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BC Transit Fleet/General Notes


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Pure speculation again here... but based on certain patterns and stuff.

9288-9289 will most likely join 9286-9287 in Whistler.

9224-9228 to Chilliwack to join 9229-9231

9260-9264 to Prince George/Central Fraser Valley)

8115-8117 transferred back to Victoria, with 9815-9816, 9891.

8034, 8041, 8047 retired or sent to contingency fleet roster.

9845-9846 to Central Fraser Valley to join 9840-9844, or to Campbell River to join 9847-9850.

All other D40LFs remain in Nanaimo to supplement new-order XN40 buses.

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A new "Midi" fresh from New Flyer.

It's a 2-door 30' MiDi. I heard today it's here for Management and various departments to look at, but will not be put in revenue service. Too bad, the destination sign looks like it's one of those high-tech ones.

9410-9412 were taken off the roster today but were still around VTC this morning.

Since everyone's doing it, here are my guesses for what will happen to the Nanaimo fleet:

8070, 8077, 8087, 8088, 8089, 8090, 8092 and the 9700s remain in Nanaimo – this plus the 25 CNG buses should allow Nanaimo to maintain its fleet requirement.

8034, 8041, 8043, 8047 – Contingency fleet or retired.

8062, 8111, 8115, 8116, 8117, 9815, 9816, 9891 – Victoria

9224-9228 – Victoria

-This accounts for all the Flyers (except the 2-strokes) Victoria lost in the past 5-10 months which I don’t think were actually replaced, as well as allows for the remaining Victoria ‘94s to move to Contingency. I didn’t add in the 2 expansion buses because those supposedly aren’t going to arrive until January 2015, if the Commission and media are to be believed.

9845, 9846 – CFV

9388, 9389 – CFV

-Moving these will allow for 8015 to be retired, 8038 to be used less often, and for orphans 8074 and 8075 to be moved to Kamloops, which can in turn retire 8025 and 8033.

9260, 9262-9264 - ???, though logic would dictate Kelowna or Prince George.

One thing that could mess with everyone's projections that no one has mentioned, is that as far as I know the Sunshine Coast's entire 40' fleet is approaching legal drinking age. Realistically I could see Novas from any one of the '06-'09 years going to replace them. But if they've pushed those old Flyers this far already, maybe they plan on holding out another year or so and giving them some brand new buses whenever the next diesel bus contract is sorted out.

I also didn't consider the possibility of Whistler giving up some of their Novas after the Winter season.

Okay, enough fantasy bus transfers for tonight ;)

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Both NFI and BCT/Meribeth seem unwilling to talk about BC Transit's 1995 and 1998 CNG buses (the g40s and C40LFs were planned for and purchased by BCT) and . Wonder why?? hmmm ultimately converted to diesel...... honestly hope this batch of fart burners works out better

The CNG technology has done a much better job than what it used to be!

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It's a 2-door 30' MiDi. I heard today it's here for Management and various departments to look at, but will not be put in revenue service. Too bad, the destination sign looks like it's one of those high-tech ones.

9410-9412 were taken off the roster today but were still around VTC this morning.

Since everyone's doing it, here are my guesses for what will happen to the Nanaimo fleet:

8070, 8077, 8087, 8088, 8089, 8090, 8092 and the 9700s remain in Nanaimo – this plus the 25 CNG buses should allow Nanaimo to maintain its fleet requirement.

8034, 8041, 8043, 8047 – Contingency fleet or retired.

8062, 8111, 8115, 8116, 8117, 9815, 9816, 9891 – Victoria

9224-9228 – Victoria

-This accounts for all the Flyers (except the 2-strokes) Victoria lost in the past 5-10 months which I don’t think were actually replaced, as well as allows for the remaining Victoria ‘94s to move to Contingency. I didn’t add in the 2 expansion buses because those supposedly aren’t going to arrive until January 2015, if the Commission and media are to be believed.

9845, 9846 – CFV

9388, 9389 – CFV

-Moving these will allow for 8015 to be retired, 8038 to be used less often, and for orphans 8074 and 8075 to be moved to Kamloops, which can in turn retire 8025 and 8033.

9260, 9262-9264 - ???, though logic would dictate Kelowna or Prince George.

One thing that could mess with everyone's projections that no one has mentioned, is that as far as I know the Sunshine Coast's entire 40' fleet is approaching legal drinking age. Realistically I could see Novas from any one of the '06-'09 years going to replace them. But if they've pushed those old Flyers this far already, maybe they plan on holding out another year or so and giving them some brand new buses whenever the next diesel bus contract is sorted out.

