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On 8/26/2022 at 6:34 PM, blue.bird.fan said:

On another note, I've been trying to make it up to York Region over the next few days to ride some of the oldest 2003 and 2004 D40LFs in the process of retirement. Where are the best places to find these?

For the 2003-2004 D40LFs, they can mostly be found on rush hour runs like yrt1000 said, although they may do all day or evening trips depending on the block assigned (seeing these buses outside of rush is becoming rare); Southeast no longer assigns these buses to weekend service based on what I have tracked during the summer

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Okay, I've looked through this thread a bit and as far as I know this hasn't yet been mentioned here: there is a new bus in town! Vehicle 2206 (New Flyer XD40, possibly 2022) has been running in Newmarket out of North for a bit. I do not know exactly how long it's been running but I did catch it once on 8/25 as a training vehicle and again on 8/26 as a training vehicle. I also saw it as a 98 along Yonge. If I remember correctly, a friend had seen it before the 25th. It also ran the 31st. 

 

It is not on the wiki and I am unaware of any other buses in this order.  

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31 minutes ago, Urban_96 said:

Okay, I've looked through this thread a bit and as far as I know this hasn't yet been mentioned here: there is a new bus in town! Vehicle 2206 (New Flyer XD40, possibly 2022) has been running in Newmarket out of North for a bit. I do not know exactly how long it's been running but I did catch it once on 8/25 as a training vehicle and again on 8/26 as a training vehicle. I also saw it as a 98 along Yonge. If I remember correctly, a friend had seen it before the 25th. It also ran the 31st. 

 

It is not on the wiki and I am unaware of any other buses in this order.  

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YRT new vehicle deliveries are tracked in this thread. It is to prevent confusion with this thread which is covers news such as service changes. 

Thread regarding new vehicle deliveries is noted below. 

Regarding 2206, it has been in service since August 12th on the 96 Keele-Yonge. Noting that there are a couple new bus orders that are planned and in-process.

22xx units: It is unknown how many buses will be received for XD40 since 2206 has been the only in-service bus for 40 ft or what divisions will get replacement buses. 2206 is allocated to North Division which covers the north region such as Newmarket and Aurora. 

224x units: Not known how many are in this order. Right now, it is from 2241 to 2250 though only 2241, 2242 and 2248 went into service. Those buses are only assigned to Southwest which operates the 20 Jane and planned to be on 107 Keele. 

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1 hour ago, Gamer Studios said:

YRT numbering: First two digits is the model year followed by the bus number.

It's been like that since bus deliveries after 2003 (with some exceptions (i.e. the renumbered ex-GO units))

It’s been like that for all buses acquired by YRT since 2001, actually. The ex-GO buses use the model year they were originally built.

The buses acquired from the predecessor agencies by YRT were the only exception, which retained their original numbers unless they conflicted with another bus. This occurred between Vaughan Transit and Richmond Hill Transit buses, so the Richmond Hill ones were renumbered to the YRT scheme.

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Cornell Bus Terminal has opened today (September 4th) in conjunction with service changes to direct select routes to the terminal. For those wondering what the first buses arrived at the terminal are via Transsee:

Viva Purple via Highway 7: 1380

Viva Purple A via Enterprise: 1379

Route 1 Highway 7: 1413

Route 2 Milliken: 1615

Route 16 16th Avenue: 1027

 

EDIT: Tweet attached for reference for Purple and Route 16

 

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3 hours ago, Gamer Studios said:

With the terminal opening, there's also a couple changes to the paddles (or "blocks") the buses run on...at least for Sunday Schedules.

The usual break runs have been officially removed from routes 99 Yonge. It's replaced with a driver meeting the buses with a normal change off car/van.

The 2nd 91 run now starts 30 minutes later, and the paddle is scheduled as an all day runner. 

The 9:40pm 99 run now goes on the 98/99. Other 98/99 late nighter trips start at 7:39pm and 8:23pm.

The change off 80 Elgin Mills now happens at 2:57pm instead of 1:27pm.

The change off run on Purple/Purple A is now at 3:27pm.

