Ed T.

The last couple of times I caught an eastbound Bloor train, at around the same time in the morning (9 AM approx) and noticed the destination sign, it was PAPE. Do all Pape-bound AM trains show this exposure?

With today's modern technology, it would be so simple to have an annunciator that goes "ding" or "beep" or even "eastbound train to Pape station" (wouldn't that be a requirement of AODA?). After all, there were working annunciators on the B-D for years after the interlining. Then again, I'm hearing way too many beeps and boops and robot voices on the TTC already, and I only need to go to Keele anyway.

A quick search doesn't reveal this. I saw a GO double-decker bus with a wreath and "Bus #500" or similar on it. It may have been 8161. Anyone know the exact number, or have a picture?

HCRY is a big part, maybe the main part of the problem. They so beautifully restore / operate and showcase these old vehicles, why should the TTC try and duplicate this? TTC brass do have a point. In their mind what's the difference between here or and hour away. If you want to see these things, go to Rockwood.

I'm not sure if you are just telling us what those TTC higher-ups think.

Anyway, the "go to Rockwood" argument is specious on a few grounds:

1. A lot more of the public will see historical streetcars when they're out on the city streets rather than at Rockwood. Rockwood is a destination for fans. A lot of people who love to see the old streetcars out would never take the time and money to go to Rockwood.
2. Rockwood doesn't have the facilities to keep a large flee t going. I wonder what will happen when the older members no longer can go out there and tinker and operate the cars.
3. Personally, I find riding a vehicle that's in service more interesting than riding on a charter, and a charger to be more interesting than riding through the (scenic) woods. Those are Toronto streetcars, and they belong on the streets of Toronto, not rolling through the trees on an old right-of-way.

Those cars are worth a gold mine in good PR with the public, and have great marketing value, but there's no money for any marketing.

Any time one of the PCCs or Witts goes out, you see all sorts of people smiling and taking pictures. When TTC management goes out, I assume they would throw tomatoes instead.

Of course there's money for marketing/PR. It's mostly stupid stuff like relettering routes or changing "Yonge-University-Spadina" to Line 1 and/or Yonge-University. I haven't seen a whole lot of people smiling and taking pictures of the hitherto-unknown 123D or 110C or all those green and yellow route number signs.

Oh, and the ghastly airport wraps. What's the logic in making your bus look like a dirty beige box with an all-black front end?

9438 on 51

Bike-rack-less 7900 on 165

7950 on 96C

I'll assume you're talking about the Stop Announcement visual displays here. That's actually a pretty good question i never really thought about that. The AODA requires that all transit providers meet accessibility requirements set out by the act by 2025. I cant remember the exact date under which Audio and Visual Stop Announcements fall under, but I know it's before 2025.

To be honest, i'm not aware of any future plans to outfit the T1 fleet with displays for stop announcements and i've never heard of any plans in the past. I'm not saying that it will never happen, since they did install automated stop announcements on the D40's 4 years ago even though they were in the process of being retired.

Well, the station name is spelled out multiple times in the station, of course. Whether that's "sufficient advance notice" is a matter of studying the Act. You would really need a significant number of display panels on the cars to do a thorough job anyway. In a crowded bus the next stop display is not visible to the majority of passengers. Never mind if you're in the back of an ALRV.

7306 sitting on Brown's Line with a cleanup truck behind it. I assume a hose burst.

First place to TTC's 1981 Flyer D901 buses.

Second place to TTC's 1996 Orion V buses.

Not ridden enough: TTC's 1991 Orion V buses.

Some GM New Looks were pretty good, but I'd rather be on any of the above.

edit: I'm thinking about trolley coaches now, hmm....

I surely won't miss the heating panel burning my leg during winter.

Or the windows flopping open with a bang on a windy -15º winter day.

But the Orion Vs still beat the alternatives!

I never said to do it without ATC... You put words in my mouth again... I suspect there are currently enough "spare" trains to make a few more 4-car trains -- my thought was only to have every 2nd or 3rd train from Don Mills go to Union, or only do it during peak hours.

So, you have stations on Yonge where already people are trying to squeeze themselves into overcrowded trains; for fun you throw in some shorter four-car trains from time to time just to shake it up a bit?

What are the headways on the Vancouver lines? I am thinking, not at the lower limit of what's possible. With ATC, we know that the TTC hopes to dorp headways a bit more, just to relieve crowding somewhat. You can't interline where there's no room. Sure, if ridership was like 1966, with ATC the three-line business would work okay. But it's fifty years later now, and interlining is a bad idea.

Like for nuclear war, the right way to do interlining on the TTC's subway system is to not do interlining at all.

I find it the opposite in bus. Say loading at a subway station, 50 people wait to board at the back door while 15 are waiting at the front door. Then when exiting the bus they all want to use the front door. I don't get it.

It's my experience that, invariably, a full NFLF or Orion VII unloading at the subway will be finished at the front well before the back has emptied. So first seat dibs go to those waiting to board at the front of the bus.

1514 on 191C this morning. Who says hybrids never go out on highway express runs?

At least the 41E is a real express and I suppose some of 45 passengers think or expect the same. When you get on a 41E atleast you will arrive ahead of a regular 41 as they actually pass buses usually.....

