Articulated

The Line 6 shuttle service (after 10pm) is already crewed with buses coming off other routes. They will and currently use 40 foot buses, and not artics. TTC hasn't exactly announced what will happen to the artics currently being used on 36C following the opening of Line 6, but they also can't keep 30 high-capacity buses sitting still for months for a "just-in-case" service. The most logical predictions are that the LFS Artics will go to 927, possibly the remainder of the 36 between Finch and Finch West stations, and maybe some transfers to other divisions like Malvern and McNicoll. Malvern in particular seems short on artics recently, as there are frequently 40 foot buses assigned to artic routes every day.

Agreed that the movements and vehicle assignments lately are... slightly chaotic. Some of the training might be for an upcoming master, to train operators moving to a Nova division, but at this point there are very few vehicle movements that I would rule out completely. While this is starting to veer off-topic, if Mount Dennis is slated to get 125+ eBus chargers installed, there's no way they will have enough room to keep all the XDE40 buses, let alone start accepting another type of another diesel (/electric) model. Tbh I'm rather surprised there hasn't been any training at other divisions on the XDE40 model in anticipation of a future movement.

There are at least 2 wrapped units; 6509 and 6512. Saw both on the line this afternoon.

A large construction trailer has appeared on the far end of the bus terminal platform at Don Mills Station. Not sure what it's for - there are no construction notes for the station on the TTC's website, nor is there any signage on/around the trailer itself.

If there are 4 new Nova LFS (840-843) as you reported, then they are almost certainly replacements for 504-506 and 508, which are 19 and 21 years old now. 6 New Flyer XD40 units would likely be replacements for 600-603 and 700; I can't really see any other buses retiring yet, so the sixth unit could be an additional maintenance spare or for a planned service increase. Hard to tell without access to the staff report awarding the contract. Either way, this is very interesting and exciting news. Alongside Fredericton's order, these will be the first New Flyer buses in the province.

They won't put a new engine in a 19-year-old frame. Not when there's a dozen and a half newer buses also sitting in the same yard.

TTC seems to be distance-testing an XE40 today. 6087 went out on one of the 99 runs just after 4am this morning, and ran in as scheduled at 1:36pm; it then went back out one one of the afternoon 99 runs just 25 minutes later at 2:02pm, and just completed its last trip arriving at the garage at 10:22pm. It did miss one round trip at 8:30pm, during which time it was inside the garage (IMO, likely recharging). While the 99 is probably one of the less taxing routes in the system for an eBus due to being short trips, carrying few passengers and has more layover/waiting time than most routes, it's still remarkable that it was out for 18 hours today with only two short breaks.

Metrolinx is not going to rush a bus into service early. Testing and operator training is nowhere near close enough to allow these buses into revenue service yet. Additionally, there are only 8 of the new D45 CRT buses on property, while there are ~50 buses in the 24xx series that were remaining. Absolutely no way that less than 8 units are going to make up for all of those pulled units. If the withdrawal is accurate, the only slight thing helping GO is that there was a minor reduction in service to post-secondary institutions that began on November 22, as most universities are beginning to enter exam period around that time (Historically I remember this reduction taking place in the first week of December; not sure why it's moved up so much earlier this year). The larger service reductions to summer service levels don't happen until December 20th. Either way, they will need to resume full service in January, so they only have a month to figure out what to do.

806 + 37S = 36C. The late evening 36C buses are already scheduled to operate to Humberwood Loop, so once they are converted to 806 they might as well continue operating the full distance rather than have an unscheduled 18 minute layover at Humber College Bus Terminal. The Line 1 operator shuttle is new to GTFS data; however, the other part of the 882, which is the early afternoon employee shuttles from Hillcrest to Bathurst and St Clair West Stations was previously part of the GTFS data (usually included as part of route 7 and 90 respectively). Not sure why both services share the same route number given their wildly different purposes, routing, and operating times, but at least they're available in the scheduling data. I'm assuming they need the buses/operators that are freed up from the 36C in order to operate the 906. Also, given the mid-board opening, the 906 would've needed to be scheduled and crewed from the start of November board, which means it would have needed to have been operated for three weeks prior to the opening of Line 6. Something tells me that the rules prevent RAD crews (which is what the 36C is technically being operated as) from being used to fill scheduled service, which would basically be forcing the operator to work something that they didn't sign for. I would trust the official published schedule data over a random representative from customer service, playing broken telephone. However, according to Steve Munro's published schedule (using the GTFS data), based on regular Sunday schedules the first car on the line enters service westbound at Emery Station at 7:39 am; given the published travel time between Jane/Finch Station (immediately east of the carhouse) and Emery Station is 9 minutes, the first car probably does depart the yard at exactly 7:30 am.

Feel like this is worthy of a bump... Metrobus will be operating on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day "for the first time in decades". Regular routes won't operate, service will just be on-demand using two cutaway buses. https://vocm.com/2025/11/28/metrobus-running-this-christmas-day-boxing-day-and-new-years-day/

I agree. If they were being delivered to Arrow Road, there would be better routes to use than Highway 7 through Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.

Looking at the official fleet roster information you were able to download, I currently don't believe that 6015 ever existed. 6016-6018 are listed as 2021 models, while 6013-6014 and 6019-6020 are 2022 models; so 6013-6014 were backfilled after four numbers were skipped. The Wiki originally listed the three 2021 buses as 6016-6018, which was correct. The 2024 Street Side Guide (which uses CUTA fleet survey data) also lists those units, but does not list any data for 6012-6015. The Wiki entry was later expanded by another editor to encompass back to 6013, which in hindsight was likely a faulty assumption.

Line 1 has an emergency closure between Eglinton and Sheppard-Yonge from 6:30pm tonight until end of service due to the discovery of some asbestos-containing material that had fallen onto track level. More information

The bus terminal at Keelesdale Station is not designed to facilitate routes terminating there (other than the future 158 Trethewey bus). Both entrance/exits are right-in-right-out only as they are too close to other traffic lights. As well, ridership on the 41 is much more oriented towards through traffic; while Eglinton is a busy stop, the majority of riders are going through/past, and would be inconvenienced by a forced transfer. Other TTC bus routes that are/will be split typically have an express counterpart that provides through service (see 25/925, 27/35/935, 36/39/939, 95/96/996); while Keele would only have a through express service during rush hours.

TTC has always retired buses based on their condition, not on age. If a bus experiences a major failure that will cost too much to fix compared to its relative value and need, then it'll be decommissioned. Vice-versa, there has historically been some "stragglers" that far outlast the rest of their fleet, namely because those units were in good enough condition to continue running without experiencing major failures or needing costly repairs compared to other, newer units. I suspect the reason for the more recent uptick in VII NG HEV retirements lately is because Malvern received 37 XE40 buses last month, meaning they no longer need to hold onto the worst of the dybrids just to meet service. Given that XE40 deliveries have been paused for a couple of months now, and the LFSe+ seem to be getting parked, I imagine retirements will temporarily be halted for all but the most critical of failures. Buses in Western Canada last longer primarily because they use sand/grit on their roadways in winter, while in Ontario we use a lot of salt that corrodes frames. That being said, Winnipeg only kept those ex-Calgary buses longer than they should have because they were in a significant fleet and maintenance shortage due to not having funding to purchase new buses in the last few years.