Transit Windsor

[newflyerinvero]

https://blackburnnews.com/windsor/windsor-news/2023/02/13/transit-windsors-looking-fresh-new-look/

[MaT]

https://www.citywindsor.ca/cityhall/City-Council-Meetings/Documents/Standing Committees/2023/Agenda with Item Numbers and Page Numbers.pdf


Some proposals for this year include route number and name changes, mainly to the 1C, 2 ,4 and 5, and the lauzon 10 being eliminated. Also new local routes in Forest Glade(2 routes replacing the lauzon 10), Riverside(1 route also replacing the lauzon 10), and a local route in South Windsor. The 1C and the 4 will be removed from Forest Glade and their routes would end at Tecumseh Mall.  Whats listed above as far as im aware has not been approved yet, and shoud have no issue being approved as they are just a reallocation of resources(other than the work to make the changes, signs etc). Ill make it easy, heres the main changes they want to do:

2 turns into the 100
1C turns into the 110
4 turns into the 200
5 turns into the 115
new local route 310 in forest glade
new local route 325 in forest glade
new route 330 in south windsor
new route 335 in east riverside

Also on the table again is the new main corridor semi express route the 418X, which TW would need 4 new buses to run. So theyre not sure if they can run it yet with the current fleet or if they would need to buy 4 new buses to run the service. So this route Im gonna say well see what happens. At least in this report we finally have a route map for it.

[MaT]

All approved!

https://www.iheartradio.ca/am800/news/transit-windsor-set-to-add-18-000-more-service-hours-with-new-and-expanded-routes-1.19503272

[Girardin71]

418x Starting in June

https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/with-more-people-than-ever-using-public-transit-in-windsor-418x-will-roll-out-in-june-1.6356551

[MaT]

The new 418X schedule and map are up!

 

https://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/transitwindsor/Routes-and-Schedules/Documents/Schedule/418X - Effective June 26, 2023.pdf

[Girardin71]

8020 & 8056 have a Cogeco Fibre full bus wrap.  As far as i known two 2 were wrapped.

[MaT]

So there's 3 buses in the 418x today for 30 min frequencies. 8036, 8040 and 8044.

[MaT]

Tw updated their system map for the city(not the regional routes) to include the 418X. 

[doglover44]

What buses do they run ?

[MaT]

You can find any bus on the 418X

[Girardin71]

576 is now a 33 passenger not 35,  it missing a couple of seats thats cross from the rear door.  Not sure that 572 is still missing the same seats.

Edited October 12 by Girardin71
Added a photo

[Toro]

Is 439 Preserved or is it still active as a revenue bus?

[MaT]

It should be off the road and retired now. Ill check with my contact again to verify.

[Girardin71]

LaSalle 25 adds four new stops 

Change to LaSalle Transit Route 25 - Morton Industrial Area - Town of LaSalle

the new route map

Map-LaSalle-25-as-of-October-30-2023.jpg (2200×1700)

[MaT]

Now this article is the only place Ive seen this mentioned, so Id like to find out from a more concrete source how true this all is. The 120% increase in ridership I can believe, but the rest that I have bolded is all new to me!  Last I remember, we had 117 buses, not 119. So something may have changed somewhere. As for the 46 buses hes hoping to have by the end of the year, im guessing the end of 2024.

https://autosphere.ca/fleet/2023/09/07/transit-windsor-meeting-the-street/

Transit Windsor: Meeting the Street

 

More buses, more service improvements are the key.   

With post-pandemic ridership up 120 percent, Transit Windsor is definitely on the right track with its transit strategy.

“The pandemic years were terrible for any transit industry,” explains Tyson Cragg, Executive Director, Transit Windsor. “Our ridership has recovered and then some. The latest statistic that I’ve heard is that transit ridership in Canada has recovered to 78 percent of pre-pandemic ridership.

 

Windsor is less of a commuter town than it is a university and college town, and the majority of riders, about 70 percent, are students. Cragg partially credits the influx of international students at the city’s educational institutes—the University of Windsor and St. Clair College—with the increase in ridership. Students also have transit passes built into their tuition fees, which has been a very successful program.

