A4 - Sunday, February 26, 1984 - North Shore News

Fashionably funky transit

I WAS JUST in New York where they’re having.

troubles with transit, too.

In the Big Apple, it’s
nothing so bizarre as road
salt mixing with rain and ice
to short-circuit an entire bus
fleet. However, there are
some intepesting parallels.

In 1979, Stew York City’s
Transit Authority signed a
$89 million contract for 837
buses from the Grumman
Fixible (sic) Corporation. In
June, 1980, the shipment of
buses arrived.

Two months later, a
quarter of the 217 new Fix-
ibles then in service were laid

up because of defects in air- .

conditioning, ‘brakes, body
panels, transmissions and

steering, electrical and fuel
systems.

By December that year, all
637 of the buses by then on
the road were ordered out of
service for repairs after
cracks were discovered in
their frames. To keep some
semblance of above-ground
public transit happening,
New York had to borrow a
couple of hundred oid buses
from Washington, D.C.

By the summer of 1982, the
fixed Fixibles were back bet-
ween the canyons of stone
and glass. The borrowed
buses were sent back home.
Ah, but, then came 1983.

in January, loose rivets
were discovered in 25 buses.
Back to the repair shop. In
May, cracks developed
around the rear-door frames
of 19 more. More repairs. In
June, floor cracks were
found near the rear-wheel
wells. Twenty-seven more
buses out of commission.

The real blow landed in
January this year. Defects
were found in the steering
mechanisms of 396 buses.
Another 162 Flxibles were

Council agendas

W.VAN COUNCIL, Mon-
day 8 pm: Bus shelter adver-
tising / Development per-
mit, 657 Marine / Proposed
junior stadium / Compres-
sed natural gas fueling for
Cypress Bowl works yard /

Proposed restaurant, 2324
Marine / Sign bylaw
changes review / Crown

foreshore lease / Lighthouse
Park buildings / Extension
to Peppi’s Restaurant,
150-25th St. / Commercial
properties in residential zones
/ Inglewood Centre parking
, Students summer employ-
ment / Development permit,
Rockwoods Estate, 6471
Dufferin.

N.VAN DISTRICT COUN-
CIL, Monday 8 pm: Burning
tor land clearing © SPCA
agreement / Pemberton

found to have cracks in their
front-axle assemblies.
Defective ball bearings in
steering columns, hairline
body cracks and broken
brackets on axles were among

strictly
personal

Bob Hunter

the other problems
discovered. One bus inex-
plicably burst into flames.
On Feb. 7, the entire Fixi-
ble fleet of 851 buses was per-
manently removed from ser-
vice. A spokesman for the
Grumman corporation
wondered aloud: ‘‘We don’t
understand why they decided
to pull all the buses off the
road.”’ A transit official
predicted that bus service was
going to be ‘‘bad’’ in the Big
Apple for quite a while.
Below the ground, com-
muters weren't exactly hav-
ing a picnic either.
According to a report turn-
ed in by the Straphangers.

Waterfront Development /
Application for rezoning,
Prospect Road / Date for
public hearing / Request for
grant, Canadian Association
for Music Therapy / Sub-
division approval, William
Avenue / Lease of St.
Georges transmitter site  /
Industrial ground lease,
Welch Street / Planning
Department work program /
Silver Harbor delegation /
Port of Vancouver Master
Plan / Anti-smoking policy.
N.VAN CITY COUNCIL,
7:30 pm: Public hearing com-
prehensive development arca
/ National Kidney Month /
Museum and Archives study
/ Resolutions for Federation
of Canadian Municipalities /

Rebuilding Chris Zuchlke
Park / Hamiulton-Fell

Grouse resort
wasn't in deal

GROUSE MOUNTAIN
Resorts, teetering under an
esumated $17 mithon in
debts, is back in familiar
hands

The resort was not includ
ed in the recent sale of

Mascan Corp of Ontano to
a British group

The Hammerson = group
setled for a shopping centre
and some Ontano real estate

Grouse Mountainm
Resorts remains in the hands
of Bruce McLaughlin, a
Toronto businessman, and
other Mascan Sharcholdcers as
part of the deal

Display 980-0511

Leampaign —

a volunteer
group that took 4.000 sub-
way rides to test the system
— riders iace a one-in-four
chance of getting on a car
with a broken door, a one-in-
three chance of a badly
lighted car, a one-in-six
chance of not having a
readable map and a one-in-
seven chance of finding a
mislabelled car. That is, it'll
Say it’s going to one place,
but it’s
somewhere else.

Of course, while the pro-

~blem with New York’s useless -

new buses is something Van-
couverites can appreciate,
there’s no lesson for us in-
sofar as the subway system is
concerned, is there? Well,
hang on.

At the risk of causing Jack
Davis to pop up with yet
another letter to the editor, I
must admit I get a bad feel-
ing, wondering just how well
our magnificent Advanced
Light Rapid Transit system,
with its unproven magneti-
cally-powered linear induc-
tion motors, is going to fare
after a few months in the salt

Are magnets affected by
mildew? Are we due for sad
tales of rust and rain and
alternating currents? Do the
boys in Ontario who are
building the system KNOW
what a West Coast monsoon
is like?

I'm not being facetious.
The boys in Winnipeg who
built Vancouver’s useless new
trolleys obviously didn’t have
a clue what kind of condi-
tions their machines would
face. And the people at
Westinghouse, who foisted
an unproven electrical system
on the innocent souls at B.C.
Transit, were technical nit-
wits, too.

It may not be much con-

development guidelines /
Marineview Personal Care
Housing proposal / noise-
vandalism complaints.
W.VAN SCHOOL BOARD,
Monday 7:30 pm.
N.VAN SCHOOL BOARD,
Tuesday, 7:30 pm.

We e680 rebuild of0 preces lke new regardless
of type of Conaiuion by repteceng base and ha
| very low cost 21 YEARS OF SALES &
SERVICE

48 8 TRADING CO LTO
00 & Ponte M Ven

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Dey @ fee. Agere

Cecet Gave.

Canada Permanent Trust (on
pany Heat Estate Oiweson ts
proud to announce that
Elisabeth J Derenthal hos
again quathed for mombersnip
in The Permanent | eader Club

Tne Club was established to
recognize and reward our ton
satespeopie tor ther outstanding
accomplisnments in the past
yoo: Wis largety due to these ef
torts that The Permanent has
become one af the taading Heat
Estate brokers i (Canada

@ the Permanent
107 Pam Royse! South
Weel Vancouver

922-1244

solation if you’re waiting at a
bus stop in the rain, but think
about this: if New York is the

city ‘‘where it’s at,’? Van-

couver can now bask in. the
knowledge that our transit —

actually going | .

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