City bus fleet in rough shape, council told

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This article was published 20/01/2024 (627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eight or more buses from Brandon Transit’s 17-bus fleet were out of commission on almost a third of the days when routes were in service, Brandon’s manager of transit services told city council at a special meeting Thursday evening.

“Depending on the day, that many buses unavailable for service could be impacting our services, cause delays or even have cancelled routes,” Courtney Arndt said

Delivering a budget update ahead of deliberations early next month, Arndt said it is imperative for the city to review the replacement plan for its bus fleet so they can be replaced “sooner rather than later.”

She said Brandon Transit runs eight fixed routes as well as special routes in the morning, afternoon and evening to take workers to and from the Maple Leaf Foods pork processing plant. This means up to nine regular transit buses are on the road at the same time each day.

Of the city’s regular bus fleet, 11 were purchased from New Flyer in 2010, which Arndt said are “rapidly approaching the end of their lifecycle and in the replacement (process) for the next few years coming up.”

Issues experienced by the 2010 buses include their frames rusting, floors becoming spongy, engine and transmission issues, brake issues and engine doors falling off.

The cost of replacing engine doors, which can be opened at the rear of the bus to allow access to the engines, has been around $35,000 while replacing a rusted metal frame on one bus cost $30,000.

Brandon Transit also operates five accessible buses for its Brandon Access Transit services.

Arndt showed council several slides showing what days Brandon Transit buses had “red tags,” meaning they were not in a condition to operate safely.

“With eight or more red-tagged units, we are very close to not having enough buses to make our daily service requirements,” Arndt said.

According to Arndt, there was not a single day in 2023 without multiple red-tag units. June was a particularly stressful month because there were so many inoperable buses that Brandon Transit had to turn down charter rentals or change them last-minute.

Three times last year, accessible buses were pulled for service on the fixed routes. That can also lead to problems, Arndt said, like reducing Access Transit services or sub-contracting some services out to a taxi company.

The fare boxes on the accessible buses cannot track how much they collect in fares and require replacement. Additionally, the accessible buses are not equipped with audio-visual announcements for upcoming stops, which will be required to be in place by 2027 under provincial legislation.

“We cannot count on Access Transit buses to cover for conventional service as the ridership and demand continues to rise for that service as well,” Arndt said. “We’re struggling to keep up.”

Contingency plans have been developed for how route services are reduced depending on how many buses are inoperable.

About the plan to purchase new buses, Arndt said there’s a concern that existing buses will not last until their replacements arrive.

“There’s some serious concern that we’ve got these (purchases) pushed out five years,” Arndt said.

“The buses we have now may not make that timeframe.”

From the time a contract with a bus manufacturer is signed, the expected delivery date is 14 to 18 months later.

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) asked about the feasibility of deferring some repairs, saying that for instance, his vehicle probably needs new rear brakes but he’s holding off for now. He was told that in most cases, the city doesn’t have the option to delay repairs.

“It’s been prudent fiscal management to push our equipment and fleets out as long as we can … to get as much use as we can out of our equipment,” city manager Ron Bowles said. “The juxtaposition is, we haven’t saved the money to replace our equipment.”

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said transit and vehicle purchases are “a big, big piece” of the tax increases the city has proposed to implement over the next few years.

“By not doing some of them, we definitely would see decreases in services and that is one of the concerns that we’re running across,” Fawcett said.

“With some of the studies we have going out reviewing all of our transit and being an actual city, it would be nice to see us in the next number of years as a mid-sized city to show as good or the best transit in our country … That actually becomes significant cost savings to people when they can look at a viable alternative of travelling around our city on our transit system versus a number of people who use it as the only option they have.”

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