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Grand River Transit
(01-29-2020, 01:54 PM)robdrimmie Wrote:
(01-29-2020, 01:51 PM)tomh009 Wrote: For a comparison, Boeing is estimated to need over a year to inspect all the undelivered 737 MAX once the FAA ungrounds the aircraft type.

How is that comparison relevant? 737 MAXes were built with deeply problematic flaws that cause crashes. The GRT fleet has been off the road for a bit over a week because they haven't been used.

The timeline is for inspections, not repairs. My point is that detailed inspections do take a significant amount of time.
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(01-29-2020, 01:54 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(01-29-2020, 01:12 PM)KevinL Wrote: >they need one full week to inspect every bus

That sounds... excessive.

I thought I read somewhere that they have around 700 employees and 260 buses or similar numbers. So each bus needs 3 person-weeks of labour to inspect? Now I don’t actually know what exactly is involved in the inspection — maybe most of the work has to be done by mechanics, not drivers — but these buses haven’t been hauled out of a lake after sitting underwater for a month, they just haven’t been driven for a few days. This is way excessive.

I think it's a safe assumption that any safety inspections will need to be done by licensed mechanics. I don't know how many of those GRT has, but surely well less than 100. In any case, I believe the Strasburg Rd maintenance facility has something like 20 service bays so that would likely set the limit for the number of vehicles being inspected concurrently.
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(01-29-2020, 03:03 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(01-29-2020, 01:54 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: How is that comparison relevant? 737 MAXes were built with deeply problematic flaws that cause crashes. The GRT fleet has been off the road for a bit over a week because they haven't been used.

The timeline is for inspections, not repairs. My point is that detailed inspections do take a significant amount of time.

I did not say repairs. They are very different machines, with very different reasons for requiring inspection. According to wikipedia, 787 MAXes have been built and GRT has 259 buses so there isn't even relevant scale.

I do not disagree with your assertion that inspections take time. I disagree with your assertion that the comparison is relevant.
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(01-29-2020, 12:04 PM)Momo26 Wrote: I've heard from someone that even if the agreement is ratified tomorrow (I think vote takes place 30th right?), they need one full week to inspect every bus since they have all been sitting 9 days...meaning will only be operational by NEXT Friday/Sat at earliest.

If true, GRT needs to do the right thing even in the 'best case scenario' above and provide a 100% refund for monthly pass holders for January and provide a no-charge monthly pass for February.

Any one on here who has a January monthly pass, I encourage you write to GRT nicely asking for a full refund.

This isn't true. There's only about a handful of buses that have safety certifications that need to be redone before they go into service. GRT does each bus' safety certification on a rotating basis throughout the year. There is no reason to inspect every bus.
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(01-29-2020, 03:15 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(01-29-2020, 01:54 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: I thought I read somewhere that they have around 700 employees and 260 buses or similar numbers. So each bus needs 3 person-weeks of labour to inspect? Now I don’t actually know what exactly is involved in the inspection — maybe most of the work has to be done by mechanics, not drivers — but these buses haven’t been hauled out of a lake after sitting underwater for a month, they just haven’t been driven for a few days. This is way excessive.

I think it's a safe assumption that any safety inspections will need to be done by licensed mechanics. I don't know how many of those GRT has, but surely well less than 100. In any case, I believe the Strasburg Rd maintenance facility has something like 20 service bays so that would likely set the limit for the number of vehicles being inspected concurrently.

OK, so each service bay needs to handle 260 / 20 = 13 buses. For that to take a week, each bus has to take half a day.

Keep in mind that there is no reason to believe there is any problem with these buses — they just haven’t been driven for a week. Do we even believe that buses never go a week without being driven in normal operations? There are a number of spares at any time; maybe they rotate them around so each bus is driven every day or two at least; or maybe they don’t. I would be suspicious of a claim that they never go undriven for more than a day.

