Grand River Transit

[tomh009]

Yeah, not just the range in itself but the charging time--the bus spends too much time in a charging station at the maintenance facility, necessitating more buses and more drivers (and higher costs).

[KevinL]

Could they put charging stations elsewhere on the network? I imagine one at Fairway would be useful.

[dtkvictim]

I'm curious how road damage is being considered too, assuming they weigh a lot more. I often see road maintenance costs brought up as an argument against cars, and by extension this is argued as a point in favor of transit. But I did some back of the napkin math once using the fourth power rule, and the numbers were not anywhere close. Something like 50-100x more damage from a fully packed bus vs everyone in single occupant F150s IIRC.

I wonder if anyone has done the math to see if the increased emissions from road maintenance using heavier electric busses is even being offset. Thankfully we at least have pretty clean power generation here.

[ac3r]

Hahahaha. I recall some months ago when I said electric buses were most likely going to be a total waste of money and not work out for our region at present time, then everyone on this forum got out their pitchforks and told me how I'm wrong.

ICE is still king, guys.

[timc]

E-buses not viable for GRT fleet, Waterloo Region council told
https://archive.ph/BznjA

It appears that GRT is having some challenges with the short ranges of the current electric buses. It also sounds like they may have to start purchasing from New Flyer again as Nova is transitioning to fully electric.
Interesting tidbits that they are still looking for 60ft buses, but hey still haven't prepared any pads to allow for accessible boarding on all three doors.

We don't even have boarding on two doors yet. Who's talking about three?

[dtkvictim]

E-buses not viable for GRT fleet, Waterloo Region council told
https://archive.ph/BznjA

It appears that GRT is having some challenges with the short ranges of the current electric buses. It also sounds like they may have to start purchasing from New Flyer again as Nova is transitioning to fully electric.
Interesting tidbits that they are still looking for 60ft buses, but hey still haven't prepared any pads to allow for accessible boarding on all three doors.

We don't even have boarding on two doors yet. Who's talking about three?

I think that's pretty normal. When I lived in Ottawa the 3 door buses allowed rear boarding, and the 2 door busses didn't. It makes sense as the semi-one-way flow in the front and out the back doesn't really work as well with 3 doors.

That said, no one should ever look to what OC Transpo is doing for guidance on how to run a transit system.

[KevinL]

New business plan was announced today. Lots of big plans!

• Service every 10 minutes on weekdays, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., and every 15 minutes all other times, on 16 routes in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo
  
• Highway express: Introduce frequent and rapid single-seat service between Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo
  
• Overnight network: Launch 24/7 service on key routes, with 30-minute overnight frequency 
  

Plus more - details here: https://www.engagewr.ca/grt-business-plan

[panamaniac]

New business plan was announced today. Lots of big plans!

• Service every 10 minutes on weekdays, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., and every 15 minutes all other times, on 16 routes in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo
  
• Highway express: Introduce frequent and rapid single-seat service between Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo
  
• Overnight network: Launch 24/7 service on key routes, with 30-minute overnight frequency 
  

Plus more - details here: https://www.engagewr.ca/grt-business-plan

What is "single seat service"?

[timio]

New business plan was announced today. Lots of big plans!

• Service every 10 minutes on weekdays, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., and every 15 minutes all other times, on 16 routes in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo
  
• Highway express: Introduce frequent and rapid single-seat service between Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo
  
• Overnight network: Launch 24/7 service on key routes, with 30-minute overnight frequency 
  

Plus more - details here: https://www.engagewr.ca/grt-business-plan

What is "single seat service"?

No transfer required between Waterloo and Cambridge.

[nms]

More GRT details are here.

Proposed frequent transit network routes include:

301, 302, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 7, 8, 12, 16, 20, 51, 53, 61

GRT’s focus areas for new coverage include:

• Cambridge industries
  
• Southwest Kitchener
  
• North Waterloo
  

Preliminary proposed overnight network routes include:

• Routes 301 (modified bus service integrated with routes 7 and 91),
  
• 302 (modified service integrated with route 51),
  
• 201,
  
• 202,
  
• 204,
  
• 8,
  
• 12,
  
• and industrial trips