Chris.A

Does anyone know why GO transit got rid of all their Suburban Orion Vs so early on?

The last New Flyer buses in the fleet prior to these EVs were the 1998-99 New Flyer D40LFs in the 7300s and there were only about 50 or so of those buses (now gone from service as of 2017). So it seems that TTC don't care too much for NF in general, otherwise ya'll probably would have gotten some XD40s and XD60s in addition to the Novas post Orion 7 era.

It just dawned on me that you guys have the oldest production Xcelsiors in existents! How are your 2010 buses fairing these days?

Have any AN459s been scrapped yet?

Seems like the 2008 NABI BRT 60 CNGs are still around as I saw #5419 working the X2 out of Minnesota ave station over the weekend. Also, still no sign of 2020 XN40s out here in NOVA just yet. Also in over DMV news, Ride On's Proterras and Nova LFSAs have all entered service as the 2005 New Flyer C40LF CNGs and 2006 Gillig Advantage hybrids have been retired. On the DASH bus side of things, a few Orion Vs have returned (albeit temporally) to service as a couple have been seen in Old Town (one was working the AT2X!). Saw an ex-PRTC MCI D4500CL (now DASH bus, not sure the #) deadheading south on I-95 near Cinder Bed depot (and FFC's Lorton depot) the other day, not sure where it was going (perhaps back to PRTC?) and Lastly, the 2020 New Flyer XE40s have arrived (buses #801-803, with rumors of 8 more coming in 2021 along with the Proterras). DASH has certainly come a long way, Very interesting fleet of buses. Wonder if they'll consider a second depot in the future...? So, it is to my understanding that around 300 cars are the base order. What will happen if Metro goes with the options? bye bye 6000s already???

3G CNG #1884 does not yet feature cameras. Any thoughts on the upcoming Gillig order?

Could be there for work. Remember, West Farms used to have a huge fleet of Orion 7 OG CNGs until a year or two ago.. BTW, some 2007-2008 Orion 7.501 Next Generation Hybrids (#3800s) are coming to MTA bus company. IIRC, JFK depot now has #3803, #3804, #3807, and a few more to replace their 2005 Orion 7.501 OG hybrids ( that also came from NYCTA last year). A couple dozen more 2005's have been retired recently with buses #6505, and #6603 being among them. At this rate, I can see all 2005 Orion VII buses being retired by year's end (even though nothing new is expected to come in, but largely due to reduced transit usage overall and a surplus of buses, so expect a fleet size reduction in the near future (even if there are no cuts!!!)).

Probably retired and sold off as the next few buses are 2017 Grand Vicinity buses.

The R211 contract is in serious jeopardy go getting axed as is the R262 contract. The MTA had recently notified their biggest vendors about their budget crisis (i.e. Alstom, Kawasaki, New Flyer, Novabus, etc). So this is not set in stone, and if a second lockdown were to occur, who knows what will happen...

So Ride-On retired about what? 40-50 buses just now? I know THE BUS recently got new El Derados buses recently too a few months ago. Is #62616 a new bus too? Also, seems like DASH bus had deployed some of their Orion Vs back into service recently. #90 was seen parked in Old Town the other day as well as a couple of other units. Lastly, in Metro is cutting all these routes system wide, then I would expect some kind of fleet reduction. Perhaps around 200-400 buses could be retired without any real replacements. If so, I'd expect buses as young as the 2009 New Flyer LFA hybrids to be phased out too at somepoint.

Just an update, but according to NYCTFs, NICE bus is going to be taking delivery of 60 new Gillig Advantage CNG buses (That's right, Gillig!!) sometime next year to start slowly phasing out the Orion VII NG CNG fleet (mostly the 2008-2009 units). It is unknown if these will be standards, BRTs, or a bit of both. Also unknown is the upcoming numbers for these CNGs, but if they were to continue the current scheme, I suppose the order will be #1980-2039 with possible options for farther units down the road. This is a true shocker for NICE bus as it might as well be the MTA getting these. I guess Nassau is done with XN40s (for now atleast, but more XN60s are coming in the near future). Also, 3G CNGs #1851-1852 have cameras now too.

Damn, this is crazy. Could West Ox possibly get the 5A as well? I mean, it's not like that line uses suburban seated buses anymore... I just hope West Ox get a different set of buses. Atleast give them the newer 2016 XDE40s or rehabbed 2011 XDE40s. Perhaps even some 2014-2015 NABI BRT 42 hybrids to shake things up! You can try looking around Crystal City, near the depot (FMR). I sometimes see those 30 footer Orion VII OG CNGs ( units #3019, #3028, and #3030) doing employee shuttles in that area. Shame they don't do regular service anymore. They'll probably be the last of the remaining Orion VII CNGs to retire.

So is #3310-3349 bound for FMR depot? They have around 35 buses left to be replaced.

Car #6062 is likely a write off. scrapped.

Have you noticed how the #4300's had retired before the #4200's and #4400's? I always found that weird, especially since the most of the #4200's were assigned to the D.C. depots while the #4300's were assigned to VA depots.