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Ontario Northland


Timmins Man

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27 minutes ago, MCIBUS said:

Not sure if they'd make a good commuter bus or charter service with those KM's but at that price they'd make for a great RV Motor home.

For 10 or 15 grand more, you could get a professionally converted from factory 1980s vintage coach with lower overall mileage, hasn’t spent its entire life in the salt belt, no emissions devices to maintain, and only needing a decor update.

 

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4 hours ago, MCIBUS said:

Not sure if they'd make a good commuter bus or charter service with those KM's but at that price they'd make for a great RV Motor home.

The rebuilt power train has over 200,000km, it can go for another 1.3 million KMs before needing to be rebuild again. The Greyhound US units of this Model year are probably worse then Northland's units. They want up to $50k for each bus.

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20 minutes ago, Doppelkupplung said:

Actually since it was brought up, does anyone know why MCI doesn't dabble in the factory motorhome market and compete with Prevost? Surely the J4500 is a suitable vehicle for a market like that. 

Actually they do. Just not in the volume prevost does.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Ontario Northland has leased two Temsa TS-45 buses numbered 1308 and 1915. I was lucky enough to get a photo of # 1308 in Sault Ste. Marie last week. It is shown at the Howard Johnson Hotel on highway 17 which is the Ontario Northland depot in Sault Ste. Marie. Bus 1308 had just arrived on Thursday morning on the Thunder Bay trip which departed Wednesday evening. 

Ontario Northland 1308 --- 23JUL20.jpg

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1 hour ago, Seashore_518203 said:

Ontario Northland has leased two Temsa TS-45 buses numbered 1308 and 1915. I was lucky enough to get a photo of # 1308 in Sault Ste. Marie last week. It is shown at the Howard Johnson Hotel on highway 17 which is the Ontario Northland depot in Sault Ste. Marie. Bus 1308 had just arrived on Thursday morning on the Thunder Bay trip which departed Wednesday evening. 

Ontario Northland 1308 --- 23JUL20.jpg

As a Crown Corporation of a Government, I don't understand why they decided to lease foreign made buses. As for the 35ft Coaches, fine, the market is saturated with imports such as Van Hool and Temsa. MCI just got into the game and production will be slow. MCI and Prevost have 3 to 5 year old WCL J4500, H3 and X3 Coaches in which they can be leased. Why does a Turkish Manufacturer get preference over buses made here in Canada, by Canadians? This is just wrong. If a Private Charter Bus company buys a Temsa, that's their business as they have discriminating clientele with visiting tour groups. Northland is a Crown Corporation of a Government and it should support it's own manufacturers in Canada, not Turkey. 

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1 hour ago, Shaun said:

Most likely won by lowest qualifying bidder.

Bingo. They would have met the specifications to the tender and won the contract.

As for @Megabus Rider's rant, the Canadian Armed Forces had been buying coaches from a whole variety of sources over the past many years. They have a few MCI coaches but are now mostly body-on-chassis models that are not made in Canada. They're not the only ones that go that way, as the government has made the political it's more efficient to save money by buying cheaper vehicles and spend on other programs (or lower taxes, allowing citizens to spend more) than buy more expensive coaches with a higher percentage of Canadian content and the associated spin-off in local benefts.

In terms of Ontario Northland, they're owned by the Province. There are no manufacturers of highway coaches based in Ontario; therefore not as much of a political issue, considering any manufacturing jobs associated with the assembly of the coaches go outside of the province anyway. You can also consider that many of the jobs associated with building coach buses are not involved with the assembly factory, and can be created through parts manufacturing, design, and other industries, some of which could be based in Ontario.

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37 minutes ago, Articulated said:

Bingo. They would have met the specifications to the tender and won the contract.

As for @Megabus Rider's rant, the Canadian Armed Forces had been buying coaches from a whole variety of sources over the past many years. They have a few MCI coaches but are now mostly body-on-chassis models that are not made in Canada. They're not the only ones that go that way, as the government has made the political it's more efficient to save money by buying cheaper vehicles and spend on other programs (or lower taxes, allowing citizens to spend more) than buy more expensive coaches with a higher percentage of Canadian content and the associated spin-off in local benefts.

