City council was poised to approve the purchase of 22 new buses Tuesday, but the matter was put off for two weeks to make “minor” changes in a staff report, says deputy CAO Mike Labrecque. The changes will not affect purchase price, the number or kind of buses, nor the vendor, he says.
The bus buy is part of a larger prospective purchase of up to 80 buses over the next three years. Council must approve each installment of that purchase, and this year’s buy was initially going to be for 19 buses, but the budget allows for 22.
The new buses will be 12.2-metre New flyer buses, costing $406,422 each, or $9,324,508 collectively, including HST, which will be refunded to the city. They are not the “double” buses, but rather the standard bus size. They are wheelchair-friendly “low floor” buses with 36 seats each, plus standing rooms.
Eleven of the buses will replace older inaccessible 60-foot buses with 49 seats, which will be scrapped. Five more buses will be added to enhance existing bus routes. The remaining six new buses will be used on a new “feeder service” route, probably up Mount Hope Avenue, that will service the Woodside Ferry Terminal, and are needed to meet new demand created by a new ferry, which will arrive in 2014 and allow the Woodside ferry to operate all day.
The buses won’t arrive until early next year. Exact routing for the new buses will be spelled out in a service plan that council will adopt as part of its April budget negotiations.
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Letters to the editor, March 7, 2013
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2013.
Replacing buses that have 49 seats with new “accessible” ones that have only 36 seats means more overcrowding, more standees, and more dissatisfaction with Transit. How often do wheelchairs actually end up on buses? Answer: not very often at all. A better solution to the accessibility problem is needed. Inconveniencing 99% of your customers to accommodate a potential 1% is hardly a sound business strategy.
Hmm. so according to the poster above, wheelchairs shouldn’t be accommodated because they require a couple of seat spaces. He says he has never seen a wheelchair on a bus. If wheelchairs are never on buses, what is his beef really about? Persons using wheelchairs have just as much right to use public transit as the next person. If he thinks people using wheelchairs get special favours, he would be the first person wanting to get one!
I do not think that we are to get a ‘trolley’ (like in the picture) unless they are planning to re-wire the whole city again. Ah, shades of my youth in Halifax (and visits to other cities where they still use them).
As for the person with a burr in their bonnet about wheel chairs – yes, folks in them do use the buses. And why shouldn’t they? They pay taxes, fares etc. Also, remember today’s non wheel chair user may be using one in future. Think about that before creating, or keeping, barriers against anyone who uses public services.
Bo Gus in case your not aware the only new buses allowed to be purchased according to law in Canada are wheel chair capable. Also further more why shouldn’t some one in a wheel chair have the ability to catch a bus if they want?
I’m not really going to mind having to stand to accommodate someone else since I’m still lucky enough to have the use of my legs. JFC, I bet you just stay on your ass and let seniors topple like dominoes, too.