Official Fredericton, NB projects thread - Page 293

Freddypop · #**5841** Posted **Jul 23, 2014, 8:44 PM**

Haven't been to the Kings Place parking garage for years but I thought there were only 4 levels?

isb035 · #**5842** Posted **Jul 24, 2014, 11:00 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freddypop

Haven't been to the Kings Place parking garage for years but I thought there were only 4 levels?

Front and back halves are offset by 1/2 a level with ramps for 8 levels in total.

trev71 · #**5843** Posted **Jul 24, 2014, 1:30 PM**

I wonder how safe that parking garage really is ?
i know when i stayed at the Delta in SJ a few months ago i had to park at the market square one and I was a little nervous about that one

OliverD · #**5844** Posted **Jul 24, 2014, 2:26 PM**

Officials toured the Marysville bypass today and it is apparently slated to open by the end of August: https://twitter.com/BradMPerry/statu...86767769612288

Taeolas · #**5845** Posted **Jul 24, 2014, 10:33 PM**

Noticed last weekend that Fredericton Downtown is now down to 1 Neon sign at Victory. George's Footwear sign was taken down with the renovations they are doing.

Part of me is hoping they are remaking the sign for the cafe or whatever is going into the slot; but I doubt the Grandfathering clause would let that happen.

trev71 · #**5846** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 11:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Noticed last weekend that Fredericton Downtown is now down to 1 Neon sign at Victory. George's Footwear sign was taken down with the renovations they are doing.

Part of me is hoping they are remaking the sign for the cafe or whatever is going into the slot; but I doubt the Grandfathering clause would let that happen.

what is the deal with Neon signs. Why are they not allowed ? i am guessing they are distracting ?

Taeolas · #**5847** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 12:31 PM**

Downtown Freddy has some strict bylaws on what signs are allowed. I believe that they only allow non-lit signs basically. ( I remembered this story from a few years ago.; I don't think it has changed )

I can't find anything with some quick googling about the signs being grandfathered; I think I read it in the Gleaner when George's closed down originally.

Taeolas · #**5848** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 2:17 PM**

Thought experiment time, just going by what I'm observing.

Freddy Transit has a budget of 3 800 000$, of which 40% ( 1 729 000$) is recovered in revenue. (Actually that works out to 45%, but I'll go by their 40% recovery claim/goal). Numbers from http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transpo...hanges2014.asp

Admittedly, I don't know how much it costs to run the buses, but looking to add Sunday service on the 4 main routes (11/13, 15 and 16) would need 8 drivers for hourly service. Estimating hiring 8 new drivers at 40k annually; which means we'd need 320k$ for drivers and an unknown amount for the buses themselves. (They'd probably want to buy another new bus or two just for extra padding for maintenance due to the increased wear in general)

Now, I was looking at my bus passes for the year to date, in particular the ID numbers. The numbers are all of the form 214###. The 214 implies the year to me, which implies to me that they have at most 1000 monthly bus passes printed each month.

Assuming complete sell through, that comes out to $840k from the monthly passes, or about half of their revenue.

If Fredericton Transit announced that bus passes would increase to 80$ to add hourly Sunday service, and all else stayed the same (including the city increasing funding to maintain the 40% recovery), that would mean FT would have around 945 000$ available to add Sunday service.

Honestly, that seems very doable to me. (Hell even if they only increase to 75$, they'd still have 500 000$ available which should be enough.)

Considering adding Sunday service would make buying monthly bus passes more appealing to people who might be using tickets or taxis, it seems like a no-brainer. (Think of a retail worker who works 3 of 4 Sundays a month. That would be 6 taxi trips of around 10$ each; the Sunday bus routes would all but pay for a Monthly bus pass by themselves. Granted such a worker would likely have a car and/or rides, but it would certainly make the bus a better option than having a car). Plus Sunday bus service could have riders going to/from the churches, a currently untapped market.

Anyways, I'm sure my numbers are too optimistic compared to reality (especially my assumption that 1000 monthly bus passes are sold, and my handwaving away the costs of running 8 buses for a day), but really it seems to me that with a slight increase in the monthly pass, we could easily have Sunday bus service.

(All this worked out while I'm avoiding real work after noticing the pattern on my own monthly pass's serial numbers.

)

Blue Blazer · #**5849** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 5:38 PM**

Taeolas,

I think its about time you got a car. Jim Gilberts has some awesome deals right now and hey you will even get a free hug

Taeolas · #**5850** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 5:55 PM**

Nah, no budget for a car. And the Bridge is about to flip so that's another month of nightmare driving (plus my parents have to get a new car nowish too).

In another year I'll probably start looking, since the last of my University excesses will finally be paid off.

In the mean time, I'm still busing it, and just looking at the numbers.

mylesmalley · #**5851** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 6:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Thought experiment time, just going by what I'm observing.

Freddy Transit has a budget of 3 800 000$, of which 40% ( 1 729 000$) is recovered in revenue. (Actually that works out to 45%, but I'll go by their 40% recovery claim/goal). Numbers from http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transpo...hanges2014.asp

Admittedly, I don't know how much it costs to run the buses, but looking to add Sunday service on the 4 main routes (11/13, 15 and 16) would need 8 drivers for hourly service. Estimating hiring 8 new drivers at 40k annually; which means we'd need 320k$ for drivers and an unknown amount for the buses themselves. (They'd probably want to buy another new bus or two just for extra padding for maintenance due to the increased wear in general)

Now, I was looking at my bus passes for the year to date, in particular the ID numbers. The numbers are all of the form 214###. The 214 implies the year to me, which implies to me that they have at most 1000 monthly bus passes printed each month.

Assuming complete sell through, that comes out to $840k from the monthly passes, or about half of their revenue.

If Fredericton Transit announced that bus passes would increase to 80$ to add hourly Sunday service, and all else stayed the same (including the city increasing funding to maintain the 40% recovery), that would mean FT would have around 945 000$ available to add Sunday service.

Honestly, that seems very doable to me. (Hell even if they only increase to 75$, they'd still have 500 000$ available which should be enough.)

Considering adding Sunday service would make buying monthly bus passes more appealing to people who might be using tickets or taxis, it seems like a no-brainer. (Think of a retail worker who works 3 of 4 Sundays a month. That would be 6 taxi trips of around 10$ each; the Sunday bus routes would all but pay for a Monthly bus pass by themselves. Granted such a worker would likely have a car and/or rides, but it would certainly make the bus a better option than having a car). Plus Sunday bus service could have riders going to/from the churches, a currently untapped market.

Anyways, I'm sure my numbers are too optimistic compared to reality (especially my assumption that 1000 monthly bus passes are sold, and my handwaving away the costs of running 8 buses for a day), but really it seems to me that with a slight increase in the monthly pass, we could easily have Sunday bus service.

(All this worked out while I'm avoiding real work after noticing the pattern on my own monthly pass's serial numbers.

)

A city bus can easily cost $300,000+ to buy, and often a lot more depending on what they're getting, plus maintenance for its entire lifespan. You have insurance costs, fuel costs, costs to clean it etc. to deal with.

Someone's take-home pay might be 40k but they probably have pension expenses, health expenses covered by the city, training costs and licensing.

The long and short of it is that things almost always cost more to set up and operate than people think.

A much more viable option for smaller-volume routes and for off-peak times like Sunday is 15-passenger vans or small modified vans turned into 20-seater busses. Both of which are much cheaper to operate and maintain and come at massively lower up-front costs. People wouldn't stand for it though. Many people are convinced that passenger vans are death traps. So you end up in a situation where busses on low-volume routes are 90% empty at the best of times.

Taeolas · #**5852** Posted **Jul 25, 2014, 7:14 PM**

Actually, they DID look into getting Vans/Minibuses, and nixed that idea fairly quickly from what I overheard at the Open House meetings last month.

Freddy Transit's garage and mechanics are all diesel/big bus trained. So to buy and maintain a fleet of vans/minibuses would involve getting a completely new supply of parts, and retraining (or hiring new) all of the mechanics and maintenance folk to support that subfleet.

Do the smaller vehicles really cost that much less to run in the big picture anyway? They wouldn't be able to handle a surge in demand like the big buses could; and you'd have to be swapping vehicles depending on the time demands. Fuel efficiency would be the main advantage, which might help I guess; but the extra part supplies and training requirements may offset it for the small fleet we'd need here (at most 2 maybe 4 minis maybe?)

And really, we don't know what Sunday needs will be yet since we've never had Sunday service yet. But with as much we have going on on Sunday's now, it probably won't necessarily be low demand, at least not for most of the runs in the morning and during the day. They could probably look to do an 7AM to 6PM run or similar; run reduced (but still hourly) service compared to Saturday; enough to cover Church and most retail business hours basically.

In any case, that was just some back of the envelope musing I was doing this morning. I know things cost more than people suspect. But at the same time I doubt FT would need to hire 8 new drivers to cover 8 Sunday routes (maybe 4 drivers, with the rest of the coverage from adjusting existing driver schedules).

FT itself does need a couple more new full size buses regardless; they're still running the 88XX and 89XX buses more than you would think they should. (Considering those are from the 80's/90's I believe and only meant to be backups)

D3nZ · #**5853** Posted **Jul 27, 2014, 12:11 AM**

Me and my GF tried to go at Chess piece Cafe this afternoon and the place was full cause we were pretty much at the doorway. The place seemed a bit chaotic since everyone wanted to have a look at the menu but apparently the only place you can see the menu is at the cash. I think the waitress then went on to yell at the other costumers to get in line, everyone kinda looked at each other saying: "Really?" and they were laughing it out. She then went to a table next to me and my girlfriend and when she got back, a lady was coming in the cafe with a stroller and the waitress pretty much told us to get out of the way in a very rude manor. My girlfriend replied: "A lady with a stroller is coming in". But she completely ignored us. We then decided to turn around and go elsewhere. Disappointing part is that I was really looking to go there since I had heard some good words about the place but we won't be back there for a while. I work very close to the place but I'll stick with Happy Baker for now.

Blue Blazer · #**5854** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 12:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by D3nZ

Me and my GF tried to go at Chess piece Cafe this afternoon and the place was full cause we were pretty much at the doorway. The place seemed a bit chaotic since everyone wanted to have a look at the menu but apparently the only place you can see the menu is at the cash. I think the waitress then went on to yell at the other costumers to get in line, everyone kinda looked at each other saying: "Really?" and they were laughing it out. She then went to a table next to me and my girlfriend and when she got back, a lady was coming in the cafe with a stroller and the waitress pretty much told us to get out of the way in a very rude manor. My girlfriend replied: "A lady with a stroller is coming in". But she completely ignored us. We then decided to turn around and go elsewhere. Disappointing part is that I was really looking to go there since I had heard some good words about the place but we won't be back there for a while. I work very close to the place but I'll stick with Happy Baker for now.

lmao, first world problems. Why dont you make your own bread and sweets ?

D3nZ · #**5855** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 12:48 PM**

Probably cause I wanted to support local businesses. Why make my own sweets when I can support my local community?

Blue Blazer · #**5856** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 2:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by D3nZ

Probably cause I wanted to support local businesses. Why make my own sweets when I can support my local community?

I am sure you are not just going out to get sweets to support a local bakery. I went to a local store on the weekend and the girl working was super cranky but I didnt come on this site and name store and try to give them a bad rep. This is a fourm for new buildings, and developments.

Taeolas · #**5857** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 3:08 PM**

Seems to be a mighty big mountain you're building out of that mole hill. People have commented before on the services they received from new businesses. Usually it is positive. This time it was a bit negative, but didn't seem so negative to discourage business too much (just encourage people to go at different times).

Personally, I've been planning to go try it eventually, but I have either not had the time or the budget to go there yet (and probably not till the end of August likely), and I probably would have added my own nickel in on the quality of the place one way or another.

trev71 · #**5858** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 4:24 PM**

Let's keep things civil guys and change the subject, I dont want to see this place turn into another Newschaser page like the one on facebook.

Taeolas · #**5859** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 5:27 PM**

Back on topic a bit.

Home Sense signage is up now, and lots of frameworks around the corner of 2NC and CliffStreet for the new Minimall and a new apartment/condo addition. Plus the new subdivisions in that area.

Lots of foundation work going on at Queen street. Can't wait to see the steel start going up, though I am still a bit surprised they don't seem to be digging deep for it.

Westmorland Bridge has flipped and traffic has gotten really strange. I have a car for this week. Driving home around 4:45 Monday, and it was pretty clear sailing. I went down Brunswick street and didn't hit a line until after Northumberland St.

Yesterday, I went down Dundonald before 5, and Westmorland was backed up almost to Dundonald. I did some wandering around uptown, got on the highway and the PMB was deserted (by 5:15-5:30ish).

I have noticed that people don't seem to have realized that Union street ramp is open. Yesterday morning I waited on the Ring road for 20minutes to get across at 7:20 in the morning. Today, I left at 06:55, stopped at McD's, went down Main to Union and took the ramp right up onto and across the bridge and was at work at 7:15.

I'll be out of town for a week and a half in August; hopefully that'll help maintain my sanity for crossing the bridge.

cj6286 · #**5860** Posted **Jul 30, 2014, 7:16 PM**

With the Marysville by-pass opening in August, I wonder if they're going to re-number the previous section of route 8? I can imagine the section from Route 107 into the city following Canada Street will be re-numbered as Route 107? And the rest of the abandoned sections will get local names.

Don't mind me, I've always had a thing for road names and numbers. I find it interesting how the province accommodates road names and numbers once new highways have been built.