In terms of Ontario Northland, they're owned by the Province. There are no manufacturers of highway coaches based in Ontario; therefore not as much of a political issue, considering any manufacturing jobs associated with the assembly of the coaches go outside of the province anyway. You can also consider that many of the jobs associated with building coach buses are not involved with the assembly factory, and can be created through parts manufacturing, design, and other industries, some of which could be based in Ontario.

Now what might be taken into consideration would be reliability.  If these units spend more time in the garage then on the road then there would be a chance that they would be disqualified from bidding next time around. 

The only charter company that uses them in the GTA is Great Canadian, they have a few doing shuttles from Toronto to Kitchener. 

I'm not sure how reliable they are but TRAXX out west has a fleet of them. 

I would think that in terms of serviceability and  warranty MCI and Prevost have more units so I'm sure that parts would be easier to get. 

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1 hour ago, Shaun said:

Now what might be taken into consideration would be reliability.  If these units spend more time in the garage then on the road then there would be a chance that they would be disqualified from bidding next time around. 

The only charter company that uses them in the GTA is Great Canadian, they have a few doing shuttles from Toronto to Kitchener. 

I'm not sure how reliable they are but TRAXX out west has a fleet of them. 

I would think that in terms of serviceability and  warranty MCI and Prevost have more units so I'm sure that parts would be easier to get. 

The other aspect is that ONTC already had a relationship with Temsa, so they know what they're dealing with.

And for those saying that the market has plenty of used coaches, that might be true if you don't need a wheelchair lift. That cuts down on what's a available a bit.

Edited by Flalex72
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9 hours ago, Articulated said:

Bingo. They would have met the specifications to the tender and won the contract.

As for @Megabus Rider's rant, the Canadian Armed Forces had been buying coaches from a whole variety of sources over the past many years. They have a few MCI coaches but are now mostly body-on-chassis models that are not made in Canada. They're not the only ones that go that way, as the government has made the political it's more efficient to save money by buying cheaper vehicles and spend on other programs (or lower taxes, allowing citizens to spend more) than buy more expensive coaches with a higher percentage of Canadian content and the associated spin-off in local benefts.

In terms of Ontario Northland, they're owned by the Province. There are no manufacturers of highway coaches based in Ontario; therefore not as much of a political issue, considering any manufacturing jobs associated with the assembly of the coaches go outside of the province anyway. You can also consider that many of the jobs associated with building coach buses are not involved with the assembly factory, and can be created through parts manufacturing, design, and other industries, some of which could be based in Ontario.

As for cut-a-ways, I am not too concerned. Girardin has limited models and the US market should also be supported.

What about the fellow Canadian workers who could have been building those units? MCI and Prevost have taken Government backed loans to weather the pandemic, at least a Ontario Crown Corporation could give back buying with either MCI or Prevost. Again, if its a 35 foot or Double Deck, fine but 45 foot, we have 2 in our back yard that can build it or sell pre-used units with extensive warranty.

9 hours ago, Shaun said:

Now what might be taken into consideration would be reliability.  If these units spend more time in the garage then on the road then there would be a chance that they would be disqualified from bidding next time around. 

The only charter company that uses them in the GTA is Great Canadian, they have a few doing shuttles from Toronto to Kitchener. 

I'm not sure how reliable they are but TRAXX out west has a fleet of them. 

I would think that in terms of serviceability and  warranty MCI and Prevost have more units so I'm sure that parts would be easier to get. 

Great Canadian doesn't have any Temsa units. The units used for the Shuttles are 2013 Van Hool T2145s.

7 hours ago, Flalex72 said:

The other aspect is that ONTC already had a relationship with Temsa, so they know what they're dealing with.

And for those saying that the market has plenty of used coaches, that might be true if you don't need a wheelchair lift. That cuts down on what's a available a bit.

Have you checked MCIs inventory? They had to get 2 more lots, 1 in Montreal and another in New Jersey. They have contacted small fleets with an attractive in-house leasing program, just to clear up the inventory.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 7/27/2020 at 7:26 PM, Shaun said:

Now what might be taken into consideration would be reliability.  If these units spend more time in the garage then on the road then there would be a chance that they would be disqualified from bidding next time around. 

The only charter company that uses them in the GTA is Great Canadian, they have a few doing shuttles from Toronto to Kitchener. 

I'm not sure how reliable they are but TRAXX out west has a fleet of them. 

