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Brampton Transit/Zum

Some fleet news: Brampton is getting second hand buses (built between 2008 and 2010). One of them is an 18m articulated bus that will be used for conventional service.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, it was quite common for Ontario Transit agencies to purchase second hand buses. Many of them came from the United States. New federal and provincial funding initiatives have largely allowed them to buy new buses in recent years.
 
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Interesting. Brampton had second-hand buses before, including former Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines ex-GM fishbowls, distinguishable by their rear AC units. They also leased some older Mississauga Transit buses during a growth spurt in the late 1990s. Those were distinguishable by having a hybrid Brampton-Mississauga paint scheme.

Having some articulated buses for conventional service makes sense, especially on routes 4, 7, and 14.
 
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almost 3.5 million riders last month. Do you think we will surpass 4million riders a month by the end of the year?
 
View attachment 494910almost 3.5 million riders last month. Do you think we will surpass 4million riders a month by the end of the year?

If they put in the long anticipated service improvements in frequency and capacity this fall, I think its within reach.
 
The September changes can be seen from the Transit app and all I can say is…

This is probably the worst ‘change’ I have ever seen come out of BT, if you can even call it that as they don’t improve on anything at all and it’s embarrassing. No York U evening/weekend service, no increase on Sunday service for the 501, no increase on 505A service and pretty much every main artery route (Bovaird, Bramalea, McLauglin, Airport Rd, Queen) will all still suffer with massive overcrowding and unreliability because there are barely any changes at all.

It honestly feels like there is no hope for BT anymore. There is the 5 year plan but it shouldn’t take until the end of that to answer to the solution here.
 
The September changes can be seen from the Transit app and all I can say is…

This is probably the worst ‘change’ I have ever seen come out of BT, if you can even call it that as they don’t improve on anything at all and it’s embarrassing. No York U evening/weekend service, no increase on Sunday service for the 501, no increase on 505A service and pretty much every main artery route (Bovaird, Bramalea, McLauglin, Airport Rd, Queen) will all still suffer with massive overcrowding and unreliability because there are barely any changes at all.

It honestly feels like there is no hope for BT anymore. There is the 5 year plan but it shouldn’t take until the end of that to answer to the solution here.
Have you check to see if BT has the manpower to put more service on the street??

Then there is the issues of late delivery of buses on order to the point BT buying second hand buses.

What has council approved for funding extra service and buses as well manpower?? The GM and planning staff can only put out service that meets the budget for the year and the remaining year.
 
The September changes can be seen from the Transit app and all I can say is…

This is probably the worst ‘change’ I have ever seen come out of BT, if you can even call it that as they don’t improve on anything at all and it’s embarrassing. No York U evening/weekend service, no increase on Sunday service for the 501, no increase on 505A service and pretty much every main artery route (Bovaird, Bramalea, McLauglin, Airport Rd, Queen) will all still suffer with massive overcrowding and unreliability because there are barely any changes at all.

It honestly feels like there is no hope for BT anymore. There is the 5 year plan but it shouldn’t take until the end of that to answer to the solution here.

How do you know if changes were made at all? BT is budgeted for major service increases this year, the only reason they wouldn’t be is because they weren’t able to hire and train enough drivers yet.
 
Brampton Transit has recently increased their training class size from 12 to 20 to try to train operators fast enough. They are currently working on decreasing mandatory overtime which is costing them a pretty penny, that's where a number of the new operators are going. Expect frequent schedule changes as new operators are on boarded, potential every board period (6 weeks). Sylvia has previously flagged to council that it is unclear if BT is capable of training operators fast enough to train all the operators needed, she might be correct (though that was before they increased the class size). Her point about the City needing to dedicate transit surpluses to BT's capital reserve to enable purchase of second hand buses and accelerating Zum lines was sound.
 
It will be interesting to see whether the third MSF being increasingly unlikely to open until 2027, results in 24/7 service being accelerated in order to have space for all the buses. I wonder if Sylvia badgering them into evaluating a ground source heat pump is a cause of the delays.
 
Mostly understand where you all are coming from and they make sense, but imo there’s still barely any change where it matters and a lot of questionable decisions still. Just like Miway and YRT, BT just put up their changes today, its actually not all bad.


Couple highlights include:

- 501C getting more service(ish) (not even going to try to explain whatever this is so i’ll leave a pic below).

- 5 rerouted via Kenview, Finch, and Darcel due to the CN Goreway grade separation.

- 18 getting a new branch that goes to the UPS facility in Caledon, as well as a general extension for all buses to head to Mayfield.

- 25 extended to Mayfield.

- 28 renamed from Wanless to Remembrance.

- 31 rerouted and extended to stay on McVean to Mayfield, making the route more grid like.

- 50A getting new evening and weekend service.

- 53/54 no longer servicing Sherdian College, staying on McLaughlin and Steeles instead

- 55 extended to FCCC

- 104 rerouted and extended on Chinguacousy to Sandalwood, in preparation for the Zum route that will replace the 104 hopefully next year.

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ridership levels on routes east of the 410 make me fearful of the bump in September first hand. We can't keep hanging by a thread like this without it becoming increasingly dangerous for everyone. Province should be doing more than obsessed with greenbelt handouts and highways.
 
The City's AMO report shows they wish to reduce the life span of articulated buses from 18 years to 12 years starting in 2024.

The AMO report also showed they intend to spend $12 million for bringing Big Data to Brampton Transit.
 

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