Grand River Transit

[ac3r]

GRT is altering bus routes due to the pandemic, specifically 10, 110, 61 and 6: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...icron.html

[KevinT]

GRT is altering bus routes due to the pandemic, specifically 10, 110, 61 and 6: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...icron.html

From the article:

Strickland said he appreciated staff making adjustments to respond to what’s happening with ridership and staff but that council should be involved in service reductions.

Uhm, is council prepared to drive the buses themselves? This reduction was neither planned nor voluntary...

[ac3r]

I sure as hell wouldn't want a politician driving me around haha.

GRT has held on pretty well though. At one point in 2020 they cut back a lot of service to the point where bus drivers were redeployed to other regional facilities (doing laundry and housekeeping in long term care homes for example), but they've managed to keep must routes pretty normal since then which is great. I guess with this new wave of omicron they are just having a lot of staff get sick. Maybe they could reconsider their mask policy if that's the case and get drivers fit tested for N95s. I rarely ever see their staff wearing masks because they think plexiglass will protect them against an airborne virus...somehow they haven't clued into the fact that their driver seat isn't a hermetically sealed room. They are breathing the same disgusting air as the rest of us.

[plam]

I sure as hell wouldn't want a politician driving me around haha.

GRT has held on pretty well though. At one point in 2020 they cut back a lot of service to the point where bus drivers were redeployed to other regional facilities (doing laundry and housekeeping in long term care homes for example), but they've managed to keep must routes pretty normal since then which is great. I guess with this new wave of omicron they are just having a lot of staff get sick. Maybe they could reconsider their mask policy if that's the case and get drivers fit tested for N95s. I rarely ever see their staff wearing masks because they think plexiglass will protect them against an airborne virus...somehow they haven't clued into the fact that their driver seat isn't a hermetically sealed room. They are breathing the same disgusting air as the rest of us.

It is definitely an occupational safety issue and they should be issued fit tested N95s. But I also think that community transmission is such that there would be many drivers off sick anyway.

[jeffster]

I sure as hell wouldn't want a politician driving me around haha.

GRT has held on pretty well though. At one point in 2020 they cut back a lot of service to the point where bus drivers were redeployed to other regional facilities (doing laundry and housekeeping in long term care homes for example), but they've managed to keep must routes pretty normal since then which is great. I guess with this new wave of omicron they are just having a lot of staff get sick. Maybe they could reconsider their mask policy if that's the case and get drivers fit tested for N95s. I rarely ever see their staff wearing masks because they think plexiglass will protect them against an airborne virus...somehow they haven't clued into the fact that their driver seat isn't a hermetically sealed room. They are breathing the same disgusting air as the rest of us.

They could also ask customers to wear masks when on the bus...but no...

[ac3r]

I sure as hell wouldn't want a politician driving me around haha.

GRT has held on pretty well though. At one point in 2020 they cut back a lot of service to the point where bus drivers were redeployed to other regional facilities (doing laundry and housekeeping in long term care homes for example), but they've managed to keep must routes pretty normal since then which is great. I guess with this new wave of omicron they are just having a lot of staff get sick. Maybe they could reconsider their mask policy if that's the case and get drivers fit tested for N95s. I rarely ever see their staff wearing masks because they think plexiglass will protect them against an airborne virus...somehow they haven't clued into the fact that their driver seat isn't a hermetically sealed room. They are breathing the same disgusting air as the rest of us.

They could also ask customers to wear masks when on the bus...but no...

And the LRT. I find the bus is usually okay...most people are compliant because they have to go past the driver, but the LRT is always full of people who don't wear masks. I get that it's hard to enforce that because the driver doesn't have much view of who gets on and off and security/fare inspectors aren't always on there, but it happens all the time. Who knows how many people have contracted this virus from using transit.

[Acitta]

I sure as hell wouldn't want a politician driving me around haha.

GRT has held on pretty well though. At one point in 2020 they cut back a lot of service to the point where bus drivers were redeployed to other regional facilities (doing laundry and housekeeping in long term care homes for example), but they've managed to keep must routes pretty normal since then which is great. I guess with this new wave of omicron they are just having a lot of staff get sick. Maybe they could reconsider their mask policy if that's the case and get drivers fit tested for N95s. I rarely ever see their staff wearing masks because they think plexiglass will protect them against an airborne virus...somehow they haven't clued into the fact that their driver seat isn't a hermetically sealed room. They are breathing the same disgusting air as the rest of us.

They could also ask customers to wear masks when on the bus...but no...

Whenever I ride the bus, everyone is wearing a mask. Only once recently did I see someone not wearing one.

[danbrotherston]

They could also ask customers to wear masks when on the bus...but no...

Whenever I ride the bus, everyone is wearing a mask. Only once recently did I see someone not wearing one.

I've had good luck with this too...only a few nose wearers. I've seen more anti-maskers in the grocery store.

I feel pretty good on the bus though, with the top vent open, there's really good ventilation when the bus is moving.

[KevinL]

The remaining platforms at the UW terminal will fully open on Monday and GRT routes will be spaced among them. No word yet on when the GO buses move over.

[Acitta]

The remaining platforms at the UW terminal will fully open on Monday and GRT routes will be spaced among them. No word yet on when the GO buses move over.

I notice that GRT has two bus routes stopping there with the same numbers as the two GO transit routes.

[KevinL]

The remaining platforms at the UW terminal will fully open on Monday and GRT routes will be spaced among them. No word yet on when the GO buses move over.

I notice that GRT has two bus routes stopping there with the same numbers as the two GO transit routes.

That's true for the 30, but not the 25 - GRT has no such route number. GRT's 30 is the new ring-road only route, so hopefully it won't be confused.

[danbrotherston]

I notice that GRT has two bus routes stopping there with the same numbers as the two GO transit routes.

That's true for the 30, but not the 25 - GRT has no such route number. GRT's 30 is the new ring-road only route, so hopefully it won't be confused.

Well, even if it does, you'll get back pretty quick.

Still, given it's a new route, that seems like an unforced error...in fact, given that it's a special service, I'm kind of surprised it didn't get a 9x route number.

[KevinL]

I don't recall hearing about this, but midsize buses have been added to the fleet. They'll first appear on the Chicopee route.

https://twitter.com/GRT_ROW/status/1487068948017266690

[danbrotherston]

I don't recall hearing about this, but midsize buses have been added to the fleet. They'll first appear on the Chicopee route.

https://twitter.com/GRT_ROW/status/1487068948017266690

I never understood this, I wouldn't think they'd have much lower cost of operation, maintenance and depreciation should be basically the same, operator is the same, maybe it uses a little less fuel, and less land to store.

I'm not sure what the benefit is, since there's also a significant logistics cost of managing multiple sizes of bus.

[ac3r]

I don't recall hearing about this, but midsize buses have been added to the fleet. They'll first appear on the Chicopee route.

https://twitter.com/GRT_ROW/status/1487068948017266690

Makes sense to me. Some routes don't need full sized buses, particularly the 27. At most that route gets 5 passengers...but usually no more than 3 per bus. Such routes also do indeed have to make awkward turns - often driving over curbs which destroys the suspension as well as forces buses (including the 27) to add time on a route so they can take streets that offer more turning radius. I think it's useful.