My thanks to David Lam for providing
the following report and photographs on a batch of three Enviro500s currently
operating for OC Transpo in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada.
'Just a little brief introduction to this
handful of Enviro 500s, numbered 1201-1203. As an initiative to study the
feasibility of operating double decker buses in Ottawa, OC Transpo purchased
3 Enviro 500s from ADL in UK, which has been previously announced that
this program will be conducted over the span of 2 years. (These buses were
delivered in November 2008, deployed into revenue service in March 2009
due to a lengthy transit strike) Theoretically, these 3 buses should be
withdrawn from revenue service by March 2011 at the latest..........however,
the question then becomes: "what will happen to these buses?" At the moment,
GO Transit in Toronto, Ontario and BC Transit located in the province of
BC out on the west coast are the only transit agencies operating double
decker buses on a regular basis in Canada. GO Transit operates suburban-configurations
Enviro500s, which makes it rather unlikely to purchase urban-configurations
double deckers for their services, therefore leaving BC Transit as the
only potential candidate. United States is extremely unlikely, due to the
fact that these 3 buses were constructed and assembled in UK, therefore
failing to conform with the Buy America Act, a requirement enforced by
FTA (Federal Transit Authority) for all American transit agencies to purchase
equipment manufactured under the following two conditions:
1.) 60% of all materials must be produced
in the USA
2.) Final assembly must take place in
USA
If these conditions have not been met,
American transit agencies will not receive federal fundings for their purchases.
OC Transpo's original intention was to
replace their existing fleet of articulated buses that are plagued by mechanical
defects and maintenance issues, with potentially the largest fleet of double
deckers in North America. However, several factors kicked in to prevent
this from happening:
1.) Ottawa's transit system is very unique,
as the framework of transit operations is based on a comprehensive network
of busway system ("The Transitway") with platform-style stations throughout
the entire network, serving all major parts of the city. Due to the amount
of infrastructures and overpasses that have been built over the course
of the past 30 years, a lot of time and resources will be needed to modify
the entire busway system to allow double deckers from serving all the major
and busiest bus routes currently served by articulated buses. The paradox
exists on the fact that OC Transpo has always wanted to gradually convert
the current busway system into a light-rail system! If that is what they
ultimately intend to do, then why bother with converting the entire busway
for double deckers after all?
2.) Ottawa built a new bus garage to accommodate
with the double deckers. This might sound rather inane and silly...........everything
was perfectly designed about this future double decker bus garage, with
one exception: the front door is a bit too short for a double decker to
go through! This is definitely not an unfortunate coincidence, as rumour
suggest that there is a group of "anti-double-decker" advocates working
for OC Transpo!
3.) New Flyer, a Canadian transit bus
manufacturer, offered an irresistible deal to OC Transpo: They offered
a trade-in program for the existing fleet of articulated buses that are
falling apart. 20% discount on the first order consisted of 226 articulated
buses, and 15% discount on the second order consisted of 60 articulated
buses! OC Transpo signed the deal right away, and delivery commenced last
month.
Therefore, I can say with almost certainty
that OC Transpo will not be purchasing any double deckers in the near future.
As for the fate of these three double deckers, either they will end up
with BC Transit, an unsuspected agency in Canada, or perhaps sold back
to ADL as demonstrators, as these are the only units with windows that
can be opened, and traditional American transit seats in North America!
David Lam
September 2010 |