City of Winnipeg cuts deal on bus engine repairs

Winnipeg Transit has worked out any solution to its bus restoration backlog and will bill the motor engine manufacturer to cover most of which tab.

Transit director Dork Wardrop said fixing emission-control issues with its bus motors, which affect 40 from the 89 buses now waiting for repairs, will cost about $11, 500 per bus. Wardrop said the city will pay $3, 800 of that cost, or just around $200, 000 overall, using the manufacturer covering the rest.

“Right now we’re in the process of having a number of engine repairs carried out. Right now we hope to have the situation solved as quickly as possible, ” said Wardrop. “We’ll have to see whether those solutions are a extensive fix. ”

A surge in engine issues had been blamed for forcing flow to cut rush-hour service amounts on nearly 20 paths in September.

Wardrop failed to offer a timeline of whenever more buses might be back again on the road or when support levels could be restored. The following transit schedule due in December still includes services reductions brought in this drop, though staff hope to enhance issues on some ways by that time, Wardrop formerly noted.

At the height in the backlog, 109 city busses awaited repairs. Since assistance reductions began, however , normal bus orders have additional eight new buses towards the city system, bringing the complete fleet to 603. An additional eight to 10 might be received by December, possibly easing the return to complete service.

Wardrop discussed the actual engine repair at a financial committee meeting Thursday early morning, where transit’s request in order to transfer $730, 000 to pay for maintenance cost overruns has been approved. But Wardrop branded the transfer a “precautionary measure” since transit desires to balance its publications by the end of the year.

The town has been told Cummins machines have had similar problems just after guarantees expire in many cities. However those municipalities had much more surplus buses and could maintain service levels throughout repairs.

“Clearly, there are difficulties around these emission-control techniques. That’s abundantly clear, ” said Coun. Marty Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge), the city’s finance chair.

But Morantz said it’s too soon to determine if the city should look for more reimbursement of the fix costs from Cummins, the particular engine’s manufacturer.

Bus biker Julia Evans said the girl commute's been affected, despite three buses to choose from.

"The problem is they haven't truly been doing a very good work of rearranging the routine so it's consistent. So you will see three of the same buses appearing at once, and then non-e with regard to 45 minutes. So that's a problem, in terms of getting to work on period, " Evans said.

Till they figure it out, the girl said she's still trapped taking the bus - actually staying at work later to prevent the rush.

"There's always getting issues with the bus program here- I don't have lots of faith it will be completely fixed, and I've kind of approved that. "

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