Jump to content

MiWay


Orion VIII

Recommended Posts

The potential delay notice for the 61/61A has been on the Alerts Page for a while. Would there be any more reliability in the schedule if they simply detoured around the intersection? Northbound, go east on Rodeo, continue on north Belgrave and the west on Boyer back to Mavis. The one transfer stop they miss at Britannia is simply shifted one block east. It also provides additional service to Heartland this time of year. But since the construction is heading east they could use a western detour instead using Plymouth, Second Line, Ivandale and Boyer. This one is a little longer, but completely avoiding construction crews could make up for it. Also, the 39 should be affected as well since it''s down to a single lane, but no alerts or provisions have been made there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would be delayed regardless of which way it took. Pretty much all the streets crossing Britannia around here grind to a halt, however this construction is progressing really quickly so I'm optimistic for upcoming completion.

Is that construction adding a third lane in each direction?

And I marvel that they had left that stretch at 80 km/h for so long - will that be changing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is that construction adding a third lane in each direction?

And I marvel that they had left that stretch at 80 km/h for so long - will that be changing?

Yes, it's 3 lanes each way, along with upgrades to the sewage system (putting one in!) and adding sidewalks. Given the improvements to Britannia and the eventual addition of collector lanes to the 401 west of the 403/410 would it then be possible to run some sort of express service (yes it's the restructuring of the 89) to the corridor? I figure if they were going to introduce something like this, might as well wait until all the construction's cleared up.

The 89 as it stands right now is duplicated by the 35 and 109 for the bulk of its route, so shifting it to run solely on Britannia to Hurontario and then the 401/427 to Islington would make sense rather than axing it altogether just to maintain the flow of vehicles for return routes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it's 3 lanes each way, along with upgrades to the sewage system (putting one in!) and adding sidewalks. Given the improvements to Britannia and the eventual addition of collector lanes to the 401 west of the 403/410 would it then be possible to run some sort of express service (yes it's the restructuring of the 89) to the corridor? I figure if they were going to introduce something like this, might as well wait until all the construction's cleared up.

The 89 as it stands right now is duplicated by the 35 and 109 for the bulk of its route, so shifting it to run solely on Britannia to Hurontario and then the 401/427 to Islington would make sense rather than axing it altogether just to maintain the flow of vehicles for return routes.

You mean storm sewers I guess? The water just drained off the sides before.

I presume your idea of 89 service along Britannia then south on 401/427 would be identical to the service as it currently exists - ie. eastbound in the morning and westbound at night. The problem I could envision in the morning would be the often slow crawl eastbound from the 410/Dixie area to the 427. This could cause grief in scheduling what the bus would do next after arrival at Islington. A rainy day is a lot slower in that area than a dry one and any day involving some sort of collision can be worse still.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Root Admin

58 New Orion 7 Buses are to be delivered following this awarded tender to Daimler Buses North America. 43 Clean Diesel "Local" units for 2011. 35 arriving next September to replace the '97 Orion Vs and if approved by council, an extra 8 units for November. 15 Clean Diesel "Express" units arriving fall 2012.

Congratulations to Daimler.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You mean storm sewers I guess? The water just drained off the sides before.

I presume your idea of 89 service along Britannia then south on 401/427 would be identical to the service as it currently exists - ie. eastbound in the morning and westbound at night. The problem I could envision in the morning would be the often slow crawl eastbound from the 410/Dixie area to the 427. This could cause grief in scheduling what the bus would do next after arrival at Islington. A rainy day is a lot slower in that area than a dry one and any day involving some sort of collision can be worse still.

I don't know what extending the collector lanes westward will do to traffic flows further east. Then there's the reconfiguring of the 427 onramps to let busway traffic get on with priority access. Extending the 403 HOV lanes onto the 401 would be a relatively cheap alternative. They pretty much end just short of the onramp to the 401. Why not continue them? Make them rush hour only if they're overly concerned. It's about time they put some HOV lanes on the 401 anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 New Orion 7 Buses are to be delivered following this awarded tender to Daimler Buses North America. 43 Clean Diesel "Local" units for 2011. 35 arriving next September to replace the '97 Orion Vs and if approved by council, an extra 8 units for November. 15 Clean Diesel "Express" units arriving fall 2012.

Congratulations to Daimler.

Orion office must be cheering big time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a snippet from a Mississauga News article on Council's innauguration:

. . .

The mayor also spoke about other issues including traffic congestion and climate change. She highlighted the City's transit plan, which includes the creation of a bus rapid transit system and ongoing plans to add light rail transit along Hurontario St.

"We're putting ever nickel of the gas tax (money) we receive into public transit," said McCallion, who added she's pushing for additional bus service on weekends.

. . .

So, regarding the additional weekend service, are they talking addiotnal service hours or additional routes? Hopefully it'll be a little bit of both. The frustrating thing about Sunday/Holiday service is that most local/community routes essentially stop running shortly after the mall they run out of shuts down for the day. Which is fine if you're coming home from a shopping at that mall. If you're coming from further afield by the time you get there your last connecting bus has already left!

