'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deployed into revenue service in March 2009 due to a lengthy transit strike) Theoretically, these 3 buses should be withdrawn from revenue service by March 2011 at the latest..........however, the question then becomes: "what will happen to these buses?"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