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Durham Region Transit / Pulse

Others are included as well except the 915/916 15 minute service (still at 20 minutes).

I must have missed the 409/419 having evening service, I would swear it was still ending before 8pm.
 
I must have missed the 409/419 having evening service, I would swear it was still ending before 8pm.
I checked again and maybe confused with the weekend service. Indeed routes end around 8pm. In fact, I compared schedules with the 409 (419 links is broken). and they look virtually identical...
 
Wow, a 1.75% levy would translate to quite a big boost in the budget for DRT.
For comparison, last years recommendation was 2.0 percent, but we only ended up with 1.6...so if this year's recommendation is 1.75, it's possible we are under that again - Especially given some council members (citizens) talk on reigning in budget increases.

The long term plan (though 2032) called for 2 percent and higher annual increases starting this past year.
Source (slide 3)..and we are below that so far...
 
For comparison, last years recommendation was 2.0 percent, but we only ended up with 1.6...so if this year's recommendation is 1.75, it's possible we are under that again - Especially given some council members (citizens) talk on reigning in budget increases.

The long term plan (though 2032) called for 2 percent and higher annual increases starting this past year.
Source (slide 3)..and we are below that so far...

While I absolutely support the goal of 2% + and recognize that DRT has a considerable distance to cover to reach anything like 'ideal' transit, it must be said, their rate of improvement, from utterly abysmal 10 years ago......to where they are now is substantial. If the could even sustain 1.6% per year but it took til 2034, I think DRT could involve into a very high quality service.
 
While I absolutely support the goal of 2% + and recognize that DRT has a considerable distance to cover to reach anything like 'ideal' transit, it must be said, their rate of improvement, from utterly abysmal 10 years ago......to where they are now is substantial. If the could even sustain 1.6% per year but it took til 2034, I think DRT could involve into a very high quality service.
At present, we are well short of the plan. We also lack clarity about federal and provincial support, both who have upcoming elections adding additional risk (compounded by the lack of commitments). I certainly expect a bag of goodies coming soon, but unsure if they will pan out.

The 10 year plan forecasted nearly a 4.5 percent increase for '25:

Screenshot_20241017_085526.jpg

The talk of smoothing out those levy increases over the years is what bothers me since we don't have a clear picture and we are roughly a couple of years to the midway point. We've made a plan with many assumptions... Some which haven't panned out yet....
 
The above got me thinking about our currently known fed/provincial investment: the (partially funded) BRT lanes...curious what others here think.

It seems we are implementing the bulk of the lanes in the next few years in sections that are already wide (much of which already has dedicated bus lanes).

Other benefits aside (bike lanes, street beautifying) shouldn't have we invested in the pinch points first? I'm questioning weather these initial investments will actually have much impact to service levels...
 
The above got me thinking about our currently known fed/provincial investment: the (partially funded) BRT lanes...curious what others here think.

It seems we are implementing the bulk of the lanes in the next few years in sections that are already wide (much of which already has dedicated bus lanes).

Other benefits aside (bike lanes, street beautifying) shouldn't have we invested in the pinch points first? I'm questioning weather these initial investments will actually have much impact to service levels...
I honestly don't see the service levels increasing to true rapid transit until the entire DSBRT is built out. I wonder though if Route 900 is going to be running in a mix of centre-median lanes and mixed traffic for the mean time, how the buses will make that transition?
 
I honestly don't see the service levels increasing to true rapid transit until the entire DSBRT is built out. I wonder though if Route 900 is going to be running in a mix of centre-median lanes and mixed traffic for the mean time, how the buses will make that transition?
There is mention in the PDBC there is some transition infrastructure between should we decide to go with options 2/3 (i.e. No full build out by 2033), but I am unsure of we know what that would entail... Further, there would initially be some transition between the current investment Canada segments that have planned construction shortly.
Screenshot_20241017_112413.jpg

Edit: I found the below which is an example of transition (this one east of rougemount in Pickering). You can probably find similar by looking at sections of interest on https://www.dsbrtmap.ca/
Screenshot_20241017_113239.jpg
 
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Dropping construction timelines for the DSBRT here as I'm sure we may revisit in the future to compare against actual...appendix from the PDBC:
Screenshot_20241018_085217.jpg


Also find it amusing they didn't bother updating the legends as they do not match up with timelines directly above...

Also looking forward (sarcasm) to the 'the DSBRT is now fully under construction' press conference and splashed over all over media...
 
Agenda for the next advisory committee are up.

  • Collisions are high still with nearly 25 percent of bus drivers hired in the last year!
  • Interesting summary of the planned feds transit fund that I hadn't seen anywhere else:
    Screenshot_20241101_205155.jpg
 
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