I also didn't consider the possibility of Whistler giving up some of their Novas after the Winter season.

Okay, enough fantasy bus transfers for tonight ;)

It would be nice if Victoria got a few 2nd gen Novas. I'd gladly take a few of them over Darts! ;)

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Both NFI and BCT/Meribeth seem unwilling to talk about BC Transit's 1995 and 1998 CNG buses (the g40s and C40LFs were planned for and purchased by BCT) and . Wonder why?? hmmm ultimately converted to diesel...... honestly hope this batch of fart burners works out better

That actually irritated me. I also noticed that in the Times Colonist article, they referred to Nanaimo's CNG fleet as being the first in the province. So I guess Translink's CNG buses operate in the magical part of the lower mainland that is somehow outside of the province?

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It would be nice if Victoria got a few 2nd gen Novas. I'd gladly take a few of them over Darts! ;)

The 2006 Novas are more comfortable than their latter-year sisters, but unfortunately they were all transferred out of Victoria for the reason that the mechanics were overly frustrated with their side-mounted engines. 9224-9228 are more likely to go to somewhere like Chilliwack. Besides... if any buses are going to run the new Fraser Valley connector bus along Hwy 1, I'd rather it be 2006 Novas than the 2007-9 ones.

Yes... for some reason - BC Transit has decided that Metro Vancouver is its' own province (in some ways that would be true).

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The 2006 Novas are more comfortable than their latter-year sisters, but unfortunately they were all transferred out of Victoria for the reason that the mechanics were overly frustrated with their side-mounted engines. 9224-9228 are more likely to go to somewhere like Chilliwack. Besides... if any buses are going to run the new Fraser Valley connector bus along Hwy 1, I'd rather it be 2006 Novas than the 2007-9 ones.

I think the buses on the highway 1 connector will be Suburban buses because they would suit for this type of route. I do not see BC Transit converting any Nova LFS to a Suburban bus.
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I think the buses on the highway 1 connector will be Suburban buses because they would suit for this type of route. I do not see BC Transit converting any Nova LFS to a Suburban bus.

Possibly... but for some reason I doubt BC Transit is ordering suburban buses - at least in time for the route to begin. Besides - the Fraser Valley connector is not just a commuter like the Cowichan Valley or Pemberton runs... it's to run seven days a week and most hours of the day AFAIK.

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Possibly... but for some reason I doubt BC Transit is ordering suburban buses - at least in time for the route to begin. Besides - the Fraser Valley connector is not just a commuter like the Cowichan Valley or Pemberton runs... it's to run seven days a week and most hours of the day AFAIK.

Let's see TransLink has routes like the Fraser Valley connector that operate seven days and most hours of the day with Orion V suburban. So, I do not see why see BC Transit cannot use Suburban buses on this route. Maybe they are going to see how will this route performs and buy Suburban buses for it in future years.

I read some where it will be six days a week with no operation on Sunday.

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I overheard some shuttle drivers at LTC stating that all the 2006/07 Ford Polar E-450 shuttles will be retired completely by late April.

Whether that's true or not... that leaves hardly any shuttles left then, unless some more Arbocs are coming in?

Any updates on community shuttles Sidneytransitfan?

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I overheard some shuttle drivers at LTC stating that all the 2006/07 Ford Polar E-450 shuttles will be retired completely by late April.

Whether that's true or not... that leaves hardly any shuttles left then, unless some more Arbocs are coming in?

Any updates on community shuttles Sidneytransitfan?

Nope. All I've noticed is that it's getting harder to find 206x and 207x series shuttles, the 208x shuttles are still out and about occasionally in my neck of the woods, but mostly Arbocs and 21xx Polars now.

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Not pleased that 2006 Novas are coming back to Victoria--seating layout is horrible. I assume 8016 will finally retire too.

Nanaimo will finally realize their goal of being all a/c, this was supposed to happpen when the fishbowls retired, according to their 1999 five year plan.

On the renumbering of the TL units: I think they may have gone with 9700 series to identify these buses in a seperate group for dispatch purposes, with this group operating a fairly low mileage (ie tripper group) Keep it simple for the dispatchers.. Like when VTC borrowed back some fishbowls from the provincial fleet in the 80s and 90s. They kept their UPF numbers and were dispatched differently than the main 35 foot fleet.

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Not pleased that 2006 Novas are coming back to Victoria--seating layout is horrible. I assume 8016 will finally retire too.

Nanaimo will finally realize their goal of being all a/c, this was supposed to happpen when the fishbowls retired, according to their 1999 five year plan.