 

Yeah I actually noticed this while going through the schedules- it’s for every day, though Sundays had very few of those to begin with, only the 91 and 99 off the top of my head  

It was only SE routes that had those 30+ minute breaks somewhere in the block, now I don’t think I’ve seen any in the ones I’ve reviewed on Transsee for any day of the week 

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4 hours ago, Gamer Studios said:

With the terminal opening, there's also a couple changes to the paddles (or "blocks") the buses run on...at least for Sunday Schedules.

The usual break runs have been officially removed from routes 99 Yonge. It's replaced with a driver meeting the buses with a normal change off car/van.

The 2nd 91 run now starts 30 minutes later, and the paddle is scheduled as an all day runner. 

The 9:40pm 99 run now goes on the 98/99. Other 98/99 late nighter trips start at 7:39pm and 8:23pm.

The change off 80 Elgin Mills now happens at 2:57pm instead of 1:27pm.

The change off run on Purple/Purple A is now at 3:27pm.

 

1 hour ago, yrt1000 said:

Yeah I actually noticed this while going through the schedules- it’s for every day, though Sundays had very few of those to begin with, only the 91 and 99 off the top of my head  

It was only SE routes that had those 30+ minute breaks somewhere in the block, now I don’t think I’ve seen any in the ones I’ve reviewed on Transsee for any day of the week 

Without getting into the details too much, for a long time the contract between Miller Transit and its union contained a requirement to provide operators on longer shifts with a minimum 20 minute break during their shifts; this is why none of the other divisions had such breaks in their schedules. The contract was renegotiated earlier this year, with the union agreeing to give up the break requirement; this September board is the first one where the new "break-less" schedules were incorporated.

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On 9/1/2022 at 5:27 PM, GTAmissions1 said:

YRT new vehicle deliveries are tracked in this thread. It is to prevent confusion with this thread which is covers news such as service changes. 

Thread regarding new vehicle deliveries is noted below. 

Regarding 2206, it has been in service since August 12th on the 96 Keele-Yonge. Noting that there are a couple new bus orders that are planned and in-process.

22xx units: It is unknown how many buses will be received for XD40 since 2206 has been the only in-service bus for 40 ft or what divisions will get replacement buses. 2206 is allocated to North Division which covers the north region such as Newmarket and Aurora. 

224x units: Not known how many are in this order. Right now, it is from 2241 to 2250 though only 2241, 2242 and 2248 went into service. Those buses are only assigned to Southwest which operates the 20 Jane and planned to be on 107 Keele. 

Thank you for the reply and redirection to the other thread! Hope to be back in the area soon enough. 

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Bus 2211 time travelled on Route 4 today. Anyone who saw the bus was in for a treat. Prior to entering revenue service, the technicians seemed to have uploaded outdated destination signage from more than 10 years ago!!!

The destination sign was displaying the old style of 1 line only in big capital letters. The destination sign said "ROUTE 4 TO VAUGHAN MILLS VIA CRANSTON PARK". A route that has not existed since 2013.

Yes I do have pics. Expect this problem to be fixed very soon. All the bus needs is a software update.

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17 minutes ago, Gamer Studios said:

It was programmed with a older version of the code from delivery. Thus some routes, the bus was running with a blank sign. It's likely either a oversight from New Flyer or the codes provided to them

The 1800 XD40s were delivered the same way, with an old version of the sign programming. YRT probably did not supply New Flyer with an updated version (or NFI used an old version they had on file by mistake), and none of the maintenance staff bothered to check/update the signs before they went into service.

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On 9/11/2022 at 7:28 PM, menath said:

Just the special announceents. The next stop system still uses crystal. 

thats a shame....we were the first in the province at the very least to have auto announcements and now we are lagging behind with 17 yr old tech.

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Was on 710 today and thought this was weird. Correct me if I’m wrong, the last set of windows on the rear of this batch of buses are the “slide” windows with the rest being the more traditional latches, but it seems like they’re switched on this bus. 9C3BA4D3-5B41-4742-B872-1B01C94A649F.thumb.jpeg.ff995d909fae3273f2ba7341eb25d67b.jpeg

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22 hours ago, yrt1000 said:

Was on 710 today and thought this was weird. Correct me if I’m wrong, the last set of windows on the rear of this batch of buses are the “slide” windows with the rest being the more traditional latches, but it seems like they’re switched on this bus. 9C3BA4D3-5B41-4742-B872-1B01C94A649F.thumb.jpeg.ff995d909fae3273f2ba7341eb25d67b.jpeg

You're correct; looks like somebody mixed the window placement. Going to be a breezy ride for anybody sitting in those back seats this winter.

