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Hamilton Street Railway


Hybrid0920

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The rear door position is a pet peeve of mine, especially if I go too far back when its crowded.

I couldnt agree more. Especially when I see drivers use the front ramp instead of the back one. To this day I really dont understand why: a) the HSR has a rear door ramp on its buses and b )why they essentially choose to have two front doors

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The RTS and Orion VI is the opposite, and it works great, it forces people towards the back. We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one. But I do agree with having the wheelchair ramp at the rear, it does make life easier for those in wheelchairs. And forces the driver to get up, which for some drivers its needed. lol

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The pros of having the rear doors closer to the front is more people will use them resulting in a faster boarding time at the front doors.

I find that its the opposite and it screws up passenger flows and "de-boarding" times if you will. For one, it takes some people forever to get to the rear doors from the back, especially once they bus comes to a full stop before they start to get up and get to the doors. Also, often times when a mobile device gets on from the rear doors, it forces people in the middle section of the bus to get off for a brief period to allow the mobile device to navigate adequately. When i see drivers use the front ramp, things flow a lot smoother (even after accounting for the inefficient position of stanchions).

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Strollers at the front of a bus is a problem we all have no choice but to get use to. HF buses forced people to re-evaluate getting a big stroller because they new the problems they will have when carrying it up buses. The stairs alone was a deterrent. But its definitely much easier for someone to board the rear doors in a wheelchair than the front. The only bad thing about the rear doors is everyone is looking at you which makes it uncomfortable for some. Especially the RTS' and Coach buses.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From another forum about Hamilton's budget

Transit: $2.7 million deferred

The HSR saw an extra $127,000 in revenue last year and will put off buying new diesel buses and accessibility spending until next year.

$965,000 expenditure

The city is increasing bus presence on the Mountain, adding weekend service along Rymal and Stone Church roads and extending the A Line to the lake. A late amendment Wednesday reduced frequency on Route 44 through Ancaster.

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The city is increasing bus presence on the Mountain, adding weekend service along Rymal and Stone Church roads and extending the A Line to the lake. A late amendment Wednesday reduced frequency on Route 44 through Ancaster.

That part about reducing service in Ancaster is a joke. When are we going to get a Councillor in Ancaster who actually supports transit? That will mean that the bus will short turn at Glancaster Loop, no help at all to Redeemer students or people who work in the Industrial park. Not everybody going to/from Ancaster actually live there. Most go there to shop and/or work. I guess the Councillor does not want to support these people at the cost of the people who have 3 cars in every driveway.
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From another forum about Hamilton's budget

Transit: $2.7 million deferred

The HSR saw an extra $127,000 in revenue last year and will put off buying new diesel buses and accessibility spending until next year.

*Sighs* This is why transit in this city will never be improved. I cant wait to see the day where the city actuallly takes transit seriously, instead of treating it as a constant afterthought. Every single municipality in Ontario is at least putting a conscious effort to improve transit in their respective cities, and the only exception to this seems to be Hamilton (and I guess we could toss in Burlington as well).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Found this in another forum:

From today's Public Works meeting.

Quote: That the General Manager of Public Works or delegate be authorized to amend the

approved 2014 Transit Fleet replacement capital budget to purchase eighteen (18)

sixty-foot (60’) articulated buses at an upset cost of $15,500,000 in the alternative to

the planned purchase of eighteen (18) forty-foot (40’) buses at a budget cost of

$8,765,000.

Quote: That the General Manager of Public Works or delegate be authorized to single source

the purchase of eighteen (18) CNG sixty foot articulated buses from New Flyer Industries

with the understanding that they are the only Canadian manufacturer.

Quote: For the past eight years the City has partnered with other municipalities for Transit fleet

purchases through the Metrolinx Governance agreement approved by Council in City of

Hamilton/Metrolinx Multi-Year Governance Agreement (PW13092) - (City Wide). The

Metrolinx tender was issued in Q1 2014 but does not include a provision for sixty foot

articulated, CNG powered buses. The tender will include forty foot CNG powered

buses, along with forty and sixty foot Diesel powered buses. For this reason, staff is

recommending single source from New Flyer Industries, currently the only Canadian

manufacturer of CNG sixty foot articulated buses.

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I wonder if the new 60 foooters will arrive in late 2014 or early 2015. I'm also questioning if they will be in the current B-Line style livery or regular blue white and yellow HSR colors, as they mention these will be mainly for the 2 barton and other non-express routes.

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Would they specifically be for the 2-Barton, or other routes?

Given the current weekday and Saturday schedules during the day being at every 7 or 8 minutes, if every bus is an artic, perhaps the frequencies would need to be reduced to every 10 minutes to justify the all-articulated service?

Which other routes could benefit from artics being added?

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Would they specifically be for the 2-Barton, or other routes?

Given the current weekday and Saturday schedules during the day being at every 7 or 8 minutes, if every bus is an artic, perhaps the frequencies would need to be reduced to every 10 minutes to justify the all-articulated service?

I think that's the thing that would be most likely to happen if a certain route was transformed to have articulated-only service. There's no way the HSR would be able to maintain the current headways while using 60 footers (speaking from a cost perspective). Unless the city is willing to put more money into the service, the HSR would esperience a pretty significant increase in operational costs.

