The vast majority of the world's buses are diesel, I believe. That technological hurdle has yet to be surpassed.
I presume the new ones will be diesel-hybrid like some of the current fleet already is.
New Flyer does have a battery-electric model but the range is under 200 km. Mind you, I would think that would probably be enough for six-plus hours of operation (I don't have any data on the number of km driven per day on GRT buses). They can be charged by pantograph at a station.
(11-26-2016, 06:38 PM)tomh009 Wrote: [ -> ]I presume the new ones will be diesel-hybrid like some of the current fleet already is.
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Sadly, I'm under the impression the region has decided that the hybrid buses don't pay for themselves in fuel savings, and as a result they are not pursing further hybrid vehicles. Of course, they should probably *also* consider benefits to our cities such as less pollution, less noise etc.
(11-26-2016, 07:21 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: [ -> ] (11-26-2016, 06:38 PM)tomh009 Wrote: [ -> ]I presume the new ones will be diesel-hybrid like some of the current fleet already is.
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Sadly, I'm under the impression the region has decided that the hybrid buses don't pay for themselves in fuel savings, and as a result they are not pursing further hybrid vehicles. Of course, they should probably *also* consider benefits to our cities such as less pollution, less noise etc.
That's not good, assuming it's actually the case. Is there a way to confirm this?
We're supposed to be a forward-thinking region. It would be nice for us to take a chance on a small order of New Flyer's electric buses, or even buses from a company like GreenPower Bus, out of Vancouver (some of whose buses have ranges of more than 300 kilometres).
There are ways of measuring the benefit of the reduced air pollution. We should allocate some of the cost of less polluting vehicles to other departments besides GRT. The Region says that it is committed to including environmental considerations in all of its decision-making, and that would be a good way to make sure that is happening when GRT is deciding what vehicles to add to its fleet.
(11-28-2016, 09:06 AM)MidTowner Wrote: [ -> ]We're supposed to be a forward-thinking region. It would be nice for us to take a chance on a small order of New Flyer's electric buses, or even buses from a company like GreenPower Bus, out of Vancouver (some of whose buses have ranges of more than 300 kilometres).
There are ways of measuring the benefit of the reduced air pollution. We should allocate some of the cost of less polluting vehicles to other departments besides GRT. The Region says that it is committed to including environmental considerations in all of its decision-making, and that would be a good way to make sure that is happening when GRT is deciding what vehicles to add to its fleet.
New Flyer buses cost twice as much as regular diesel buses. As stated in the Record article, we will have a more significant positive impact on the environment by running twice as many buses than by running expensive 100% electric buses.
Ah, "perfect is the enemy of good". Fair enough.
Let's see some of that increased ridership first, though.
(11-28-2016, 06:21 PM)BuildingScout Wrote: [ -> ]New Flyer buses cost twice as much as regular diesel buses. As stated in the Record article, we will have a more significant positive impact on the environment by running twice as many buses than by running expensive 100% electric buses.
It wasn't exactly "stated" in the article- that conclusion wasn't the result of a thorough environmental impact analysis, it was just Outhit's opinion. And he was talking specifically about the few hybrid diesels we do run.
It's hard to get into a conversation about numbers when we don't have them. Electric buses are a much higher upfront cost, but save on fuel and are a lot cheaper to maintain. Those savings can be estimated by GRT, and I wouldn't be surprised if electric buses do not yet pay for themselves on those terms. But there are other costs in terms of health impacts of air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, that unfortunately aren't part of the decision-making process (even though the Region says they should be). It would be nice if our Region took a leadership role and piloted these types of new technologies; it wouldn't be reasonable for all the added cost to come out of GRT's budget, though.
(11-26-2016, 06:32 AM)Canard Wrote: [ -> ]Sad they're not Nova's, though.
There will be 9 additional buses branded for ION aBRT, which is under a separate contract.
https://regionofwaterloo.bidsandtenders....10a494faef
Both NFI and Nova have submitted bids so not all hope is lost for seeing Novas back in Waterloo Region.
Interesting set of pictures just posted by the GRT Twitter, of the site of the Charles St Terminal before and during construction.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TBT?src=hash">#TBT</a> to the Bullas block in downtown Kitchener, before and after work started on the Charles Street Terminal. <a href="https://t.co/oHfjfHbwNy">pic.twitter.com/oHfjfHbwNy</a></p>— Grand River Transit (@GRT_ROW) <a href="https://twitter.com/GRT_ROW/status/804367456747687936">December 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
Note that even in the lower picture, one building remains facing Gaukel - this was the original Gray Coach terminal.
Bringing the GRT stop placement discussion from the Ion thread over from the Ion thread, where will the placements be?
Based on the project agreement documents and my foggy memory walking through the newly reconstructed Uptown one time, at night, it doesn't look like the bus bay at William/King (NB) and Willis/King (NB) were built:
http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/...df#page=22
http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/...df#page=23
Does anyone have photos of the finished streetscape from around the old bus stop locations?
I was wondering that myself.
My best guess is that the northbound bus stop at Uptown Square is going to be north of the tracks. There's an ample bay there, and now the trail has a signalized crossing.
But William St? There's no consideration on the ground. It's seems too far between stops from Allen to Erb to simply not have any stops. But letting the bus stop in the LRT lane seems counterproductive.
Wow, looking at the drawings again, things have really changed. The on the ground reality is quite different in a lot of places.