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2 hours ago, Gamer Studios said:

YRT 311 is retired. Source: SW Supervisor

I suspected as much when during its latest run (Sep 9th on the 12) it was changed off before completing that block, and hadn't shown up since.

There's at least 7-8 other 300's that haven't shown up since various times in June-Aug (in addition to the bunch retired in Feb-Apr), so they're likely retired. Seven units (312, 318, 323, 324, 330, 334 & 335) are regularly out in service each week, so they're probably running them until they experience major failures or get replaced by new 2200's.

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I really think that there has to be a smarter way to run VIVA blue and 99/98. 

On Saturday I paced the blue bus from Elgin Mills all the way to Clark on my bike.  To be fair I bypassed Richmond Hill Centre. But the bus and I left Elgin Mills at the same time and it caught up with me as it got to the lights to turn left on Yonge Street to go to Richmond Hill Centre. 

 

They are constantly going 2 at at a time and the 98/99 bus is faster without using the BRT lanes.  I think the VIVA bus left Finch 10 min after the 99/98 did and it only caught up near Bernard Terminal.  

This is a sad situation. 

Perhaps an express bus from Finch to Richmond Hill Centre would reduce travel time? And then express to Bernard Terminal only stopping at 16th, Major Mack and Elgin Mills. 

Frankly I think it was so much better when you could board the GO bus and it would get you to Newmarket in 60 minutes. Now it takes double that time and it doesn't even come on time.

Can they not increase the speed of the busway to shorten the travel time? They have to do something to make these travel times more reasonable.

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Does YRT still stock maps on their VIVA buses (or print them in general)?  On my annual trip into YRTland this past week I didn't see any.  The on-board screens showing the next stops and ETA flipping to the connecting route ETA is a nice feature, but they're displaying the internal route numbers with an A being an extra 01 appended to the route number like 9101.  They also use the internal route numbers for the VIVA routes 601 for Blue and 603 for Purple, which with the A branch gives you 60301 on the display.

The tracking/scheduling at the VIVA stations seems to be slipping.  I was planning a layover based on the next arrival displayed.  The layover ran long, so I wound up planning to take the local option as recommended by Triplinx.  Both were delayed and I wound up on the wrong side of the street to be able to catch the delayed VIVA route.  The real-time map could probably pick up a few things from sites like Transit55.  Clicking on a route opens a huge dialog box that needed to be re-scaled to be able to read or close and the information was minimally useful showing the ETA for the next 3 stops but not how delayed it was.  Leaving me to gauge the length of the delay based on the position on the real-time map.

Coming from Dufferin & Centre and trying to get back to Mississauga, I was torn between heading east to Richmond Hill Centre or west to Highway 407 Terminal.  Seeing as I had missed the eastbound trip I opted to go west on the 77 HIGHWAY 7 since the VIVA Orange doesn't make a direct connection to the 20 JANE.  Until YRT and TTC have worked out an arrangement there really needs to be an easier way to get to Highway 407 Terminal.  Route at least ONE of the three routes along Hwy. 7 (VIVA Orange, 77 HIGHWAY 7 or 501 ZÜM QUEEN) down to connect with the GO Bus services there if they can't increase the frequency of the 20 JANE.  The future VIVA corridor along Jane seems to terminate at VMC instead of Highway 407 Terminal.  Is YRT so cost-conscious that they won't send another route into that terminal to avoid having to pay to use it?! 

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On 9/25/2022 at 2:35 PM, Gil said:

Does YRT still stock maps on their VIVA buses (or print them in general)?  On my annual trip into YRTland this past week I didn't see any.  The on-board screens showing the next stops and ETA flipping to the connecting route ETA is a nice feature, but they're displaying the internal route numbers with an A being an extra 01 appended to the route number like 9101.  They also use the internal route numbers for the VIVA routes 601 for Blue and 603 for Purple, which with the A branch gives you 60301 on the display.