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I think that's the thing that would be most likely to happen if a certain route was transformed to have articulated-only service. There's no way the HSR would be able to maintain the current headways while using 60 footers (speaking from a cost perspective). Unless the city is willing to put more money into the service, the HSR would esperience a pretty significant increase in operational costs.

Not necessarily, CNG artics are supposed to be cheaper to run based on the low cost of CNG fuel. I am sure the operating cost might be similar to a diesel 40' bus. When HSR introduced the 900 series along the King/Main/Eastgate corridor in 2009, headway was not reduced (unlike TTC) and capacity went up greatly. I do not know for sure, but the artics are most likely destined for route 2 and I do not believe that there is a headway decreased planned.

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Not necessarily, CNG artics are supposed to be cheaper to run based on the low cost of CNG fuel. I am sure the operating cost might be similar to a diesel 40' bus. When HSR introduced the 900 series along the King/Main/Eastgate corridor in 2009, headway was not reduced (unlike TTC) and capacity went up greatly. I do not know for sure, but the artics are most likely destined for route 2 and I do not believe that there is a headway decreased planned.

I thought they might end up on the 25/26 which uses artics on the week-end.

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Effective Thursday, 1A and 10 buses will no longer use the McMaster Children's Hospital loop, and will instead use local streets for turnaround. Come the summer, plans are in place to extend the routes to University Plaza to address the service deficiency between McMaster and Dundas.

http://m.thespec.com/news-story/4491035-hospital-city-reach-compromise-on-bus-loop-issue/

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http://www.hamiltontransit.ca/

Information on route changes for both Route 7 - Locke and Route 8 - York, effective June 22nd.

Opinion: Given these changes, should the route names be changed, too?

Route 7 Locke wouldn't be on Locke Street at all. Route 8 could have a better name like, "York/Locke."

Edited by newflyerinvero
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http://www.hamiltontransit.ca/

Information on route changes for both Route 7 - Locke and Route 8 - York, effective June 22nd.

Opinion: Given these changes, should the route names be changed, too?

Route 7 Locke wouldn't be on Locke Street at all. Route 8 could have a better name like, "York/Locke."

From what I can see, the 7 Locke still retains the same routing that it had on Locke Street. The only difference is that it's going to loop via Chatham, Dundurn and Charlton instead of Hillcrest Loop. The service on Dundurn South of Charlton will be served by the new 8 York routing, which will run nearly the entire length of Dundurn from Head Street to the escarpment.

If anything the name of the 8 York might need to be revised to 8 York-Dundurn or something like that.

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I just thought of this now.

With the 1A-King and 10 (no longer to be 10A (?) B-Line Express that will be serving University Plaza next month, would there be a need for a bus or two to fulfill the same headways?

For the 1A-King, I understand the headways are every 12 minutes and there's a layover of about that same time before heading in the easterly direction towards Eastgate Square. Given that it seems like the extended routing to University Plaza that would eliminate the layover of the 12 minutes, would that eliminate the need for the additional bus needed? Or, would there be a layover there and another bus is required?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bus 1201 has been equipped with a White LED Luminator Titan destination sign as a test. If successful, the HSR will specify this type of sign on future equipment purchases. The white LEDs are far more visible than the orange LEDs on the current signs. The LEDs are also smaller, therefore there are more height wise and width wise than current signs. This allows the font to be more crisper than the current signs.

Bus 1201 is on route 44-Rymal this afternoon. The arrival times at Eastgate Square are: 2:27 PM, 4:57 PM, 7:01 PM and 9:03 PM should you wish to see the new sign.

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Bus 1201 has been equipped with a White LED Luminator Titan destination sign as a test. If successful, the HSR will specify this type of sign on future equipment purchases. The white LEDs are far more visible than the orange LEDs on the current signs. The LEDs are also smaller, therefore there are more height wise and width wise than current signs. This allows the font to be more crisper than the current signs.

How do they look during the day time? I wouldnt argue that they are more visible at night, but if its bright and sunny during the day I wonder if people will have trouble seeing the destination signs.

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HSR's trip planner has been updated with a real time map of where your bus is http://www.busweb.hamilton.ca:8008/hiwire?.a=iRealTimeDisplay

It seems pretty accurate, I live right on Upper Wellington and the indicator was a little ahead (showed the bus passing my house about a minute before it actually did). If you click on the marker it will tell you the bus number too.

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Awesome. I hope the gps information is/will become available to the public so that mobile app designers can take advantage of it as well. I was hoping to see these kinds of things way back when they first started installing the equipment on the buses. All we need now is some more electronic displays installed at the various terminals across the city.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From another forum

Hamilton jumps on natural gas buses

Hamilton politicians agreed to spend $15 million for 18 natural compressed gas buses to replace aging diesel vehicles, plus replace a natural gas compressor at the Mountain Transit Centre.

60-foot natural gas vehicles,

Hull said the plan next year is to purchase another 17 natural gas, 40-foot buses in 2015 to update its fleet.

A 40-foot bus accommodates about 75 riders, while a 60-foot vehicle can squeeze in about 100 people. Hull said those articulated buses will be deployed on heavily traffic routes including Barton Street and King and Main streets.

http://www.hamiltonnews.com/news/ham...ral-gas-buses/

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