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BusRider

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5 hours ago, BusRider said:

Small update about the On Demand service. 4 buses are now used from 6pm to 8pm, then an additional 5th bus is added 8pm to midnight. This is changed from just operating 5 buses the whole time. This is due to increased demand later in the evening as a lot of restaurants and stores close between 9pm to 11pm.

Another change is any bus will make a stop if there's a passenger waiting at a stop. This is an effort to reduce waiting times for people. The drivers are supposed to check if the person is heading in the general direction of where the bus is currently booked to go, and I believe dispatch can modify the bus the booked trip is assigned to. Personally, I don't think that's a great long term solution. What I'd really like to see is an option to book a trip "ASAP" or "Soonest Bus" instead of being forced to book 30 minutes in advance. Perhaps that way they could offer trips without a guaranteed arrival time, but really reduce the waiting time from booking.

Hmmm....

I drive On Demand and I'm not aware of some of these changes, unless these changes happened last week ( I was day shift last week) ..... Bus 5 operates from 08:30-11:00pm and it will be gone soon.

 

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On 1/23/2022 at 8:33 PM, BrianD said:

Hmmm....

I drive On Demand and I'm not aware of some of these changes, unless these changes happened last week ( I was day shift last week) ..... Bus 5 operates from 08:30-11:00pm and it will be gone soon.

 

Ah, I probably did get the times wrong for Bus 5, but I did speak to the Quality Assurance Supervisor on the phone last week so some maybe some of this is still being planned or it's something that didn't come to fruition. Probably got a bit ahead of it.

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On 1/26/2022 at 3:54 PM, BusRider said:

Ah, I probably did get the times wrong for Bus 5, but I did speak to the Quality Assurance Supervisor on the phone last week so some maybe some of this is still being planned or it's something that didn't come to fruition. Probably got a bit ahead of it.

Well....this isn't surprising...communication leaves plenty to be desired 

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Something I can say with a bit more certainty is transit hopes to replace the 2010 LFR's between 2024 and 2028.
https://brandon.ca/images/pdf/2022-Proposed-Budget/03.01_Proposed_Operating_Budget_General_Fund.pdf

image.thumb.png.7dc98b8fe2c0fc9688945d54b0b7caee.png

City council is also wanting to do an analysis on alternative fuel vehicles at some point (propane, electric, ect). The question was brought up during budget deliberations.

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1 hour ago, BusRider said:

Something I can say with a bit more certainty is transit hopes to replace the 2010 LFR's between 2024 and 2028.
https://brandon.ca/images/pdf/2022-Proposed-Budget/03.01_Proposed_Operating_Budget_General_Fund.pdf

image.thumb.png.7dc98b8fe2c0fc9688945d54b0b7caee.png

City council is also wanting to do an analysis on alternative fuel vehicles at some point (propane, electric, ect). The question was brought up during budget deliberations.

Yes they are aging for sure however the 11 2010's are by far the most driver friendly in the fleet and the most efficient and effective in stop and go transit ....

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2 hours ago, BrianD said:

Yes they are aging for sure however the 11 2010's are by far the most driver friendly in the fleet and the most efficient and effective in stop and go transit ....

Interesting, what specifically about them? I always liked the 600's (D40LFR's and XD40's) and newer in Winnipeg just for the driver compartment layout. The kneeling and ramp switch was located right next to the door handle which saved a lot of reaching. The ISL9 buses also seemed to have a bit more power than the ISL ones. Winnipeg's 2010's seemed really sluggish. The XD40's have a really weird air leveling system, but other than that I don't mind them.

 

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On 1/28/2022 at 8:09 PM, BusRider said:

Interesting, what specifically about them? I always liked the 600's (D40LFR's and XD40's) and newer in Winnipeg just for the driver compartment layout. The kneeling and ramp switch was located right next to the door handle which saved a lot of reaching. The ISL9 buses also seemed to have a bit more power than the ISL ones. Winnipeg's 2010's seemed really sluggish. The XD40's have a really weird air leveling system, but other than that I don't mind them.

 

 With our 2010's the driver controls work excellent for the most part, doors are quick to open and close when commanded to do so, this is as huge plus....a couple of seconds doesn't seem like much but it adds up....this can and does make the difference of making a traffic light or taking an opportunity to merge back into traffic.  The driver controls are nicely laid out too.....as for power and acceleration most of the 2010's are good, most have fresh engines....#52 is the only slug in the mix...needs an engine and it's low on power

 

 The 2016 Nova buses are driver comfortable as far as lay out and visibility however the doors are poor....they don't respond quick when commanded to open and close....(there are tricks a driver can do to help with this)... probably the biggest draw back to the Nova is the front door....it will not let you move the bus while it's open and they are extremely slow to open and close...fleet has been working on this issue and it seems on a couple of the Novas they have the front door working decent now.  The Novas ride rough and bounce a lot due to the larger overhangs over the axles however they handle and corner nice. 