The tracking/scheduling at the VIVA stations seems to be slipping.  I was planning a layover based on the next arrival displayed.  The layover ran long, so I wound up planning to take the local option as recommended by Triplinx.  Both were delayed and I wound up on the wrong side of the street to be able to catch the delayed VIVA route.  The real-time map could probably pick up a few things from sites like Transit55.  Clicking on a route opens a huge dialog box that needed to be re-scaled to be able to read or close and the information was minimally useful showing the ETA for the next 3 stops but not how delayed it was.  Leaving me to gauge the length of the delay based on the position on the real-time map.

Coming from Dufferin & Centre and trying to get back to Mississauga, I was torn between heading east to Richmond Hill Centre or west to Highway 407 Terminal.  Seeing as I had missed the eastbound trip I opted to go west on the 77 HIGHWAY 7 since the VIVA Orange doesn't make a direct connection to the 20 JANE.  Until YRT and TTC have worked out an arrangement there really needs to be an easier way to get to Highway 407 Terminal.  Route at least ONE of the three routes along Hwy. 7 (VIVA Orange, 77 HIGHWAY 7 or 501 ZÜM QUEEN) down to connect with the GO Bus services there if they can't increase the frequency of the 20 JANE.  The future VIVA corridor along Jane seems to terminate at VMC instead of Highway 407 Terminal.  Is YRT so cost-conscious that they won't send another route into that terminal to avoid having to pay to use it?! 

They do not stock them on buses, no. They did print one for the 2022 summer board period so you might be able to find them at 50 High Tech Rd? Best to call and find out.

They randomly stocked some in my supervisor cab and I think I kept 2 since I knew how rare they are nowadays. No idea where they went but I might have one if you need one. This is my last week as a supervisor so I will try and see if there are any system maps in the office.

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15 hours ago, York Transit said:

They do not stock them on buses, no. They did print one for the 2022 summer board period so you might be able to find them at 50 High Tech Rd? Best to call and find out.

They randomly stocked some in my supervisor cab and I think I kept 2 since I knew how rare they are nowadays. No idea where they went but I might have one if you need one. This is my last week as a supervisor so I will try and see if there are any system maps in the office.

The new board period would have had the Cornell Terminal changes in effect which is what I was looking for.  When I was up in York last year I had tried at the Dufferin Clark Community Centre with no luck.  Unless they keep a rack of maps in the lobby, I didn't think the offices on High Tech would be open by the time I got there. 

I get the printed maps were somewhat of a casualty of COVID where they were trying to limit touch points, but I still find it easier to deal with than trying to view it on my phone.  Given how large York Region is, it's nice to see the big picture!

I wonder if there'd be a few copies available at York U somewhere?

The summary of Service Changes posted inside the bus shelter (uploaded rotated again?!?) seems like a poor compromise to the onboard flyers YRT used to distribute, again likely another COVID or even a cost-saving measure.  I don't know how much of the riding population still doesn't have convenient access to the internet, but forcing people to check doesn't seem like the most equitable solution.

IMG_20220922_2033149.jpg

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9 minutes ago, Shaun said:

Is VIVA green comming back or is it dead?

There is no new info currently. January 2023 is when they report on the official status regarding Blue A, Green and Pink if they will be brought back in some capacity or cancelled. Since they haven't operated in 2.5 years and instead reallocated resources to existing routes where possible.

If they bring back Viva Green, it will be likely to be the restructured version via Leslie and not the current routing. 

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1 hour ago, GTAmissions1 said:

There is no new info currently. January 2023 is when they report on the official status regarding Blue A, Green and Pink if they will be brought back in some capacity or cancelled. Since they haven't operated in 2.5 years and instead reallocated resources to existing routes where possible.

If they bring back Viva Green, it will be likely to be the restructured version via Leslie and not the current routing. 

Isn't that a duplication of the existing service along Leslie?

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1 hour ago, Shaun said:

Isn't that a duplication of the existing service along Leslie?

It would be a duplication, but you have to remember that Green would only service limited stops where as 90 Leslie would service local stops. Similar to Yonge Street where the frequency of Blue is a lot higher where as the 98 and 99 Yonge or 98/99 Yonge during late evenings would operate on a lower frequency.

Hoping that the passenger volume would shift to the rapid transit route over the conventional route. 

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