It’s also a city in growth mode, experiencing an economic boom thanks to major projects such as the NextStar battery plant, the Gordie Howe International Bridge and a new acute care mega-hospital under development. “Windsor Essex is attracting a lot of people,” notes Cragg.

Double-edged sword

But the increase in ridership is a double-edged sword. “It’s great to have high ridership but it comes with a downside,” says Cragg. “Sometimes there are too many for us to accommodate with the existing fleet and schedule resources that we have.”

Currently there are 119 buses in the Transit Windsor fleet. In 2020, 19 buses were purchased, another 24 in 2022, and three are on order. Cragg aims to have 46 more buses by the end of the year, replacing 34 buses on top of that.

The design life of a bus is targeted at 12 years, and heavy duty transit buses go through the Altoona testing at Penn State University, through their engineering department, the Bus Research and Testing Centre. “If you’re building a heavy duty transit bus, if you want to have any credibility in the industry, the bus has to pass the Altoona testing.”

 

Altoona puts vehicles through durability and longevity testing. “It’s going to take 12 years of being pounded over potholes and heavy duty high duty cycles,” reports Cragg. “The duty cycle of a transit bus is about the most punishing duty cycle you can get. Our buses run 21 hours a day, from 5 am to 2 am, and they’re expected to do that day in and day out.”

Service improvements

Service improvements have been made even through the pandemic. A transit master plan for Windsor was approved in early 2020, and that’s being used to plan more service improvements over the next decade. In fact, service levels have gone up about 12 percent over the last couple of years—items like new routes, increased service hours. Three new routes have been introduced in the last two years alone, tailored to the commuter needs of students, the primary Transit Windsor riders.

An application has been made through Canada Infrastructure Program that included a request for hybrid buses. From a facility perspective, the city is not yet ready for an all electric fleet, as that would require very extensive modification. “Right now we’re focusing on hybrid as a bridge technology to get us to full electrification.”

Older diesel buses are being replaced with hybrid technology, and hybrid buses have been part of the fleet since 15 years ago. However, these have been outmoded by new hybrid technology that promises a 30 percent reduction in fuel consumption compared to regular diesel buses.

The new hybrids also have the ability to operate in an “engine-off” mode. Inside, there’s a small diesel engine which is a 6.7 Cummins, the same engine that is in a RAM 2500 full size pickup truck. It’s smaller than the normal engine on a bus, which is usually a Cummins ISL or an L9. “It acts as a gen-set, and the bus operates as an electric vehicle, since the engine only fires up when it needs to recharge the batteries,” explains Cragg.

Hybrid vehicles

Right now hybrid vehicles amount to 25 percent of the fleet, but these will be replaced with the newer generation hybrid. “We really don’t want to buy any more diesel buses if we can avoid it, we want to buy more environmentally friendly equipment,” notes Cragg.

Mechanics have already been trained on hybrids and are well versed in working with high voltage applications. Drivers are trained on the various types of buses, since the hybrids operate a little differently, using regenerative braking.

Cragg is quick to credit staff with helping drive the increase in ridership. “Whether you’re wrenching a bus or driving a bus or selling passes, it’s those folks that have kept us going,” he says. “They’re out there, where the rubber meets the road. It’s a team effort.”

 

[Girardin71]

Im on the central 3 bus that just drove through the back of the garage and i saw 608 with parts missing.  439 was back there too along with few Novas.  So 608 is MIA.

[MaT]

639 is retired and 608 has been used as a parts bus for over a year.

[MaT]

https://www.citywindsor.ca/cityhall/City-Council-Meetings/Documents/Standing Committees/2023/November 29, 2023 ETPS Public Agenda with item numbers and page numbers - Accessible.pdf?fbclid=IwAR36arasOa_Lch3LBfg6XmKB0_wlND39FgZWc8Bi8GITxl_zd6ruiJVWtuU

Scroll down to the bottom, item 9.2      this all needs to be approved by city council.  I noticed that some of the local route numbers changed, and they havent decided yet on any route names apparently for the new routes. 

I believe the changes to the 1C, 2, 4, the new local routes etc is happening in early 2024, while IF the rest of this stuff gets approved, will be some other time in 2024. Also included would be 3 expansion buses, all hybrids, as a result of the last round of improvements using the current fleet.  This would explain the previous article that mentioned 3 buses on order, which still needs to be confirmed.