9626 replies to this topic

[vortoozo]

Not to mention it's relief time to keep the system on schedule as much as possible. If the inbound bus arrives late, the layover allows it to catch up to the next scheduled departure time.

[spanky123]

So have all of the school kids in SD61 got their free bus passes yet? Haven't heard anything about it yet they were promised for September.

[Mike K.]

Nope, no bus passes yet. I think it’s only for students who reside within the CoV. Or has it been expanded to the entirety of SD61?

[Victoria Watcher]

So have all of the school kids in SD61 got their free bus passes yet? Haven't heard anything about it yet they were promised for September.

 

 

Students in the Greater Victoria School District will not have free transit passes when school starts on Sept. 3. 

 

Victoria city council set forth a motion in June to ensure any resident under the age of 19 has access to fare-free public transit no later than Nov. 30, 2019. 

 

Some parents, though, feel the city hasn’t been clear with that deadline.

 

 

https://vancouverisl...-year-1.4562884

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 September 2019 - 04:09 PM.

[Mike K.]

It’s confusing that the link above references the school district and the CoV. Is the City of Victoria also paying for bus passes of students from Esquimalt, Oak Bay, View Royal and Saanich?

[spanky123]

I thought that this was pretty clear. https://www.timescol...says-1.23803219

 

Isitt said the motion to phase out bus fares builds on Victoria council’s decision to use money from new on-street Sunday parking fees to offer free bus passes to children and youth beginning in September.

[Cats4Hire]

I thought that this was pretty clear. https://www.timescol...says-1.23803219

 

Isitt said the motion to phase out bus fares builds on Victoria council’s decision to use money from new on-street Sunday parking fees to offer free bus passes to children and youth beginning in September.

Then why were they asking Transit in mid-August to help fund it?

[Victoria Watcher]

It’s confusing that the link above references the school district and the CoV. Is the City of Victoria also paying for bus passes of students from Esquimalt, Oak Bay, View Royal and Saanich?

 

i don't think so.  the delay is probably for trying to figure out how to limit it to city of victoria kids and prevent abuse.

[Mike K.]

Ok, so media reports shouldn’t be referring to the passes pertaining to SD61. City of Victoria students can also be enrolled in SD62 or SD63 schools. But SD61 students are not automatically entitled to the pass, which is the impression that’s created.

[Victoria Watcher]

some junior media members might not know how our school districts work or where the borders are.

I mean I don’t know exactly where the borders are and I’ve lived here all my life. but I know that many if not most or all Saanich schools are in #61.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 September 2019 - 06:07 PM.

[Mike K.]

Yeah, I get it. But that’s a major detail to misrepresent. SD61 encompasses five municipalities but only one is giving its residents passes.

[Victoria Watcher]

some junior media members might not know how our school districts work or where the borders are.

I mean I don’t know exactly where the borders are and I’ve lived here all my life. but I know that many if not most or all Saanich schools are in #61.

 

further investigation tells me the #61 north boundary is somewhat south of royal oak drive in saanich.  on the east side.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 September 2019 - 06:21 PM.

[snub]

Protective cages will be installed on Victoria’s buses to keep drivers safe.
The project is expected to cost approximately $6.5 million.



In early 2020 we will start retrofitting 650 buses in our provincial fleet with the full driver door.

 

 

.

 

 

My math sucks so help me please. $6.5 million divided by 650 busses. Is that $100,000 per bus, or $10,000. Even $1000.00 would be ridiculous. It's a piece of freakin Lexan.

[Mike K.]

That’s $10k per bus.

[Cats4Hire]

Sure are a lot of trip cancellations this morning. Maybe in January instead of boosting service or adding new routes they should fix this (I assume not enough drivers to cover shifts if another has to call in sick or something) https://www.bctransi...d=1529705958828

[Mike K.]

There are also buses out of commission that make serving the full schedule difficult if not impossible on some days, even if they had a 100% full roster of drivers available.

