Fun fact.

"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada) 07/11/2017 at 16:38 • Filed to: None

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A massive amount of buses in most North American cities are Canadian, as New Flyer, a company based in Winnipeg, dominates the bus market in a large number of North American cities.

“But my city uses Novabuses!”. Those are Canadian too, Novabus is based in Montreal.

When it comes to coaches, Canadians basically have a monopoly in North America. There’s two big coach makers, MCI, which is owned by the aforementioned New Flyer, and Prevost Car, founded in Quebec (although Prevost is owned by Volvo these days).

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/11/2017 at 16:51

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sshhhh, don’t tell Donald Trump. He’ll start running around talking about this yuuge unfair trade deficit in busses.

You go to Manhattan, and you see everyone getting around in New Flyers. But in Canada -why don’t they use Gillig?!

Also don’t tell him - San Francisco’s Muni underground metro cars are made by Breda and designed by Pininfarina (no wonder they break down so often!). Those damn coastal elites wasting taxpayer money!

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/11/2017 at 16:54

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is that why most busses are the size of Dustin Byfuglien?

...sorry, hockey joke (not really sorry)

Editors Note: yes i know Byfuglien is american but hes a big sum’ bitch and plays for the jets so the joke still works

OPPOsaurus WRX > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 07/11/2017 at 16:59

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i think Boston’s Green lien is also a Pininfathingy

Aremmes > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/11/2017 at 17:07

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Heh. Philly’s SEPTA is in the process of renewing its bus fleet to Novabuses, although it’ll be many years before they replace the New Flyers. The first ones to be replaced were articulated Neoplans — that’s a German company.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/11/2017 at 18:49

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And if they have an OBI/Orion bus, that was based in Mississauga, Ontario.

It was bought by Daimler in 2000 though and was made part of Daimler bus.

Though they stopped taking orders in 2012 and the operation was shut down in 2013. New Flyer bought the Orion aftermarket business.

One of the most interesting, and terrible, buses they made was the Orion-Ikarus 286 bus:

When the TTC started using them, they were easily the fastest buses.

Up to that point, many TTC bus drivers were used to the slow-assed, non-turbo GM buses. So when they got into one of these Ikarus 286es (which had a turbocharged Detroit Diesel 6L71TA ), they would still floor the throttle out of habit and you had to hang on for dear life if you couldn’t get a seat... something I actually enjoyed.

I also recall a year or two after they went into service, the TTC did a few things to dial back the performance... probably because of some TTC riders complaining about having to hang on for dear life.. LOL

Note as well that the engine on these was placed between the front and middle wheels... yep... it was a mid-engine bus.

That meant that the front was much noisier. The quietest (and usually least crowded) spot was at the very back.

The problems with these was that the Hungarian-made (the ‘Ikarus’ part) bodies were shit and didn’t hold up to Toronto winters and the road salt that went with it. The TTC retired them something like~12 years after going into service compared to the 20-30 year lifespan of the old GM buses.

Here is more info on them:

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/bus/8505.shtml  

But the Orion buses that would still be in use would likely be the Orion VII bus:

not for canada - australian in disguise > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 07/11/2017 at 21:24

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My city only ever had 2 Orion buses, both VII hybrids. I believe they’re all gone now. Weird looking buses.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/12/2017 at 10:57

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The Orion VII was a little weird... but it was a sensible improvement over the previous model and offered the benefits of a low floor, without the service/maintenance/seating downsides.

The Orion VI buses were actually more weird...

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/bus/8521.shtml

Look closely and note the rear exit door is behind the rear wheels.

Also note the picture and how it looks at the very back where the engine is.

The engine on these were installed off to the rear driver’s side corner... and I think the engines were mounted transversely.

And these buses started as CNG buses, but were later converted to diesel... no engine swap... they just made changes to the CNG engines so they could use diesel. I personally rode in these when they were CNG and diesel.

When CNG, they were quieter and smoother than any other bus at the time. They had weak low end torque until the turbo spooled up. They would also stall occasionally.

I spoke to one driver and he told he he loved driving them... partly due to the power, partly due to them having better suspensions.

After they were converted to diesel, I found them to be rough and noisy compared to how they were on CNG... and they were rougher and noisier than the diesels on other buses, except for the really REALLY old Western Flyer buses: