Grand River Transit

[ijmorlan]

There's something in the contract that allows them to get away with only paving a strip that is perhaps a foot-and-a-half wide, and this strip does not need to be connected to a sidewalk at all. It is absurd.

Do you mean clearing, rather than paving?

Agreed regardless!

[danbrotherston]

There's something in the contract that allows them to get away with only paving a strip that is perhaps a foot-and-a-half wide, and this strip does not need to be connected to a sidewalk at all. It is absurd.

Do you mean clearing, rather than paving?

Agreed regardless!

The standard is also ridiculously lax.  It's something like 72 hours for the contractor.  BUUT...and here's a big BUT.  The contractor only has to come out when GRT calls.  And GRT has stated that they "can't" (really are choosing not to spend the money) to clear snow until after plowing.  So they wait for the city snow event to end.  Which ends up being about 48 hours after the end of snowfall.  As a result, bus stop clearing is about a 5 day process after snow.  How many times this winter was there even 5 days between snowfalls?

Even when it does happen, it's not particularly well done (there have been numerous examples of the contractor plowing the bus stop onto the sidewalk).

I'm going to say that the GRT bus stop clearing isn't quite as much theater as the bylaw enforcement for sidewalks, but it's clear that the top priority is low cost, followed very very far behind by ensuring bus stops are accessible for users.

[bgb_ca]

Looks like GRT made a minor change to the transfers now made by the new fareboxes, adding a holographic strip.

[KevinL]

I hear this was the plan for when the Ion machines would launch, as offboard printing would boost the incidence of counterfeiting. I guess they got the paper stock in already, so...

[chutten]

I wonder if this is due to how late the easyGO Fare Card project is. If the fare cards were in broader circulation, the use of transfer paper might have been at a low enough rate that there'd still be plenty of the old stuff left.

[robdrimmie]

There's something in the contract that allows them to get away with only paving a strip that is perhaps a foot-and-a-half wide, and this strip does not need to be connected to a sidewalk at all. It is absurd.

Do you mean clearing, rather than paving?

Agreed regardless!

I did, thank you. I think I had intended to add something about them also being able to ignore "down to the pavement" and just conflated several thoughts together poorly.

[KevinL]

205 signs are up. 8 days to launch!

[Pheidippides]

It is a minor thing, but I wish they would settle on a standard iXpress signage. Some of the stops have the iXpress number on the bottom in the blue area, with green piping down the side, and the non-express route numbers inside circles in the white area where as the one pictured has all the route numbers in the white area and not in circles. The 200 seems to be a mix of green and the original orange colours and a different shaped (1, 2) I guess because it was the "spine" and the first express route?

Also, I know this topic has been discussed a lot lately, but it seems like there are more and more bus wraps. I have trouble accepting that the bus below doesn't constitute a "full wrap" only because the entire other side of the bus is regular GRT markings. Even if only half done it is still a horrible experience.
   

[timio]

I intentionally chose to take a route 1 over 204 last week because the 1 didn't have a wrap on it and the 204 did.

[Canard]

That is urban graffiti as far as I'm concerned. It shouldn't be allowed, at all.

[MidTowner]

I intentionally chose to take a route 1 over 204 last week because the 1 didn't have a wrap on it and the 204 did.

I've done that with the 204 and 7 before when riding with my kid. We're not in a rush, and she likes to look out the window, so if the 204 comes and has a wrap on it, I'll just walk over to the other bay. With the stroller, I don't really need to worry about crowding since she'll get a seat regardless...anyway, better she can look out the window and ask about things she notices outside, then has to look around inside and ask me about things she notices about the other riders...

[KevinL]

Behold the interim 'Sunrise Centre' stop for the 205:


Not actually on Sunrise property, you'll note. That side of things is still being hashed out, apparently.

[KevinL]

The northbound stop on King at Victoria is finally up to spec, and will go into service on Monday.

[Pheidippides]

The northbound stop on King at Victoria is finally up to spec, and will go into service on Monday.

What was actually wrong with it? Unless I missed it, I've never seen them do any defect/repair work on it; certainly nothing major enough for it to have been out of service for so long.

[Pheidippides]

Also, I guess enough noise has been made about bus wraps that staff wrote a report.

-Transit advertising generates approximately $500,000 annually from selling advertising rights on the exterior and interior of GRT buses.
-The current bus-advertising contract allows for the sale of up to five (5) fully wrapped transit buses each year and an unlimited number of single sided vinyl ads. 
-It is estimated the revenue loss from eliminating these speciality vinyl products would be $220,000 annually or a 44% reduction.
-The current advertising contract expires in June 2019.
-Since the start of 2017, 25 customers have complained about full bus wraps and bus murals.
-When the Bus Advertising contract expires in June 2019, the Request for Proposal will require bidders to separate the revenue for specialty vinyl ads, which obstruct any part of the buses windows. This will exclude the back of the bus advertising space, where there are no windows. This will allow Regional Council the opportunity to review the financial implications of discontinuing these specialty vinyl advertisements at that time.
-transit staff have received numerous requests for advertising availability on the ION light rail vehicles, ION buses and station platform advertising panels.
-Staff are not proposing any advertising for the exterior of the ION trains or buses. The interior space of both vehicles will be included in the 2019 RFP for transit advertising.
-staff are pursuing a short-term arrangement with the BIA’s in Kitchener and Waterloo to offer this space free of charge in recognition of the challenges encountered during the ION construction
-The ION operating budget includes an annual forecast of $250,000 for advertising revenue