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Well it is D-day, August 1st, and still no news from the TTC's website or the news media about who will be providing our new buses (http://ttc.ca/TTC_Business/Materials_and_procurement/Tender_Responses.jsp).

THAT SAID... on the contract awards page (http://ttc.ca/TTC_Business/Materials_and_procurement/Contract_Awards.jsp), the TTC did award contracts for bus suspension suppliers. While a number of companies will be providing vehicle suspension, New Flyer was awarded to supply nearly $600,000 worth of parts while Orion/Daimler was awarded less than $300,000. Considering that currently New Flyer only makes up a fraction of the fleet when compared with Orion, I think it is safe to say that New Flyer will be the next supplier.
 
Well it is D-day, August 1st, and still no news from the TTC's website or the news media about who will be providing our new buses (http://ttc.ca/TTC_Business/Materials_and_procurement/Tender_Responses.jsp).

THAT SAID... on the contract awards page (http://ttc.ca/TTC_Business/Materials_and_procurement/Contract_Awards.jsp), the TTC did award contracts for bus suspension suppliers. While a number of companies will be providing vehicle suspension, New Flyer was awarded to supply nearly $600,000 worth of parts while Orion/Daimler was awarded less than $300,000. Considering that currently New Flyer only makes up a fraction of the fleet when compared with Orion, I think it is safe to say that New Flyer will be the next supplier.
TTC has been ordering parts from NFI for other buses in the fleet for years now, and still hasn't ordered buses from NFI. I hope TTC goes with NFI, I perfer their buses than Nova. I don't want to sit in a seat were I'm sitting right in front of someone, so awakward and uncomfortable.
 
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That date was set when there was supposed to be a TTC meeting Jul 31. As it was moved to end of September presumably they can't award it until September 30.
I assume TTC knows what bus they are going for, just waiting for the meeting? Can we at least see the bid results?
 
I assume TTC knows what bus they are going for, just waiting for the meeting? Can we at least see the bid results?
Assuming that the TTC would need to meet to approve the purchase, they'd usually release the a week or so before the meeting. So last week of September. Assuming they do have a decision. Remember in the first attempt at the Streetcar purchase, they rejected all the bids, and had to start again.
 
I would like to take this time to remind everyone that this is the largest bus operator in the country does not use articulated buses. It is also worth noting that being the third largest bus operator in North America, this makes the TTC the largest bus operator on the continent which does not use articulated buses - and by a wide margin. Finally, the mandated area that the TTC covers continues to trend towards less snow than other Canadian cities, which also have lower ridership and articulated buses.

Every time you are stuck standing in an Orion bus purchased over the last decade, where you are so crowded in that you don't even know which part of the vehicle you are currently located, ask yourself why the hell hasn't this city bought any articulated vehicles in the last 10+ years!?
 
I would like to take this time to remind everyone that this is the largest bus operator in the country does not use articulated buses. It is also worth noting that being the third largest bus operator in North America, this makes the TTC the largest bus operator on the continent which does not use articulated buses - and by a wide margin. Finally, the mandated area that the TTC covers continues to trend towards less snow than other Canadian cities, which also have lower ridership and articulated buses.

Every time you are stuck standing in an Orion bus purchased over the last decade, where you are so crowded in that you don't even know which part of the vehicle you are currently located, ask yourself why the hell hasn't this city bought any articulated vehicles in the last 10+ years!?

I would just like to take this opportunity to note that OC Transpo's current bus fleet is comprised of nearly 36% articulated buses (359 articulated vs 639 standard + 3 double deckers).

99% of the time Transitway routes are running articulated buses (I've only seen a handful of 95X buses that were standard length buses), and now even busy non-Transitway routes, like the 118, are using articulated buses in order to handle regular spikes in demand. Specifically, the artics on the 118 correspond to the start and end of class times at Algonquin College, which sees a spike in ridership 5 mins before and/or 5 mins after the hour, depending on the time of day.
 
Zurich and Genvia have articulated both diesel and trolly buses. The diesel are standard artics while the trolleys are standard and tripple.

Nice France has diesel articulated also and way smaller in population compare to Toronto.
 
I would like to take this time to remind everyone that this is the largest bus operator in the country does not use articulated buses. It is also worth noting that being the third largest bus operator in North America, this makes the TTC the largest bus operator on the continent which does not use articulated buses - and by a wide margin.

1. The largest non-artic bus operator in North America is PACE.

2. TTC is the 5th largest transit bus operator in US/Canada.

3. How many of those artic-using bus operators have a higher cost recovery ratio than the TTC?

Every time you are stuck standing in an Orion bus purchased over the last decade, where you are so crowded in that you don't even know which part of the vehicle you are currently located, ask yourself why the hell hasn't this city bought any articulated vehicles in the last 10+ years!?

If that was true, then it might be because an articulated vehicle doesn't cost the same as a non-articulated vehicle? Isn't that obvious? The reason other agencies buy articulated vehicles isn't really to increase capacity (because artic costs around 50% more), it's to increase efficiency, and even that is debatable. The ability of articulated vehicles to increase efficiency and capacity is limited without an all-door boarding scheme. Why does Queen have POP? Think about that.

TTC did recently order a whole bunch of articulated vehicles recently to replace the existing light rail vehicles. So your claim that TTC has not ordered any articulated vehicles is actually not true at all.
 
TTC did recently order a whole bunch of articulated vehicles recently to replace the existing light rail vehicles. So your claim that TTC has not ordered any articulated vehicles is actually not true at all.
We are obviously talking about buses. He wrote 'Orion Buses' first in the same sentence, by the time he wrote 'articulated' it should have been obvious it was buses. And the cost recovery ratio has nothing to do with TTC not getting articulated BUSES. TTC didn't even connect the the two in why they chose not to or can't get articulated buses.

I notice TTC awarded other contracts on the same day, August 1st.
 
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I would just like to take this opportunity to note that OC Transpo's current bus fleet is comprised of nearly 36% articulated buses (359 articulated vs 639 standard + 3 double deckers).

99% of the time Transitway routes are running articulated buses (I've only seen a handful of 95X buses that were standard length buses), and now even busy non-Transitway routes, like the 118, are using articulated buses in order to handle regular spikes in demand. Specifically, the artics on the 118 correspond to the start and end of class times at Algonquin College, which sees a spike in ridership 5 mins before and/or 5 mins after the hour, depending on the time of day.

Though doesn't the 96 (Kanata/Stittsville-Hurdman) still use 12-metre buses?
 

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