The Database

 

This website is a resource for the study of bus and coach based transit in British Columbia --both privately and publicly owned. At one time I considered including units from the entire continent, and imported some records from rosters available on the ‘net. I have since changed my mind –such scope will have to wait until I have a lot more time, although I welcome offers of help.

BC Transit calls the number which identifies a coach, the unit number. I use the same terminology. Coaches are identified by the VIN or Serial number. When a serial number is used, the model number precedes it, giving a unique number for indexing purposes.

Builders

Manufacturers are known by their initials where they are more familiar, (i.e. M.C.I. rather than Motor Coach Industries). Note that there are no spaces within M.C.I. General Motors vehicles are collectively identified as G.M.C. (rather than G.M. or G.M.D.D.). A builder is identified by the name at the time of manufacture. For example Flyer buses could be W.F.C., Flyer, or N.F.I. depending on date of build. The structure of the database is biased towards North American practice in that a vehicle is viewed as complete unit (type ‘A’). This conflicts with European practice where the body may be made by a different company. This is becoming more of a problem with larger numbers of UK bus models imported, and with American van (type ‘C’) conversions. Generally, a bus is identified by the manufacturer of the chassis, the body manufacturer is listed in the 'NOTES' section.

Model Designations

Often a manufacturer will give a coach both a name and an alpha/number identifier (for example, Prevost). In the database, the number is almost always used. One notable exception are M.C.I. Courier models: they are listed under Courier, and not RE85. There may be other cases. All hyphens spaces, and strokes (i.e. P-41 or IC37/41) are removed for the purposes of the database. However, periods remain (i.e. 01.502). The serial field will contain the official model designation.

BC Transit and Translink vehicles

Location and UPF (Unified Provincial Fleet) number are given for these vehicles. Some licence plate numbers are listed --I have stopped tracking these, but if information is available, it will be entered into the database.

Vehicle Status

Active	In service, licenced for use
Stored	Unlicenced
Retired	Scrapped
Demo	Demonstration vehicle
Historical	Historical fleet, owned by BC Transit and/or TRAMS.
Service	vehicle (only ex-buses)
Undelivered	Vehicle ordered, but not delivered.
Leased	Leased Vehicle
Sold	Sold for further service
Parts	Vehicle purchased for parts

 

Location

Translink uses a prefix to show home operating base.

V  Vancouver (ex Oakridge, 3000)

B  Burnaby  (ex 5000)

N  North Vancouver (Closed 2016)  (ex 4000)

H  Hamilton  

S  Surrey (ex 7000)

P  Port Coquitlam (ex 9000)

R  Richmond

This is shown as a prefix to the unit number in certain pages, and the operating base of the vehicle is shown in the location column.

Here is an explanation of the Victoria numbering system provided by Les Broughton.

VIN/Serial

If a VIN is unknown, I've used the unit number, or "unknown" to provide a unique  key. You'll easy recognise this in the rosters since all true serial numbers contain a VIN or at least the model number.

Notes

Over the years, a certain amount of redundancy has crept into the database. In the notes column are recorded events such as engine changes, accidents etc. Also here are events that happened to a whole class of vehicle. With hypertext links it is possible to move these general occurrences outside the database. I'm starting to do this. After reading the note, press "back" to return to the roster.

PS

This roster is a work in progress. It is incomplete and doubtless contains quite a few errors. Any help to correct this would be appreciated!