Winnipeg City Transit/Rapid Transit

[bomberjet]

But the new articulated buses were purchased for the blue line specifically.

New buses being the used ones they bought from Ottawa..

Where exactly did you see those buses operating on different routes? Out in the burbs somewhere? Downtown they go to U of W for example to the RT station.

[peg]

They use them for the 60 all the time

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

But the new articulated buses were purchased for the blue line specifically.

New buses being the used ones they bought from Ottawa..

Where exactly did you see those buses operating on different routes? Out in the burbs somewhere? Downtown they go to U of W for example to the RT station.

You can see them on any route that runs articulated buses. The 60, as peg just said, and I even saw one on the 48 yesterday. They have more than they need just to operate the Blue line.

We're talking about the actual new ones, not the used ones from Ottawa, which I've seen very little of this summer.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

But the new articulated buses were purchased for the blue line specifically.

New buses being the used ones they bought from Ottawa..

Where exactly did you see those buses operating on different routes? Out in the burbs somewhere? Downtown they go to U of W for example to the RT station.

I've seen quite a few 60s downtown in BLUE branding. One other route but can't remember what it was.

[dam_well]

Originally Posted by GarryEllice

You can see them on any route that runs articulated buses. The 60, as peg just said, and I even saw one on the 48 yesterday. They have more than they need just to operate the Blue line.

We're talking about the actual new ones, not the used ones from Ottawa, which I've seen very little of this summer.

Yeah there must be less BLUE service than they had planned for. Makes sense to use the newer busses if they have them sitting around these days.

[bomberjet]

I didn't know there were other routes with articulated buses other than the pre-extended BRT routes. Such as the 60.

Did they actually buy brand new ones?

Edit: I see they have 371-398 purchased in 2019. Sweet.

[cllew]

While I was out driving to the Dugald Rd Tim's for my morning coffee I noticed that NFI had one of the trial electric buses the city was using on the road driving around Transcona. I only knew it was one of them as it still had the bus wrap on it from the trial test.

[tree]

Though I don't need it as much lately I'm really disappointed the Spirit was cut completely. I know others think its a waste but as someone who used it every day multiple times while going to university and seeing others who did the same I can say its impacted a lot of people. I'll be fine (especially COVID sht making going into class / office less common) but I know a lot of people who really relied on it. Would have preferred they kept the service with normal fares even.

[buzzg]

One question I have is what do they do now with the stops that were Spirit-only? Eliminating this one on Bannatyne means there's now room for ~4 more parking spots and reworking the bike lane.

[bomberjet]

Did the bus also stay in the diamond lane to the right of the median planters?

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by buzzg

One question I have is what do they do now with the stops that were Spirit-only? Eliminating this one on Bannatyne means there's now room for ~4 more parking spots and reworking the bike lane.

Is the cancellation of the Downtown Spirit permanent or until COVID subsides? I would hope they don't start ripping out curbs and bike lanes for something temporary.

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by WildCake

Is the cancellation of the Downtown Spirit permanent or until COVID subsides? I would hope they don't start ripping out curbs and bike lanes for something temporary.

The cancellation of the Spirit was proposed last November. Nothing to do with covid. It just takes a while for these things to get implemented.

As a downtown resident, I'm kinda devastated. I don't care whether it's free or not, it was just really convenient to have that frequent link straight into the Forks and down to Broadway.

[buzzg]

They should have done a season keeping it but making it a regular paid route to see how much/if ridership would drop off for it. It was first and foremost about cost savings from the free rides – not about route usage. I bet they didn't even track that before making the decision.

This brings me to another question – why the hell do we still have monthly passes that don't use Peggo? The city could have so much valuable data without having to park a human somewhere and manually/anecdotally tally usage and capacity. All rides should use Peggo aside from cash, so they can make actual informed decisions.

[bomberjet]

They still have paper passes because people cant figure out how to use Peggo. I reloaded in person at a kiosk and have never had an issue besides me losing a card. Which was great with peggo because i got my funds from the lost card transfered to my new one!

I've heard a lot of complaints from the Kiosk clerk. Sometimes the system is shit and messes up. Sometimes people load online and then are dumbfounded when they go to the bus that they have no money on the card.

So they've kept on with the paper passes..

[buzzg]

Yes I agree it is absurd that it takes up to 2-4 days (weekends don't seem to work) from when I put cash on my card til when it works. What the hell was the point of going to a digital system if I still need to go to a physical store to get fares on my card immediately.

That being said, isn't it only monthly passes that are still paper? The auto-reload would work just fine as most people who go monthly I imagine get it every month.

[bomberjet]

Bus tickets are still available I believe. Not sure if weekly passes, etc still are.

[Winnipeg Grump]

Classic City of Winnipeg!
Spend millions of dollars developing a bespoke system over decades and it still doesn't function properly when all that was needed was to go to another agency like TTC and say "Hey, mind if we buy your Presto system?"

[cllew]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

They still have paper passes because people cant figure out how to use Peggo. I reloaded in person at a kiosk and have never had an issue besides me losing a card. Which was great with peggo because i got my funds from the lost card transfered to my new one!

I've heard a lot of complaints from the Kiosk clerk. Sometimes the system is shit and messes up. Sometimes people load online and then are dumbfounded when they go to the bus that they have no money on the card.

So they've kept on with the paper passes..

I just looked on the city website and in the final project report to Finance Committee in April 2020, it stated "on Jan 28 2020 the Operational Performance Test, was accepted by Winnipeg Transit, completing the project. All milestone payments under this contract have now been made".

To me that sounds like the system is operating properly as expected as there are no more holdbacks.

[bomberjet]

That's good news, as it means they sorted out the system issues. Now just to teach people how it works. As was mentioned, the biggest downfall is online payments taking a couple days to load. Otherwise I found it worked just fine.

[ywgwalk]

Originally Posted by Winnipeg Grump

Classic City of Winnipeg!
Spend millions of dollars developing a bespoke system over decades and it still doesn't function properly when all that was needed was to go to another agency like TTC and say "Hey, mind if we buy your Presto system?"

Except it's not exactly "bespoke", it was purchased from this company: https://www.garival.com/en/index.php

According to http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/View...ctionId=551574

I haven't fully read through it though to get an idea of where most of the software development lies.