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nitronuts

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nitronuts, how come some of the are trains are white ?

still not yet completed painting?

Yea, they're not done painting....i prefer if they left them as is, with no paint. The entire hot rod paint job looks awful and amateurish.

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A better idea would be to invite local graffiti artists to paint the trains...

It'd look so damn ghetto.

train.jpg

"The Funky Town Train is now arriving Waterfront Station."

Edited by nitronuts
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TransLink facing $3 million deficit

Rising fuel prices and lower tax revenues eat into predicted $11 million surplus

Kelly SInoski, Vancouver Sun

Published: Wednesday, October 08, 2008

VANCOUVER - TransLink is facing a $3.1 million deficit - rather than an $11.4 million surplus predicted last December - as a result of rising fuel prices and lower tax revenues.

The forecast was released this week in the transit authority's financial results for the second quarter to June.

CEO Tom Prendergast blamed the rising costs on a spike in the cost of diesel fuel, which pushed TransLink about $9.5 million over budget, along with a decision to collect only $9 million of the $18 million in property taxes that were to replace the Parking Site Tax that was cancelled at the end of 2007.

Operating costs rose as a result of TransLink's increase in support services and "service quality" costs, which included a decision to expand and implement specific policing and security initiatives, he said.

Despite the forecast, however, TransLink said it has already taken moves to eliminate the deficit and, if possible, to add to the surplus by year end, saying in a statement that "TransLink's longer term financial challenges have made it critical to eliminate a deficit this year and avoid drawing down its reserves."

The costs will be reduced somewhat by higher than expected staff vacancies and lower debt service costs, TransLink said, and stricter controls on discretionary spending.

Meanwhile TransLink said transit ridership is growing faster than forecast in response to high gas prices and the transit system is under increasing pressure to meet mounting expectations from passengers.

TransLink added 4.3 per cent more transit service hours than in the second quarter of 2007.

That capacity increase, coupled with rising gas prices, drove up transit ridership by 2.6 per cent, almost a full percentage point higher than the 2008 target.

"TransLink has committed to following through on all of the transit expansion currently in the system, including bus purchases, the third SeaBus, 48 more SkyTrain cars and the opening of the Canada Line. The region simply needs that extra service," Prendergast said in the statement.

Prendergast said the main issues raised by customers were the convenience of transit operating hours, the quality of connections and the length of wait times for service, the adequacy of information at stops and stations and a lack of shelters at bus stops.

2009 will see TransLink's largest-ever road and transit improvements with the completion of the Golden Ears Bridge from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to the Surrey/Langley side of the Fraser River, the Canada Line from Richmond and the Airport to Downtown Vancouver, the launch of the third SeaBus for service across Burrard Inlet plus further growth in the SkyTrain and bus fleets.

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SMART CARDS ARE COMING TO THE WEST COAST EXPRESS!

GO2 cards provide extra savings on one-way, return, bike and parking tickets. These rechargeable, stored-value cards let you deposit up to $100 on the card using cash, credit or debit cards at any WCE Ticket Vending Machine. Each time you make a deposit to your Xpress Card, a bonus will be added to your GO2 card balance.

Call Customer Service 604 488-8906 to get on the waiting list for the new GO2 cards arriving in early 2009.

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Hopefully the people around here are smart enough to figure it out (no pun intended).

I mean, when they can't even figure out how to insert the transfer into the farebox properly... Or (in the case of the other day) cannot comprehend the concept of a limited-stop express bus...

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Hopefully the people around here are smart enough to figure it out (no pun intended).

I mean, when they can't even figure out how to insert the transfer into the farebox properly... Or (in the case of the other day) cannot comprehend the concept of a limited-stop express bus...

Doubt it. Funny, yet sad story this morning on the 496 on my UBC commute:

Driver pulls to bus stop. On walks these two asian females (why are they always asian and female?), pulls out two 1zone bus fares - one for each person. Driver, being on a 2zone bus, asks for their destination. After 30seconds of looking into each other and wondering wtf is the bus driver asking for, they answer downtown. Bus driver then says they need to add fare. Now's the fun part.

