#5 to stay on detour route until March 21, #17 back to normal today
#5 to stay on detour route until March 21, #17 back to normal today
Update! Since the Robson Square zip line will remain open through to March 21, the #5 Robson/Downtown will stay on its detour route from before the Games until March 21 as well.
That means the #5 will operate via Denman, Robson, Burrard, and Pender until March 21. It’s gone back to this detour route as of Monday. Previously, we had expected it to return to its regular route by March 4. (And stay tuned: I’m finding out if the N6 will stay on this detour route too. Turns out the N6 will be a diesel route and will be on its regular route until the Paralympics starts.)
Also, I’m told that the #17 UBC/Downtown/Oak is entirely back on its regular route as of today, which is actually earlier than expected. So hurrah for that!
I’ve updated this info in the previous post on downtown bus routes returning to regular service. Check that post out for the full details on all the downtown routes!
Alas, for the 17, “regular route” means “previous detour,” looping via Seymour, Robson, and Howe. It won’t truly go back to its regular regular route until trolleybus service is restored over the Cambie Bridge!
I have a suspicion that budget concerns will lead Coast Mountain to decide that restoring trolley lines on the bridge isn’t worth it and we’ll wind up with the original plan: #17 Oak terminating at City Hall where downtown passengers will be forced onto the Canada Line.
Maybe the #10 Hastings/UBC route would be restored with Granville becoming a stand-alone service linking downtown and Marpole.
Speaking of the trolley routes, what ever happened to the plan to put wires on Renfrew past the PNE and re-route the #16 via Powell, Nanaimo and McGill instead of Hastings?
Hi Jhenifer, One question to about the automated stop announcements on the buses. I have noticed that on some buses it would announce the stop and also be displayed on the electronic LED sine on the inside of the bus in the front, and on some buses it would either just announce and have no display on the LED board and on other buses it would just display the stop on the LED board and not announce the stop. What is the reason for this?
Also I have noticed that on some buses the red STOP word displayed on the LED display board after the cord is pulled or the stop button is pushed will flicker while on some buses it doesn’t. What is causing this to happen?
I would love the #20 be terminated at Broadway or Hastings. Perhaps even short-turning at those locations.
Running the #20 on Hastings is redundant and makes it unreliable going through all the congestion. Service Broadway South was seriously unreliable during the Olympics.
@ ;-)
I think the biggest reason for the massive delay of the #20 and even the #22 was because the viaducts were closed down. Forcing people to take either Pender or Hasting. This of course caused those bus routes and others that go through there to be seriously delayed.
I think you will find that the service should return to normal now that the viaducts are open.
I also feel that before they tear down the viaducts if they were ever to do that. They needs a skytrain line or even a LRT line along hastings first. That way routes like the #22 and #20 would just go to Hasting and turn around.
Ric:
Have a look at this past blog post about the announcement system on the buses. Make sure to read through the comments too. I think you’ll find it answers the questions you have asked plus a bit more.
To recap though, the quick answers to your questions are:
– the LED display and the announcements are produced by two separate systems so sometimes they do not coordinate
– the STOP flicker is caused by a minor issue with the electrical system on the specified bus, and buses with those issues are being fixed as they come in for regular maintenance.
David:
I sent your comment about the #17 over to CMBC’s planning team, and here’s the answer.
I think it’s a bit silly to have the 17 the way it is. The 17 is really two routes and it’s really confusing that way.
It should be the 17 Oak/Downtown and the 14 UBC/Downtown. Run interlined as it formerly did with the 15, it would make things much less confusing.
Also, I think the planners lucked out being able to route the trolleys from northbound Oak to westbound Broadway and eastbound Broadway to southbound Oak. The only reason why the trolley wires exist to make these turns is because they were put in place to take the out of service trolleys down Oak to 41st.
So in a way, it’s a little interesting to have seen them used creatively in the way they were.
Better yet, run in the opposite direction with the 17 using the Granville Street bridge, the portion going to UBC would effectively be an auxiliary to the 9 and 99 from Broadway-City Hall Station!
The route numbers would definitely need to be changed for this to work. But it would be a little more orderly what with a 14 and 15 crossing the Cambie Street bridge.
Cliff:
I passed your comments on to CMBC planning and they sent along the following response.
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