Mr. Gilkin led routine assessments of current bus operations at a large city bus system to suggest (or recommend against) service changes. Two are of particular interest:
- Assessing impacts of changes of bus equipment type and its effect on the required peak bus fleet, operator and operating hours, miles and cost. The impacts of high-capacity 45-foot over-the-road coach buses (57 seats vs the 39 seats for 40-foot buses that were then in service) and 60-foot articulated buses were analyzed for service requirements and then scheduled into many routes at higher efficiency levels when ordered and delivered. The same number of passengers could be carried on fewer bus trips or more seats could be operated with the same number of buses and operators. Double deck buses for express service were analyzed but rejected due to depot infrastructure limitations. Smaller buses were also analyzed as a potential savings opportunity but rejected due to their limited application on a large system.
- Ongoing analysis and implementation process of new bus garages, specifically the impact of garage closures and openings. These analyses involved a massive rescheduling effort to assign bus routes to different garage location scenarios to identify the plan that minimized factors such as deadhead time, total hours, miles, operators and peak buses.
