Last GM Fishbowl in active service due to be retired this year

Woodstock Transit employee Ray Harrison stands beside the oldest member of Woodstock Transit's fleet, a 1976 GM Canada bus, which will soon be retired now that the city has purchased a new NOVA bus. (CODI WILSON, Sentinel-Review)

The oldest member of Woodstock Transit’s fleet has finally reached the end of the line.

The 1976 antique GM Canada bus will be official retired as soon as the city’s newly purchased Nova Bus vehicle is ready for service.

“These things were the backbone of the fleet for many, many years,” said Ray Harrison, lead hand for Woodstock Transit.

“You can’t kill them.”

Harrison said he has driven the antique bus a thousand times since he began working for Woodstock Transit 15 years ago.

“I’ll be sad to see it go,” he said.

Harrison said that the bus, which was made in London, Ont., hardly ever shows its age and has been great to drive over the years.

“You get great vision all the way around,” he said.

“They go like mad. When they are in good physical shape, they can keep up to any traffic. You don’t have to worry about the bus crawling in front of you.”

The bus has also been a crowd-favourite with transit-goers, he said.

“These are way more comfortable. The seats on the new buses are really hard. These are well-padded and it is not a bumpy ride.”

Although the old bus is not used in regular service, over the past month, the antique GM has had a bit of a last hurrah after some minor problems occurred with some of the newer members of the fleet.

“It always runs,” Harrison said.

“These things are just kind of indestructible.”

City of Woodstock engineer Harold de Haan said over the years, the bus has developed a bit of a following.

“We do have some fan groups that kind of come every so often to take a look at it,” he said.

The bus, which was purchased new and has been rebuilt twice, is still in good working order but de Haan said it is not financially feasible to keep it in the fleet.

“It is fairly expensive to keep a piece of equipment up and running legally that is not going to be used on a regular basis,” he said.

“It still has to be serviced and safetied and everything on a regular basis so if you aren’t using it… you really can’t make an economic argument for it.”

The new Nova bus, which cost the city approximately $460,000, still needs a few additions before it will be ready to roll.

“The newer buses, the advantage, in addition to them being new, is they are fully accessible to all the current regulations and guidelines and today’s standards,” de Haan said.

“A few years ago we had the oldest fleet in the province pretty much so the city has been working hard the last decade to update the fleet and is slowly buying newer buses and getting rid of older ones.”

The city is looking into the possibility of donating the antique bus to a transit museum in Hamilton.

“That would be a good place for this old girl,” Harrison said.