Goodbye, Deuce of Ottawa

When the Confederation Line opens in 2017, the existing Trillium Line will become OC Transpo’s number two line. And given the history of the number two bus, those are big shoes to fill.

OC Transpo route two has been running for decades and, over the generations, ingrained itself into the nostalgia of old Ottawa and the memories of its regular riders.

It’s not clear when the route began, although it certainly goes back far. Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo’s director of transit customer systems and planning, tweeted that the number may have been designated as early as the ’50s.

https://twitter.com/ps_oc/status/855916490016657409

Here’s a photo of the bus in 1974:

It will become the number 11 on Sunday along with several other buses getting new numbers. To mark its end, artist Andrew King boarded the bus on its last day on Saturday and gave away t-shirts that say “I lived through the number 2.” He also drew a picture of the bus and sold it for $100, which he donated to the Parkdale Food Centre. The Deuce