9626 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

a good idea would be hiring 4 ride ambassadors to travel onboard buses to make sure that all commuters know how to use the nextbus system.   then you'd have less and less people leaving home heading for a no-show bus.  almost all of us don't mind waiting an extra 11 minutes at home when we can clearly see a bus is not coming.  it's not knowing that sucks.

[Mike K.]

The buses are overflowing on some routes, they’re just that busy.

Consider there is one bus route, literally, connecting 100,000 people to downtown Victoria. Even late into the night the 50 can be crammed up.

The system has to have a certain amount of service hours. That’s what taxpayers are paying for. Once you start cutting back service but maintaining costs you’re in trouble. This is likely why BCT has forced the City of Victoria to pre-pay for all 7,200 passes, it’s out of a concern that without that guaranteed revenue stream they most certainly wouldn’t be able to accommodate an increase in ridership brought upon by handing an entire muni’s youth a full service pass.

[Victoria Watcher]

well you can’t have magic.

I already said if there IS NO EXTRA MONEY OR EXTRA BUSES the schedule change is preferable to missing busses from the schedule.

[Victoria Watcher]

The buses are overflowing on some routes, they’re just that busy.

Consider there is one bus route, literally, connecting 100,000 people to downtown Victoria. Even late into the night the 50 can be crammed up.

The system has to have a certain amount of service hours. That’s what taxpayers are paying for. Once you start cutting back service but maintaining costs you’re in trouble. This is likely why BCT has forced the City of Victoria to pre-pay for all 7,200 passes, it’s out of a concern that without that guaranteed revenue stream they most certainly wouldn’t be able to accommodate an increase in ridership brought upon by handing an entire muni’s youth a full service pass.

 

none of today’s acute shortages cause the #50 to be full at night. we have dozens of spare buses at night. that bus is full due to the thin regular schedule. that’s politics not operational issues.

we can talk about that separately.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 November 2019 - 06:55 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

don’t make me use caps again. it’s a climate emergency i use sparingly.

[Mike K.]

Lol.

Anyways, it’s the sudden volume of old buses breaking down that is the problem. They eventually get fixed. There’s no need to cut back schedules. But for whatever reason BCT is having more issues with their buses than normal and the repair backlog is growing.

So long as they can update riders on a daily basis regarding affected routes we’re good, but they’ve not kept up with that. Let people know well ahead of time and they’ll adjust but when their bus is a sporadic no-show that disrupts lives.

[Rob Randall]

So then it's a mechanic shortage.

[Victoria Watcher]

So then it's a mechanic shortage.

 

which likely means it's a union issue that prevents any quick fix there.  you can only work the mechanics only some much overtime they need a life.  and there's likely union barriers to short-term hires or contacting out work.

 

or they currently don't pay enough.  or a combination of all.

 

one of the problem of recruiting young workers to the mechanical shop is that they don't value the benefits package like an old-timer does.  they have less kids and family and less medical needs etc.  so they want more salary upfront.  sure mechanics here might make $45/hr when you include the benefits package but if the base wage is only $28/hr. and a guy can work for $40 in kamloops on some big rigs you have a gap.  plus kamloops still has a stripper bar i bet.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 November 2019 - 07:05 AM.

[Cats4Hire]

50 might have less pass-ups (as well as 4, 14 and 26) if they invest in more DDs and actually spread them around properly. Looking on Nextride there's currently 4 singledeck 50s in a row heading Downtown and 2 doubledecks. None have passenger capacity available. It's so annoying being on a crowded single deck 26 and having 2 or 3 double decks pass heading the other way almost empty because of course more people are heading to UVic than from UVic at 9:30 AM.

[Mike K.]

So then it's a mechanic shortage.

If we go back several years in this thread we’ll have been discussing this very thing, circa 2013/2014. The lack of buses on the roads was related to insufficient mechanic positions being filled, and all these years later we seem to be in the same predicament.

[Victoria Watcher]

Be creative when borrowing buses

 

I was surprised to read that B.C. Transit was borrowing buses from Abbotsford and Kelowna. With car sharing well established maybe it is time for bus sharing. This morning there were 19 double deckers, that are normally used for the cruise ship shuttle, parked silently at Ogden Point. With cruise ship passengers dramatically reduced after Labour Day, frustrated students trying to get buses in September and October, and B.C. Transit trying to avoid thousands of pass-ups, there is surely a creative short-term solution before the cavalry arrives with more new buses.

 

Christopher Causton

Victoria

 

 

https://www.timescol...ests-1.24002630

 

seems odd they would still be there.  isn't cruise season over?  or are these cvs and wilson's buses?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 11:43 AM.

[Mike K.]

They appeared to have Go livery when they were delivered (Toronto buses).

But it’s not quite so simple to “share” buses. There are no doubt insurance implications, maintenance implications and these buses won’t show up on NextRide. Having a fleet of vehicles without NextRide or even audible announcements will contravene the court imposed requirement for these announcements.

Then there is the cost associated with leasing buses owned by a third party. Is it worth paying $1 million to lease 20 buses for six months?

[Victoria Watcher]

who bought GO buses?  wilson's or cvs?  they might not even be cleared to run as passenger transports in bc if they are new arrivals.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 12:21 PM.

[Cats4Hire]

and these buses won’t show up on NextRide. Having a fleet of vehicles without NextRide or even audible announcements will contravene the court imposed requirement for these announcements.

as I pointed out though it seems some of the buses they did bring over from the mainland don't have Nextride either. They do have the calling out roads we pass system at least though so I guess that's at least fitting the court requirement. 

[Victoria Watcher]

if the choice is a spare bus ready to use and it having no nextride or even no fare box - or no bus to fill in at all - by all means throw it on.  rent a school bus or wilson's bus for that matter.  i'd rather ride a school bus into town than wait an extra 20 minutes. 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 12:25 PM.

[Mike K.]

Where should the money come from? Leasing these vehicles won’t be cheap, and BC Transit could wind up in court by not having them equipped with automated call outs.

[Victoria Watcher]

Where should the money come from? Leasing these vehicles won’t be cheap, and BC Transit could wind up in court by not having them equipped with automated call outs.

 

they would not end up in court.  it's an emergency.  no different than a broken-down one now. 

 

the money would have to come from somewhere.  you are the one complaining about the buses. we are trying to get you less cancellations by finding some buses.  stop complaining.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 12:44 PM.

[Mike K.]

Don’t be silly.

[Cats4Hire]

I don't see how they're being silly. Either we wait potentially months (new buses in 2020 doesn't mean they'll be on the road running fully equipped come January 1 2020) with varying levels of trip cancellations (I doubt Abbotsford and Kelowna had a bunch of extra buses just sitting in the depot so do they have to deal with cancellations now?) or have to lease buses that might not be fully equipped. I would hope the courts agree a bus not calling out street/stop names for 4 months is better than no bus (some mornings had 3 50s in a row cancelled)

[Mike K.]

Now that the good buses from Kelowna and Abbotsford are here the mechanics can focus on catching up with repairs.

This will soon blow over, no need to over complicate things. But the situation does show just how thin the margins are here and how fast things can progress from adequate to inadequate.