New bus presented at centenary

The STM presented its new slow-charge electric bus, the New Flyer, Saturday at the open house at the Legendre garage. “Garage” doesn’t really do the place justice – it’s a sprawling facility that stretches for blocks, with specialized bays for anything you might need to do to keep a bus operational, and they’re constructing more buildings where the new electric vehicles will be maintained.

I don’t live far from the place so I dropped by during Saturday’s centenary open house. They had a bay of buses with the oldest being a restored New Look (which felt weirdly familiar, once I was aboard and sitting in my favourite seat, the last single, and realizing I probably had sat right in that spot, on that very bus, some time in the past) up to the New Flyer, a serious beast of a bus, 100% electric with slabs of battery pack on the roof. The interior of the new bus feels a little stark, with those hard plastic seats that are becoming universal, and far more room to stand than to sit. But it was nice to get a preview.

Update: Tweets point out (not to me, but generally) the bus manufacturer is New Flyer, but the model is the Xcelsior XE40.