T6H-5307N

Are you 100% sure about that fleet number? As an Edmonton local, I will say 910 is impossible as that one was retired from ETS in the white-blue-yellow livery

Fair point, but it sounds like your sample size is 1 person at this point... I'm sure if the system wasn't a success then we would at least be hearing about it in the media etc.! The problem is a classic scenario: build it and hope for ridership or wait until the demand merits the service. Have you looked into what their ridership is? It is easy to say that they need better service but perhaps it is meeting the needs of the community just fine in its current state.

Bump. Northern Express appears to be adding to their fleet, presumably to cover some of the new routes added as a result of Greyhound bailing on Western Canada. #PR009 is ex Strathcona County #1007.

Don't forget pics yo! http://www.barp.ca/bus/alberta/ets/2007de40lfrgm/ets6002p/index.html

Thanks for putting in the update Goes to 2048 based on the combined tender documents and recent spottings... 49 units total starting at #2000.

Looks like it may have been a changeover as it was only on that block for an hour before being pulled... nonetheless, a neat find. So far there has been at least one other WTF this week when Spruce Grove Transit 6901 made it onto an ETS block running route 109 yesterday afternoon!

Would the cost really be that much lower though? The only real cost saving over the existing high floor technology might be in the stations, but there is really no reason that a low cost station like the original Belvedere or Clareview couldn't be implimented on the existing South line. If developers were interested in such a scheme, wouldn't South of Century Park be that much more appealing due to the much larger population base in the existing developments? Using your logic, how come that hasn't happened yet? My point is given the past and present history of development in Edmonton, I can't see this new LF technology being any more appealing to land developers than the existing system.

Out of curiosity, have you looked into the network plan at all? There is already a pretty firm plan as to what future extensions are to look like, so I'm not really sure what the point of your original post was outside of uninformed speculation. Has it though? For the current Mill Woods to Downtown line yes, but the West extension (hint: the next logical phase given the master network plan) is a separate P3 last I checked.

In case we are still doubting the existence of #2000...

Nice job being "on top" of that one

They probably all had driver A/C on delivery, but that is because the various GMC/Chevy and International chassis (the front-end including the driver's compartment) come standard with A/C rather than it being a specified option. As awstott said, the most likely scenario is that they had it but it was never maintained and therefore may or may not work at this point in history. Problem is now I am speculating too so maybe I should just take my own advice and stop

Apparently many years of convincing... I thought we were done with this conversation 5+ years ago! Two reasons this came up way back when: 1) The 2011 D60LFRs' aux heater knobs are labeled auto-off as opposed to heat-off. Prior to this, "auto" was allegedly only ever found on buses with A/C. 2) These buses were delivered right around the time that 6003 and 6004 returned to service with A/C removed. Someone somewhere at some point in time, with no evidence to prove anything, connected the dots where they shouldn't have and incorrectly assumed that this meant the artics had A/C ripped out (the two facts were blended and confused). This had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the XD40's two years later, and yet somehow it came up again at that time; it was once again a case of someone making connections and assumptions where they shouldn't have. At the time I remember having to climb a tree and sand dune (yes, I went that far) to get an aerial perspective on a freshly-delivered XD to verify that it was non-A/C and there is no evidence to suggest anything was ever modified. Nonetheless Matt, I am really curious where the "I was told" originated from... if this is a verifiable source to prove otherwise, please cite. Otherwise I strongly suggest that we abandon this topic as hearsay and move on.

Are we sure they don't look like this?

2002 is the only one tracking this afternoon, but there are definitely others around... went after 2002, also encountered 2005 on route 126 so perhaps they are just having SmartBus issues?

Dang, nice catch! A part of me was bitterly hoping they would start at #100 and use that series