Grande Prairie

[armorand]

On 10/8/2020 at 5:46 PM, InfiNorth said:

Yikes, those tires are dead. 1.1 million kilometres... interesting. 

Only $250?! Damn thats cheap.

[A. Wong]

On 11/17/2020 at 1:30 AM, armorand said:

Only $250?! Damn thats cheap.

Known issues - Turbo is seized

Will cost more to tow it probably!

[MiExpress]

Grande Prairie has 2 XD35's on order after a procurement for 2 35' buses which was awarded to New Flyer:

https://cityofgp.bidsandtenders.ca/Module/Tenders/en/Tender/Detail/2900b59d-9cb2-4266-a005-1746fd52aea8/#Awarded

[armorand]

14 minutes ago, MiExpress said:

Grande Prairie has 2 XD35's on order after a procurement for 2 35' buses which was awarded to New Flyer:

https://cityofgp.bidsandtenders.ca/Module/Tenders/en/Tender/Detail/2900b59d-9cb2-4266-a005-1746fd52aea8/#Awarded

I wonder what the riderships like, the past few months... I keep hearing from friends about Grande Prairie still being a mecca for any of the jobs left unfilled in Alberta since March, mostly due to its distance from Calgary/Edmonton, oil & gas, other developments, et cetera. It'd be a curious outlier in terms of transit use & expansion, if it dared actually GROW ridership and use since March. 

[M. Parsons]

36 minutes ago, armorand said:

It'd be a curious outlier in terms of transit use & expansion, if it dared actually GROW ridership and use since March. 

 

  Oh you and your wishful thoughts. I'm guessing ridership has not grown, let alone recovered, since regular service hasn't been reinstated and the below changes are still in effect.

Weekday service Monday to Friday will operate as follows:

Frequency of Routes 1, 2, and 3 during peak periods will change from 30-minute service to 60-minute service.
All routes will end approximately one hour earlier in the evening.
Routes 1 to 4 end at 8:15 p.m. at Town Centre Mall
Route 5 ends at 8:06 p.m. at Prairie Mall
Route 6 ends at 8:00 p.m. at Eastlink Centre
Saturday Service:

All routes will end approximately two hours earlier in the evening.
Routes 1 to 4 ends at 7:15 p.m. at Town Centre Mall
Route 5 ends at 7:05 p.m. at Prairie Mall
Route 6 ends at 7:00 p.m. at Eastlink
There will be no changes to Sunday or holiday service.
The City of Grande Prairie appreciates everyone’s co-operation and understanding during these adjustments.

[armorand]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:20 PM, M. Parsons said:

  Oh you and your wishful thoughts. I'm guessing ridership has not grown, let alone recovered, since regular service hasn't been reinstated and the below changes are still in effect.

Weekday service Monday to Friday will operate as follows:

Frequency of Routes 1, 2, and 3 during peak periods will change from 30-minute service to 60-minute service.
All routes will end approximately one hour earlier in the evening.
Routes 1 to 4 end at 8:15 p.m. at Town Centre Mall
Route 5 ends at 8:06 p.m. at Prairie Mall
Route 6 ends at 8:00 p.m. at Eastlink Centre
Saturday Service:

All routes will end approximately two hours earlier in the evening.
Routes 1 to 4 ends at 7:15 p.m. at Town Centre Mall
Route 5 ends at 7:05 p.m. at Prairie Mall
Route 6 ends at 7:00 p.m. at Eastlink
There will be no changes to Sunday or holiday service.
The City of Grande Prairie appreciates everyone’s co-operation and understanding during these adjustments.

Granted I have a pessimist/nihilist streak, but small town/small city transit does have a chance to grow, plague or no plague. Doesn't hurt to ask? I mean, how else will they pay for the new buses, without the ridership and the AB/federal governments hacking away at public transit grants? 

[roeco]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:20 PM, M. Parsons said:

  Oh you and your wishful thoughts. I'm guessing ridership has not grown, let alone recovered, since regular service hasn't been reinstated and the below changes are still in effect.

