The new buses were built by New Flyer Industries of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and they feature high-back padded seats with headrests and roof skylights. In addition, Durham Region Transit will feature automated annunciators and surveillance cameras for enhanced security.
DRT Pulse’s new branding is orange and green – to distinguish from the regular DRT buses which are green and grey. The new Bus Rapid Transit service will start operating on June 29th, 2013. A news report video from Channel 12 CHEX-TV Durham describes the new buses:
Changing paths from transit to bullying, I stumbled upon reading an article by my pal Justin Preston (who hails from Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada) and his appearance in Saidat’s music video “What have we done”.
We all know by now that bullying has become a hot topic in not only schools, but at the workplace. You can read his posting at this link. Justin Preston also created a facebook page called “Rise Against Bullying”. Recently, he was interviewed by Saidat herself about Justin Preston raising awareness of bullying. The video is located below:
Most recently, Justin Preston has made a video about an upcoming project called “Rise Up”. You can watch this video below:
To learn more about Rise Against Bullying, click here.
To finish off, I’m leaving you with two music videos – Saidat’s “What have we done” and two favourites from my personal collection, “Williamsburg” by Armor For Sleep and “Misery Business” by Paramore,
The main reason for “What have we done” is this video delivers a power message on bullying. Therefore, we must stand out before bullying goes overboard.
As for the two aforementioned videos, while taken place in a high school setting – describes a “link” to Saidat’s music video. Can you guess what that link is? You be the judge. Enjoy.
This post is in response to my last post on May 4th, 2013. To coincide with DRT’s (Durham Region Transit) launch of its new DRT Pulse BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) service serving Downtown Oshawa to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus (UTSC), a major reorganization of the GO bus routes in the Durham Region will take place on Saturday, June 29th, 2013. Here are the new GO bus routes – in greater detail:
GO bus route 92 (Oshawa/Yorkdale Hwy. 2 Express):
Providing service between the Oshawa Bus Terminal and Yorkdale Bus Terminal with stops to Scarborough Town Centre and the York Mills GO terminal
Service will operate All-day in both directions including weekends/holidays
Successor to route 95 with the same stops in addition to some new stops.
Connect with DRT Pulse at certain stops
GO bus route 98 (Pickering/Finch Express):
Rush-hour weekday service operating westbound in the A.M. peak and eastbound in the P.M. peak.
Service between Pickering GO station and Finch GO Bus Terminal with service to Scarborough Town Centre.
Connections with the new GO Bus Route 92 at Scarborough Town Centre.
Connects with DRT Pulse at certain stops.
In addition to these new bus routes, the current GO bus route 96 (which operates from the Oshawa GO station to Finch GO bus Terminal) that currently operates during the weekdays will be expanded and evolve into an all-day, two-way service that will run daily (including weekends/holidays). This new route will connect from any Durham Region Transit route that serves the GO stations.
Apart from these changes, the current GO bus routes 94 and 95 will be discontinued. Passengers can now use DRT Pulse to travel along Highway 2 within the Durham Region and to the UTSC for just one DRT fare. Take note, if you are currently accustomed to GO Transit’s route 94 and 95 to either Scarborough Town Centre, York Mills GO bus terminal or the Yorkdale Bus Terminal – please familiarize with at least one of these following steps:
If you use the Harwood Plaza GO bus terminal and the Ajax GO station, Use one of the Durham Region Transit routes to connect with the new GO bus route 92 or the new DRT Pulse service.
If you live along the Highway 2 corridor in the Durham Region in which GO transit serves, use Durham Region Transit to connect with the new GO bus route 92 or the new DRT Pulse service.
All other alternate options to either Scarborough Town Centre, Yonge & Sheppard andthe Finch GO bus terminal, please use either GO bus route 96 or the new GO bus route 98.
There will be some GO bus stop locations in the Durham Region as well. Please refer to this link for further details (for your convenience, the link automatically opens in a new window).
With the launch of DRT Pulse, residents in the Durham Region will have a new option to meet their local travel needs. As a result, DRT will no longer subsidize some GO trips with their “One Fare Anywhere” program. DRT tickets/passes/transfers and the U-PASS (Universal Transit Pass) WILL NOT be accepted for travel on GO bus routes 51, 52, 92, 93, 96 and 98. Regular GO transit fares will apply for these aforementioned GO bus routes.
If you want to transfer between DRT and GO, the PRESTO smartcard (a reloadable fare card that can be used throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) is your best way for easy transfers and it also enables automatic discounts. To learn more about the PRESTO Card, visit their website at www.prestocard.ca.