They try inserting the faresaver this way, that way, and the other way, all to no avail. After 6 tries EACH, they finally get it right. Now comes the adding fare part. The two take an additional 30 seconds as they pull out their coinbags and dig around for change. And by change, I mean dimes and nickels, not the conventional quarter. I had a pretty nice angle of all this, sitting in the seat right behind the driver on a NF lowfloor.

All in all, they wasted 2 minutes of my life and screwed over about 15 students who missed their 49 bus heading for Langara.

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I hate those girls who don't stand in line and instead hover around near the front, then expect people to let them butt ahead just because they're tossing their hair around. Might work on guys but I really don't have a problem shoving them away. And as blue.dragon258 said, why are they always asian and female?

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I hate those girls who don't stand in line and instead hover around near the front, then expect people to let them butt ahead just because they're tossing their hair around. Might work on guys but I really don't have a problem shoving them away. And as blue.dragon258 said, why are they always asian and female?

You know, I say the exact same thing about slow walkers at UBC who not only walk slow, but also block the whole pathway/corridor while doing so.

It's like there's an unwritten rule about how they must act like klutzes or roadblocks or something. (And I'm being very nice about it by saying that... I'm holding back.) And unfortunately, this carries over to the buses.

Edited by BuckyHermit
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1518275406_9df7186538.jpg

anyone else notice the traffic jam that damn train is causing?...LRT sucks.

ps: getting to sfu from newwest sucks...the skytrain is great but theres not enough busses to get up the hill from university station. the 145 always is full and the lineups are so long that they spill over onto the road in the bus loop so busses take even longer to wait for ppl to shuffle out of the way. at least at the commercial stop to ubc they have a transit supervisor and transit cops keeping a hold on the lineups and budgers...not at production, its a madhouse.

skytrain would be better with newyork style turnstiles. and if they had glass sliding safety doors like the new tube stations in london. glass sceen with sliding doors at the edge of the platform so you cant fall (or jump) onto the track that dont open until a train is there to board.

also for anyone more knowledgable i've got a burning question. on the new lowfloor busses theres one seat behind the driver...then a gray box. then the rest of the bus....whats in the gray box??? why didnt they put the box behind the driver and the single seat could be a part of the rest of the bus?

it makes me so curious and if we had friendlier bus drivers in this city i'd ask them.

What do you guys think about the west coast express?

i took it a few years ago from coquitlam to waterfront for a few mornings. it was great. gorgeous way to start the day. sit on the second to farthest car away from the engine on the upper floor, and its silent...feels like floating in the fog across the burrard inlet through pomo/burnaby. its great.

Edited by dah81
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also for anyone more knowledgable i've got a burning question. on the new lowfloor busses theres one seat behind the driver...then a gray box. then the rest of the bus....whats in the gray box???

It is stowage for things like wheel chocks, emergency reflective triangles, straps for wheelchairs and other crap like that.

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It is stowage for things like wheel chocks, emergency reflective triangles, straps for wheelchairs and other crap like that.

oooh, thank you!

so why didnt they put it right behind the driver and then have that one loner seat be with the rest of the bus?

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oooh, thank you!

so why didnt they put it right behind the driver and then have that one loner seat be with the rest of the bus?

lol, i guess it sort of is weird that there's just one lone seat there....maybe it was designed in mind for people who need help getting around?

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Personally I like the isolated throne seat... I don't have to be subjected to other peoples' loud one-way cellphone conversations, bad B.O., overdone cologne/perfume, and/or smoker smell (for lack of a better word). :)

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Personally I like the isolated throne seat... I don't have to be subjected to other peoples' loud one-way cellphone conversations, bad B.O., overdone cologne/perfume, and/or smoker smell (for lack of a better word). :)

Me too. And you get extra shoulder space too, since the throne area is so wide.

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