Hmm, I'm at Ingram Drive for a while after today. I should check out the 41E instead of driving. Unfortunately (just like for the 191C) I start too late to take advantage of express buses, but in the evenings they're still running when I get out.

Nah sorry bro. Could be loose inmates up there.

Juveniles, pah.

Don't worry North Detention is now closed if you haven't noticed.

Umm, 111 Disco is still on the Ministry of Corrections website. I deal with trash of another kind up at 120 Disco.

Same story with the 96E. Same arrival times at Finch/Humber Coll. blvd as the 96A and both arrive at Wilson Stn four minutes apart, so much for an "express service." Such a waste of five valuable buses during rush hour from arrow on an already overly serviced stretch.

There are people who are all keen to remove stops (presumably ones they don't personally use). They should ride Steeles East or Finch East. The local bus isn't all that much slower than the express bus. I do prefer the express buses simply because fewer stop announcements and door beep-beeps. But don't tell me that removing the 39th Street stop on Lake Shore will make the 501 run any faster....it doesn't, and now I have a longer walk and miss more streetcars (because both the schedule and Transsee are not useful when streetcars leave Long Branch loop randomly--which they do).

For instance, when I do the 112C bus I don't like to let anyone off after eglinton because I feel if an alien abduction were ever to take place, that's where it would happen.

Hey, will you let me off at Disco? I promise I won't be abducted. But mostly the 45B is quicker from Kipling station, so I take that.

The TTC themselves are the one's who coined the term "LRT" every opportunity it could in the past to every new project being built, and that's why people are confused with the term in Toronto. When the Scarborough RT was being planned, they initially called it LRT before the ICTS came into place. Fast forward a couple years to Spadina and they did they same thing when the conversion from bus to streetcar was being done. A few years after that they did the same thing with the Harbourfront Line calling it an "LRT" line. The case with the St.Clair line was slightly different as the media hyped it up as an "LRT" line but the TTC did nothing to correct it.

One of these things is not (or, would not be, had it used streetcars) like the others....

Also, Harbourfront came both before Spadina....and after.

So how often do they clean the poles/holders/stuff that passenger touches? And how do they clean them?

Although that probably doesn't matter cause most germs would probably die off if left for days. New germs would be left by other passenger within recent hours.

Ever notice how some riders obsessively chew their nails and then grab the poles, then chew some more, then grab the poles, then....

Yeah. I just try to tune it out. There's probably no part of the poles/handholds that are sanitary. I just make sure I wash my hands well after getting off the Queen car....

Ah, have you heard this one?

A 6600, a 7000, and a 9400 walk into a bardrive into a garage....

<stuff>

"That wasn't my operator, that was an Orion V fan."

Thanks for the drivetrain info! It's funny, the Orion Vs seem to have had more drivetrain variety than the GM New Looks, which were either two speeds or three speeds, but all with the same engine (other than some V8 experiment that I heard of).

I assume that the turbo lag on the S50 engines is why some VIIs are called "slowboxes"? I'm in Queensway territory, so I normally get the zippy 7900/8000s.

I'm curious about the differences between the three varieties of diesel Orion Vs.in terms of drivetrain.

As I recall with riding 6734 a few times, there seemed to be a real-time indicator on the dash showing the gear the transmission was in. Is this hidden away somewhere on the 7000s/9400s? I haven't noticed it, but they're all supposed to have the same transmission according to wiki.

Also, why does the transmission (or maybe engine) seem to work differently in the 7000s vs 9400s? The 7000s would shift up into some higher gear around 30 km/h or so, the engine revs would drop, but you'd get a real shove in the back. I'm not feeling this in the 9400s. Is it transmission tuning, or engine torque characteristics, or what?

Any figures on the torque and horsepower of the three different engines in these buses would be of interest. I figure the 6600s would be the lightest, given no lift or bike rack. They also seemed very fast--quite a revelation when first introduced. The 7000s seem pretty fast, in a more low-RPM way. The 9400s, I dunno, don't feel all that good-performing to me.

1619 dead in the watersnow on The Westway.

7106 should be safe on the island till sometime in June.

So 7106 MOT expires end of June?

How much running does it actually do on the island?

I expect the chances of it going out for a run once it's back from the island are very slim.

Now only 6 systems only remain with the V.

You're including the TTC in your count, right?

So the last day of the Vs to be in service (1996 batch) is I assume tmrw?

Are you assuming this based on the service summary and new board period?

Because I think that's got nothing to do with it. 7013 and 7123 go as soon as any one of the following happens:

• there are enough working hybrids to cover service requirements
• their MOT expires (which is not mid-month)
• there's a major breakdown or other issue with the bus

Note that all but the MOT can happen today, or next week, or....

Whoosh.

The sound of an Orion V outaccelerating a hybrid on 199?

Considering Queensway is not operating shuttles on the 501 anymore there should be enough buses with minus the 26 to operate the 37 including the service increase starting next week as well.

I have this crazy vision of moving all the remaining Orion Vs and RTS buses to Queensway. Make it the division of old orphans and oddballs. But they'd be down to only the NF-LF by summer.

I have a suggestion that few more 7900's vehicle can move from Arrow Rd to Queensway... but that can be a problem since hybrid vehicle can't operate on 191 Highway 27 express route.

Hybrids do, in fact, make it out on 191 if nothing else is available. I think I've successfuly made it to Kipling station on one, without it blowing up.