Just some general questions here...

What model of public transit buses are in use in your city?
What is your favorite type of PT bus model?
What is the most/least useful route in your city?

In my current city:

-GM Classic and "Bendy Bus" articulated busses
-Orion 5 diesel, CNG.
-Orion 6 CNG low floor
-NewFlyer C-40-LF (newer models with yellow LED destination signs, other improvements and original models)
-NovaLFS

In my original birth city (Toronto) there is a whole plethora of busses. Ranging from GM Classics/New Looks to the newest Orion 7 CNG busses. Toronto has and has had ALOT of different kinds of busses.

My favourite bus in this city (Hamilton) is the NewFlyer C-40-LF... definetely. The newer ones mostly. They're very comfortable, the air conditioning works well, the lighting is bright and clear, and they are easy on the eyes.

My favourite bus of all I've ridden though, is definetely the Orion 7 in Toronto. I've only ridden it a couple of times, but from what I experienced, it was a HUGE improvement over the Orion 6. Lots of seats, nice enviornment, quiet, smells nice heh.

The most useful route in my city... well I'm not sure. I take the #2 Barton route downtown alot. I also used to take the #4 Bayfront bus to school in the morning, and I take it from downtown to home after exploring. The least useful for me is probably the #11 Parkdale bus... just because its schedule sucks.

Can I have a body massage now?

We have :

- GMC Newlooks (although there are a lot less on the streets, you will still see one on smaller routes once a while)
- GMC Classics
- MCI Classics (TC40-102N)
- MCI Classics (TC60-102N)
- NovaBus Classics
- NovaBus LFS
- Orion II (we have 4 of these but they are not in serveice. They were used for very short period of time and are now sitting in the garage broken; long story...).
- Thomas TL906
- Novabus RTS
- GMC RTS

We had some demos here and there. We had a NewFlyer DE40LF demo bus and a few pther ones I can't recall.

My favoirte bus, that's a hard one. I've had the chance to ride an Orion VII and I really liked it. As Supervisor said, a major improvement over the crap-box VI. I also like the NewLooks but there are less and less.

I use the 801 Metrobus a lot and the 133 to go to school and back home. I use the 801 to go at the mall, go downtown, or pretty much anywhere. One useless route is the 82 for the same reason as Supervisor. The schedule sucks real bad.

Being in Vancouver, we have these cool "trolley busses", that is they are New Flyer busses that are on electric motors, run from two overhead wires. They have "switch switches" to select the direction they want to go in, (if there is a fork in the line, these busses are for dedicated routes only). they have compressors on board, and have pnumatic suspension, so they rock back and forth when loaded heavy. the overhead wires make for a beautiful city to!!!! During riots you can climb up and walk above! It has been done!(just don't touch the "two"). (incidentally vancouver is one of the few north american cities to still run power lines in alley's above ground, with transformers on platforms between poles).
we also have articulated busses, and i hate them, because they are low floor and are hard to tow.( I just recently worked for a towing co., and yes, I choose to take transit, and not drive, vehicles are a hastle in a metro city!)
I am starting to ramble on......but a freight train in my city, can be quicker than transit!! I often take "alternate" forms of transit. ;) (some of you will get the "ramble on" joke)
Vancouver has the usual diesels that canadian cities use, and a few natural gas busses. There were also a few hydrogen fuel cell busses, built by the local Ballard fuel Systems, a leading fuel cell developer. I think they went to detroit, but why detroit? i thought they like big gas engines there????

I like the Classic New Flyer's and MCI as they have long benches that allow you to stretch your legs and not be confined to cramped seats.

York Region bought a bunch of Elf (don't know the manufacturer). Other cities have found them to be junk. They ride really rough and rattle alot being less than 3 years old. The only good thing about them is that they have the same cummins 5.9 L engine as the dodge diesel pickups.

The transit buses I like the most are the ones in the GM NewLook serie. My favorite coaches are Prevost H3-45 and the new Setra.

Also, I have a fetish about routes 2 (www.barraclou.com/photo/transit) across the world. It always seems to be the route where happens all the good and bad experiences.

In Ottawa, my favorite route is Transitway 95. In Montreal, I like 211 Lakeshore. The routes I dislike are mostly all the Sherbrooke's STS system. They have detours on all their routes rather than using a express and local routes systems with hub interchanges. So, you'll be at Carrefour de l'Estrie or Université de Sherbrooke and you want to go downtown. Bad idea, since you gotta go everywhere else before. Route 11 will make you passing via St.Esprit and St.Joseph parishes and industrial park before arriving downtown. Lots of bad things like there.

Edmonton Transit System (ETS) currently has GMC New Looks, BBC trolleys (basically electric fishbowls), New Flyer D40LF and D60LF, and Ford ELF buses.

Strathcona County Transit (SCT) has GMC New Looks, MCI Classics, New Flyer D40LF and D60LF, Prevost XL-II, and a few others.

St. Albert Transit (StAT) has New Flyer D40LF, D60, D60LF, GMC New Looks, MCI Classics, Orion II, and Dennis SLF232.

My fav bus is definitely an ETS New Flyer D40LF. Gotta have the extra wide doors that open by themselves. Plus metallic blue and silver is a great livery.

Most useful route? Probably the 9 (Northgate/Southgate), a major crosstown local. Most fun? Route 100 (Downtown/West Edmonton Mall-Super Express)...10 km with zero stops.

barraclou: i live along ETS route 2...=)

[edit: grammatical]

Boston's MBTA uses new low floor CNG buses I believe are produced by New Flyer, DE 40LFs I think. They just started using them, have yet to ride in one but I hear they are pretty cool. They also have some articulated buses and hybrid versions that use electricity underground in some new busway tunnels.
While I was growing up in the 80s and until the mid 90s the MBTA still had some old style GM "Fishbowls" that I believe were made by GM of Canada around 1980. They also started using the newer aero styled GMC RTS's in the mid 80s, then the TMC RTS buses (GM sold the tooling to that company) then the NovaBUS RTS (that company bought TMC I guess...)
I liked how the RTS buses offer a high seating position, but the window design was stupid and leaked all over me when it rained on the way to middle school, LOL. Kids used to always break the window latches off too for some reason. The MBTA beats on their buses too so the RTS experience for me was kinda ghetto as far as the upkeep was concerned. But since they are the type of bus I grew up with I probably like them the best.

Matt Trakker

Umm, for types of busses, OC has a lot. Off the top of my head, we have some GM Fishbowls, Orion V and VI, New Flyer D60LF/D40i, NovaBus LFS, MCI Classics, NovaBus Classics, and about three Bombardier Talent trains.

My favourite bus model would be the Novabus LFS (it looks cool xP) or good ol' Fishbowls.

Useless route..though one. I'd say rout e 164 is pretty useless.