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Last bus to service the downtown Ottawa bus station is next Monday May 31st. Ontario Northland 806/807 Ottawa to North Bay will depart 1030, and arrive 2305 later that night. 

ONR will move to VIA Rail as their new Ottawa stops. Along with stops at the General and CHEO Hospital's and Kanata Town Centre... 

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On 5/26/2021 at 12:34 PM, OCtranspo10 said:

Last bus to service the downtown Ottawa bus station is next Monday May 31st. Ontario Northland 806/807 Ottawa to North Bay will depart 1030, and arrive 2305 later that night. 

That would be 15:25 arrival in North Bay and not 23:05.

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Well today's the last day for service at the Central Bus Terminal. Opened in 1973 closed May 31 2021.

48 years of service. Had faun memories of that terminal. From the Voyageur to Greyhound. Remember taking the EXPO Specials from there, trips to Montreal & Toronto. It's going to be missed. Wasn't the nicest looking building, but served it's purpose.

I'm guessing the res behind the Terminal on Argil Street won't mind seeing it go, no more bus fumes or bus noise.

 

RIP Central Bus Terminal, you served us well.

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Seems quite counterintuitive for Megabus to add Terry Fox Station. After all, their buses would travel from St-Laurent to Terry Fox, then backtrack on the 417 to the 416 to head to Kingston, adding quite a bit of distance. Unless they want to add service on Highway 7 west of Kanata, which seems unlikely.

It would have made more sense for them to add a stop in Barrhaven, which is on the way from Ottawa to Kingston. Otherwise, people in the south of Ottawa that need to travel to Toronto would take Via Rail from Fallowfield or Air Canada from the airport, which for them these locations are closer.

terry fox station.png

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2 hours ago, anyfong said:

Seems quite counterintuitive for Megabus to add Terry Fox Station. After all, their buses would travel from St-Laurent to Terry Fox, then backtrack on the 417 to the 416 to head to Kingston, adding quite a bit of distance. Unless they want to add service on Highway 7 west of Kanata, which seems unlikely.

It would have made more sense for them to add a stop in Barrhaven, which is on the way from Ottawa to Kingston. Otherwise, people in the south of Ottawa that need to travel to Toronto would take Via Rail from Fallowfield or Air Canada from the airport, which for them these locations are closer.

terry fox station.png

Greyhound had a stop at Fallowfield Stn at one point (the flag is still there ftw) They later discontinued it as not many people were boarding/alighting at the stn. It's also a bit out of the way place to get to from the highway.
771430999_ScreenShot2021-06-04at13_04_38.thumb.png.459d2abb5ca9fb91a2843267e8740f2a.png


As for the Hwy 7 service. I can see Coach Canada/MegaBus offering a local service as there are people who do travel via Hwy 7 between Ottawa-Peterboro-Toronto. 
 

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From my understanding it appears Mega will most likely take over Greyhound routes out of Ottawa heading towards Toronto. I'm guessing both Express & local as when Greyhound had it was always packed going down Highway 7. Not sure how many got off in Peterborough though. It appear ONT will cash in on Greyhounds former routes going up the Ottawa Valley towards Pembrooke.

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19 hours ago, anyfong said:

Seems quite counterintuitive for Megabus to add Terry Fox Station. After all, their buses would travel from St-Laurent to Terry Fox, then backtrack on the 417 to the 416 to head to Kingston, adding quite a bit of distance. Unless they want to add service on Highway 7 west of Kanata, which seems unlikely.

It would have made more sense for them to add a stop in Barrhaven, which is on the way from Ottawa to Kingston. Otherwise, people in the south of Ottawa that need to travel to Toronto would take Via Rail from Fallowfield or Air Canada from the airport, which for them these locations are closer.

I imagine that's why Megabus's initial plans to service Terry Fox have been shelved for the time being. Kanata actually makes the most sense for intercity bus service, since it has the easiest highway access, especially if the long term plan is to take over Highway 7 services. Also, like you mentioned, Barrhaven has Via Rail service and relatively easy access to the airport.

50 minutes ago, Loud-Invero said:

June 2021 system maps are now being installed at bus stops.

