MCI102A3

Has anybody possibly heard of any Novas from Brampton or somewhere else in the 905 being recently sold to Barrie at all? I was at the model railway club tonight getting our new digs set up and one of the members claims to have spotted an older-looking Brampton unit, a Nova on the 400 heading towards Barrie when he was driving back home from the city. It apparently had markings saying ''under delivery to Barrie Transit'' or something like that he said as well. I was gonna get my friend and I to drive by the yard and SN tonight to see if they were in the yard, but we didn't have time and it's getting dark now anyways. He only had a vague idea of what it looked like, it wasn't a 3G or 4G, it had a flat rear end with classic engine placement he said. My hunch is it's probs one of the 0633-0638 series, because they're the only ZF buses from that era in Brampton and we don't like Voith up here.

Yeah, me and my friend noticed that when we were looking at it before we boarded and were wondering how it happened. Could've hit a curb perhaps with the longer-than-normal front overhang compared to say a NFI products? It's cosmetic anyhow, but still doesn't look too good when it's brand-new, the warranty'll probably take care of it, but the optics are probably a minor embarassment.

Took a ride out to Angus tonight and got some pics of 1704 for the record. Also have video of part of the trip. This bus handled the highway and most of the bumps pretty good, but has her quirks. No GPS or stop announcements have been installed yet, while there was a nice new bus smell inside. Engine and transmission's the same, seats are the same, sign's the same.

I saw 1701 pulling out of Allandale Station this afternoon, I think it was NIS. Was in a taxi on the way somewhere else with my mom so I couldn't get any pics.

Yeah, the 07s and 09s seem to have the most issues. They seem to run rough and I even drove behind an 09 one day in a car on the way to the railway club I'm in and the smell of the bad exhaust regen seeped into the car with the windows closed. The 04s and 06s are still very strong and smooth runners in spite of the way they've been treated over the past 13 years. I took a ride out to Angus with a friend last week and it was a smooth running bus, no funny noises or alarms whatsoever, but the body's seen better days.

Yeah, I really wanted to make the case for keeping the 04s back when the announcement was first made but didn't get very far. Quite a few drivers do agree with me that we should keep them though with a full rebuild, many have told me there's a lot of ergonomics issues with the current Novas for them.

Of course they do. Some of the fastest speeds on in-service buses have been recorded while on fan charters. In fact, that's one of the pre-requisites of what goes into a good charter.

One thing I really like is high speed runs in transit buses, because you can feel the speed when you do it. I'm just curious as to how fast some of you have managed to do on the bus, especially on transit routes that go onto the highway. My high speeds average between 80 to 100km/h depending on the route, but it's a rare treat to go that fast where I live. I've heard of the YRT Orion Vs being capable of doing 110/120ish, but that's still on my bucket-list to experience.

Yeah, based on pictures I've seen, any Mexican buses that would regularly go north of the border would have a Mexican plate (possibly border bus or other SPF plate), and an IRP plate from an American state, usually either California or Texas, depending on which state borders theirs. What make was the vehicle? Was it a used North American import, or a Scania or Volvo or something like that?

Just out of curiosity... does anybody here have an idea of when the SuperLos or any other DDs would end up showing up on the northern halves of the GO network, specifically Newmarket and Barrie?