I would think that in terms of serviceability and  warranty MCI and Prevost have more units so I'm sure that parts would be easier to get. 

I haven’t seen any in the traxx yard in Airdrie yet. Just new prevosts 

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36 minutes ago, Prevost said:

Haven't seen a TRAXX Temsa in Vancouver in ages.

If they have them i wonder where their hiding? Medicine Hat maybe?

 

As of Sept 6 it seems ONT is expanding its Thunder Bay to Winnipeg Service to 6 days/week. BUT its gonna run 3 days via Dryden-Kenora-Winnipeg and 3 days via Fort Frances-Kenora- Winnipeg. Thunder Bay departures will remian at 830 am just 3 x week will Arr Winnipeg 405 pm (via Dryden) and 3 x week 515 pm (via Fort Frances)

Return will be 130pm-3 x week departure via Fort Frances to Thunder Bay and 245 pm-3 x week via Dryden..Arrivals will remain at 1230 AM into Thunder Bay!

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On 8/24/2020 at 10:09 PM, roeco said:

As of Sept 6 it seems ONT is expanding its Thunder Bay to Winnipeg Service to 6 days/week. BUT its gonna run 3 days via Dryden-Kenora-Winnipeg and 3 days via Fort Frances-Kenora- Winnipeg. Thunder Bay departures will remian at 830 am just 3 x week will Arr Winnipeg 405 pm (via Dryden) and 3 x week 515 pm (via Fort Frances)

Return will be 130pm-3 x week departure via Fort Frances to Thunder Bay and 245 pm-3 x week via Dryden..Arrivals will remain at 1230 AM into Thunder Bay!

That's very exciting news! Great to hear about near-daily service through to Winnipeg once again.

Very smart decision to route half of the buses via Fort Frances, providing service to several communities that don't have intercity service. None of the communities on either branch are big enough to need more service than 3 days a week, and Kenora is still served by both branches. While the detour adds an extra hour over the Hwy 17 routing, the time between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg is already so long the extra time is relatively negligable, as you still arrive/depart Winnipeg in the late afternoon and arrive/leave Thunder Bay after midnight.

The September 6th schedules are online on Ontario Northland's website, except the Thunder Bay-Winnipeg route is missing. Wonder if they're holding off on posting it until an announcement is made, or if they're still working on securing agents and stopping points in some communities and can't publish stop locations until they have been secured.

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3 hours ago, Articulated said:

That's very exciting news! Great to hear about near-daily service through to Winnipeg once again.

Very smart decision to route half of the buses via Fort Frances, providing service to several communities that don't have intercity service. None of the communities on either branch are big enough to need more service than 3 days a week, and Kenora is still served by both branches. While the detour adds an extra hour over the Hwy 17 routing, the time between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg is already so long the extra time is relatively negligable, as you still arrive/depart Winnipeg in the late afternoon and arrive/leave Thunder Bay after midnight.

The September 6th schedules are online on Ontario Northland's website, except the Thunder Bay-Winnipeg route is missing. Wonder if they're holding off on posting it until an announcement is made, or if they're still working on securing agents and stopping points in some communities and can't publish stop locations until they have been secured.

I think they may have forgotten to put the link in

But by changing the numbers I think I found it

http://www.ontarionorthland.ca/communications/schedules/new/SCHED684-685-09-06-20.pdf

I wonder whats next for Kaspers Transportation

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19 hours ago, Rapidbus said:

I think they may have forgotten to put the link in

But by changing the numbers I think I found it

http://www.ontarionorthland.ca/communications/schedules/new/SCHED684-685-09-06-20.pdf

I wonder whats next for Kaspers Transportation

It also looks like they are connecting in Prawda giving Fort Frances pretty much 6 day a week service to/from Winnipeg or Thunder Bay while only operating the Fort Frances portion 3 x week. Also same with Kenora/Dryden to Winnipeg or Thunder bay same thing giving them 6 x week service just by running that  corridor 3 x week. Very smart! Also looks like so far they have freight set up in Thunder Bay and Winnipeg...movin closer west!!

 

I cant see Kasper continuing alot of their service especially Fort Frances and White River. Best thing for them to do would strike an interline deal with Ontario Northland in some form to survive to maybe Longlac/Hearst. And maybe to Sioux lookout from Thunder Bay? 

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