Fairview Transit GEN2 900-999

Fairview Transit 900-999 are GEN2 1996 Orion V's (05.501). These buses were the only second generation high floor buses in the fleet. These buses were based off TTC's order for 1996 Orion Vs and hence have similar specifications.

Order
The Fairview Transit GEN2 1996 Orion Vs were built in November 2017 by isaacbeyo and NightlyBasis. The order was placed to increase the variety of buses available at Rory Division. They were originally assigned numbers 500-599, were delivered in the blue livery. The buses were equipped with fill-in destination signs, and BluCard fare machines.

Modifications
As part of the rebranding, the Orion Vs were renumbered as 900-999 or the 900 series. In the same timeframe, three more units (910, 911, 929) were delivered to Rory Division to meet higher demand.

Sometime in late 2017, unit 901 was damaged due to a collision and removed from service. Later, 901 was renumbered to 599 to act as a demonstration unit. It was rebuilt with an experimental seating arrangement, single stream rear doors and received LED destination displays.

Being the only high floor buses, the remaining Orion Vs were kept in their original state for as long as possible. 900-999 were the last buses to undergo rebuild; getting this work done between June and July 2018. They were part reduced, with BluCard and DS-C (Destination Sign-Coded) systems were installed. The buses were then repainted into the second generation blue/white/gold livery. However, test rebuilds did occur earlier on.

These buses remained as the only high floor models in FT's second generation surface fleet.

Deployment History
The Orion Vs were deployed solely to Rory Division and were mostly on routes 99 Senlac and 144 Royal Woods. They were also rarely dispatched onto the 26 Rory route.

Retirement
The first unit to be retired from this series was unit 901 after it was renumbered to 599. 599 was then retired and sold to NRTC in January 2018, due to its nonstandard interior and rear doors.

The remainder of the series was retired in August 2018, when Rory Division was closed due to the Filtering Enabled update. All the units (except 900) were scrapped in September 2018. 900 is being preserved and will likely be a part of the Fairview Transit Museum.

In December 2018, 900 made an appearance at YRT Division to test the feasibility of installing DS-C into the 3rd generation D40LFs there; however, it was not able to be driven.

Future
Orion V's are expected to be in the GEN4 fleet, where they are expected to be numbered as the 1500 and 1600 series with various engines and transmissions. This was only confirmed in a dev teaser and the model year is not yet known.

The legacy of 900-929 continues today with 1992 Orion V 8201, which wears the same livery, while a 4th generation variant was produced, numbered as the 8300 series with Fairview's current 4th generation livery.