Durham Region Transit

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

ICAMI (In Case Anyone Missed It), DRT will be resuming fare collection on July 2nd, 2020. 

With the ongoing pandemic - comes the need to offer contactless options (not just PRESTO) and electronic ticketing. This was mentioned in details on a news release: https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=b27d5e84-98b6-42f2-a042-7cc647edf90b&feedId=fcda21e8-a0d7-4bbe-9955-c4e9163cc1fd

I've also read that a "digital version" of the U-PASS (Universal Transit Pass - a special transit passed issued for students who attend Durham College, OTU (aka Ontario Tech University, OnTechU) - please don't ask me why I classify OnTechU as "OTU" (and pronounced as "O2"), and Trent University's Oshawa Campus) will be introduced. It would have make sense to have the UPASS offered on PRESTO, but I don't know why DRT has chosen not to go to that route (pun intended).

[wil9402]

On 6/3/2020 at 5:41 PM, Ultimate said:

Seen 9101 training this afternoon at UFTS. Looped once and left

9101 was back in Scarborough today on a training run. Spotted it around 3:50pm northbound on Morningside, then southeast on Military Trail and into Centennial Circle.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

It appears that fare collection - will resume on July 2nd, 2020. In addition, Durham Region Transit will be resuming front-door boarding (and implementing rear door exiting) to allow one-way entry and one way exit to allow the flow of pax to/from the buses.

Still with fares, ticket sales will be scaled back to community and social agencies (that means, you will no longer buy 10-ride tickets) and paper-based passes will be eliminated (other than the Access Pass - this type of pass is only for eligble recipients who are on ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and other-related programs such as Ontario Works). Paper transfers (for those who pay with cash or a ticket) will be suspended. Cash fares will be up $0.25CDN and Presto single-taps by $0.05CDN

With the new PRESTO Card readers coming in gradually, it will definitely allow more flexibility and enable the acceptance of contactless payments such as debit and credit cards (and mobile wallets). Don't forget about the so-called QR-code reader as well.

Source: https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=5528f7f2-87c7-4dc8-9397-36a24c4c2287&feedId=fcda21e8-a0d7-4bbe-9955-c4e9163cc1fd

FYI, CDN = Canadian Dollars

[J. Bullock]

Durham College Loop is closed today and tomorrow for commencement ceremonies, all buses are serving stops on Simcoe Street only.

https://bit.ly/37WLK3P

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

I stumbled upon this tweet from the Tim Horton's Twitter page and to my surprise, the folks at Timmies did something to thank the Durham Region Transit workers:

Just like Ezreal from League of Legends would say, "Lotta good mages out there! None of them are this hot!".

(Posted from my Samsung Galaxy S9)

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

Very surprised that nobody hasn't posted this "big ticket" change for Durham Region Transit, but the new schedule changes are going to take effect on August 24th, 2020.

A summary of these changes are:

Frequent Service on every 15 minutes or better from 7:00p.m. to 7:00p.m.:
These following roads will have service on these corridors:
- Highway 2 West
- Simcoe St.
- King/Bond Streets
- Taunton Rd.
- Rossland Rd.

Grid network with service every 30 minutes or better, seven days a week:
- Whites Rd.
- Bayly/Victoria/Consumers (for the purposes of clarity, these street names are known as Regional Road #22)
- Harwood Ave.
- Salem Rd.
- Brock/Baldwin (formerly known as Ontario Highway 12)
- Park Rd.
- Wilson Rd.
- Ritson Rd.
- Highway 2 East (in Bowmanville)

OnDemand service:

• Introduced where demand does not warrant sufficient Frequent or Grid service.
• Will offer customers a flexibilty to use the service from travelling point-to-point within a defined zone, connecting to bus routes with a frequent to grid service or going to a bus terminal or GO station. In addition, the OnDemand service will be expanded to Clarington to supplement a new bus route connecting from Bowmanville to Oshawa (more on that will be discussed later in this post).
• Mobile App introduction: to coincide with the newly expanded OnDemand service, a new Mobile App solution (which is yet to be seen but introduced soon) will help customers book trips at their own terms.

