FLICKR: Bus Line-Ups on McKenzie King Bridge, 2009

[dewline]

Until the O-Train Confederation Line was built, this was normal commuter traffic as you'd see passing back and forth during rush hour on the McKenzie King Bridge. Nowadays, that particular bridge is much quieter. Less travelled.

Comments

[cmcmck]

It's sort of a tram on wheels.

[basefinder]

Is that a train or a lot of buses? Or a bus/train hybrid?

[armiphlage]

Hybrid electric low-floor buses, usually with a single articulation. Surprisingly maneuverable.

It's not an accident that it looks like a tram station. The plan is to implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on dedicated road lanes with different-coloured pavement, equipped with spacious platforms. Once ridership justifies it, rails will be laid, and routes will be converted to Light Rail Transit (LRT).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/160770204@N05/49489251741/in/album-72157712974376732/


The ones in my region of Ontario (the blue-coloured VIVA ones in this video) have secure tieddown space for three wheelchairs - just unlatch a row of seats and flip it up against the wall to make room. An automated ramp makes it easy to wheel in the front door, even with rough curbs. The bus also "kneels" when stopped, bringing the doors closer to ground level. The ones in my region also have a flip-down rack on the front that holds up to two bicycles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIxCIkc-nio

[armiphlage]

Riding them is more like riding one of the new electric streetcars than riding a traditional bus.

[dewline]

You've pretty much nailed down the ideas in play here.

If you want a sense of what it was like to ride the Transitway east-west in the days before the Confederation Line...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3BdvjQdKe4

There were two real chokepoints in the old set-up: McKenzie King Bridge at the east - per the photos above, which is bracketed by the Rideau Centre to the north and National Defence HQ to the south - and Lebreton Station-as-was, now Pimisi Station at the western end of what I now call the Albert-Slater corridor, near the War Museum. Mess up at either of those, and you could screw up transit traffic all the way out to Kanata and Orléans.

[dewline]

I have yet to try those streetcars. One of these years, I have to re-visit Toronto.

[basefinder]

Very cool.

[almsfortheinsane]

We don't have a subway here in Newmarket, we are too small... but Toronto has a shit ton of tunnels. :/