BusTalk

timecruncher · Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 2:39 pm Post subject: Vancouver MBS Convention

The Motor Bus Society got together in Vancouver, BC a few weeks ago for three days of rain, buses, rain, boats, buses, rain, bunnies, rain and a few more buses (in that order).

Incredible city, Vancouver. Transit-friendly to the extreme, the largest trackless trolley operation on the continent, and with the exception of the general dampness of the climate and the cost of habitation, is probably one of the nicest places on the planet to live.

I cashed in some free travel points on my credit card and (to my ultimate regret) ended up enduring two desperately miserable flights on United Airlines jets in order to attend the event.

Arriving in Seattle, I used Sounder's new light rail line to downtown, walking the one block over to King Street Station. Can't accuse Seattle of not being transit-friendly either. Out on the main drag in front of the station was a constant stream of buses. Note the windshield signs:

My Ambus showed up a bit tardy thanks to US Customs holding everyone up for a few hours coming south on its previous trip. This is a Prevost model rarely seen around here, but was set up like any other linehaul bus inside:

Alas, if I waited for the northbound train, I'd have to wait a few more hours and arrive in Vancouver well after 10:00pm, so I hopped the Ambus at 1:00pm. It showed up at 1:40pm due to delays coming south at Customs.

As usual, the MBS put together a great weekend. We headed over to the ferry to ride over to Vancouver Island and Victoria on Friday. We were met by one of BC Transit's Dennis double decker coaches - a new prototype with the Allison-Cummins Hybrid Drive. Nice bus, but I am not a fan of this design. I'd rather have an articulated bus. More seats and no steps!

Did I say bunnies? We ventured to the transit center at Victoria University and found that the campus is overrun with - bunnies!

Seems someone dropped off a couple of pet rabbits, and according to our driver, wabbits are not indigeneous to Vancouver Island. There are no natural predators (other than someone's Labrador Retriever who might venture over on a walk). The rabbits do not seem to take notice of humans at all. We had photo lines all over the place and the rabbits kept up doing what they do best, (reproducing) keeping the grass trimmed!

Saturday, the first place we visited was the Vancouver Transit Centre (note the spelling), a huge trackless facility:

There are non trackless vehicles in the fleet, of course. The older stuff are mostly New Flyer products, and the newer stuff is mostly Nova LFS.

More to come...

timecruncher

Hart Bus · Age: 74 Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 1150

Excellent Work timecruncher. Great to see a glass-top fishbowl in the yard. Wonder if it was one of the Greyhounds at the 1964 Worlds Fair due to its fleet #.

timecruncher · Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 2:39 pm Post subject:

The glasstop GM new look was one of the buses we traveled on both Friday and Saturday. It was a suburban that had been used in tour service at some time, I believe it was ex-Juneau, AK. It ran beautifully, even had the overdrive feature on the VS tranny and it worked flawlessly. The MC9 was also in our group. Both are owned by a Coast Mountain Bus Company driver who does charter work on the side of driving a city bus.

timecruncher