****I've driven all four Nova's at different times recently...Fleet has vastly improved front door operation since the time of typing the original post...front doors now respond quickly when commanded to open and or close.****

 

The 2018 Xcelsior units are probably the least favorite to the drivers....passenger visibility from the drivers seat in the day time is poor...you an barley see the back door area and beyond....the stop request buttons are mounted to low, riders quite often bump them after boarding and heading to their seat. Doors are slow, Slow acceleration due to tall gearing and transmission programming. HVAC system is extremely noisy and gets tiring listening to it for 8 hours or more. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
13 hours ago, Matt said:

I don't think I've seen this posted before on here, but Brandon Transit 65 (ex. Calgary) makes an appearance in the movie Nobody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2un1aU7mT0

Warning: Graphic.

This is so cool.... I never had an opportunity to drive 65 due to being hired after all the ex Calgary being out of service...65 was the last one around the yard...the city held onto it until 2018.

I remember them firing it up and bringing inside before it was sent to auction.... mechanics said there was nothing wrong with it.  The pic was taken Nov 26 2018 just after they fired it up after sitting for a number of months out in the back lot. It had been out of service for roughly a year.

65.JPG

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On 4/15/2022 at 10:32 AM, BrianD said:

Depending what time of day you took the photos I was driving bus 58 on route 23 from 2-6pm

That was around the time I was out. It would've been between 2-4pm because I specifically wanted to get what was on the Industrial.

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8 hours ago, BusRider said:

That was around the time I was out. It would've been between 2-4pm because I specifically wanted to get what was on the Industrial.

Cool...that was me then driving the big #58...lol

58 is one of the preferred buses to operate...all the controls work well

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  • 2 months later...

Rogers outage today means that the fareboxes aren't able to be logged in to. Free rides all day, or at least until Rogers comes back online. It remains to be seen if this will cause problems for On Demand later today.

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Apparently the City of Brandon is again having maintenance issues with their buses... 

City bus fleet in rough shape, council told

Eight or more buses from Brandon Transit’s 17-bus fleet were out of commission on almost a third of the days when routes were in service, Brandon’s manager of transit services told city council at a special meeting Thursday evening.

link here... https://www.brandonsun.com/local/2024/01/20/city-bus-fleet-in-rough-shape-council-told

I do realize that there are a number of buses approaching the end of useful service life, but it seems like a repeating pattern. I remember a handful of years ago, ex Calgary units were used to fill the gap due to equipment issues. Then years prior to that, the MCIs were purchased due to fleet issues. 

Not sure entirely what the answer is but I wonder if they have considered mid-life refurbishment? Perhaps they could get a few more years out of the 2010 LFRs.

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On 1/23/2024 at 9:02 PM, Yoho said:

Apparently the City of Brandon is again having maintenance issues with their buses... 

City bus fleet in rough shape, council told

Eight or more buses from Brandon Transit’s 17-bus fleet were out of commission on almost a third of the days when routes were in service, Brandon’s manager of transit services told city council at a special meeting Thursday evening.

link here... https://www.brandonsun.com/local/2024/01/20/city-bus-fleet-in-rough-shape-council-told

I do realize that there are a number of buses approaching the end of useful service life, but it seems like a repeating pattern. I remember a handful of years ago, ex Calgary units were used to fill the gap due to equipment issues. Then years prior to that, the MCIs were purchased due to fleet issues. 

Not sure entirely what the answer is but I wonder if they have considered mid-life refurbishment? Perhaps they could get a few more years out of the 2010 LFRs.

Honestly I won't set foot on them anymore. I've seen too much to trust those things. Tires worn down to the steel belts but not getting replaced (then predictably blowing out), brake pedals so spongy you can push them to the floor and not get full braking (replace the friggin' foot valve, what's it cost? $200?), vibrations in the steering wheels that never get fixed (almost had a steering wheel go hard-over on the highway, I needed new pants).

Mid-life refurbs are a step in the right direction but god damn, that whole place needs to clear house and start over maintenance practice wise. Just chronic maintenance issues getting ignored for the sake of making city council happy for having a "prudent" budget. One of these days someone is gonna get hurt, or worse. How prudent is that?

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