Durham Region Transit

[newflyerinvero]

8050 being back as in, back in the yard, or because of 8547 arriving that the Orions are dead? Just making sure, that's all.

[110B West Pickering]

8050 is back at westney after going through an extremely well done refurbeshmebt. Features include the legacy lines livery that 8014 and 8015 had anf new luminator signs. 8547 has also arrived at west bey but no sign of 8546,8548 and also no sign of 8627-8630.

Just noticed my post meant to say not dead

[newflyerinvero]

DRT 8623 live with exterior announcements. Audibly for instance, "900 Highway 2 Pulse" No info is heard on direction or terminus point.

DRT Pulse XD40 8615 has the similar exterior announcement with 'Route 900 Pulse". No direction or destination included.

8521 (on the 916 West) has INIT live. Scrolling " 916/916B WB 'Ends at Walmart' " a couple of times when the bus is stopped.

8401 (on the 405 Central Park Northbound) has INIT display installed. Only scrolling the message "Durham Region Transit".

One of the 2012 Raleigh XD40s on the 401B yesterday afternoon with exterior announcement, "Route 401B". No route name, direction nor end destination either. All interior announcements were working though.

86 Scarborough, you would be disappointed to know that the master schedule you had showed me at the Oshawa Centre Terminal from last month...it's gone. Don't know where it went but DRT I guess took it down for some reason or another.

I also want to report that 2014 XD40 8546 has been delievered to Westney Division.

8544 was also alongside it. Since that particular unit is a Raleigh Division bus, I suppose it is there getting its INIT announcement equipment set up.

Edited November 8, 2014 by newflyerinvero

[newflyerinvero]

Want to mention that I had seen 8537 on the 910 yesterday afternoon on the 910. I don't think that is a Raleigh Division bus, but it is an Allison powered bus. I remember seeing 8538 two months ago and thinking it was a Raleigh bus but it's a Whitby bus. I had mistook it to be a Raleigh bus due to it being Allison powered. Any DRT people out there may want to either double-check that perhaps and to update the wiki.

Another wiki note was that I had seen both 8510 and 8511 in Ajax operating on Ajax routes. I do believe this means they are both Westney buses.

On another note, I wonder how many buses DRT would be receiving as part of the 2015 Nova Consortium? For Oshawa, considering their plan to re-do their routes, schedules and frequencies, they may need expansion buses. I also think that the only buses that may retire from Raleigh could be the 1999 LFS'es, ex-Philadelphia's.

Edited November 9, 2014 by newflyerinvero

[TomW]

The route number is now being announced in the entrance area. Shame it's not on a speaker *outside* the bus, though...

In other news: the last DRT Exec Comittee meeting revealed DRT is significantly over budget this year (much higher spending on snow/ice clearance, revenue a bit below expectations, higher fuel prices, and more overtime than planned). I wish DRT had gone to Council in spring and asked for the money to cover the extra snow/ice clearance.

[Guest DRT 8173]

Want to mention that I had seen 8537 on the 910 yesterday afternoon on the 910. I don't think that is a Raleigh Division bus, but it is an Allison powered bus. I remember seeing 8538 two months ago and thinking it was a Raleigh bus but it's a Whitby bus. I had mistook it to be a Raleigh bus due to it being Allison powered. Any DRT people out there may want to either double-check that perhaps and to update the wiki.

8537 is a Whitby bus (saw it on the 303 today) same for 8538. Looks like they tend to shuffle/move buses between divisions..

[DRT]

8537 is a Whitby bus (saw it on the 303 today) same for 8538. Looks like they tend to shuffle/move buses between divisions..

8536-8538 are assigned to Whitby division. The 910 is operated by both Whitby and Raleigh.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

ICYHMI (In case anyone has missed it), the recent construction work at the Pickering GO station (in particular - with the bus loop) resulted in some of the changes to a number of DRT bus routes. These bus routes are: 105 West Shore, 106 Bay Ridges and the 923 Westbound bus routes. These respective bus routes - will be served on Bayly Street (and this time it's permanent).

No reason why, but this is to address the safety issues in association with the reconfigured/rebuilt GO bus loop. A certain number of buses can be in that loop at a time. Many people don't like the idea because they will have to walk the "extra mile" - just to catch these buses.

Any objection on this, folks?

[J. Bullock]

ICYHMI (In case anyone has missed it), the recent construction work at the Pickering GO station (in particular - with the bus loop) resulted in some of the changes to a number of DRT bus routes. These bus routes are: 105 West Shore, 106 Bay Ridges and the 923 Westbound bus routes. These respective bus routes - will be served on Bayly Street (and this time it's permanent).

No reason why, but this is to address the safety issues in association with the reconfigured/rebuilt GO bus loop. A certain number of buses can be in that loop at a time. Many people don't like the idea because they will have to walk the "extra mile" - just to catch these buses.

Any objection on this, folks?

923 W/B is a no-brainer, isn't it obvious why it's stopping on Bayly now? It's a time-saver for the route.

105/106 however, i'm not sure, I know that the 106 interlines with 101 Industrial during the day, and the 101 serves Bayly W/B, maybe that's why? I can't think of anything for the 105.