To finish off this blog posting, I’m leaving you with “Backseat Serenade” by All Time Low. The main reason that I choosed this particular music is that you get to relax with comfort with the new DRT Pulse BRT service. Without further ado, enjoy the music video and have a good weekend.
It may be a month and a half until DRT Pulse (the new Bus Rapid Transit service) is launched, but here’s a summary on what the new DRT Pulse service consists of. Obviously, there are two routes in which the new DRT Pulse service consists of, the DRT Pulse route 900 and the 900A. The new DRT Pulse will eventually replace the current 94 and 95 GO bus routes already operating in the region.
The 900 route will run from Downtown Oshawa all the way to the U of T (University of Toronto) Scarborough campus in Scarborough. The 900A meanwhile runs from Downtown Oshawa before it terminates at Westney Road in Ajax.
The frequency of the new DRT Pulse service consists of the following:
Weekdays:
7.5 minutes peak, 15 minutes off-peak
30 minutes evening, 60 minutes after 11:00p.m.
Saturdays:
15 minutes daytime, 30 minutes morning & evening
60 minutes after 8:00p.m.
Sundays:
30 minute service during the daytime
60 minutes early morning & after 6:00p.m.
Information remains a bit vague at this point, so check out the Durham Region Transit website at www.durhamregiontransit.com closer to the launch date. I will keep you posted for further details.
To finish off this blog, I’m leaving you with “Somewhere in Neverland” by All Time Low. The reason of this song and how it symbolizes my blog posting is that you often have to travel to different places to your destination. Whether it’s across the block or through many long distances, you get to discover all the places you go. Enjoy the music video.
DRT Pulse (also known as DRT route 900) will operate from the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus in Scarborough to the Oshawa Consolidated Courthouse in Downtown Oshawa. This new bus route will replace GO Transit’s bus routes 94 (from Oshawa GO station to Yorkdale Bus Terminal) and 95 (Oshawa Bus Terminal to Finch Bus Terminal). With DRT Pulse’s launch, certain GO routes will NO LONGER be eligible for DRT’s One Fare Anywhere program. A breakdown of the GO bus routes go as follows (on where you can and can no longer use DRT fare media – such as tickets, passes and transfers):
GO bus routes to be withdrawn:
GO bus Route 94 (Oshawa GO station to Yorkdale Bus Terminal)
GO bus Route 95 (Oshawa Bus Terminal to Finch Bus Terminal)
GO bus routes to be introduced (and no DRT fare media will be accepted):
GO bus Route 92 (Oshawa GO station to Yorkdale Bus Terminal)
GO bus Route 98 (Pickering GO station to Finch Bus Terminal)
GO bus routes to continue operating (however DRT fare media WILL NOT be accepted):
GO bus Route 51 (Pickering GO station to York University)
GO bus Route 52 (Oshawa to York University)
GO bus Route 93 (express bus Durham College & UOIT to Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal)
GO bus Route 96 (express bus Oshawa GO station to Finch Bus Terminal)
GO bus routes to continue operating (and DRT fare media WILL be continued to be accepted):
GO bus route 71 Stouffville (within Uxbridge Township)
GO bus route 81 Beaverton/Port Perry/Whitby Go station
GO bus route 88 Peterborough/Oshawa (within Durham Region only)
GO bus routes 90/91 Newcastle to Oshawa GO station
In addition to the GO bus route changes, Durham Region Transit will be introducing a new bus route from the Whitby GO station and serve Trent University in Oshawa and Durham College & UOIT. This new bus route, known as the 910 will serve all these aforementioned destinations.
The UPASS (also known as the Universal Transit Pass) is provided by Durham College, UOIT and Trent University’s Oshawa campus – in which a full-time student can take advantage of riding DRT buses and on “certain” GO bus routes. Although the UPASS WILL NOT be accepted on GO bus routes within range along of the new DRT Pulse BRT line, it will be continued to be accepted on all DRT bus routes and on certain GO bus routes. The GO bus route 93 – a route running from the Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal to the Durham College Oshawa Campus (and the UOIT) will no longer be part of the UPASS program. Regular GO transit fares (by distance) will apply. You can read the information provided and published by Durham College and UOIT concerning the UPASS program here and here.
The 923 Bayly (which is currently operating to the U of T Scarborough Campus) will continue to be operating – until further notice after DRT Pulse’s launch.
More detailed information will be provided by GO Transit and Durham Region Transit closer to the end of June. I will keep you posted for further details.
To finish off this blog posting, I’m leaving you with a music video by a band called Faber Drive. Their latest song is called “Life is Waiting”. The reason that I had selected this music video and how it symbolizes my posting is because “Life is Waiting” to see the ever growing transit changes on the GO Transit and Durham Region Transit network. Like it or not, the changes are coming. Enjoy the music video.
