Enter the Poetry in Transit contest this May!
Enter the Poetry in Transit contest this May!
The Poetry in Transit program launched its 2010 edition on April 28, and they’re celebrating with a contest!
Here’s the details:
To celebrate the April 28th launch of this year’s Poetry in Transit, the Association of Book Publishers of BC will be hosting a contest!
Did you meet your soul mate while reading a poem together on the bus? Have you gotten into a heated argument with a fellow passenger over a line in a poem? Tell us your best Poetry in Transit story to be in contention to win the grand prize – all 16 books of poetry from this year’s poets.
Submissions must be sent to the ABPBC by email to admin@books.bc.ca with Poetry in Transit in the subject line. Mailed submissions to go to 600-402 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1T6.
First and second runners-up will receive a selection of this year’s bus cards. Winning entries will be published on the ABPBC website for posterity.
Contest deadline: May 31, 2010
Poetry in Transit has been running since 1996, and in that time has featured 190 poems from established and emerging writers. Together with TransLink and BC Transit, the ABPBC produces 16 poetry cards annually featuring the work of BC-authored and Canadian-published poets, displayed on buses and SkyTrains across the transit systems in BC.
And here’s the 2010 Poetry in Transit bus cards, in case you wanted to see them.
Incidentally, I have some of the old Poetry in Transit ads from 2006 and 2007 at my desk… if you’re interested in taking some of them, e-mail me! (It would be easiest if you could pick them up from our offices in Metrotown, open 9-5.)
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Hi Jhen, I’d like to know (when you return from your holiday, of course): who judges/chooses the poetry that gets featured in the Poetry In Transit program?
Also, do you think TransLink or The Buzzer would ever consider holding a poetry contest soliciting poems from transit riders? It’d be fun and probably pretty hilarious. You could publish the winning entries in The Buzzer!
Jhen, according to this site: cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Coast_Mountain_Bus_Company, it seems like that the 2006 New Flyer D40LFR diesel buses are only located in Surrey transit center.
Is this correct or are some located in other transit centers?
@Ric: That’s easy to answer. In 2006 when the D40LFRs were introduced, they were dispatched to transit centres in Burnaby, Vancouver, and Port Coquitlam. But these buses soon found their match in 2007, when the Nova’s were new in town. Eventually all of the D40LFRs were kicked out by the unstoppable arrival of the Nova buses all the way to Surrey (Ouch!). And as of today the D40LFRs are still based out of the Surrey Transit Centre. You can still find these buses outside of Surrey on routes such as the 301 and 340 etc. Personally, I find the rides on D40LFRs much smoother than those of the Nova’s, despite some sounding like monsters thanks to the Cummins ISL.
@Jhen: How come West Vancouver Blue Buses don’t have the automated announcements onboard as the CMBC buses?
It would have been nicer if 2006 New Flyer D40LFR’s we moved to Richmond. I think that it’s not fare that Richmond always gets the old buses from other transit centers. The only times Richmond got new buses when the 98 B-Line was introduced. Later in 2001, they got some new Orion highway coaches, and once more later in 2008 when they received 9 more highway coaches. That’s about it, in terms of Richmond getting new buses.
I hope that in the future when Translink replaces buses, enough are ordered so that all transit centers receive them, or they get divided up so that all the transit centers receive some.
Reva: here’s the answer from the ABPBC.
Ric: as mentioned in the past, Richmond has received the new Canada Line as well as 9 new Orion coaches. There are a few considerations too, as our fleet management department points out.
Reva: btw I just wanted to mention that a poetry contest is a great idea!
Jhen, I understand what you are saying about the bus fleet that prevents Richmond from getting new buses.
However, since you mentioned earlier that when new buses are ordered, an extra 20% is always ordered so that the older good buses are kept for spares.
What I was wondering was when buses are ordered why don’t they just order enough to replace all the buses in all the transit centers at the same time?
This will also allow better older buses to be kept as spares since the older buses from the transit centers that got the new buses are usually sent to other transit centers that didn’t get the new buses, which will then pull out some of the even older buses from those transit centers either for retirement or spares.
Zack, I totally agree with you that the New Flyer D40LFRs give much smoother rides than the Novas. I don’t understand why they stopped ordering buses from New Flyer and Orion and switched to Nova. They were doing totally fine with New Flyer and Orion, perhaps they switched cause they lost the contract with New Flyer and Orion?
Not to mention that the New Flyer buses do break down a lot under my experience of being a daily transit user. I find that the Novas are not much better in terms of breakdowns.