Or a totally new theorem, maybe it's due to the amount of buses in the loop during rush hour? I remember before the restructure back in 2012 or so, there used to be up to twenty buses in the loop during the 5:00 pulse. I'm not sure of the amount during RH now, but it could be enough to move some buses to the street.

86 Scarborough, you would be disappointed to know that the master schedule you had showed me at the Oshawa Centre Terminal from last month...it's gone. Don't know where it went but DRT I guess took it down for some reason or another.

8544 was also alongside it. Since that particular unit is a Raleigh Division bus, I suppose it is there getting its INIT announcement equipment set up.

The schedules have been long gone since maybe early October.

8544 was transferred to Westney a short time ago, seen in service as 232 Village.

[2044]

ICYHMI (In case anyone has missed it), the recent construction work at the Pickering GO station (in particular - with the bus loop) resulted in some of the changes to a number of DRT bus routes. These bus routes are: 105 West Shore, 106 Bay Ridges and the 923 Westbound bus routes. These respective bus routes - will be served on Bayly Street (and this time it's permanent).

Where exactly does it say the changes are perminent?

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

Where exactly does it say the changes are perminent?

It's all found from the service alerts page on DRT's website:

Service Changes at Pickering GO Bus Loop - Effective November 3, 2014 - Recent construction and resulting changes to the Pickering GO Station bus loop requires a change to DRT service.

105 West Shore

• Now servicing Bayly Westbound on the street at the lights

106 Bay Ridges

• Now servicing Bayly Westbound on the street at the lights

• Regular Route – Modlin > East on Tatra > North on Krosno > West on Bayly

• Service removed on Tatra west to Liverpool

In addition, a tweet on DRT's twitter page also made a mention of this, but also they made a mention about the 923:

https://twitter.com/Durham_Transit/status/529234788322783234

[2044]

Between Pickering Pkwy and Bayly St, if indeed permanent, this makes for pretty crap connections at Pickering GO.

[J. Bullock]

Between Pickering Pkwy and Bayly St, if indeed permanent, this makes for pretty crap connections at Pickering GO.

923 West connections from the train aren't as big of an issue as opposed to the 105 West Shore and 106 Bay Ridges. If the passenger didn't want to make the "walk" as it's put, then the passenger could easily get off at Ajax. Problem solved. However with the 105/106 situation, trips could be... adjusted? So the loop isn't as congested at the 17:10, 17:40 and 18:00 pulses.

[BrandonC]

Do we know how long it will take for a system the size of DRY to roll out the next stop system on all the buses? They seem to be on all the buses I ride in Oshawa, though they don't seem to have the stops programmed on every one (the Simcoe sb I rode Monday for instance wasn't displaying stop names).

And do we know how long before we get the Transit feed data for apps?

[DavidH]

And do we know how long before we get the Transit feed data for apps?

The maker of the "Transit app" and I had a twitter conversation with DRT last week, and were told the GTFS feed for apps should be available sometime early in the new year. DRT is also introducing their own app, likely in the same timeframe.

[TomW]

The maker of the "Transit app" and I had a twitter conversation with DRT last week, and were told the GTFS feed for apps should be available sometime early in the new year. DRT is also introducing their own app, likely in the same timeframe.

DRT will be on Google Maps! Finally!

[DavidH]

I'm not sure when this change happened but it just registered on me this morning.

The route formally signed as "222 Audley South" is now signed as "222 South Audley".

Big changes... :-)

[J. Bullock]

I'm not sure when this change happened but it just registered on me this morning.

The route formally signed as "222 Audley South" is now signed as "222 South Audley".

Big changes... :-)

Is the 225 North Audley now?

[DavidH]

Is the 225 North Audley now?

I didn't see any "222 North Audley": signage this morning so it may have been a programming error or perhaps an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. :-) Apologies for any confusion.

[TTCOrionV9408]

Any Updates on the DRT Orion V 2003 8050-8055 Are they Still in Service or Not?

[DRT]

Any Updates on the DRT Orion V 2003 8050-8055 Are they Still in Service or Not?

8051 is the only one left, the rest have been scrapped

[newflyerinvero]

8051 is the only one left, the rest have been scrapped

Slightly wrong as 8050 was in service Friday night on the 219, 224 and 222 during evening rush. I would then say that it seems evident that the other 8050's in that series are indeed scrapped. But a great ride on it though.

8050 had full functioning audio and visual announcements. Much like Pulse and other conventional DRT buses, the only audible announcements that are heard when the front door opens is just the route number, without the route name or its destination.

[J. Bullock]

Effective Monday, December 15th 2014. The following stops will be moved at the Oshawa Centre Bus Terminal.

• Route 910 Campus Connect will move to the spot of the current 405 Central Park Southbound stop.
• All 405 Central Park Services(405/B/C) will move to the south end of the loop, diagonal to the 910 stop.

[nfitz]

DRT will be on Google Maps! Finally!

I was just (for the first time?) noticing that it isn't on Google Maps. Was it never on Google Maps? I could have sworn I'd seen it there a year or two ago ... maybe I was just seeing GO bus services.

[DavidH]

I was just (for the first time?) noticing that it isn't on Google Maps. Was it never on Google Maps? I could have sworn I'd seen it there a year or two ago ... maybe I was just seeing GO bus services.

It was never there.