New bus routes:

• 901 PULSE Simcoe: a highly anticipated new PULSE BRT route will be introduced providing additional frequent service along the Simcoe St. corridor. This will replace the 401 Simcoe (if i'm not mistaken).
• 902 King: a new bus route will serve Clarington to Oshawa providing residents and visitors seamless service. Not sure if the demise of GO bus route 90 will play a role on that.
• 917 Bayly/Victoria/Consumers: will offer service from Pickering to Oshawa along the Regional Rd. #22 corridor. This route will replace the 223 Bayly and the 922 Bloor/Victoria (if I'm not mistaken).
   

All of the details that is discussed in this post are part of Durham Region Transit's Phase A strategy. As for Phases B and C, there is very little information at this time.

Further reading:
https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=08edcbee-260f-4a95-ab6f-74ee23ace6e0&feedId=fcda21e8-a0d7-4bbe-9955-c4e9163cc1fd

[John Oke]

when are the delayed service expansions ie:312 reroute and suspended routes coming back?

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

12 hours ago, John Oke said:

when are the delayed service expansions ie:312 reroute and suspended routes coming back?

That, I dont have any information to share. However, it is likely that some of the delayed service expansions - were likely superceded by the upcoming service expansions scheduled for August 24, 2020.

As for some of the service that you had mentioned, the answer to that is - I don't know.

[sdgta2008]

On 8/7/2020 at 10:18 PM, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

Very surprised that nobody hasn't posted this "big ticket" change for Durham Region Transit, but the new schedule changes are going to take effect on August 24th, 2020.

A summary of these changes are:

Frequent Service on every 15 minutes or better from 7:00p.m. to 7:00p.m.:
These following roads will have service on these corridors:
- Highway 2 West
- Simcoe St.
- King/Bond Streets
- Taunton Rd.
- Rossland Rd.

Grid network with service every 30 minutes or better, seven days a week:
- Whites Rd.
- Bayly/Victoria/Consumers (for the purposes of clarity, these street names are known as Regional Road #22)
- Harwood Ave.
- Salem Rd.
- Brock/Baldwin (formerly known as Ontario Highway 12)
- Park Rd.
- Wilson Rd.
- Ritson Rd.
- Highway 2 East (in Bowmanville)

OnDemand service:

• Introduced where demand does not warrant sufficient Frequent or Grid service.
• Will offer customers a flexibilty to use the service from travelling point-to-point within a defined zone, connecting to bus routes with a frequent to grid service or going to a bus terminal or GO station. In addition, the OnDemand service will be expanded to Clarington to supplement a new bus route connecting from Bowmanville to Oshawa (more on that will be discussed later in this post).
• Mobile App introduction: to coincide with the newly expanded OnDemand service, a new Mobile App solution (which is yet to be seen but introduced soon) will help customers book trips at their own terms.

New bus routes:

• 901 PULSE Simcoe: a highly anticipated new PULSE BRT route will be introduced providing additional frequent service along the Simcoe St. corridor. This will replace the 401 Simcoe (if i'm not mistaken).
• 902 King: a new bus route will serve Clarington to Oshawa providing residents and visitors seamless service. Not sure if the demise of GO bus route 90 will play a role on that.
• 917 Bayly/Victoria/Consumers: will offer service from Pickering to Oshawa along the Regional Rd. #22 corridor. This route will replace the 223 Bayly and the 922 Bloor/Victoria (if I'm not mistaken).
   

All of the details that is discussed in this post are part of Durham Region Transit's Phase A strategy. As for Phases B and C, there is very little information at this time.

Further reading:
https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=08edcbee-260f-4a95-ab6f-74ee23ace6e0&feedId=fcda21e8-a0d7-4bbe-9955-c4e9163cc1fd

Any speculation as to what vehicles they'll use for the neighbourhood OnDemand services?

