Umm...Rapid Transit (Would it be a Winnipeg forum without this thread?)

I agree, an electric system would be the way to go

Deank wrote:yes GPS system. All buses will have them soon, with the expected result being that there will be some stops that will actually have 100% up to date arrival time for buses on digital boards. And further this information will be available online to make it easier to catch your bus when it is late.
This also allows drastically increased monitoring of the buses from HQ to ensure people are not running to far ahead or behind without reporting it.

i have been somewhere.. maybe Kingston or London that had this and you could go online and it would show you on a map where the bus was in relation to the bus stop that your are waiting for. pretty freaking cool!!

that would be nice.
especially for all the people with browser enabled mobile phones.

Cost to the city... not much really...
significant boost to the look and feel of transit... almost priceless.

Deank wrote:that would be nice.
especially for all the people with browser enabled mobile phones.

Or even if it was tied into the existing phone system... no browsing required

I believe that it will be tied to the existing phone system and online schedules will be changed as frequently as they can. At least I believe that is the proposal.

But most people will see it as cooler if they could "watch" a bus moving across the map and probably use it more.

They have it here already. They control where all the busses are. They are also installing the electronic timetables at major stops. In subways, like in Milan for example, these panels are very important, mainly because the routes are used by more than one subway line. In Vienna, every stop is announced on the various vehicles just before reaching them. Bus tickets or passes are used here in Trieste, no cash. The tickets last 1 hour or 75 minutes, or one day, while on Sundays and holidays, the 1 hour ticket can be used for 4 hours. You can hop on and off all the busses you need in that time span. Trieste also has a subway system which is dormant, but the provincial govt. is planning on using it to connect the airport to Trieste and neighboring Koper in Slovenia. This is a city of 330,000 peeps and roughly 7 x 4 km of heavy density population.

yup we are getting the electronically update bus schedules at major stops. and I believe they will also announce the buses as they arrive at the stops too.. i could be mistaken on that part maybe..

but yeah the major upgrades are definately coming. And those alone will probably make people think twice about us actually needind rapid transit.

Rapid Transit would be so much more beneficial to the community than some new museum that hardly anyone would attend...

I see we've another sandbox member that wishes to turn every thread into a human rights museum issue. We have what 6 threads on that subject? Is that not enough? Should we create a forum dedicated solely and exclusively to that topic? Wait, that still won't be enough will it?

Sigh. Go ahead. If that will make sandbox members feel better. Go ahead.

Well, at least it's a hot topic. We can't exactly have elections going on every month, can we?

Electrician wrote:Well, at least it's a hot topic. We can't exactly have elections going on every month, can we?

Prescisely....:party 005:

Yesterday afternoon, I was downtown and happened to be driving beside one of those articulated buses that crashed and burned a few years ago (maybe it was last year) when they couldn't handle the cold...

Anyway, this one was painted with BC Transit logo's on it, had a Manitoba dealer plate as well as a couple of things you don't normally see on a Winnipeg bus. It had a trailer, which looked like a gas generator and cables connected to the back of the bus. On top of the bus, was a set of trolley poles. The route sign on the back of the bus said "CHEC" and the operator seat was still wrapped in plastic. Only the operator was onboard.

I surmise WPG Transit was allowed to take it for a test run to see how a electric articulated bus (for BRT one would assume) handles the deep soak.

Anyone else seen or heard about this thing yet?

I saw that thing this week also. I assumed it was Flyer giving her a test run. I also assumed the trailer was a generator used to power the bus as it was an electric trolley.

Kind of a un-trolly trolly eh.

I just want to be on record that I'm not going ot participate in any debate/argument/discussion regarding rapdi transit in Winnipeg. At this point, anything that I would have to say has been said by someone else, at least 6 times.

Freeman wrote:I just want to be on record that I'm not going ot participate in any debate/argument/discussion regarding rapdi transit in Winnipeg. At this point, anything that I would have to say has been said by someone else, at least 6 times.

I'm gonna hold ya to that...

I have a sneaking suspicion that CHEC on the back of the bus is an acronym for Canadian Hydrogen Energy Company (CHEC) as that is now all the rage for BC Transit's upcoming new buses being brought in. I have many friends in Vancouver who are into the Eco-Green lifestyle and are pleased with this new concept.
There is a document put out by Fuel Cells Canada (another gov of Canada agency) that indicates that BC Transit along with another BC company will be testing these types of vehicles (buses as well at light duty trucks). You can take a look at some of it below.
http://www.hydrogeneconomy.gc.ca/docs/capguide2006.pdf

Vancouver may just be selling off its assets....heh heh

I'm inclined to agree with GOM that this was either New Flyer taking one out for a test run or it was Winnipeg Transit doing the same for it's own research.

The reason I say that is the trailer on the back was extremely loud and smokey, so it's probably safe to say that it was not a Hydrogen Fuel Cell working there, rather it was some kind of diesel/gas generator supplying the electric motor on the bus in place of electric trolley lines which we no longer have.

It would be so classy to have the eletric tram system back here. You always think of some place like in cali. when you hear of the old tram cars! lol

speaking of rail based trolleys....

How did they deal with the ice being compacted into the rails back then?

That's a very good question....someone around here probably knows...

Another one would be, how did they deal with the poles coming disconnected from th lines....that would suck in the middle of a -40 winter day....especially since a car coming in from behind is essentially blocked from going around and continuing on...

JT Estoban wrote:That's a very good question....someone around here probably knows...

Another one would be, how did they deal with the poles coming disconnected from th lines....that would suck in the middle of a -40 winter day....especially since a car coming in from behind is essentially blocked from going around and continuing on...

Can't answer the rails question. Rosen or J2F probably can.

But the trolleys always came off the lines in this weather. The drivers would use a long pole to reconnect the trolley. Many locations were predictable: mostly where lines crossed. I may well have been one of the prime reasons that technology was abandoned here in Winnipeg.

Plus I hated the sight of all those wires.

On November 16, 2007,
the federal, provincial, and municipal governments announced the
Transit Improvement Program, in which it includes upgrades and
improvements to existing infrastructure for buses, such as transit
priority signals, transit-only lanes, and new bus shelters. In addition
to an order of 33 new regular 40-foot low-floor buses, Winnipeg Transit
also ordered 20 new 60-foot articulated Diesel-Electric Hybrid buses,
in which the first bus being delivered by the end of 2007. It will be
tested on the streets of Winnipeg during the winter months.^[20]
On December 15, 2007, Winnipeg Transit's first articulated bus was delivered. It will be one of two buses in Winnipeg
that will be undergoing testing during the winter months. During its
pilot run, it will most likely be operating transit routes on (but not
limited to) Pembina Highway. In addition, 20 60-foot articulated buses
are expected to be delivered to Winnipeg Transit by Spring 2009. But
according to the hybrid bus test results, the test was not successful,
and so Winnipeg Transit is looking for alternatives from New Flyer. ^[21]