If this issue really causes a noticeable delay in resuming service then management messed up.
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This is why you shouldn't believe everything you hear Smile

Buses will be back Saturday if the agreement is ratified according to CTV. https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/buse...-1.4789214
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Haha good. I will inform the misinformed post haste.

Tired of this crap though - got a sick kid that has to accompany my SO to get me. Can't uber it twice a day. Not fair to him either. It's not just the riders that suffer
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(01-29-2020, 06:28 PM)taylortbb Wrote: This is why you shouldn't believe everything you hear Smile

Buses will be back Saturday if the agreement is ratified according to CTV. https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/buse...-1.4789214

Begone, thee and thy vile facts!
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I assume it's too early to know if the new contract has been voted in favor or rejected, again...by end of day?
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(01-29-2020, 04:55 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Keep in mind that there is no reason to believe there is any problem with these buses — they just haven’t been driven for a week. Do we even believe that buses never go a week without being driven in normal operations? There are a number of spares at any time; maybe they rotate them around so each bus is driven every day or two at least; or maybe they don’t. I would be suspicious of a claim that they never go undriven for more than a day.

If this issue really causes a noticeable delay in resuming service then management messed up.

We already know the GRT runs a very, very lean operation.

When a bus breaks down they don't pull one off the lot to fill the hole. Often they don't do anything, but when they do they instead pull a bus from another route.

That's why it took 30-45 minutes or more to get shuttle busses running when there were accidents involving the LRT. They wait until a bus gets to the end of a loop (like a direction switch for the 7, or the switch from 12 into the 8) and then send it to become a shuttle. Instead, they should send two supervisors each with a bus out as soon as they know about the accident who can then drive for half an hour until some on-call drivers can get in.

Their prioritisation is weird, too, because before the LRT entered service they would pull iXpress 200 busses out of their 10 minute headways to fill in a hole on a 30 minute route, and do that during peak. They'd essentially sacrifice a bus carrying 50 passengers to go pick up 5.
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Grand River Transit workers vote in favour of new tentative agreement

From the Article: 
Quote:Increased wages, improvements for discipline
On Thursday, the union said the new collective agreement addressed main concerns from workers including:
  • Barriers to protect drivers for every bus in the system 

  • "Improved" disciplinary language

  • "Improved" language on how security cameras on buses can be used

  • Wage increases in each year of the collective agreement and wage parity to local averages for skilled trades workers at comparable transit agencies

  • "Improved" language on task completion for skilled trades

  • Language "improvements" on the use of part time and casual employees

  • Equalization of pay for part-time workers doing the same work as full-time workers.
The new agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year and will be in place for three years and four months.
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Ok...so...buses back in action tomorrow or Saturday?

Further, when it says retroactive, staff who were on strike get back pay for the past 11 days (incl. tomorrow assuming buses are not deployed)? Just curious - you always hear, "those striking are going without pay"...but I always wondered if they would get paid retroactively...
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Busses start again on Saturday. The Region has to approve it from their side, which will happen tomorrow.
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(01-30-2020, 04:28 PM)Momo26 Wrote: Ok...so...buses back in action tomorrow or Saturday?

Further, when it says retroactive, staff who were on strike get back pay for the past 11 days (incl. tomorrow assuming buses are not deployed)? Just curious - you always hear, "those striking are going without pay"...but I always wondered if they would get paid retroactively...

I would assume the “retroactive” means they get the pay increase for the work they did from January 1 to when the strike started, not just from when work starts after the strike.

Obviously, they should not be paid (by GRT) for the work that they would have done during the strike, but didn’t, because they were on strike. I believe they get strike pay from the union, although I get the impression that is usually much lower than normal pay.

What actually happens I don’t actually know.
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Retroactive pay means that a pay increase is applied as of a previous date and all hours worked up until the present are totaled at the new rate. A cheque is cut for the difference. It's not an uncommon clause.

Since this contract was ratified early in the year and half that time was a strike period, the amount won't be much.
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