If you people normally rely on riding the GO Train – either to go to work on a weekday, going out shopping or just hanging out for a day (or night) out in the town, chances are – you are quite used to the level of service that GO Transit provides on a daily basis. Luckily, if you live along the Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West GO train lines, you will soon be taking advantage of the half-an-hour GO train service along those lines – starting in late-June.
Dubbed “the largest single expansion in transit service” in GO Transit’s history, frequent half-an-hour service will run between Aldershot on the Lakeshore West line and Oshawa on the Lakeshore East line. 263 new train trips are in the books for this newly expanded service.
According to a press release by Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation, the breakdown of the 263 train trips are as follows:
Eighteen (18) new trips on weekdays, 24 new trips on Saturdays and 15 new trips on Sundays along the Lakeshore East line.
Nineteen (19) new trips on weekdays, 24 new trips on Saturdays and 15 new trips on Sundays along the Lakeshore West line.
This plan was in the works as early in 2006, when the Ontario government invested in improving the infrastructure by purchasing the railway tracks, upgrading existing tracks and adding a third track.
Currently, during off-peak hours on weekdays along with weekends and holidays, trains along the Lakeshore West and East lines – run every hour, on the hour. In addition to the newly expanded train service, there will be some “tweaks” in bus connections – but between Hamilton and Aldershot (in Burlington). Details will be announced later this Spring.
While I was very pleased that GO Transit is making a good move in the right direction, the real test to this new service is the upcoming summer tourist season.
The new half-an-hour (30 minute) train service along the Lakeshore East and West lines will start on June 29th, 2013. It’s not just the new 30-minute service along the Lakeshore East and West lines. Changes are coming for the bus routes on Durham Region Transit. That will be covered on my next posting.
To my fellow readers on this blog, I just wanted to say thank you for supporting my blog. I’ve recently came back from my holiday (vacation) in Laos and Thailand. The weather down in these countries were super hot! Apart from that, I get to check out where my parents came from and what are the typical lives that people in both of these countries do each day.
The aforementioned trip has been a great success for me and with that out of the way – I can focus on many things right now in my life.
I’ll be working on another blog posting tomorrow. Until then, stay tuned!
I would like to take an opportunity to say thank you all for supporting my blog one year since I re-established myself here on wordpress.
This is “peak period” for people who are studying for exams in college or university and the time to pack up and head back to their families – after a period of time of being away from them while studying in college.
I want to advise you that I’ll be taking a break from my blog postings until May 2013.
All correspondence/feedback on this blog will be viewed after I come back from vacation.
I wish all of you the best of luck on studying for exams and/or if you’re not in that situation, I hope you’ll continue to support my blog for many years to come.
I’m leaving with you a “lyric video” by Boy Epic. It’s called “Too Young to Love”.
The Statesman will be back on the road on the beginning of May 2013.
GO Transit is finally testing out Wi-Fi internet service – but it’s currently limited to two GO train stations. Right now, two GO stations have been selected as “candidates” on deploying the service throughout the GO Transit network – Clarkson GO station in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and Pickering GO station in Pickering, Ontario, Canada.
This reason came after a series of customer surveys and feedback that many GO Transit riders demand – to make sure that they can be more productive. Deploying Wi-Fi at GO station for an initial period is a win to many passengers – who rely on the transit system each day. A local advertisement agency, IMA Outdoor will provide the installation and maintenance of the Wi-Fi hotspots on GO Transit’s behalf at no cost to the transit agency. The Wi-Fi trial will last about six months and will include up to eight (8) more train stations and three (3) bus terminals in the coming months. Within a year, it is expected that Wi-Fi will be deployed at all GO stations.
As for deploying Wi-Fi on GO trains and buses – there are many limitations (along with technical challenges plus financial hurdles) on why GO can’t offer Wi-Fi throughout its trains and buses. The people down at GO transit is currently studying the aspects and ways on how to deploy the service on board its trains and buses. Metrolinx, is intending to partner with some interested telecom providers that serve the Ontario market to provide reliable means on offering on-board WiFi internet at a very cost-effective manner.
If you happen to live near these train stations (Pickering and Clarkson) or waiting to see if your bus terminal/train station is finally a “candidate” on offering a Wi-Fi hotspot, then you can simply connect your laptop, tablet or smartphone by connecting using this SSID (Service Set Identifier): “IMA WiFi at GO”.
To learn more information about GO Transit’s WiFi pilot, click here.
