Stephen Rees's blog

The second part of the Sun‘s week long series add very little that any transit user will want to read, and nothing that I feel is worth comment.

Except for the table below, which I think will be useful. Of course, this does not tell anyone how many buses are scheduled to run out in the morning peak – and how many actually make it. We have been hearing for some time from the union that less than 1,000 of the 1,347 are actually in service at peak times. Some will of course be undergoing routine maintenance, others sidelined by collision damage or breakdowns. Some will not be working as there is a shortage of operators – and the impact of this will vary day to day depending on who actually reports for work.

And I also wonder why if we can count containers as TEU (20 foot equivalent uints) there is not a similar FEU for buses – an artic being 1.5FEU and a community shuttle 0.5 (the last is a wild guess and may be less).

TRANSLINK BUS FLEET

Total: 1,347, plus 162 community shuttles

– 40-foot diesel: 840

– 40-foot Compressed Natural Gas (CNG): 143

– 40-foot trolley: 188

– 60-foot diesel (articulated): 136

– 60-foot trolley (articulated): 40

NEW BUSES COMING INTO SERVICE IN 2009:

– 40-foot diesel/CNG: 32

– 60-foot diesel/CNG (articulated): 21

– 60-foot trolleys (articulated): 20

– Community shuttle buses: 20

UPDATE Sept 6, 2008

From the Georgia Straight – Houlahan and Sierpina duke it out over the number of buses, service hours and so on