[G.A]

1 hour ago, sdgta2008 said:

Any speculation as to what vehicles they'll use for the neighbourhood OnDemand services?

They acquired a bunch of ProMaster buses for On Demand.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

While I can't wait to see on what the Urban OnDemand service is like, I wonder which technology DRT will utilize for that service.

These are the candidates (that I know out of my head): RideCo, VIA Ridesharing

I couldn't remember which company/technology that Belleville Transit uses for it's similar service..  

[John Oke]

https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/about-us/our-services.aspx?_mid_=28171

 

I can't tell with this if routes like 303, 304, 312, 215, 224, 193, 411, 408, 409 etc will be permanently canceled or come back at a later date, all I can say is everywhere but Oshawa has been F*cked over by this.

[newflyerinvero]

36 minutes ago, John Oke said:

https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/about-us/our-services.aspx?_mid_=28171

 

I can't tell with this if routes like 303, 304, 312, 215, 224, 193, 411, 408, 409 etc will be permanently canceled or come back at a later date, all I can say is everywhere but Oshawa has been F*cked over by this.

I think even Oshawa has been f***ed over with the loss of their local routes.

The 301, 409, 411, 412  and the 417 are still vital routesin that part of the system.

I hope that these routes are all part of "Phase B" of their ridership recovery plan. At least, I hope so.

In my opinion, there's going to be a big loss for returning customers and new customers as with this 'revamped' system is all grid, itonly serves those customers those closest to those corridors. Even not having the 910 around is, or could be big mistake especially of there's a even a medium return of post-secondary students. That will be a big turn off.

[Chris W]

Oh I can see this going well. They're already being massacred on social media by angry residents over the cuts (which I contend they were going to make anyway but COVID was used as a convenient crutch) to service. This was the absolute WRONG decision and proves how backwards their rationale is.

[John Oke]

29 minutes ago, Chris W said:

Oh I can see this going well. They're already being massacred on social media by angry residents over the cuts (which I contend they were going to make anyway but COVID was used as a convenient crutch) to service. This was the absolute WRONG decision and proves how backwards their rationale is.

Yes they're receiving quite a bit backlash on Twitter with users saying that they're alienating riders.

Here's an example:

 

[newflyerinvero]

4 hours ago, John Oke said:

Yes they're receiving quite a bit backlash on Twitter with users saying that they're alienating riders.

Here's an example:

 

Prior to COVID, this wasn't even close to being a consideration of doing these drastic coverage route cuts. @110B West Pickering could shed a bit of light on this based on what had been considered prior to COVID. But this is nowhere close to being the right thing to do. 
Phase A should at the very least, have that base grid, but with the solid coverage and other higher performing routes supporting the grid. 
DRT isn't YRT, but its return to service makes it look like YRT.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

30 minutes ago, newflyerinvero said:

Prior to COVID, this wasn't even close to being a consideration of doing these drastic coverage route cuts. @110B West Pickering could shed a bit of light on this based on what had been considered prior to COVID. But this is nowhere close to being the right thing to do. 
Phase A should at the very least, have that base grid, but with the solid coverage and other higher performing routes supporting the grid. 
DRT isn't YRT, but its return to service makes it look like YRT.

One of my favourite routes, the Route 225 was (unfortunately) being cut. I haven't used that route in ages ever since I was working from home for a few months during the pandemic (I won't be back into the office until the first quarter of 2021).

Sadly, the area that is within the vincity of the 225 bus route - isn't covered by OnDemand. At least I can take an Uber from my house to the GO station (during the dead of winter!). As for bicycle riding, at least I have so many "avenues" to choose from when it comes to my own mode of transportation (I don't drive).

 

  

4 hours ago, John Oke said:

  they're receiving quite a bit backlash on Twitter with users saying that they're alienating riders.

 

The plot slowly thickens. The hardest hit are not just seniors but people with special needs too!

