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BC Transit Fleet/General Notes

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Community Shuttle

Community Shuttle

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, InfiNorth said:

I still find it sad. It's always disappointing when local history goes abroad instead of remaining where it "grew up."

I'm not sure of the directors' official stance but I would take a Trident if we had the means to store it and afford owning it. We've been after all kinds of vehicles in the past like a Mendoza trolley and (IIRC) an ex-PCL unit of some sort but one thing or another led to them never joining our collection. Same reason why we've had to get rid of pieces because they weren't worth keeping around unless we could afford to.

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InfiNorth

InfiNorth

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, Community Shuttle said:

I'm not sure of the directors' official stance but I would take a Trident if we had the means to store it and afford owning it. We've been after all kinds of vehicles in the past like a Mendoza trolley and (IIRC) an ex-PCL unit of some sort but one thing or another led to them never joining our collection. Same reason why we've had to get rid of pieces because they weren't worth keeping around unless we could afford to.

Fair enough. I really wish TMS was supported better. Thanks for what you do when you can :) 

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Community Shuttle

Community Shuttle

Posted
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Anyone know more about these new shuttle units that just went into service?

- Ford Super Duty chassis (F-550 I think?)

- REVgroup body (same as old TransLink international?)

- Side loading wheelchair lift at rear

- Rear emergency exit door

- No bike rack

- At least two units known

- One numbered 5834 currently serving Pemberton

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Iron

Iron

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Community Shuttle said:

Anyone know more about these new shuttle units that just went into service?

- Ford Super Duty chassis (F-550 I think?)

- REVgroup body (same as old TransLink international?)

- Side loading wheelchair lift at rear

- Rear emergency exit door

- No bike rack

- At least two units known

- One numbered 5834 currently serving Pemberton

It's my understanding they are owned by PWT and operated in Pemberton only. I'm told that BCT does not supply vehicles for the service so PWT purchased them and had them made up to look like BCT buses. It's an odd case for sure. 

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Community Shuttle

Community Shuttle

Posted
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22 hours ago, Iron said:

It's my understanding they are owned by PWT and operated in Pemberton only. I'm told that BCT does not supply vehicles for the service so PWT purchased them and had them made up to look like BCT buses. It's an odd case for sure. 

This makes sense because transit seems to be done with Ford, given how all small shuttles/handy darts from the past decade or so are Chevys and other units similar to these Fords are Internationals. Any idea how many they have and what their numbers are?

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Articulated

Articulated

Posted
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16 hours ago, Community Shuttle said:

This makes sense because transit seems to be done with Ford, given how all small shuttles/handy darts from the past decade or so are Chevys and other units similar to these Fords are Internationals. Any idea how many they have and what their numbers are?

I'm not sure it has anything to do with that. Arboc tends to win the low-floor cutaway contracts, and the Ford chassis is not offered on their main models. The Girardin G5 comes on both chassis, but for what is currently a smaller subfleet, it would make sense to standardize the chassis with the larger fleet of Arbocs. Again, could just be that Girardin offered the GM/Chevrolet chassis rather than the Ford.

It's a bit different now that BC Transit has moved to a "region"-based contractor system, where multiple systems in geographic proximity are bundled together under one operations contract. Grouping Pemberton with Whistler (and presumably Squamish) means that the local Pemberton bus is now operated by Pacific Western, presumably out of the existing Whistler facility. This is all fine and dandy, but it causes a slight issue in Pemberton, because the transit contractor in Pemberton has historically provided their own vehicles for local service. This worked out fine when the connecting shuttle was operated by the local taxi company (IIRC), but less so when grouped with two systems where buses are provided by the province. I'm a little surprised this wasn't considered when the region contract was awarded (and two Arbocs would either be ordered or transferred from another system), but two possible explanations could be that it was an oversight because of this unusual situation, or there was an unwillingness on either side to disrupt the current funding agreement with the local jurisdictions (which would now be on the hook for leasing costs for BCT vehicles).

The 100 Pemberton Local route only requires one bus at a time, so I'd presume there are likely 2 of these cutaway units, with a remote chance of a 3rd vehicle as emergency spare. Being located four provinces away, please don't ask me what the fleet number for the other vehicle is :P

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jmward

jmward

Posted
Posted

Hopefully this is the right spot; http://bctracker.ca has been updated to support 9 more BC Transit systems (previously just Victoria):

We now have: Victoria, CFV, Chilliwack (includes 66 FVX), Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Comox Valley, Squamish, Whistler, Prince George and hopefully more eventually!

Realtime tracking and bus history is available for those systems that support it.

Thanks to @ThatBusGuy for all his hard work with the programming.

Enjoy!

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InfiNorth

InfiNorth

Posted
Posted

There are two buses waiting at Tsawwassen in the ticketing lineup... one of which is an artic. Any ideas what's going on here? Is this a test vehicle for Victoria's BRT plans or something?

