Tag: Doors Open Ottawa

Doors Open Ottawa 2012-Part II

by barbstruestories, posted in Interesting things..who would have known?

Ottawa Carleton (OC) Transpo-The  Maintenance Garage-Part II

Who cares?

While I spend little time thinking about or noticing automobiles or knowing statistics about vehicles, (I mix up the various symbols on the back of cars-thinking a Mazda logo is a Mercedes and so on.) bus statistics are pretty interesting.  During our recent visit to the OC Transpo site as part of Doors Open Ottawa , we boarded a modern articulated (bend in the middle) bus  and traveled around and through the “state of the art” maintenance garage and the bus wash.  The bus wash is just like an automated car wash-only much bigger.  The garage looked pretty impressive.  They are proud of it, for sure.

If someone does care:

  • Ottawa has a population of 900,000. 
  • The budget for OC Transpo is approximately $4M annually
  • OC Transpo is now running a number of hybrid buses
  • If all the OC Transpo buses were put end to end, they would stretch for 8 km.
  • An articulated bus (bend in the middle) costs approximately $750,000 to purchase
  • That same bus (as above) weighs 19,000 kg.
  • Each bus puts on approximately 60,000 km/year
  • Gas tank-450 L
  • Fueling up at the garage-when the nozzle is put into the gas tank, the flow rate is somewhere close 450L/min.  You could fill up your car in seconds.  At that rate  I could spend more time memorizing car logos then.
And a final vintage bus picture to end the true story.

Doors Open Ottawa 2012-Part 1

by barbstruestories, posted in Interesting things..who would have known?

Ottawa hosts “Doors Open Ottawa” every year as part of the Doors Open Ontario event.  We’ve gone to Doors Open Ottawa every time we could since moving here.  It can be very interesting to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes or to see places where you normally cannot gain access.

There are over 100 buildings/sites to choose from in Ottawa.  At best you might get to 4-6 per day sites if you started very first thing and stayed with it to closing time and the line ups weren’t too great.  I think that would be a bit much.  We usually make it to 2 or 3 locations at most in one day.

We spent a good length of time at one of the new locations this year:

Ottawa Carleton (OC) Transpo, Vintage Buses and the  Maintenance Garage-Part I

From the brochure:  “OC Transpo opened this maintenance garage, the first of its kind in over 30 years, in September 2010. This is one of the most modern bus garages in North America, measuring 480 ft. by 430 ft. It is the first transit garage in North America that is LEED Silver Rated Certified (Environmental) and equipped with latest technology in wireless controlled hydraulic hoist. On display: OC Transpo’s bus evolution – the oldest in our fleet to the newest articulated bus and the double-decker bus.”

OC Transpo Maintenance Garage

Buses From Days Gone By

Walking around the vintage buses made me want to go back in time and ride them in the day. How were the people dressed?  And what did they do on the bus?  No iPods or cellphones or e-readers.  They were likely reading newspapers and Harlequin romances and smoking cigarettes.  Where were you (if you were anywhere) in 1950 and/or 1958?

Model 337 (1950) and model 5931 (1958)