Including one for Chapel Hill Park and Ride...at St-Laurent Station A!

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With those numbers I think it’s safe to say that the 2019-20 Novas probably won’t live out their full potential lifespan in Ottawa. Or at the very least they definitely won’t have their lifespan extended like the rebuilt Inveros etc.

Seems like the first influx of electric will be 40ft.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7927665/ottawa-electric-bus-fleet-environment/

Also a pretty big 180 for Ottawa… going from saying now wasn’t the time for electric a couple years ago (and doing a big 40ft diesel fleet renewal), to deciding on a 2 bus pilot, then expanding it to a 4 bus pilot, and now to announcing the entire fleet replacement (before the “pilot” even started).

I guess the pilot isn’t a pilot anymore, just a first batch now.

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3 minutes ago, OCCheetos said:

It's at least a chance to see if New Flyer's model is worth buying more of, or if they have to go back to the procurement process for more.

True… also if they make the big order different it wouldn’t be the first time they get one model for a test (GM Artics) but then end up buying something totally different (Ikarus). 
 

It probably wouldn’t even be a choice… if the new order is a separate contract it would have a separate tender process that someone else could win even if the city is happy with New Flyer.

Also I noticed in the article that apparently officials mentioned Nova, New Flyer and Lion as Canadian made options… am I missing something? Lion as far as I know hasn’t entered transit.

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It’s very possible it could go through the TPI come 2023 and be awarded to Nova as they do offer a long range LFSe+ Offering 340 to 470km on a garage charge. They’re becoming a very viable option 
 

I personally believe they’re rushing this slightly. Always trying to be a leader in transit isn’t necessarily a good thing, we should of stuck with hybrid electrics going back to 2018-2019 and kept on with this pilot and then made a decision on where to move forward post 2025

the choice to do straight diesel for the 2018 lfs order didn’t make much sense in my opinion when they were proven to be much more successful vs older Orion 7 hybrids with the BAE drive or even the Allison H40

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/6/2021 at 3:06 PM, GTAmissions1 said:

John Manconi, General Manager of OC Transpo is retiring at the end of September. After almost 10 years taking over in February 2012 from Alain Mercier. 

I will admit he definitely has handled himself very well through major changes such as Confederation Line, trying to improve customer and employee relations along with being more transparent in how the organization operates. Especially having to deal with the challenges such as the 2011 service optimization leading to merging routes and eliminating service to save money over the long-term.

It will be a few months before a replacement is found to be the new OC Transpo general manager. Not an easy job especially with the kind of work involved. 

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/john-manconi-the-face-of-public-transit-in-ottawa-is-retiring-in-september

I purposely waited until now to post this.

Following the announcement of John Manconi's retirement, the City used an external agency to do the job position of General Manager of Transit Services instead of doing the posting on ottawa.ca Job's Section (which I believe is normal whenever the City looking to hire somebody to fill a Senior Management position).

Actual Job Posting (done via an external agency Odgers Berndtson): https://www.odgersberndtson.com/en-ca/opportunities#AssignDetail.aspx?guid=17240
The above job positing link was obtained from CUTA's web site: https://cutaactu.ca/job-general-manager-transit-services/

The due date was last Friday, July 2. 

I am requesting that anyone who is reading this post to NOT re-share the above links elsewhere, particularly with the Ottawa Transit Rider's Association and Horizon Ottawa due to their attempt to influence the hiring process (which is not how the hiring process works):
https://twitter.com/OttTransitRider/status/1404455761120567297
https://twitter.com/HorizonOttawa/status/1404468306912894982

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It's too bad he's leaving. He was our "Big Boss" Head of the department I work for, before he moved over to OC. He's really a great individual to work for. I just hope who ever the city finds to replace him is a great individual as he was an not afraid to go after RTG/RTM like he did.

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6 hours ago, MCIBUS said:

I just hope who ever the city finds to replace him is a great individual as he was an not afraid to go after RTG/RTM like he did.

I hope the new GM isn't afraid to stand up to the #WatsonClub transit cuts that we've suffered for the last 10 years, which speaking of, the anniversary is this September 4th.

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