Today, city and provincial politicians showed off the two new diesel hybrid buses that will start service this afternoon. I jumped at the chance to come along for the ride, because this will likely be the only opportunity to see politicians actually on a bus– you may never again see this happen!
Well, it wasn’t a council quorum– several councillors were still wiping blood off themselves from the on-going secret HPD vs RCMP battle, but that’s as many politicians and administers as we’ll ever see on a bus, so we should pause and relish the moment, before noting that if they made this a regular occurrence–if they used the bus to actually commute and otherwise get around– we might have better bus service. As is, transit is something for other people, and not very important other people at that (important people don’t take the bus, don’t you know) so transit doesn’t get the fiscal or managerial attention it deserves.
Oh, here’s the bus:
It’s an articulated diesel hybrid, which means that when it stops, the electric motor takes over. The plan is to place the two of them on either the #1 or #10 routes– I’m not sure why the uncertainty, but I’ve noted before that Metro Transit staff doesn’t seem to know that there are presently no articulated buses on the #1 route; placing a couple on that route would be a welcome change, but I really get the feeling that Metro Transit staff is so disconnected from the actual rider experience, they don’t really understand the issues involved. For what it’s worth, should they happen to be reading this: the #1 bus is nearly always crammed full of people, uncomfortably so, and if you’re not going to increase frequency on the route, you should put longer buses on it.
The buses cost $1.3 million each, with $300,000 of that pricetag coming from the province. Estabrooks quite rightly noted that there will be a learning curve for running the buses, but the hope is that they’ll achieve a 30 percent reduction in fuel use, compared to a new traditional diesel bus.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2010.
I would love to see an articulated bus on the 80 Sackville route during rush hour. It’s so brutally crammed – especially after it hits the MSVU stop.
The #10 should always be serviced by an articulated bus since it ridiculously overcrowded. The #1 runs every 5 minutes so it is less necessary there.
I see these are the horrible Nova buses. The last time we bought those they were a total disaster.
Correction, further investigation reveals these are New Flyers, not Novas. A far better choice.
i agrre with heff, the 80 is always crammed, but the #1 is just as bad. they should put these bussses on one of those routes.
Bo Gus– the #1 runs every 10 minutes in rush hour, every 15 through the day, and 15- 20 at night. The last run of the night has a half-hour gap, which I always seem to find.
These two buses are New Flyers, but the big purchase– 15 buses for each of the next three years- is all Nova Bus.
Slight error Tim:
The #1 runs every 10 minutes from Mumford 6am-6pm and 15 minutes for the rest of the evening then 30 minutes for the last 3 departures. From Dartmouth its 30, 20 & 15mins from 6:10 to 8:36am then 10 minute frequency until 6:25pm when it runs 15mins and the last 4 trips are 30min turnaround.
On weekends its a mix of 30, 20 & 15 mins. on Saturday, Sundays/holidays 30 & 15.
The change to 10 minutes weekday service is a result of the entire route being designated as an ALF route. Seeing how the loading and unloading of a wheelchair can take up 10 minutes it’s quite often you’ll see two #1 buses bumper to bumper headed in the same direction.
And you gotta love the programming of the destination sign that is actually promoting a company in Toronto (http://www.hrm.ca) instead of http://www.halifax.ca
Would love to see councillors taking the bus regularly so they know the issues involved. They can even do so individually – it’s not necessary they all get on at once, together, for protection. 😉
they really do feel too good to use public transit. i’ve got a really good job that does involve moving from location to location for a meeting or to help at another location and transit works extremely well for me.
not surprising that these idiots are also the ones who bought 45 novas instead of new flyer. there’s nothing better than staring right at somebody two feet away from you at the back of the bus. or feeling like the plastic environment around you could shatter at the touch of a brake pedal.
i am a stare out the window and not in your eyes coaster.
If you’d like to see more photos of these 2 New buses, you can Visit my Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_stegemann/ or by clicking the link provided that’ll take you to my Set made especially for Halifax’s DE60LFR’s..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_stegem…