D. DeLarge

It even spits out the error for uploading files less than 1 MB.

At least some if not most school specials did run today, albeit empty and some possibly signed Not in Service.

The 2003 D40LF fleet appears to be down to just one or two units left in active service: 312 and possibly 324. The other remaining formerly active units (318, 323, 330 and 335) haven’t run in service since late October, despite being out very regularly almost every day before that.

New plates observed on a bunch of the 2200’s in service so far: 2211 - 181 5BM 2212 - 184 6BM 2214 - 184 7BM 2216 - 184 8BM 2217 - 183 8BM 2220 - 184 5BM 2222 - 184 4BM 2224 - 184 9BM

Three of the remaining five YRT 300’s (318, 323, & 335) holding down 3 of the 4 Route 7 PM rush hour runs the other evening. With the low amount left, one is lucky to find two on a specific route at any given time.

From another group, there's a bunch delivered and waiting to be put into service, which will likely spell the end of the remaining few 300's and possibly the 400's as well.

I suspected as much when during its latest run (Sep 9th on the 12) it was changed off before completing that block, and hadn't shown up since. There's at least 7-8 other 300's that haven't shown up since various times in June-Aug (in addition to the bunch retired in Feb-Apr), so they're likely retired. Seven units (312, 318, 323, 324, 330, 334 & 335) are regularly out in service each week, so they're probably running them until they experience major failures or get replaced by new 2200's.

And there’s portable signs set up at the terminals informing passengers where to wait/board the 720.

That explains it, there’s more than enough still floating around all the time to miss the ones parked. Some quick number crunching online shows 313, 316, 317, 321, 322, 327, 329, and 333 all last active in either March or April (that’s in addition to retired 326 and 332). It wouldn’t surprise me if the rest get “permanently parked” after the school specials end for the summer in a week or so.

Most if not all seem to be still active and out in service on a regular basis (albeit mostly on rush hour runs). 332 hasn’t been in service since 04-22-2021 (last run on the 4) so that one is probably pooched for good. Although, in terms of missing buses, 520 was MIA for months and months before all of the sudden entering service again…

To recap, the original proposal sent to the commission was for two units to be preserved and restored, it wasn’t formally mentioned which but likely 2252 & 2444. A third bus wasn’t mentioned, but evidently 2345 was not disposed and retained as a parts unit for the process. This was all before the TTC got the 8058 back from the HCRY, and there was a lot of humming and hawing about its own future due to the 8058’s deteriorated condition while stored outdoors for years (for a time, ideas about using 8058’s older interior components in another bus floated around). At present, it looks like only 2252 (done) and 8058 (underway) will be the two restored, but who knows if things change again or someone decides to do another. Presuming 8058 will be done in its as-delivered livery, a third done in the CLRV livery would be nice…but just how much extra use or need they’ll have for 3 restored old GMs is another question.

YRT’s basically operating a version of the 720 now: a few extra Wonderland shuttle buses operate on the weekend providing express service between Wonderland (street loading on Jane) , Vaughan Mills and VMC subway. They operate express northbound (deadheading back NIS) until around 1-2pm, then after run express southbound. The new terminal is under construction at the north end, with much of the bus loop and platforms already in, and the main terminal building being built. The road is being widened and the old Major Mac underpasses have already been rebuilt in the area. IIRC there were plans to extend the 165 Weston west to terminate there as well.

Word is, many Canadian transit agencies didn't take much to the radical RTS design, so GM introduced what was basically an upgraded version of the NewLook, the Classic, for the Canadian market (some US buyers purchased them too). And even then, a few agencies opted to continue buying NewLooks as late as 1986.

That Orion I appears to be a 35' suburban model, 01.505. There weren't too many buyers of those, including among others a pair of Charterways units (sold to Transit Cape Breton in 1986) and a ton for Grey Goose Bus Lines out of Fort McMurray AB (which would be my guess). https://www.angelfire.com/ca/TORONTO/builders/orion1.html There's a Vaughan-area limo operator that owns a very similar looking 35' suburban unit (also of unknown origins), but that's 100% not the same unit.

