Victoria – JULY 31 UPDATE – Passengers in the Agassiz-Harrison, Central Fraser Valley, Chilliwack and Hope transit systems will soon see buses equipped with full driver doors designed to protect the health and safety of BC Transit operators.
Retrofits on all conventional fleet buses in the Central Fraser Valley, Chilliwack and Hope transit systems will get underway in the coming days. Installations on the Agassiz-Harrison fleet will take place in September. Kodiak Mobile Video Installations will complete installations of the protective doors, produced by AROW Global Corporation. While the installation process is taking place, passengers will experience no impact to service levels.
The full driver door is a movable barrier situated to the right of the driver’s seat near the fare box designed to increase protection for our drivers. It includes a transparent piece of laminated tempered glass with anti-glare coating and metal base. The full driver door windows can be adjusted to account for sightlines associated with different seat positions.
The full driver door installations will be carried out over a roughly 10-day period, replacing the current vinyl panels installed as protective barriers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Community and handyDART buses in all the impacted systems will continue to be equipped with vinyl panels.
In total, 633 buses will be retrofitted with full driver doors across 34 transit systems in the province. All future new buses in the fleet will arrive with the door pre-installed.
For more information, please visit bctransit.com.
ORIGINAL STORY – JANUARY 9 – BC Transit has taken another step forward in their plan to install full driver doors on their entire fleet to enhance safety. A request for proposals has been issued seeking an external organization to complete the installation of the doors in 28 communities over the next two years. The request for proposals is available on bcbid.gov.bc.ca/
Arow Global Corporation has been selected to design and manufacture full driver doors for our high capacity buses (double deckers), heavy duty buses (regular 40 foot transit buses), and medium duty buses across the province. The successful proponent will install the doors supplied by Arow Global Corporation.
650 high capacity, heavy duty, and medium buses will be retrofitted to have the full driver door installed. 113 new high capacity, heavy duty, and medium buses will replace current buses in the fleet by the end of 2022 and will come with the full driver door factory installed. BC Transit also expects to have 350 expansion buses added to the fleet over the next decade that will also come with the full driver doors factory installed.
The retrofitting process will begin in Victoria in February, with Kelowna following in July. The remainder of the schedule will be determined through the request for proposals process.
The retrofit project is expected to cost approximately $6.5 million. The cost of the full driver doors installed in the new bus deliveries will be built into the price to manufacture the bus.