[2822]

With all these service cuts happening how many of the oldest D40LF and Elderados will retire?. It looks like they will use only about half the buses system wide as they did prior to Covid-19.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

On 8/14/2020 at 7:44 AM, 110B West Pickering said:

This is all part of a three phase plan that leads back to 92% of the revenue service hours restored.

Phase A is what comes into effect on August 24

Phase B Hopefully will be in place in October, it adds more service on the frequent network as well as adding some local routes, routes that had previously been small routes are now consolidated into larger single routes. A good example of this is the new 103 or the new 312

Lastly is Phase 3. In this phase, more local routes are restored, especially peak period routes in Ajax,  but also restored routes in Whitby such as the 303 and 304, and increased frequency on routes like The 405 and 407 to be included in the frequent network.

theres no exact dates for 2 and 3 but presumably the October and December boards respectively.

Beyond stage 3 they will start adding back more of the local routes as demand warrants, but again, extending them and optimizing them to make them more useful, routes like the 409 and the 910 may eventually make their returns.

until then it’s all OnDemand in the lower ridership areas, but when the restructuring is complete we will have a 15 minute frequent network, a 30 minute grid network, an hourly local network and an OnDemand network that covers all the rest. 
 

We will also see long awaited things come to the region, such as expansion of the PULSE BRT brand on Simcoe Street with the 901, or a route to Bowmanville from Oshawa. 
 

Another point of note, come stage 3, the 902 in Peak Periods will be extended to Newcastle at King and Brookhouse Drive.

Overall, I think while yes there are tons of cuts,

we went from 57 routes last year to 32 in June and now down to 17 in Phase A.

I do believe that much of this is overall for the greater good, I believe strengthening the key corridors is a great first step in restoring ridership, the frequent network corridors make up 70% of DRT’s ridership.

Lost of this was thought up in months, but for the last year DRT has been trying to think up a reimagined DRT network as their 2016 Five Year service plan was coming to an end.  Much of what they’ve been planning for the last year now, hasn’t been thrown away, in many cases it’s been improved upon.

in April, there were scheduled to be many cuts to some routes, for example the 223 Bayly was going to operate hourly in most periods, and east of Ajax, was going to only operate eastbound on weekends. They were going to also extend the 910 Campus Connect service from Whitby GO to Ajax GO using Bayly and Victoria, there were only 8 scheduled trips per weekday, per direction.

now the 917 Bayly/Consumers route travels from Pickering Parkway Terminal, to the Oshawa Centre via Ajax and Whitby GO Stations, every half hour, from early morning to late evening, seven days a week.

I think, once it’s fully rolled out, we will actually have ended up with a better overall network,

 

You didn't mention that Durham College and OnTechU had withdrew their participation in the UPASS program. The only exception is Trent University's Oshawa Campus (they will "hang on to their hats" for the time being).

While it makes sense that those post-secondary institutions to abandon ship on their participation (owning to the fact that some of the programs that they offer are transitioning towards online learning), some students are upset of the decision. 

I'm hoping that DRT can offer a way for people to buy e-tickets and e-passes. While PRESTO is sufficient, I would love to see DRT go towards the digital age. Perhaps they can look into adopting a similar implementation that Calgary Transit in Calgary, AB, Canada did.

FYI, AB = Alberta

[Bus_Medic]

12 hours ago, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

FYI, AB = Alberta

Got it, thanks.

[DavidH]

On 8/14/2020 at 7:44 AM, 110B West Pickering said:

This is all part of a three phase plan that leads back to 92% of the revenue service hours restored.

Phase A is what comes into effect on August 24

 

 

Thanks for this.  I've fallen out of staying in touch with the TEC meetings lately (obvious reasons) so I hadn't seen the additional details you posted.  

I can definitely understand the need to focus on the core routes right now, but their communications strategy so far on this has been just absolutely awful:

- no mention in their their primary communications of route cut (and they aren't the only one - GO is just as guilty with their service announcements this week)

- no mention that much of the cut service will gradually return.