There’s two there: 210 by the road, and the other 217 is buried behind the school partially blocked by a tent. There is security on site though, watching during off-hours.

I have a CN track diagram showing a siding there for Domtar, so it was likely an old Domtar factory when built. City of Toronto aerial imagery shows it under construction in 1971. A lot of industrial buildings there were built in the 60’s-70’s clustering around the new CN Toronto Yard (later renamed MacMillan Yard). Aerial photos suggest the same basic building was retained, but received renovation work to turn it into a bus garage (there’s Google Earth imagery from 2009 showing much of the roof missing/open). EDIT: before I forget, it was built to replace the old SW home base of operations at S&N Diesel/Tokmakjian garage (now TOK Performance), which was getting so crowded they had to park many buses in an overflow lot at a nearby logistics warehouse on Creditstone. S&N/Can-ar (both owned by the Tokmakjian group, which also had the YRT SW contract at the time) had 1) their own fleet of Can-ar coaches to maintain and store, 2 ) the YRT SW fleet to maintain and store, 3) they did lots of general heavy diesel work and 3rd party/contract repairs for other agencies and groups (GO, Mississauga, Burlington etc buses showed up often, along with other coaches, various fire trucks from local municipalities, etc). The new region-owned and built transit facility on Keele allowed YRT to get away from most of that and have their own dedicated building for storing and maintaining their fleet, and the 3rd party contractor operating SW would operate out of that facility.

Wonderland reopened in early July, so chances are those plans were communicated to York Region well ahead of time, giving them enough time to close up the Wonderland drive-thru site in mid-June. Someone on another forum reported two of the Wonderland units, 210 and 217, popped up at another vaccination site in Vaughan.

It’s “Retired from regular service”, which would be a more accurate description of 2252’s status. That’s usually what people mean when they say a vehicle or fleet is retired, especially in a transit context where an active vehicle can get sent out for service to haul passengers at any time. Chances are, 2252 won’t be putting in any appearances on the 19 (6) Bay or 90 Vaughan to handle rush-hour crowds like it used to. It’s all semantics anyway. Similar to the H4’s which were all “retired” (from revenue service) years ago despite some being retained as work cars and seeing very regular use on the TTC in work car duty.

The 20 had some odd shenanigans with it in the past. When the four SW 1900-series XD40’s were new (1903-1906), after shakedown runs they were pretty much exclusively assigned to the 20 along with the VanHool artics, and very rarely made it into any other route (except the PM 461 that became a 20 run after, which was also the only other SW route you could regularly find an artic on before the pandemic struck). When the 2000 XD60’s arrived, the 1900’s became free-runners and could easily be found on other routes (incidentally, someone shot a 2000 training on the 461 last year, but none have ever appeared on it in service to date). I believe I’ve shot one or two Novas and D40LF’s on the 20 last year, but the XD40’s seem to be their 40’er of choice.

2001 in service on the 20 today. Get your 02xx shots while you can...

Viva Orange has been running at least one artic on the route all week mixed in with the usual 40'ers. Today, all the units on Orange are artics. Earlier in April, they had been noted as running training runs with artics on Highway 7.

A source mentioned they saw 4024 heading north on Guelph Line today, likely bound for HCRY. Did they pick up another car, or are storing another for someone else?

Those look like they could be replacement units for the 23 YRT 200-series Van Hool artics. The fact that the VIVA 7200's might not be downgraded to YRT units could mean that the Van Hool artic fleet is on the way out.

1903 (SW-assigned) noted out in service this evening on the 165 Weston, its first day in service.

Negative, you're likely correct. In addition to 1902 being on the Rt.1, North-assigned 1907 (Rt.52) and 1908 (Rt.57) are out this morning (probably their first times in service as well). The Southwest units (1904-1906 so far) appear to be getting assigned the 20 on an almost exclusive basis, similar to how the SW 1800's always seemed to be assigned the 88 until not too long ago.