen Novas (549-553) should also be getting the boot.

The Classics, VIs, first-gen Novas, and ElDorados should add to about 19 buses. They could start getting rid of the 2002 Orion VII or D40i buses if they wanted to retire more units, or they could keep the extra buses around for service expansion/expanded spare ratio.

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Time will tell. Plans can always change. They did say in the article above that they will be keeping 5 extra buses as spares for the south windsor routes(5,6,7) with the overloading. Me personally, I hope they keep 549-553 as the spares.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've gone on the tracker a few times (I do enjoy how it, like SMART's tracker, displays fleet numbers) and I've noticed that neither the Eldorados, the first-gen LFSes, the 8000-series LFSes nor the Orion VIs are trackable. Could this be because all of the aforementioned (except the 8000s of course) have been retired already?

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23 hours ago, 160 Downriver said:

I've gone on the tracker a few times (I do enjoy how it, like SMART's tracker, displays fleet numbers) and I've noticed that neither the Eldorados, the first-gen LFSes, the 8000-series LFSes nor the Orion VIs are trackable. Could this be because all of the aforementioned (except the 8000s of course) have been retired already?

The Eldorado's and most of the 1997 LFS buses are retired. There are photos of them without their plates all parked in a group.

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