In my last posting about the mall-wide WiFi hotspot that the Pickering Town Centre shopping mall, I had received an honourable mention from the shopping mall itself on posting a review on it. I’ve also managed to get my 7-year-old Toshiba laptop being able to connect to the WiFi hotspot at the mall – with great success. Even though I have a newer ASUS laptop with me, I often play around with my Toshiba one in many occasions. I’ll keep testing out the latter laptop in the coming weeks (after I come back from my vacation break).
To finish off this blog posting, I’m leaving you with three music videos: “Timing just isn’t your thing” by Red Car Wire, “Any kind of guy” by Big Time Rush and “If you can’t hang” by Sleeping with Sirens.
The reason that I choosed “Timing just isn’t your thing” by Red Car Wire is that the transit authority wasn’t able to find out when it will offer WiFi throughout its’ entire network – primetime. As for the band Red Car Wire, while this particular band from Dallas, Texas, USA might be gone, most of its members have since moved on into different projects. If i’m not mistaken, Evan Lester (the lead guy) and Josh Cutlip (the drummer) are in a band called Avion Roe. The whereabouts of Garett Bouline and Davey Hoogerwerf remains an uncertain mystery to this day.
As for “Any Kind of Guy” by Big Time Rush – this music video symbolizes on which telecommunication provider that GO Transit should choose. Tim Hortons’ has selected Bell. Starbucks (for its Canadian outlets) has turned into Allstream.
It’s up to decide which provider GO transit should choose which provider can offer them at a best possible ROI (Rate of Investment) and ROR (Rate of Return).
Finally for “If you can’t hang” by Sleeping with Sirens, it’s up to the chosen provider that GO Transit has selected to deploy WiFi on its trains and buses within a reasonable timeframe. If the provider can’t be able to deploy the WiFi service on board it’s trains and buses, then GO Transit will ask the troubled provider to “go out the door”, meaning that GO Transit will select a different provider – but at a substantial cost and at a steep time-frame Just like the aforementioned song, “If you can’t hang then, there’s the door.”
Someday, more Canadians might be motivated to regularly visit cafes to talk to their friends, read without distractions or just contemplate with a cup.
For now, the seating mostly allows people to spend countless guilt-free hours staring into the Internet.
Of course, it wasn't always this way. A decade ago, Wi-Fi in a coffee shop was considered an elitist frill, as Second Cup charged up to $9 per hour to log in, while Starbucks experimented with a range of pricing.
If you people tried to tune in to your favourite TV channel using “analog(ue)-only” cable TV service (without a set-top box and/or converter), chances are – you tend to find that there is no picture being displayed on your screen.
At first, you thought that the cable company has somewhat cut some lines in your neighbourhood, but as you try to look outside of the window in your home – there are no service trucks owned by the cable company (or the companies that work “under contract” for them).
The reality is that cable companies have decided to phase out “analog(ue)-only” cable TV signals – unless the customer/subscriber opts into a set-top box – either getting a digital cable subscription or in this case, a “Digital to Analog(ue)” converter (or DTA for short).
The majority of cable companies today have decided to phase out the analog(ue) signals, and use “all digital” signals together. They can then repurpose the signals/bandwidth that was once used to house analog channel signals and deliver more digital HD channels and most importantly – be able to deliver the fastest internet service they can offer in the future. The same situation goes similarly for “cable telephony” services (“plain old telephone service” (or POTS) over cable TV lines).
This video as described below (from Shaw, one of the largest cable TV providers in Canada) describes the reason on why they are upgrading their cable system into digital:
If you want to continue to watch “analog(ue)-only” cable TV, then you must install a digital box (either a digital cable TV terminal or a DTA adapter). These two videos – one from Selco Cable of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, USA and another from Cogeco, Canada’s second largest cable TV provider explains how to hook up a Digital to Analog(ue) device (although the content is depicted by the cable companies mentioned in the following video below, the principles of installing a DTA for other providers remain the same. Please note that many different providers might offer a different brand of Digital-to-Analog(ue) set-top box unlike the ones mentioned by Selco in the USA and both Shaw and Cogeco in Canada)
While the content that I had posted are just “guidelines” only, it is important that if you have any issues concerning your cable TV service, you must contact your cable company in your area for further advice and/or technical support.
To finish off this blog posting, I’m leaving you with two music videos – “Something Happened On The Way To Heaven” by Phil Collins, “Till I Forget About You” by Big Time Rush and “Back at One” by Mark Wills.
Enjoy these music videos, folks. I will be taking a break from my blog posting next week. I will make one last post before I leave on vacation in the next two weeks or so – I will hope to catch up with you from there.
“Something Happened On The Way to Heaven” – Phil Collins:
