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Grand River Transit
Here's a conspiracy theory... it snows Sunday night/Monday AM. Monday morning at 10 AM GRT contacts the snow plow contractors and says "Please clear the snow from GRT bus stops. Per your contract you have 72 hours (!) to start this work and 48 hours to complete once you've started".

Contractor looks at the weather forecast and sees that on Thursday it's going to be 8 degrees above freezing. So they wait 71 hours until Thursday AM, go out and clear one bus stop, tell the region they've "started", and collect $115,000. Thursday afternoon all the bus stops are 'cleared' because of weather. And GRT users had to suffer through three days of uncleared stops.
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(01-11-2018, 10:17 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Talked to GRT this morning, I am now read the policy by the CSR, 72 hours to start, 48 hours to clear...5 days clear bus stops, next storm is forecast by then, 0 days with cleared bus stops.

We're spending half a million dollars to pretend that bus stops will be clear.

That sounds like it really needs to be addressed....
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(01-12-2018, 03:34 PM)goggolor Wrote: Here's a conspiracy theory... it snows Sunday night/Monday AM. Monday morning at 10 AM GRT contacts the snow plow contractors and says "Please clear the snow from GRT bus stops. Per your contract you have 72 hours (!) to start this work and 48 hours to complete once you've started".

Contractor looks at the weather forecast and sees that on Thursday it's going to be 8 degrees above freezing. So they wait 71 hours until Thursday AM, go out and clear one bus stop, tell the region they've "started", and collect $115,000. Thursday afternoon all the bus stops are 'cleared' because of weather. And GRT users had to suffer through three days of uncleared stops.

It's unethical, but that's entirely plausible. If you were a private business trying to maximize profits, why wouldn't you do this?

The problem (as everyone has said over and over) is the verbiage of the contract.
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Fairway Transit Terminal contact tender up for approval. $2,868,292.02 and completion in the infamous "end of spring 2018."

Also up for approval $1,275,280.56 for a bus simulator.


I've noticed a change in how most of the bus drivers are handling the crossing of the Ion tracks and then the GEXR tracks on King right in front of the public square.

Previous to the new traffic signal at the GEXR tracks being activated the drivers would:
-stop at the Ion tracks, check, proceed to GEXR, stop, check, and then go.

Now most of the drivers seem to be:
-driving through the Ion tracks without stopping or checking, stopping at the GEXR tracks, checking, then proceeding.

The problem, as I see it is, and this happened to me twice today, the bus proceeds to stop before the GEXR tracks, and while the driver is the process of doing the check down the tracks, the light turns red, and they stop and wait for the green, but now they are stuck with their back end on the Ion tracks.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(01-12-2018, 09:13 PM)Canard Wrote:
(01-12-2018, 03:34 PM)goggolor Wrote: Here's a conspiracy theory... it snows Sunday night/Monday AM. Monday morning at 10 AM GRT contacts the snow plow contractors and says "Please clear the snow from GRT bus stops. Per your contract you have 72 hours (!) to start this work and 48 hours to complete once you've started".

Contractor looks at the weather forecast and sees that on Thursday it's going to be 8 degrees above freezing. So they wait 71 hours until Thursday AM, go out and clear one bus stop, tell the region they've "started", and collect $115,000. Thursday afternoon all the bus stops are 'cleared' because of weather. And GRT users had to suffer through three days of uncleared stops.

It's unethical, but that's entirely plausible.  If you were a private business trying to maximize profits, why wouldn't you do this?

The problem (as everyone has said over and over) is the verbiage of the contract.

Really we should just have the cities do it. They’re already doing tons of snow clearing so adding on a few bus stops isn’t much of a difference. Of course they should also be doing the sidewalks (at least I haven’t seen any serious attempt by anyone to argue to the contrary), which would make the bus stops even less of an additional job. Then you handle any issues through work scheduling and employee instructions, i.e., management, rather than trying to codify in some commercial contract exactly what is required.
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(01-12-2018, 09:32 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: The problem, as I see it is, and this happened to me twice today, the bus proceeds to stop before the GEXR tracks, and while the driver is the process of doing the check down the tracks, the light turns red, and they stop and wait for the green, but now they are stuck with their back end on the Ion tracks.

