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End of an era - last New Look buses retired in Toronto

 
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:57 am    Post subject: End of an era - last New Look buses retired in Toronto Reply with quote

Toronto Transit Commission - All 170 TTC bus routes now accessible

All 170 TTC bus routes now accessible
December 20, 2011

The TTC is pleased to announce that as of yesterday, Monday, December 19, with the retirement of the TTC’s last old, non-accessible buses, the entire TTC bus network is now fully accessible.

All 170 bus routes are now wheelchair and scooter friendly. The TTC’s last few remaining GM “New Look” non-accessible buses – a model that dates back to the 1950s – made their final scheduled run on the 52 Lawrence West route on December 16. They have now been replaced by accessible Orion VII low-floor buses.

The TTC introduced its first accessible 12-metre buses in 1996. Today, the TTC operates a fleet of close to 1,800 accessible buses.

Accessible buses can be identified by blue lights on either side of the front destination sign, and the blue international wheelchair symbol displayed above the front right bumper next to the entrance door. All fully accessible buses include two wheelchair/scooter positions.

With this change, the 52 Lawrence West and 352 Lawrence West Blue Night routes also became bike-rack-equipped, making the entire TTC 12-metre bus fleet bike-racked-equipped. All new TTC buses come equipped with bike racks, which can carry two bicycles at a time.
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RailBus63
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The survival of the TTC New Look buses until 2011 was a by-product of the system’s financial difficulties in the late 1990’s. Money was scarce to buy new buses at that time so the Commission decided to rebuild several hundred of its New Look and Classic buses for continued service. The TTC would rectify this situation eventually and go on to purchase hundreds of Orion VII buses, and while some of the Fishbowls soldiered on even as Orion and New Flyer buses from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s were retired it was only a matter of time before they too would be sidelined for good.

For me, the survival of these buses from my youth provided a priceless opportunity to share a few rides and busfanning experiences with my teenage son who was just a baby when the New Looks disappeared from the streets of most U.S. cities. A family vacation to Ottawa and Toronto in July 2006 gave the two of us an opportunity to catch the last OC Transpo Fishbowls in rush-hour service before they would be retired less than a year later. The highlight of that day was riding a New Look bus from one end of the city to the other, including a high-speed run down the city’s famed Transitway. When we got to Toronto a few days later, we spent a day railfanning and busfanning around the city. The TTC still had a couple of hundred New Looks and Classics running around and we had no problem photographing many of them and catching a few rides. It was a great opportunity for a young busfan like him to ride a vehicle from the past and he even took the opportunity earlier this year to make a solo trip on his own to the city to get in a few more last rides. For me, it was like traveling back in time and one of the best days I’ve ever had transitfanning.

I’ve attached a photo from that day – TTC New Look #2289 leading a sister bus out of the busy Finch station busway on an afternoon run on the 125-Drewry route.

R.I.P. Toronto Transit Commission General Motors New Look buses, 1959-2011. It was a heck of a run.

Jim D.

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