Grand River Transit - Printable Version +- Waterloo Region Connected (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com) +-- Forum: Waterloo Region Works (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=14) +--- Forum: Transportation and Infrastructure (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=25) +--- Thread: Grand River Transit (/showthread.php?tid=13) Pages:
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RE: Grand River Transit - KevinL - 01-08-2020 Notably, in the unlikely outcome of a strike it would not affect LRT service as the Keolis operators are not (yet) unionized. RE: Grand River Transit - ZEBuilder - 01-08-2020 (01-08-2020, 02:42 PM)KevinL Wrote: Notably, in the unlikely outcome of a strike it would not affect LRT service as the Keolis operators are not (yet) unionized. if the ion were to break down and replacement shuttles needed there aren't any buses or bus drivers. i am not saying that the strike is going to happen but still if the LRT were to breakdown everyone would be completely screwed. RE: Grand River Transit - plam - 01-08-2020 (01-08-2020, 12:47 PM)Acitta Wrote:(01-07-2020, 10:18 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote: potential GRT strikeThe press always talks about a strike when there are negotiations going on. It rarely comes to that. There are proposals and counter-proposals till they finally come to a reasonably acceptable agreement and life goes on. The press likes to turn everything into a crisis. And ultimately strikes are the leverage that the union has in the negotiation process, which is otherwise sort of one-sided in the employer's favour. RE: Grand River Transit - boatracer - 01-17-2020 The bid for the new GRT facility on Northfield closed this week. Bids were between $104M and $120M. I don't know what the budget was. It was a long process as the bid period started in October and there were 16 addenda making clarifications and changes. https://regionofwaterloo.bidsandtenders.ca/Module/Tenders/en/Tender/Detail/95fb727e-ca68-48ef-8ebd-b697054c14b6/#Submitted You can download the plans from the same page. RE: Grand River Transit - Coke6pk - 01-17-2020 That's a lot of articulated buses.... Coke RE: Grand River Transit - ijmorlan - 01-17-2020 (01-17-2020, 02:28 PM)boatracer Wrote: The bid for the new GRT facility on Northfield closed this week. Bids were between $104M and $120M. I don't know what the budget was. It was a long process as the bid period started in October and there were 16 addenda making clarifications and changes. Too bad we wasted all that money on an LRT. Buses are cheap to own, operate, and maintain! Note: I am actually in favour of more buses and bus maintenance facilities. But it’s interesting that the amount for a single new bus facility is a significant fraction of the cost of the supposedly ruinously expensive LRT system. RE: Grand River Transit - westwardloo - 01-17-2020 Haha does that include the purchase of new buses or is this just for the base building? Also does anyone know if grt is looking at purchasing a fleet of electric vehicles? I read that guelph (city/province/federal) is investing something like 200+million on electric buses and a new bus facility. RE: Grand River Transit - taylortbb - 01-17-2020 (01-17-2020, 09:12 PM)westwardloo Wrote: Haha does that include the purchase of new buses or is this just for the base building? Also does anyone know if grt is looking at purchasing a fleet of electric vehicles? I read that guelph (city/province/federal) is investing something like 200+million on electric buses and a new bus facility. That's just the building and maintenance facilities, no buses. I believe GRT's conclusion was that enough Canadian cities are running EV pilots right now they really wouldn't learn anything additional by doing it themselves. They'll wait a few years while other cities work through the kinks and bring the price down, then adopt them. RE: Grand River Transit - danbrotherston - 01-18-2020 (01-17-2020, 11:55 PM)taylortbb Wrote:(01-17-2020, 09:12 PM)westwardloo Wrote: Haha does that include the purchase of new buses or is this just for the base building? Also does anyone know if grt is looking at purchasing a fleet of electric vehicles? I read that guelph (city/province/federal) is investing something like 200+million on electric buses and a new bus facility. Lol...that's a good one. Our regional engineers have felt the need to pilot everything for years and years--even when those things are actually in the HTA. I have zero doubt they will be piloting them, but much much later. It is pretty disappointing that our region is not making plans to transition to electric buses. Guelph just announced a huge investment into EV busses. Still, given the LRT, we're not doing too bad. What I am surprised about is the cost of these buildings. I don't know much about construction or costs, but I would have expected this type of industrial building to be much cheaper than a residential or commercial building, it's barely more than a warehouse. RE: Grand River Transit - trainspotter139 - 01-18-2020 (01-18-2020, 02:10 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(01-17-2020, 11:55 PM)taylortbb Wrote: That's just the building and maintenance facilities, no buses. The building's core structure is relatively cheap; everything else, including the installation of the maintenance equipment, isn't. RE: Grand River Transit - Bob_McBob - 01-19-2020 GRT Unifor members have rejected the tentative collective agreement and will be on strike as of Tuesday unless another last minute agreement can be reached. https://www.unifor.org/en/whats-new/press-room/unifor-members-set-strike-grt RE: Grand River Transit - Bytor - 01-20-2020 (01-17-2020, 08:50 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:(01-17-2020, 02:28 PM)boatracer Wrote: The bid for the new GRT facility on Northfield closed this week. Bids were between $104M and $120M. I don't know what the budget was. It was a long process as the bid period started in October and there were 16 addenda making clarifications and changes. Can't tell if you're being serious or not, but, no, busses are not cheap to won, operate and maintain. More drivers, more mechanics, diesel fuel more expensive than electricity, those are among the things that make a bus route more expensive to operate than an LRT for the same number of passengers. RE: Grand River Transit - ijmorlan - 01-20-2020 (01-20-2020, 11:02 AM)Bytor Wrote:(01-17-2020, 08:50 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Too bad we wasted all that money on an LRT. Buses are cheap to own, operate, and maintain! I left out the “”. All too many people seriously believe we should have just expanded bus service, because they are supposedly cheaper than LRT. At least that’s what they say; but I’m not convinced that people expressing that opinion are all sincere. I think in many cases they’re really just opposed to transit expansion, and the easiest way to avoid LRT construction is to pretend to be in favour of “sensible” “inexpensive” buses. RE: Grand River Transit - MidTowner - 01-20-2020 The 200 had sufficient ridership to justify an investment in higher-order transit. But buses are cheaper to purchase, and a capital investment of x spent on buses means greater coverage than the same capital outlay on rail transit. Buses are more expensive to operate on a per rider basis, but they are cheap to buy. RE: Grand River Transit - danbrotherston - 01-20-2020 (01-20-2020, 08:13 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:(01-20-2020, 11:02 AM)Bytor Wrote: Can't tell if you're being serious or not, but, no, busses are not cheap to won, operate and maintain. Virtually all cases. Ironically, many of these people are probably opposed to taking lanes for transit and don’t know that BRT includes dedicated lanes ....or at least should. |