No more blue buses as transit fleet in Mississauga goes all orange

MiWay is returning to its roots, and its roots are all orange.

Starting today, Mississauga’s public transit provider is phasing out its 100 or so blue-coloured buses among the fleet’s 500 vehicles (see video below).

The plan, come 18 months from now, is to have only orange buses on the roads of Canada’s seventh-largest city delivering MiWay’s growing number of passengers to their destinations.

So, over the next year-and-a-half, MiWay will be both re-painting and replacing its buses in the move to go all orange.

Officials say the blue buses will be retired as fast as possible while “the number of new, orange hybrid-electric buses that provide daily service” will be expanded.

With ridership not only back to pre-pandemic levels, but at an all-time high, MiWay officials say the time is right to go back to their beginnings.

The colour orange has been included on buses since the municipal operation of Mississauga Transit began almost 50 years ago in November 1973, the City of Mississauga says.

While MiWay’s stretch buses don’t date back to the first days of Mississauga Transit some 50 years ago, the orange colour of the vehicles does. (Photo: City of Mississauga)

MiWay officials say that during the transition, both blue and orange buses will provide service on both local and express routes until the last blue bus has been removed from service.

Officials say streamlining the look of the bus fleet will:

• deliver a more consistent customer experience “as we prepare for future growth and integrate new technologies into our bus fleet, such as battery-electric buses”
• help MiWay respond with more flexibility to changes in customer demand and operational circumstances across the transit network
• help MiWay prepare to integrate the network with future transit services such as the Hazel McCallion Line (light-rail transit route to open in late 2024 between Mississauga and Brampton)

MiWay will pay $85.2 million to add 82 60-foot hybrid-electric vehicles to its fleet starting next spring. They’ll replace 40-foot diesel-powered buses in the fleet.