As for additional routes, a weekend 65 and maybe a Sunday/Holiday 8 (throw in the 35 and 44 if they really wanted to) just to fill out some of the gaps in the service network. Turning the other blue MiExpress routes into all-day service and eventually all-week service is something they should also look into as a priority. Now that they're in our conscious, they should build on them. If Züm's service to Square One turns out to be better than MiWay's then that'd be a bit embarasing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Latest edition of the Inside Transit

enjoy

.

InsideTransitNov2010Pages1_4.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages5_8.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages1_4.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages5_8.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages1_4.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages5_8.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages1_4.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages5_8.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages1_4.pdf

InsideTransitNov2010Pages5_8.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Latest edition of the Inside Transit

enjoy

.

The Spring 2011 changes look promising. I'm guessing they mean May?

Weekend service on the Hurontario MiExpress

BRT reroute into City Centre Terminal 107, 109 (finally!) and 110

Local routes: reschedule priority corridors

Will the priority corridors involve rerouting or simply adjusting schedules. I know it says "reschedule" but it could be possible that some minor rerouting could be made to improve things?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Spring 2011 changes look promising. I'm guessing they mean May?

Weekend service on the Hurontario MiExpress

BRT reroute into City Centre Terminal 107, 109 (finally!) and 110

Local routes: reschedule priority corridors

Will the priority corridors involve rerouting or simply adjusting schedules. I know it says "reschedule" but it could be possible that some minor rerouting could be made to improve things?

The real question is whether or not "reschedule" involves improved frequency. Judging from the appalling New Years Eve extended late night service, probably not.

102 will probably be extended south of Square One if it is going to get weekend service, unless 202 is involved somehow as well (re-designated as Express?). And if it gets weekend service, I assume the 102 will get off-peak weekday service as well. Common sense, right? But MT hasn't exactly been known for common sense in recent months (*cough* 40 footers on 110 *cough*), so you never know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AAs have gone live on Bloor and on Dixie, now using a very clear female's voice, even for the stop requested announcement. It doesn't sound like a computer. There's a new format for calling out stops, stops that aren't located at major arteries only have the cross street called out while stops at major arteries have both streets called out. The voice also announces the street you're on. It's also set up so that it announces "next stop" before announcing the stop. Stops don't scroll across the AA screens anymore either.

All in all, I'm impressed.

Also 0854 was on the 26 yesterday, explains why I saw 0865 on Dixie the other day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AAs have gone live on Bloor and on Dixie, now using a very clear female's voice, even for the stop requested announcement. It doesn't sound like a computer. There's a new format for calling out stops, stops that aren't located at major arteries only have the cross street called out while stops at major arteries have both streets called out. The voice also announces the street you're on. It's also set up so that it announces "next stop" before announcing the stop. Stops don't scroll across the AA screens anymore either.

All in all, I'm impressed.

Also 0854 was on the 26 yesterday, explains why I saw 0865 on Dixie the other day.

I was on 0524 on route 61A and noticed the same thing. Quite an improvement over the computer voice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was on 0924 route 19S this morning, and I noticed the sex change right away!

The voice sounds clearer, with no more strange intonations like he was asking a question (Hurontario at LakeSHORE? lol)

I liked the scrolling next stop display. as it gives a sense of continuity from one word to the next. They didn't need to change that, but I'm fine with either way.

There seems to be no more greeting announcement as you board the bus. I thought that's a nice touch... not sure why it's taken away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An El Dorado on Streetsville (Rt. 9) this morning, not sure if that's unusual or not.

I also found this paper bus thing in my mail today that features an Orion VII painted orange on one side and blue on the other. Interestingly they made the front and the roof blue and the back orange. I wonder how much consultation these decisions needed. Overall it might pass for cuteness but the paper bus folks on here have made much better. If I keep it dry I'm hoping that I can make it last twelve years.

The slogan they've used is "Build it today. Ride it tomorrow." I will try to scavenge some for posterity's sake. There's 250 condo's in this place and none of us suffer junk mail very well so getting some extras out of the giant junk mail bucket shouldn't be hard. They might do better to send everyone a map.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've heard that front reception at Semenyk has a bunch (paper buses) to give out.

The AA voice is an office worker at Semenyk. She's doing all the recordings. (Well, that's what I was told)

It looks like they're following the TTC's lead of doing the voice work in-house using staff instead of outsourcing it or using an artificially-generated voice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've heard that front reception at Semenyk has a bunch (paper buses) to give out.

The AA voice is an office worker at Semenyk. She's doing all the recordings. (Well, that's what I was told)

Is the paper bus 2002? It looks somewhat like a Orion V

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the paper bus 2002? It looks somewhat like a Orion V

Not sure what you mean by 2002. The one I have here is a new Orion VII, 1031 on the driver side and 1001 on the curb side.

Looking at it again it looks like the orange is more like red. It also has a bike rack with no bike in it. At least that part is realistic. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure what you mean by 2002. The one I have here is a new Orion VII, 1031 on the driver side and 1001 on the curb side.

Looking at it again it looks like the orange is more like red. It also has a bike rack with no bike in it. At least that part is realistic. :)

Oh. I haven't seen a MT cardboard bus since 2002 came out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was an "Orion V" in 2002 and another in 2004, then D40LFRs in 2006 and 2008, and now this "Orion VII" in 201o numbered 1001 and 1031.

Yup, that's correct. A long time ago, there was a front desk lady still retains her GM artic paperbus!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...