Edit: False alarm, just setting up COVID clinics at the terminal. Still a great thing for them to be doing. I was hoping to see an artic on the island.

busferry.jpg

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SomeIslandKid

SomeIslandKid

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Don't hold your breath for artics in Victoria. Pretty sure they're still planning double deckers, in part because of the constrained block sizes. Douglas street is pretty packed with buses at rush hour even with the bus lanes due to the sheer number of routes travelling it. While I guess you could take off some of the peak only one seat commuter trips, I doubt that's a major consideration considering they just added commuter service to the 53 (and apparently run a 30ft bus on it lol)

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InfiNorth

InfiNorth

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, SomeIslandKid said:

Don't hold your breath for artics in Victoria. Pretty sure they're still planning double deckers, in part because of the constrained block sizes. Douglas street is pretty packed with buses at rush hour even with the bus lanes due to the sheer number of routes travelling it. While I guess you could take off some of the peak only one seat commuter trips, I doubt that's a major consideration considering they just added commuter service to the 53 (and apparently run a 30ft bus on it lol)

I doubt many people are using the 53 for commuting. I'd also love to see ridership numbers for the part of the 65 route that splits from the 61, I have this sneaking suspicion that almost no one is willing to balance their ability to get to work on a bus that comes twice a day.

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SomeIslandKid

SomeIslandKid

Posted
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From what I recall from the Victoria thread, there's a weight limit on Atkins too eh? Which limits them to smaller buses on the 53 in general. Sad, but oh well haha.

As for the 65, a friend of mine who lived in Sooke at the time it was implemented said it's about as fast as the 61, so the route's overall ridership is solid. It also provides peak service into Langford's core like combined 50-61 trips do, while the pure 61 skips that whole area during peak hours. Westhills meanwhile does have other transit services (39, 46, 47, 58). It's about an extra 5 minutes to the nearest 58 stop from the last 65 stop in Westhills, which while not ideal, is more than 2 buses a day. There is fallbacks. Definitely agree the 65 could use more service despite that. I'll also give the caveat I've never rode the 65, but I'd consider it if I needed to get to Langford and it showed up before a 50. Bonus points if it saves a transfer or walk to the 58 or 52. I'll also say that I regularly rode the 48 pre-COVID when it was 2 trips like the 65, and it was well used.

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Express691

Express691

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https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/BC_Transit_1213-1232?fbclid=IwAR3ed4LLD-2rikZ0UIiyIhoytCw89isrIdd9RAu3_fQFTHCSRgDrebMKyLk

7101-7150 V2.0 with what looks like random placement of VIN numbers, though this could be related to supposed factory errors/QC shortcomings of recent NFI production from what I've been hearing.

If someone could fill me in on this, that'd be great.

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CV92

CV92

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Express691 said:

https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/BC_Transit_1213-1232?fbclid=IwAR3ed4LLD-2rikZ0UIiyIhoytCw89isrIdd9RAu3_fQFTHCSRgDrebMKyLk

7101-7150 V2.0 with what looks like random placement of VIN numbers, though this could be related to supposed factory errors/QC shortcomings of recent NFI production from what I've been hearing.

If someone could fill me in on this, that'd be great.

I believe they were built in reverse order 1232-1213

On 7/30/2021 at 10:05 PM, SomeIslandKid said:

From what I recall from the Victoria thread, there's a weight limit on Atkins too eh? Which limits them to smaller buses on the 53 in general. Sad, but oh well haha.

It's not due to weight but you are correct that the 53 is not to run anything larger than a 35 footer.

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Articulated

Articulated

Posted
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15 hours ago, Express691 said:

https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/BC_Transit_1213-1232?fbclid=IwAR3ed4LLD-2rikZ0UIiyIhoytCw89isrIdd9RAu3_fQFTHCSRgDrebMKyLk

7101-7150 V2.0 with what looks like random placement of VIN numbers, though this could be related to supposed factory errors/QC shortcomings of recent NFI production from what I've been hearing.

If someone could fill me in on this, that'd be great.

In some past deliveries, the fleet numbers were only applied to the buses after they arrived in the province. I'm thinking specifically to the first 30' order of Vicinity buses, where the VINs are in haphazard manner.

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RZ350

RZ350

Posted
Posted
On 5/19/2022 at 2:03 PM, 2102 said:

4065 and 4066 are at the Abbotsford yard. I had heard talk of 3005 and 3006 being moved away from Chilliwack so I assume the 30 footers would be there to replace 3005/6

They are going to Chilliwack, so I am assuming that's the case.

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ephrex

ephrex

Posted
Posted

Contract has been signed with Proterra for battery electric buses, with a potential demo bus as early as Fall (I'll believe it when I see it) and the first batch of 10 buses next year. All are expected to be deployed in Victoria.

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2102

2102

Posted
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8 hours ago, XN40G said:

I am hoping for kamloops transit system to get some proterras and also like 3-5 more xn40 transfers, maybe even, 4 grande west cng busses transfers from victoria to kamloops!!!!

For what exactly? 

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