Grand River Transit

[tomh009]

I'm still confused. The union is looking for barriers, and GRT has agreed to install barriers. Is it that it's not happening fast enough?

Three years ago the Region agreed to barriers, did a small pilot project testing only 1 kind, and then dropped it.
How trusting would you be?

Somebody on Reddit claimed only one type, another Reddit user claimed four types were tested but the drivers didn't like any of them. Take your pick as to which anonymous user you would like to believe.

[Bob_McBob]

The claim about multiple types was part of the agreement in 2017, and you can see it in a GRT news release from January 2018. The pilot was supposed to run for three months with three different types of barrier, followed by an evaluation. Did anyone ever see them on buses? I've only heard a single person who claims to have seen one back then so far.

https://www.grt.ca/Modules/News/index.as...a99a9f603d

[trainspotter139]

The claim about multiple types was part of the agreement in 2017, and you can see it in a GRT news release from January 2018. The pilot was supposed to run for three months with three different types of barrier, followed by an evaluation. Did anyone ever see them on buses? I've only heard a single person who claims to have seen one back then so far.

https://www.grt.ca/Modules/News/index.as...a99a9f603d

I've only seen 2 of the types they piloted but that could easily have been because of where I was travelling. The biggest problem is they were only piloted for 3 months then removed and as far as I could tell nothing came of the results of the pilot.

[bgb_ca]

The claim about multiple types was part of the agreement in 2017, and you can see it in a GRT news release from January 2018. The pilot was supposed to run for three months with three different types of barrier, followed by an evaluation. Did anyone ever see them on buses? I've only heard a single person who claims to have seen one back then so far.

https://www.grt.ca/Modules/News/index.as...a99a9f603d

I remember seeing at least one of the types, maybe two.

[Momo26]

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.

[KevinL]

>they need one full week to inspect every bus

That sounds... excessive.

[tomh009]

>they need one full week to inspect every bus

That sounds... excessive.

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.

[ijmorlan]

>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.

Wait, how can this work at all? By the end of the week, the first-checked buses will have been sitting for almost as long as they already have, and will need to be inspected again!

Shouldn’t they have had supervisors take each bus for a 1-hour spin each day during the strike? Maybe maintain low frequency service on the iXPress spine? I know when Canada Post strikes supervisors take over and do what they can.

Also, does anybody know anything about what is different about the new agreement?

[robdrimmie]

>they need one full week to inspect every bus

That sounds... excessive.

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.

[neonjoe]

Maybe they could at least ramp up operations. Try to get iXpress routes running first and then other high priority routes so at least there is some connectivity.

[tomh009]

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.

[tomh009]

>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.

[robdrimmie]

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.

[trainspotter139]

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.

[ijmorlan]

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.