Hey, guys. Lately during my discussions about my trip I wanna plan to St. Pierre for next year's car ferry, I've started growing an interest in photography of foreign cars and their license plates, whether they be from Canadian provinces, the States or other countries entirely, as well as hunting for buses and trucks that are either from outside of Simcoe County (where I live), from outside of Ontario or from other countries entirely. I thought it'd be a good topic for us license plate fanatics to post our catches from our various little pieces of paradise where we come from. I'm interested in Canada and Europe mostly, but the States and anywhere else is welcome, really. I've seen similar threads on places such as Citydata and Skyscrapercity about the same topic, and thought about putting one here. Here's what I'm interested in: -foreign cars from Canadian provinces, American states or other foreign countries, especially rare ones for your area. The rarest ones I've seen in Barrie were two Mexican license plates, one was from Quintana Roo state (on a Suburban) while the other I forget where, I think either Chihuahua or Chiapas (on an old F150), along with a Dutch plate on a mid-2000s Iveco Daily that I spotted in 2005 but never got the chance to photograph. -rare buses and trucks from outside your region, province/state or country (an example locally to me would be a York Region, Toronto, Dufferin, Durham or Peel-based school bus in Barrie, or school buses from Northern Ontario, eastern Central Ontario or Grey-Bruce, a coach from a company in another province or state that's not Greyhound in Barrie, as well as coaches from companies from GTA/Southern Ontario, Northern Ontario or northern Quebec that get off the highway and drive into town, or any out-of-town transit bus in Barrie that's not GO Transit [don't think that's happened at all here yet], or any American buses trucks that visit my city. I'll also include Texas-registered Greyhounds in places to the north of where they normally go, basically anywhere north or far away from the cities where American Greyhounds depart from that go to the border, north of Toronto/MTL/Ottawa or north of Calgary/Vancouver/Winnipeg for example). -taxis from outside of your city, region or province (examples in Barrie for me include taxis from rural Simcoe County/Muskoka as well as York Region and Toronto, including a couple Beck cabs I've spotted here. One of my relatives also came to my house from the Airport in a Mississauga cab before, while I've also heard of New York City taxis entering Ontario a few times from friends.) -emergency vehicles from outside your city or region. Examples known to me locally include RCMP cars and Metro Police vehicles that visited Barrie as well as York Regional Police's Lake Simcoe boat the Wahwateesin (if I spelt it correctly? Haven't seen it in years), various OPP boats from Orillia and further north and Durham Region Police's Zodiac that have visited Kempenfelt Bay, as well as ambulances from neighbouring counties that have been here on transfers or emergency runs, along with fire trucks from out of town that have visited here before. -European grey-market imported trucks or post-1970 grey-market import buses in North America (I know of at least 5 late-80s/early-90s Scania trucks that are in Ontario, all owned by the same guy. Mexican coaches in the border states or in Canada would be welcome as well.) -these pictures should be taken and spotted in your city or region where you live, or on any travelling you've done abroad. -another one I'm interested in is Canadian plates in Mexico or on other continents. For example, during my search last night I found two whole pages of Ontario and Quebec plates that made it to Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, and a few pictures of Ontario plates on cars in Estonia. The farther away or more obscure the destination, the better. This can also include posts from us Canucks who've spotted buses from our towns in places such as Toronto, New York, California or the Gulf while we're travelling as well. -I'm also interested in sumamries on what the most and least common foreign plates or out-of-town companies are in your areas. For me, most common plates here are Alberta, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for Canada, while the most common I've seen from the States have been from New York, Michigan, and Florida, the least common were anything southern or western, while the rarest ones I've seen were the two Mexican plates, a California plate, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, and the Netherlands. Most common out of town taxis I'd say are from companies in Essa Township, Springwater Township and Innisfil, as well as some from New Tecumseth, Collingwood and Bradford. Most common out-of-town buses in Barrie are from York Region and the GTA, but they rarely go off the highway. Ontario Northland has regular departures here, but they're not rare like spotting a Tisdale or a Maheux in Barrie off the highway. In fact, it's pretty rare if any coach comes off the highway and stays in town. Trucks can come from pretty much every province and state on the continent, with the most common being Manitoba, Alberta, BC, Quebec and New Brunswick, associated with big companies, as well as some American ones from Illinois and other states that are popular with huge fleets, with some representation from companies such as Swift, Werner and J.B. Hunt, and the common Arizona plates on Uhaul's rentals. The rarest ones I've been told are from Mexico on trailers hauled by Canadian or American trucks from the Faurecia plant in San Luis Potosi to plants in Bradford and Barrie where my stepdad used to work at. That being said, I'll share some of my best catches over the last 10 years to get the thread started. Included are Cleveland Southeastern 5522, a Prevost XL-II on Ohio plates taken in 2006, a Kunkel 102DL3 running a Greyhound overflow in 2014 between Toronto and Owen Sound, a Texas-registered classic MC12 I spotted in Downtown Barrie a few years before the MC12s were transferred here, Great Canadian Setra from Waterloo Region (quite a few visited us a few years ago), an East Ferris Bus Lines Blue Bird from Northern Ontario (spotted 2008 in Midland during a track meet I was on), and Setra demo at Downtown Barrie with North Carolina plates that was carrying a charter group for the Dragon Boat festival of 2011. For cars, I threw in a Pennsylvania plate in the Painswick quarter of Barrie that I spotted while out doing errands in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to see what else you guys can find, and whether they'll be more interesting than mine. Post away!

Yeah, I have a feeling that route ain't gonna last long, despite the fanfare it received when it opened a year ago. I rode it once with one of the board members and I think, besides us, we only had a couple people. I might as well make the most of it before the time comes.

They had a car running Route 11 a few weeks back smh.

I read a really old website while searching around Google about some Swiss who drove around the world in an 80s Toyota Landcruiser I believe with Zurich plates, and one of their stops was in St. Pierre. They did have to buy carte verte to drive on the island, and back then they were able to drive there because they loaded their car on a freighter from Fortune, then took the passenger ferry while their truck was on the freighter. I have a feeling some sort of changes will happen now once this new ferry gets going, simply because if the current system is really cumbersome and bureaucratic, they'll probably be overwhelmed in the first year of the car ferry simply because there'll be too many cars, both SPM and Canadian, that will want to try this if it gets popular, and if the bureaucracy creates like a 3 hour lineup at the port because the entire ferry is trying to fill out paperwork, something will have to change. Like maybe streamline the process or something like that. Compared to having one or two foreign cars coming every year or two years mixed in with some SPM or Newfoundland-registered trailers hauling imports back when the Swiss did it, they'll probably have between 3 transports to 13 cars a day or multiple times a day depending on how popular the ferry gets. I also read that the plan is that with the new ro-ro fast-cats that were mentioned on here, there's plans for one to go to Newfoundland from St. Pierre and another one from St. Pierre to Langlade-Grand-Miquelon. So next year it'll probably be possible to drive the whole territory in your car or for bus tours to explore the place.

http://www.transportlenomade.ca/accueil On my first trip on Maheux in 2012, I noticed signs at the Maheux agents on the outskirts of Rouyn (as far south as Rollet) advertising this service called "Transport Le Nomade". At the time it seemed pretty bare bones, the driver I rode with up to Rouyn on my first trip explained to me how it works, and what kind of service would run to serve that end of Rouyn: his once a day bus to North Bay that leaves Rouyn in the morning and comes back at night, which would be completely impractical for somebody from south of Rouyn who wanted to use Nomade to get into town for business or whatevs. Now it seems that they have more schedules available, and while they still issue special tickets that can be used on certain Maheux services within the TE limits of Rouyn-Noranda, it seems they've added routes outside the TE into other MRCs, and based on my limited rusty knowledge, it seems that they probably match drivers with riders like I've seen in other towns, and the "route" and "schedule" is run by a private driver with his or her own car according to the schedule, or perhaps an independent owner-operator who has a van like a Transit or Promaster who got the contract for it. They do appear to run a set route though. I'll be going back up there next year, I might talk my family into showing me around transit there, definitely will wanna ride both Novas as well as try this service here if they run anything interesting, like maybe a G5 minibus or a Transit or Promaster 15-passenger van.