- no mention of details on how the new On Demand services will work, despite the obvious fact that the success or failure of this plan will hinge on those On Demand services.  For example, I didn't know until I went to the TEC report that they were going to offer On Demand reservations for people taking the same trip every day.  We're less than a week away from this service being introduced, and the average rider has absolutely no idea how this will work.  

- Transit stops going out of regular service (at least in my neighbourhood) have had signs put up about the service change (though with very little detail) and those signs have mostly fallen off or being vandalized by now, so someone venturing out to a stop for the first time will have no idea what is happening.  I expect some riders will get a very nasty surprise next week.

Hopefully there is a big communications push coming later this week, but I doubt it.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

9 hours ago, DavidH said:

- Transit stops going out of regular service (at least in my neighbourhood) have had signs put up about the service change (though with very little detail) and those signs have mostly fallen off or being vandalized by now, so someone venturing out to a stop for the first time will have no idea what is happening.  I expect some riders will get a very nasty surprise next week.

 

The similar case is true for my neighbourhood as well. I used to take the Route 225 to/from the Ajax GO station (well before the pandemic took place), but sadly there were notices posted on the bus stop along the route that the service will be (somehow) discontinued.

Sadly, one of the areas where the Route 225 is served (West of Harwood, East of Westney, North of Hwy. 2 and South of 401) will not be included in the OnDemand service - most likely due to the vicnity of the Route 900 Pulse, 915 Taunton and 216 Harwood bus routes. If that's the case, I would likely walk to the bus stops where those bus routes are served.

My other alternative is to take an Uber/Lyft to/from the Ajax GO station just to catch the GO Train/Bus or connect to another Durham Region Transit route!

3 hours ago, 110B West Pickering said:

There’s an announcement coming tomorrow!

Hopefully, there will be some insight with the enhanced OnDemand service....

[2044]

55 minutes ago, 110B West Pickering said:

DRT Made the announcement about OnDemand

details are here

https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/travelling-with-us/planning-your-travel.aspx?_mid_=28149

They’re launching the DRT OnDemand App, it’s out now on the App Store and Google Play.

theyre removing booking time minimums, no more two hour waits, it’s now a lot more like Uber if you’re using the app.

I think they should have released all of this with their original message. People on social media wouldn’t have been freaking out as bad. I think, absent information, everyone was coming up with their own worst case scenarios. 

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

8 hours ago, 110B West Pickering said:

DRT Made the announcement about OnDemand

details are here

https://www.durhamregiontransit.com/en/travelling-with-us/planning-your-travel.aspx?_mid_=28149

They’re launching the DRT OnDemand App, it’s out now on the App Store and Google Play.

theyre removing booking time minimums, no more two hour waits, it’s now a lot more like Uber if you’re using the app.

That's a good benefit to hear. 

I always wanted to go to a place just outside of Oshawa (in a small community named "Hampton") called "Food Truck Alley" (in fact there is a Facebook group dedicating to all the local restaurants in the Durham Region called "Durham Region Eats") and currently, it's not being served by any means of transit access. 

This brought me memories when I mention about the time I wanted to visit the Dagmar Ski Resort (or Lakeridge Ski Resort) in the winter - as part of my bucket list.

Hopefully with On Demand being expanded to these locales, it will open some new opportunities for me on getting around without a car!

[DavidH]

On 8/19/2020 at 1:37 PM, 2044 said:

I think they should have released all of this with their original message. People on social media wouldn’t have been freaking out as bad. I think, absent information, everyone was coming up with their own worst case scenarios. 

It's definitely looking better now, but there are still a lot of details to find out about. What will the average wait after booking, for example? How confusing will this be to riders - particularly older ones?  How many riders don't even know this is happening and will be standing at stops on Monday waiting for buses that will not come? 

We'll have to see...

Funny, though.  TVO just published an article about transit agencies experimenting with on-demand services, but what we've got here in Durham is more than just an experiment.