 

From BCT:

 

The following trips will not operate on Monday, September 16th:

4 UVIC – from Douglas and Kings at 7:34a.m.
4 UVIC – from Douglas at Kings at 7:51 a.m.
4 UVIC – from Douglas at Kings at 8:37 a.m.
4 Downtown – from UVIC at 8:36 a.m.
4 UVIC – from Fairfield and Blanshard at 8:22 a.m

6A Downtown – from Royal Oak Exchange at 6:19a.m.
6 Royal Oak – from Douglas and View at 6:50a.m.
6 Downtown – from Royal Oak Exchange at 7:29a.m.
6A Downtown – from Royal Oak Exchange at 7:50a.m.

7 Downtown – from UVIC at 7:33a.m.
7 UVIC – from Douglas and View at 6:47a.m.

11 UVIC – from Tillicum Mall at 7:05a.m.
11 UVIC – from Tillicum Mall at 6:25a.m.

14 UVIC- from Vic General at 7:31 a.m.
14 Vic General – from UVIC at 8:52 a.m.
14 UVIC – from Vic General at 9:53 a.m.

15 UVIC - from Dockyard at 8:01 a.m.
15 Dockyard - from Yates at Broad 7:49a.m.
15 Dockyard – from Yates and Douglas at 7:19a.m.

16 UVIC – from Carey at Ravine at 8:03 a.m.

21 Downtown – from Camosun College Interurban at 6:26a.m.

22 Vic General – from Hillside Centre at 9:10 a.m.

26 UVIC – from Dockyard at 8:15 a.m.

27 Gordon Head - from Shelbourne at McKenzie 7:58 a.m.
27 Downtown - from Tyndall at Grandview at 8:11 a.m.
27 Gordon Head – from Fairfield and Blanshard at 8:57 a.m.
27 Gordon Head – from Shelbourne and McKenzie at 7:39a.m.
27 Gordon Head – from Shelbourne and McKenzie at 7:11a.m.

50 Downtown - from Langford Exchange at 7:15 a.m.
50 Downtown  – from Langford Exchange at 7:56 a.m.
50 Langford – from Government and Superior at 8:55 a.m.
50 Downtown – from Langford Exchange at 6:24a.m.

[Cats4Hire]

There are also buses out of commission that make serving the full schedule difficult if not impossible on some days, even if they had a 100% full roster of drivers available.

 

How many are out of commission? They just got 8 new heavy duty buses 

 

 

Eight additional heavy-duty buses are also being added to the fleet to help with growing ridership demands in the region. 

 

(from Sept service change announcement) 

 

so unless they scrapped some (which wouldn't make sense if the goal was to add to the fleet to help with demands) they should be +8 from this time last year and while we had some larger trip cancellation days I don't recall ever having 32 trips in a single morning cancelled. Also why just morning trips? I know the UVic routes run a lot more in the AM rush than PM rush but shouldn't there be some cancellations for after 3PM too if it's a fleet issue?

[Mike K.]

Do we know if those eight buses are already in the system? My understanding is they're on order and they'll be servicing the Westshore-downtown corridor, primarily.

 

I can't speak for how they structure their cancellations, but maybe buses out of commission in the AM are available for the PM (i.e. a bus with non-functioning wipers is brought in at 10PM, fixed by 2PM).

 

You have to consider that buses break down routinely, all the time. From broken wipers to leaks, to interior damage to mechanical problems.

[Victoria Watcher]

I suspect they do not want to prematurely cancel the afternoon trips as buses might be coming online today. is their mechanical shop on a smaller crew on weekends? maybe they have a full crew working now but didn’t on the weekend so they had buses stacking up for repair.

[Coreyburger]

there is no real good reason why each bus # needs its own slot at any exchange really. use electronic signs if you must. even though that’s not necessary buses have at least three signs already on them. airports have been using slots for multiple routes for decades.

 

We've had this discussion a few years ago. Yes, they really do. Fancy electronic signage outside is expensive (airports are inside) plus there are a lot more buses than there are planes.