On the renumbering of the TL units: I think they may have gone with 9700 series to identify these buses in a seperate group for dispatch purposes, with this group operating a fairly low mileage (ie tripper group) Keep it simple for the dispatchers.. Like when VTC borrowed back some fishbowls from the provincial fleet in the 80s and 90s. They kept their UPF numbers and were dispatched differently than the main 35 foot fleet.

I'd rather have the 2006 Novas than the latter-year ones, at least the 2006 Novas have comfortable seats (and 2 more than the 93xx-94xx units). Are they actually headed for Victoria though?

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Nope. All I've noticed is that it's getting harder to find 206x and 207x series shuttles, the 208x shuttles are still out and about occasionally in my neck of the woods, but mostly Arbocs and 21xx Polars now.

I overheard some shuttle drivers today stating that Sidney is full of Arbocs. Langford has just 2424, 2334-2339 as far as Arbocs go. Lowest shuttle I've been on is 2080 at the moment... but even that one said 435280 km on the odometer...

Believe it or not, they stated that the older Polars are actually faster than the 21xx Polars.

Spotted 8062, 8111, and 8115 at VTC today.

That would be part of the LTC shuttle thing they're doing from Mon-Fri. During the day, Langford operators park their bus at VTC (that they got from LTC), then take a special driver shuttle back to Langford. It's a total waste of both operator time and transits money. Operators are required to wait for the shuttle to take them back to LTC.

Not pleased that 2006 Novas are coming back to Victoria--seating layout is horrible. I assume 8016 will finally retire too.

Nanaimo will finally realize their goal of being all a/c, this was supposed to happpen when the fishbowls retired, according to their 1999 five year plan.

On the renumbering of the TL units: I think they may have gone with 9700 series to identify these buses in a seperate group for dispatch purposes, with this group operating a fairly low mileage (ie tripper group) Keep it simple for the dispatchers.. Like when VTC borrowed back some fishbowls from the provincial fleet in the 80s and 90s. They kept their UPF numbers and were dispatched differently than the main 35 foot fleet.

As Harry stated, the mechanics don't like the 2006 Novas, so it's hard to tell whether they'll be back or not. I'll gladly take a few 2006 or 2007 Novas for variety however... seeing T-Drives all the time gets boring.

I've only seen 8016 training and sometimes used for the driver shuttle. It looks and sounds better than most of the Series 50s!

I'll have to look for 9091... I haven't rode a refurbished Dart yet.

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That would be part of the LTC shuttle thing they're doing from Mon-Fri. During the day, Langford operators park their bus at VTC (that they got from LTC), then take a special driver shuttle back to Langford. It's a total waste of both operator time and transits money. Operators are required to wait for the shuttle to take them back to LTC.

No, they came from Nanaimo. 8111 had been there since right before the Olympics, and 8062 since 2011. 8115 went with 8116 and 8117 in the past year.

I'm well aware of the Shuttle program, after all I ride it as part of my regular work :)

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No, they came from Nanaimo. 8111 had been there since right before the Olympics, and 8062 since 2011. 8115 went with 8116 and 8117 in the past year.

I'm well aware of the Shuttle program, after all I ride it as part of my regular work :)

You're a driver?

Why are they bring back 2nd gen. Nova LFS to Victoria?

The question is, is it confirmed?

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The question is, is it confirmed?

No. I just do not know why they would need them when they have the 2013 Nova LFS. BTW, is BC Transit going to order more Nova LFS like the 9434?

Why not?!

Because they have the 2013 Nova LFS; they have had a 2nd gen. Nova LFS in years.
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No. I just do not know why they would need them when they have the 2013 Nova LFS. BTW, is BC Transit going to order more Nova LFS like the 9434?

Because they have the 2013 Nova LFS; they have had a 2nd gen. Nova LFS in years.

I think some Midis will be ordered in the near future... I've already been told that the Darts are retiring soon. I would not be surprised if some D40LFs from outside Victoria will come here seeing as Nanaimo and Kamloops are getting XN40s.

Personally I'm hoping they order a few more community shuttles as the Polars are slowly dying. Fortunately though, the shuttles in my area (Millstream) have not been very busy!

* As far as the 2013 Novas go, I am unsure why they ordered such a small amount of them, and with different transmissions.

9435-9440 are Voith 864.5 like the 2009s are.

9441-9446 are ZF 6AP1400B however... same as MTA's Novabuses.

It would have made sense to go with all Voith... now the mechanics are going to work with those 5 other Novas a little differently due to the transmission. It shifts alot, and there's a "hang" at 40 km/h, where it won't shift at all.

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