I actually find that the Orion highway coaches are the most reliable buses in the fleet at this time. They have much less breakdowns. (close to none under my experience.) I’ve only experienced a breakdown on an orion once, where as on a New Flyer or Nova I experience breakdowns way more often, at least once a month.
zack: Long time coming, but the West Van buses are supposed to be outfitted with the new communications/annunciator system in the fall.
Ric: here is an answer to your question from our fleet management department.
Richmond probably had the newest bus fleet from 2001-2006 because they got the new orion highway coaches and new artics when the 98 B-Line was introduced at this time.
After 2006 Richmond probably no longer had the newest fleet because of the arrival of the 2006 New Flyer D40LFRs, which are now all located in Surrey and the unstoppable arrival of Nova buses.
I actually just found out that Richmond actually doesn’t have the oldest bus fleet in the system at this time because when the D40/D60 high floors were retired, they received some year 2000 buses from Burnaby that replaced the retired D40 high floors.
One thing that I noticed today. When a bus has turned off the engine while waiting to depart I have noticed that all the interior lights (except the rear set that is always on and the destination signs) goes out. However, when the driver is starting up the engine again I have noticed that all the interior lights and destination sign goes out while starting up. What does the destination sign and interior lights go out while starting up the engine?
Also, if the rear set of interior lights that are always on and the destination signs stay on when the engine is turned off, do these items stay on for a certain amount of time then turns of automatically if the bus hasn’t been restarted after that amount of time or do they stay on 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)?
I’ve noticed that the older New Flyer high floor articulated buses are stored in Richmond. Why are they in storage, and not at the scrappers, is there a possible future plan for them?
From a passenger perspective these buses had more seats than any of the newer coaches. Thus one had better odds of sitting vs standing, a definite plus.
Ron: Sorry for the delayed response, but here’s the answer from fleet management.
Ric: here’s the answer from fleet management.
Thank you Jhenifer for your response to my June 6th question re the high floor articulated buses stored in Richmond. I like others would be interested to know how this turns out, please keep us posted.
There was a time when transit would purchase used vehicles. In that regard I noted there are a couple of hundred 60 ft low floor New Flyers available from Ottawa. They range from 2001 to 2004 in vintage. Have the fleet mgmt folks explored this particular option?
http://www.newflyer.com/index/fleet-sale
Ron: I sent your follow-up question to fleet management and here’s the response.
Jhenifer,
The Oct. 12th edition of the Vancouver Sun has a front page photo showing a local scrapyard and a multitude of crushed Flyer buses. Do you know if those crushed also included the 60ft high floor articulated coaches that were stored in Richmond? (reference your June 25th posting)
Ron: Here’s what my contact in fleet management told me.
So it’s probably safe to assume the photo did include those artics.
Jhenifer
Would your contact in Fleet Mgmt be good enough to tell us what types of new, or used buses are coming in 2011, plus the quantity of each.
Ron: I’m told that we’re getting 25 new HandyDART buses this year. We don’t know the manufacturer just yet because the RFP just closed.
Jhenifer,
Certain parts of the world suffer from totally inadequate transportation. Having traveled to Cuba it’s heart breaking to see people attempting to get from point A to point B. Cuba has an immense shortage of buses. You frequently see people riding in the back of dump trucks, or in wagons pulled by tractors. Every bus stop is overflowing with potential riders and basically no buses to transport them.
Vancouver along with numerous other Canadian cities retire transit buses every year. Probably with adequate parts these vehicles could be safely kept on the road for many more years. Our problem is repairs and most probably the labour costs for repair outweigh the cost of retaining aging buses.
Here is a suggestion. A couple of reasonable condition retired buses be donated to Cuba. Now before you say the logistics would be impossible let me outline the idea. Firstly this could be a Canada wide project promoted in each Canadian city by means of the local version of the Buzzer. Two buses with minimal rusting would be chosen preferably from eastern Canada, (to minimize shipping costs). Cities across Canada would contribute by donating towards shipping costs, no longer required parts, and expertise to put the buses on the roads of Cuba.
To get a project such as this up and running requires a leader and Jhneifer you would be ideal. Before dismissing the whole idea, perhaps send it around to the other Canadian transit systems for their input.
Ron
@Ron
What would you think of this? Somebody should create a bus reusing program like that of Freegeek. In other words, they would salvage the really good stuff, dispose of the obvious bad stuff, and then sell them to organizations that could still use them. I’m sure that they could make a profit off of the poorer transit organizations, and still provide a good product. For the transit systems that have no funding at all, then this non-profit might be able to donate parts or complete buses.