Weekday service Monday to Friday will operate as follows:

Frequency of Routes 1, 2, and 3 during peak periods will change from 30-minute service to 60-minute service.
All routes will end approximately one hour earlier in the evening.
Routes 1 to 4 end at 8:15 p.m. at Town Centre Mall
Route 5 ends at 8:06 p.m. at Prairie Mall
Route 6 ends at 8:00 p.m. at Eastlink Centre
Saturday Service:

All routes will end approximately two hours earlier in the evening.
Routes 1 to 4 ends at 7:15 p.m. at Town Centre Mall
Route 5 ends at 7:05 p.m. at Prairie Mall
Route 6 ends at 7:00 p.m. at Eastlink
There will be no changes to Sunday or holiday service.
The City of Grande Prairie appreciates everyone’s co-operation and understanding during these adjustments.

I know their are some route changes coming up soon...just not sure when...i know they want to rejig some of the routes. The Electric buses that do operate now are on Route 5/possibly 6 too. one operator takes one out for am to 12-1 pm or so and the afternoon takes another one out for their shift. Otherwise they cant do a full run on the battery power. They were meant for peak hours but no peak hour service at the moment.

[M. Parsons]

15 hours ago, armorand said:

I mean, how else will they pay for the new buses, without the ridership and the AB/federal governments hacking away at public transit grants? 

While the one off grant established by the NDP government was cancelled, the meat and potatoes MSI funding that is often used for bus purchases is intact and amounts to nearly $1 billion per year across the province.

This diesel bus purchase probably would not have been covered by the grant established under the NDP, or the previous GreenTRIP, as those generally didn't fund replacement diesel buses.

[Catherine Wilkins]

Deleted

[roeco]

Some pretty major changes are coming to Gp Transit....theirs a complete route overhaul that will be implemented by Summer. Several low ridership areas will switch to Dial a Bus. And 2-3 routes will service the New Grande Prairie Regional Hospital. The entire transit system will not look the same as it is now. Most of the Older Flyers have been Retired after between 20-25 years of service.

[Bustizen]

Poor quality capture of CTB040 (New Flyer XD35) for now. First GP Transit bus to feature white destination signs. Hope I have time to snap better pics of this and the Ford's soon.

 

[Seashore_518203]

On 3/4/2022 at 10:41 PM, Bustizen said:

Poor quality capture of CTB040 (New Flyer XD35) for now. First GP Transit bus to feature white destination signs. Hope I have time to snap better pics of this and the Ford's soon.

 

Thanks for posting the photo. Did Grande Prairie Transit skip a bunch of numbers? What happened to CTB-035 to CTB-039?

[Bustizen]

On 3/8/2022 at 11:51 AM, Seashore_518203 said:

Thanks for posting the photo. Did Grande Prairie Transit skip a bunch of numbers? What happened to CTB-035 to CTB-039?

CTB-035 to CTB-038 are the Ford's for lower demand routes such as 5, 6, and 11/12. I believe CTB-039 and CTB-040 are both XD35's. (More poor quality pics of CTB-038 and CTB-040)

 

[Articulated]

On 3/20/2022 at 2:02 PM, Bustizen said:

CTB-035 to CTB-038 are the Ford's for lower demand routes such as 5, 6, and 11/12. I believe CTB-039 and CTB-040 are both XD35's. (More poor quality pics of CTB-038 and CTB-040)

Thanks for the info! I'm surprised they went back to the green and blue stripe... the Vicinity and BYD buses had purple and green waves which more closely matched the City logo.

Also, speaking of the BYDs and Vicinity buses, they already had plenty of shorter buses, I wonder why they felt the need to purchase four cutaways (and then use them on 3 routes, now putting them in a shortage of that type - noticed ATB-012 tracking on the route 5 this evening, I guess that's supposed to be an Accessible Transportation unit).