I have also seen something like this on University. They pull across the pedestrian crossing, stop to check for trains, then stay there when the light goes red.

In both cases, however, the problem is that the drivers are driving incorrectly. Specifically, they are stopping at a red signal when they are already in the intersection. As every Young Drivers student knows, once in the intersection you clear it, you don’t block the box. So the drivers should be continuing through after stopping to check for the trains.

Of course, they should also stop checking for trains because doing so is useless, but I can’t remember if we concluded that was just a GRT policy or if Transport Canada would have something to say about that.
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Regulations require buses to stop at railway crossings without crossing protection (so just a sign, no lights/arms). Stopping at all rail crossings is just GRT policy, but not legally required.
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(01-12-2018, 11:35 PM)taylortbb Wrote: Regulations require buses to stop at railway crossings without crossing protection (so just a sign, no lights/arms). Stopping at all rail crossings is just GRT policy, but not legally required.

Thanks for the reminder.

What if there is no sign, as at King St.? Of course that works for other traffic because the train stops and proceeds only when cross traffic has stopped.
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Did anyone happen download the RFP bid document for the electronic fare management system and still have it to share? I found the council report, but I can't find the bid documents. Hard to believe the RFP was issued in January 2014 and awarded in June of 2014 for service in mid-2015; you'd think Bombardier won the bid or something.
Big Grin


I was just curious if there were any penalties for not delivering a working system on time and other details.

If it helps, the original files were located:
ftp.region.waterloo.on.ca/transportation/efms/P2014-01_Electronic_Fare_Management_System.docx
ftp.region.waterloo.on.ca/transportation/efms/P2014_01_EFMS_Compliance_Matrix.xlsx


Also, does anyone know what the latest reason(s) are for the on-going delay with the EFMS? I will need tickets for my son soon, should I get them now, or wait a bit if the fare card be out soon?
Thanks!


Finally, I had to laugh when I saw this photo on GRT's twitter feed highlighting the scraped-clean-to-the-pavement Ion stop instead of one its own poorly cleared stops:
[Image: DTw9kEhX4AEU8OE.jpg]
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(01-13-2018, 11:44 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: What if there is no sign, as at King St.? Of course that works for other traffic because the train stops and proceeds only when cross traffic has stopped.

What do you mean "no sign"? The freight crossing has a sign.
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(01-18-2018, 12:19 PM)timc Wrote:
(01-13-2018, 11:44 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: What if there is no sign, as at King St.? Of course that works for other traffic because the train stops and proceeds only when cross traffic has stopped.

What do you mean "no sign"? The freight crossing has a sign.

I checked on my way home today.

Southbound there is nothing near the crossing. Near Erb there might be an X painted on the pavement.

Northbound there is also nothing near the crossing. Just north of Willis Way there is a yellow diamond warning of the LRT tracks crossing at an angle; and there is a temporary yellow diamond warning of tracks crossing perpendicularly. No crossbuck, no lights, no X on the pavement.

So I wasn’t 100% correct but it is true that there is no railway crossing protection signage as such. The yellow diamonds just warn that there are tracks crossing the road and would be appropriate even if the tracks were out of service.
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The Record has a piece on the new Fairway terminal; buried at the end is the fact that the tender was awarded on Wednesday. https://www.therecord.com/news-story/808...rway-road/
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Record: New bus terminal will be built on Fairway Road
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Any word on the uw one? Have they even started that one?
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(01-18-2018, 07:03 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(01-18-2018, 12:19 PM)timc Wrote: What do you mean "no sign"? The freight crossing has a sign.

I checked on my way home today.

Southbound there is nothing near the crossing. Near Erb there might be an X painted on the pavement.

Northbound there is also nothing near the crossing. Just north of Willis Way there is a yellow diamond warning of the LRT tracks crossing at an angle; and there is a temporary yellow diamond warning of tracks crossing perpendicularly. No crossbuck, no lights, no X on the pavement.

So I wasn’t 100% correct but it is true that there is no railway crossing protection signage as such. The yellow diamonds just warn that there are tracks crossing the road and would be appropriate even if the tracks were out of service.

Huh. That's weird. I wonder why they took away the signs. Google Streetview shows them clearly all the way up to the last picture in 2015.
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