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TTC Orion VII Retirement Tracker

Mar_AC_23
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TransitMotorcoach

TransitMotorcoach

Posted
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1 hour ago, Shemar said:

8007 has joined the other sidelined airport OGs at North Queen

It saw its' final revenue service run on the 300 & 112B this morning. Very surreal how not even 2 hours after completing the final run, it has immediately been sidelined at  North Queen yard, especially given how when it was brought back to Queensway, it was originally parked on the regular storage track inside the garage.

 

 

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Kumiko Oumae

Kumiko Oumae

Posted
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3 minutes ago, TransitMotorcoach said:

It saw its' final revenue service run on the 300 & 112B this morning. Very surreal how not even 2 hours after completing the final run, it has immediately been sidelined at  North Queen yard, especially given how when it was brought back to Queensway, it was originally parked on the regular storage track inside the garage.

 

 

#8011 is also sidelined.

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Bus_Medic

Bus_Medic

Posted
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38 minutes ago, TransitMotorcoach said:

It saw its' final revenue service run on the 300 & 112B this morning. Very surreal how not even 2 hours after completing the final run, it has immediately been sidelined at  North Queen yard, especially given how when it was brought back to Queensway, it was originally parked on the regular storage track inside the garage.

 

 

What were you expecting?

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Mar_AC_23

Mar_AC_23

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It looks like today could be the final day for the remaining airport OGs. 8007 was sent to North Queen this morning after its rush hour run, 8003 8009 8010 were moved there this evening, and 8008 is the final unit in service with its run ending at 2:11am at Pearson Airport.

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Toro

Toro

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2 hours ago, TransitMotorcoach said:

Decommissioned. And in regards to 8011, it is not at North Queen yet. It is still buried on the east side of Queensway among the buses awaiting maintenance and repairs. And it has stood still there for weeks now. 

Based on the status of its siblings I'm gonna assume it won't come back but who knows

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3190

3190

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, PrimeTio said:

What’s your proof and source on this?

Well for starters, if they wanted them gone and retired immediately (units that were pulled earlier on) 8000-8002, 8004-8006 would’ve already been stripped. After seeing how quickly they stripped 7953, 7955, 7956, 7958, and 7961. But seeing they aren’t rushing that, they may be planning something with them or keeping them in case of a future shortage of some sort. But aside from that I’ve heard this through some of my internal Queensway people. 

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Articulated

Articulated

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53 minutes ago, 3190 said:

Well for starters, if they wanted them gone and retired immediately (units that were pulled earlier on) 8000-8002, 8004-8006 would’ve already been stripped. After seeing how quickly they stripped 7953, 7955, 7956, 7958, and 7961. But seeing they aren’t rushing that, they may be planning something with them or keeping them in case of a future shortage of some sort. But aside from that I’ve heard this through some of my internal Queensway people. 

And for 8011, I’m hearing it had transmission issues and that’s why it was buried into the corner. That’s the only reason it’s still physically at Queensway. Looks like on the 15th of December, it was dispatched on 176 and only made it so far until it was driven back and changed off. Whether they are just going to leave it there until further notice or fix it and move it to North Queen, I don’t know. But my guess they are just leaving it dead for now.

The COVID buses had been sitting at North Queen for a number of months; it was really only when the Airport Express units started being sent to storage at North Queen that the COVID buses were officially decommissioned and "stripped".

With no new buses having been delivered it's hard to justify retiring a fleet of buses; however, the fact that the TTC decided to shuffle buses from another division and go through the effort of equipping 3331-3341 with luggage racks at this time tells me that they don't really want 8000-8011 hanging around any longer. Sure they could probably be pulled back into revenue service if the TTC was in a significant pinch all of a sudden, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

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3190

3190

Posted
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On 1/7/2023 at 11:21 PM, Articulated said:

The COVID buses had been sitting at North Queen for a number of months; it was really only when the Airport Express units started being sent to storage at North Queen that the COVID buses were officially decommissioned and "stripped".

With no new buses having been delivered it's hard to justify retiring a fleet of buses; however, the fact that the TTC decided to shuffle buses from another division and go through the effort of equipping 3331-3341 with luggage racks at this time tells me that they don't really want 8000-8011 hanging around any longer. Sure they could probably be pulled back into revenue service if the TTC was in a significant pinch all of a sudden, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

Agreed. Like I said it’s a possibility they can come back if needed as they are reserve buses, but a likely possibility? Definitely.

Update: Looks like they found the time to move 8011.

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3190

3190

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On 1/8/2023 at 12:55 AM, Novabus photographer said:

Why didn’t the TTC just wait until the new buses were delivered to retire the (old) airport buses? As far as I’ve heard the 80xx are not a terribly unreliable fleet so why is the TTC getting rid of them now?

Well for starters, whether replacing 8000-8011 now with 3330-3341 was a good idea or not, TTC is known to not think things through so. Guess you can say TTC is TTC-ing once again. Can’t expect much from them regardless of the situation. 

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T3G

T3G

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10 hours ago, Novabus photographer said:

Why didn’t the TTC just wait until the new buses were delivered to retire the (old) airport buses? As far as I’ve heard the 80xx are not a terribly unreliable fleet so why is the TTC getting rid of them now?

There are, as I understand, 3 arguments:

1) The old airport buses were more beat up compared to the 'civilian' fleet on account of having been used heavily on highway runs, and if they break down, it's much safer for them to do so on the side of a local road than on a highway.

2) Since COVID, the TTC has had a substantial surplus of buses. It makes more sense to put the older ones, those which demand the most maintenance to keep going, out to pasture in favour of newer ones which should cost less to maintain. In tandem with argument #1, you can see why they would choose to get rid of the airport Orions ahead of the civilian ones when they did.

3) that it makes the city "look bad" to have "such old" vehicles be the first introduction they have to the city. I personally think this argument is a load of bollocks as the difference in passenger experience between a 5 year old and a 15 year old diesel bus are really not very pronounced at all, all the times I've been on an Orion VII of any flavour I've been impressed by how well maintained they appear to be on the inside, but your mileage may vary on that front.

 

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