TTC takes bendy buses off the road
The TTC has temporarily taken all of its bendy buses off the road due to issues with “unexpected acceleration.”
The elongated, accordion-like vehicles account for only 153 of the TTC’s 1,900-bus fleet and are used on just six routes: 7 Bathurst, 29 Dufferin, 36 Finch West, 85 Sheppard East, 53 Steeles Express and 41Keele.
But TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said all bus passengers should be prepared for their Friday morning commute to take longer than usual, as buses are pulled from other routes to shore up the gaps.
“We might be two or three buses short on a route,” Ross told the Star. “We’re going to try to spread the pain out as much as possible so it’s minimal across the city.”
In a press release Thursday evening, Ross said the decision to ground their fleet of 18-metre buses was made after one of the vehicles “experienced a full throttle” during routine maintenance.
Another bendy bus — also called articulated buses — went into unexpected acceleration while being driven back to the garage, Ross said. No passengers were on board at the time.
The manufacturer of the buses, a Canadian subsidiary of Volvo Buses called Nova, was been notified and has come up with a solution to the problem, Ross said in the release.
The fix, however, takes about 20 minutes to implement on each bus and, as such, the fleet will not be back to full capacity until at least Friday afternoon, Ross added.