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Durham Region Transit / Pulse

Another update regarding the fire from the people over at CPTDB. A lot of the buses that were at the garage have smoke damage, window & seat damage and bent doors. They are being repaired as several units from the Oshawa garage are back in-service. The fire apparently started from a New Flyer bus though this is unconfirmed

DRT is also apparently set to borrow 10 buses from the TTC. They were/are also in discussions with YRT, MiWay and HSR.
 
www.durhamregiontransit.com

DRT to resume regular scheduled service on Saturday, August 26

www.durhamregiontransit.com www.durhamregiontransit.com

DRT to resume regular scheduled service on Saturday, August 26​



Whitby, Ontario – Durham Region Transit (DRT) will resume regular scheduled service on Saturday, August 26 following a fire at the Oshawa bus depot. Inspections have been completed, concluding that the facility is safe for staff to proceed with regular operations.

DRT will operate the service that was announced in June until Tuesday, September 5. After Tuesday, September 5, previously planned service updates will take effect.

To access the current schedule, visit DurhamRegionTransit.com/OurServices. To view the service updates that will take effect on September 5, visit DurhamRegionTransit.com/September2023ServiceUpdates.

When: Full DRT scheduled service will resume on Saturday, August 26.

Where: All DRT facilities will resume normal operation, including from the site at 710 Raleigh Avenue.

Why: DRT service was temporarily revised due to a fire on August 16, 2023, at the 710 Raleigh bus garage in Oshawa.
 
Courtesy to Steven Petric over on Twitter, pics of the TTC buses at the Westney Garage.

F4oWRG5WEAAX2GY.jpeg
 
tmustudent9 said:
I wonder if the next-stop announcements will be programmed in as well?
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The TTC uses a different system from DRT (Clever vs Init), so they might not be able to change that. We’ll see though.

I have a feeling these buses will be used on low ridership, rush hour routes. Which would be great for me since I take one of those routes from work every day.

Articulated buses have returned to service, and it’s been confirmed none have been lost in the fire.
 
Big news coming out of the report to Durham Region's Finance Committee earlier this week.

**

First off, on the proposed tax increase is enormous, I say that as an advocate for higher property taxes in Toronto, but Durham is looking at close to 10% this coming year. It'll probably be shaved a bit.......but wow, as opening figures go.

So the transit-related element is that 2 points of those 10 are set to fund DRT.

To the tune of............wait for it........

a 13% increase in service hours in 2024!

Elaine Baxter-Trahair, Chief Administrative Officer, Nancy Taylor, Commissioner of Finance, and Nicole Pincombe, Director, Business Planning and Budgets - Finance and Administration Committee - September 12, 2023

pub-durhamregion.escribemeetings.com pub-durhamregion.escribemeetings.com

Also of note.......from a separate report, the window for which I closed, so you'll have to take my word for it............LOL

Ridership is now at or above pre-pandemic levels for DRT.
 
It’s time to jack up suburban property values to fund the much needed services there.
 
lead82 said:
It’s time to jack up suburban property values to fund the much needed services there.
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I don't know that that is the problem really; though better services should raise property values some.

The problem for Durham is sustaining services over a larger area per person; and a lower a commercial tax base.

There's not a ton to be done in the short term on the latter. Durham has a solid industrial base, arguably moreso than Toronto relative to size, its the office towers that are lacking, and I don't
expect many of those to be added in the near-term.

But, one of the drivers of office concentration downtown is that all the GO service and much of the TTC service radiates from there.

Building up DRT and getting more frequent GO service will provide a more competitive landscape for office development with time.

A bigger key will be intensifying the Durham Downtowns, the areas around the GO Stations, and the Highway 2 corridor. But it will be a decade before that makes a dent in their PT bill.
 
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Northern Light said:
First off, on the proposed tax increase is enormous, I say that as an advocate for higher property taxes in Toronto, but Durham is looking at close to 10% this coming year. It'll probably be shaved a bit.......but wow, as opening figures go.
Click to expand...
Also of note:
  • Reserves are being tapped to mitigate these increases
  • The region is already home to, in some cases (Whitby for example), some of the highest property taxes in the GTHA (I can vouch for paying double what my relatives pay for similar property in Toronto)
  • This is only the regional government; the municipalities (think Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa etc.) also collect their share...so all in all, more than 10% increase on the bill
  • This is not temporary (i.e. 1 year increase) and several years of substantial increases are possible
Moreover, it’s unclear if the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has resumed its property assessments, which were paused during the pandemic... So property values are still based on 2016 figures? This could spark some tough conversations in the near future as some individuals might see significant increases due to their municipality demanding a larger portion from their newly assessed value (all the infill/renos that is occurring here comes to mind).

Returning to the main topic, it’s not surprising that DRT has returned to pre-pandemic levels; they’ve been operating at over 90 percent capacity for a while now. Factors such as school reopening and direct bus services to Scarborough Town via Kingston Rd might have contributed.

Not surprisingly, there were some discussions about cost-cutting targeting DRT’s share...Hopefully the realization that delaying (bus) electrification and transit service increases to support the upcoming GO LSE service enhancements would not be a great idea.

I can already anticipate complaints about government waste and ineffective spending from local neighborhood groups. It’s certainly not an easy time to be a city worker or politician.
lead82 said:
It’s time to jack up suburban property values to fund the much needed services there.
Click to expand...
As I understand it, that is not how taxes work. I thought they calculate a budget, and divvy up according to assessed value. That is, if everyone's property value increased by a million, it doesn't change a thing in terms of dollars collected.
 
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