York Region Transit: Viva service thread

[reaperexpress]

There's finally decent shelter at Viva's 'Yonge/Bloor'? Decent.

BTW, when I asked about the structure during original coverage of Viva's start-up, I recall being told a more sophisticated shelter design would have triggered an EA and thereby delayed opening...

-ed

Yeah, the old shelter was somewhat of a joke. The overpass over the train tracks was a better shelter than the shelter.

 

[W. K. Lis]

CP24 reports no strike for York Region.

A transit strike in York Region has been suspended for now as the union is allowing its members to vote one more time on a settlement.

The strike against Veolia Transportation was supposed to take effect Tuesday morning. It was to affect just the southwest area of York Region.

Instead, all members have now been directed to report for their regular scheduled shifts on Tuesday.

Union members will vote on the company's settlement offer later this week. The settlement had originally been rejected last Wednesday but a petition signed by "a significant majority of the membership" was circulated asking for a re-vote.

The petition was submitted to the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 on Sunday night.

"This is an unusual situation," said Local 113 President Bob Kinnear in a news release Monday afternoon. "But in view of the stakes for both our members and the public, and the large majority of members who signed the petition, we will conduct a re-vote on the settlement."

Members were told about the re-vote in a phone message Monday morning.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

Official Presto launch date is March 28th

Update with the installation of Presto readers:

4 Presto readers are about to be installed outside at the Viva machine at Finch.
1 Presto reader is about to be installed at Promenade and is located in between the two current Viva machines.

 

[cplchanb]

Official Presto launch date is March 28th

Update with the installation of Presto readers:

4 Presto readers are about to be installed outside at the Viva machine at Finch.
1 Presto reader is about to be installed at Promenade and is located in between the two current Viva machines.

well unfortunately presto can only take me one way to work.... theres no presto readers at sheppard stn (not in the near future at least) so ill still need to buy a ttc metropass to get back up....
stupid ttc....

 

[Electrify]

According to this Sun article, Karen Stintz is forcing the TTC to make a decision on Presto by the end of March on Presto:

http://www.torontosun.com/news/toro...ews/torontoandgta/2011/02/03/pf-17146781.html

I see its future to be a wild card, to be honest. More so than with Miller and Giambrone. Stintz has said she wants to see Presto, but I could see Ford claiming it is too expensive and go with open payment. Then again, this is the same guy who doesn't even question if a Sheppard subway is a waste or not, so who really knows...

 

[drum118]

Caught 1033 at Finch as I was bypassing it on Feb 23. There was another one at the east end, but had no time to go after it.

 

[reaperexpress]

How did you find such clean buses at this time of year?! The D40LFR I took this afternoon was filthy. So was the one I photographed at Promenade Terrminal a while ago.

 

[APTA-2048]

YRT Southwest employees vote again today on a tentative offer from Veolia Transportation. Veolia is offering a 10.5 percent pay raise over four years, a $600 signing bonus, a premium for maintenance workers on night shifts, and 4 sick days at 6hr pay.

Source.

 

[APTA-2048]

No transit strike. YRT Southwest employees voted 114-83 on to accept a tentative settlement.

Source.

 

[doady]

What does "10-5-per-cent" mean?

 

[APTA-2048]

It should read "10.5 percent". Fixed the error.

 

[xtremesniper]

Wow, that's a big hike...

 

[rbt]

Wow, that's a big hike...

Not really. It is less than the expected inflation rate. 10.5% over 4 years works out to ~2.53% per annum.

Canada has had a low inflation rate (based on world numbers) for the last few years. 2011 is expected to be in the 3.5% range and I wouldn't be surprised if the following years were similar or possibly higher strictly based on energy prices if Americans start to spend again.

 

[doady]

Yeah, 10.5% over four years is actually kind of low, especially when you consider these are the lowest-paid transit workers in the GTA by far... they are making like $16 an hour right now, which is pathetic.

 

[just_chillin]

Yeah, 10.5% over four years is actually kind of low, especially when you consider these are the lowest-paid transit workers in the GTA by far... they are making like $16 an hour right now, which is pathetic.

At Veolia, the drivers on the low end of the pay scale are making $16.55/hour. Drivers on the top end are making $22.10 (mainly the drivers the came from the previous contractor Can-Ar and were making top wage there).