Good to hear man. Just finishing up week 2 tomorrow. It's been a VERY overwhelming and intense training course so far. Week 1 was deadly, all of us were second guessing if we still wanted to be bus drivers. CMBC expects you to learn, apply and retain a lot of information. This second week has been much more calm but in no way easier or relaxed. Passed my class 2 driving test, pre trip and air break adjustment tests today :fuckyea:

Do you guys call T-com when you make wrong turns or can you just figure out how to get back on route?

If running trolleys and make a wrong turn, you will either rip wires down. Or if you go straight instead of turning right. Example #20 EB on Hastings you go straight pass commercial drive instead of turning right. Yes you should call T-comm. Cause, you can't turn around just anywhere. In that case you need to go all the way to Kootney loop or right on renfrew left on broadway and turn around back from there.

Diesel on the other hand, If you are familiar with the roads. Then make a quick announcement and do it yourself. T-comm might call you once they notice why you are off track. But if during peak times, I highly doubt it.

Also, 1st week is the hardest part. The rest just gets easier! So you are almost there !!!!

when i was back in pulling farebox, this lady told me it was her first week on the road. she tore down the wires on granville bridge and was all beaten up and had waterfalls coming out of her eyes. i felt really bad. i hope that nightmare doesn't turn into a reality for any of you.

Damn, the fuckin trollies are a lot of work. I could barely concentrate today because I kept looking up to make sure that I was going through the popo switches, power off, trailing frog and insulators correctly. I thought I was golden with the nova's now they switch it up and fuck with my head :lol

Yeah first week felt like death, this second week, I've had time to breathe. I think the air brake endorsement, brake adjustment, pre trip and road test are the hardest tests, going forward, it's all just in house tests and keeping that 80% average.

What I do when going through overhead is always look through the glass door when going overhead (insulators) . Use land marks to remember where exactly they are located. I use trees,garbage cans,buildings what ever works.

Had a 8 lol behind me today (must be new guy) didn't see the popo switch lol. He went through it so hard his polls fell off (this was a straight wire too ) Guess he saw me go so fast lol didn't realize.

Actually, not the first time that has happened. Had a retiree on my bus this one time him with his wife. He told me he drove for 27 years. He also told me he ripped the Granville street wires down as well and caused a fire to boot. The whole bridge got shut down.

He was so shocked and embarrassed that he transferred to Surrey lol. Then he went on to say he was very impressed with VTC drivers operating the trolleys haha. That was a cool story.

Yeah, my instructor said look at landmarks to remember where the switches are.


That's my goal to get into Surrey. It's going to take a few years of doing shit work but in the end it'll pay off and I don't have to worry about trolley's once I'm outta Vancouver :lol

heh was fulling fareboxes one night. the trolley went through the overhead inspection. next thing you hear was a loud BANG, then TWANG. trolley bus hit a pole in the yard and ripped the wires down. was slack work for a couple of hours for the guys to fix it so traffic can go through again lol

Does the trip planner includes the traffic time? For instance, I will be taking the Skytrain to 22nd Station and will be taking the bus across the Queensborough bridge.

No it doesn't. Prepare and go 1 bus/trip earlier. If something can go wrong it will.

I seen a rookie bus driver who was probably on his first day take out a street sign while pulling up to a stop on Commercial and 12 awhile back lol

Sidenote: What's the traffic on queensborough around 7:30Am?

Anything after 6:45-7am is usually fucked from my experience.

:pokerface:

Not sure which way inaii goes or what you guys consider "fucked" but I cross the queensborough northbound every morning 730-800 mon-fri and is usually fine.

Sometimes it backs up but buses take the exit and cut in line, or even if you just sit it out it only takes about 10 mins from pedestrian overpass to the bridge deck

Plan a 20 min leeway time and you'll be fine

Thanks guys. Don't wanna be late on my first day at le new job. :thumbs:

Last time I went through there on my way into burnaby the line up for the bridge was all the way back into New West. That was around 7:20. And every other time I've gone through, it's been backed up at least to Stewardson with the idiots trying to jump the line using the Marine lane.

^ we're going opposite directions

Ahh ya southbound is a gong show usually (which I think is the direction Armind will be travelling? At least that's how his post sounded to me).

How's work going everyone? I'm a month into driving the shuttle buses now. The first two weeks were pretty shit. Lots of wrong turns, including one or two where I had no clue how to get back on route and ended up super late. A couple of passengers who concerned me. And just all kinds of little issues. And working casual has meant learning new routes every day for the first 2 or 3 weeks. Also had a shift finish at 9pm and the next one start at 5am. In that 8 hours I had to commute, eat, figure out my routes for the next day, and I only got 4 hours sleep. I was not too happy. I have had a few shifts where I really felt like giving up. Including the C23 down Davie which was really stressful and I was very late also.

But now things are going much better. I feel like I know what I'm doing most of the time, and I hardly ever take wrong turns, and overall the stress level is much lower. I'm glad I made it through the first month ok!

I got reduced (part time) this sign up and I'll be working 3 - 720pm Mon to Fri. I'm looking forward to getting full time, but for now I'm super happy to have got reduced so soon as a lot of people wait 6 months to a year. Getting my seniority number so soon is really good.

Hope you're all having fun!

I'm just finishing up my 2nd week out of class. I'm loving it. I'm on the spareboard but I signed and got a notice run that started today until the next sheet that starts on 6/22. Like you said, having random shifts wasn't appealing at all to me and I had enough of it. Got my notice run doing the #41 to joyce/ubc mid day and I'm off at 7:15 and working monday to friday!

I was able to sign some pretty decent work for the next sheet. Got Tues/Weds off so I'm working 9:30am - 7:30pm on weekedays, 6pm-1:30am on saturdays and 3pm-8:30pm on sundays. I've been able to meet the time quota pretty good. The #20 on a weekday at rush hour is the only one that's killed me. I was about 20 minutes late on that one but they short turned me so it was all good. Overall, I'm loving it. I'm very chill and relaxed so nothing bothers me. I just drive and get the passengers from point A to B in a safe manner. A lot of the passengers told me that it's nice to see some new young drivers out there :lol

it sounds like you got quite the busy routes!

http://i.imgur.com/7SqpSTH.jpg

Gonna get slammed on the #20 on Saturdays :(

EDIT: I'm actually doing a #20 tomorrow from 7pm-3am, I'll see how the crowd is so I know how to prepare for it once the new sheet starts.

sounds like stressful gigs lol

LOL Translink spent $5.8M to convince us to vote yes. :fuckthatshit: