Tag Archives: Orion V

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2026

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Orion V 5711

Location: Wisconsin Avenue at Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Montgomery County Division of Transit Services (Ride On)
Date of Photo: August 1, 2016

In keeping with the “2026 is the new 2016” theme, I am also featuring another photo from 2016 for the Bus Photo of the Month.

Unlike yesterday’s post, today’s post features a vehicle that was at the end of its service life in 2016.  Ride On ordered two sets of 40 foot long Orion V buses.  The first set were diesel buses that arrived in 1999, marking the first time Ride On acquired 40 foot buses directly (the Flxible Metro-Ds and Orion VI/CNGs were secondhand acquisitions).  A set of CNG powered 40 foot Orion Vs arrived the following year.  The CNG variant was retired in 2014, as were most of the diesels.  However, Ride On kept some of the diesel Orion Vs in its “ready-reserve fleet.”  During WMATA’s yearlong “SafeTrack” program that started in mid-2016, segments of the Metrorail system were either single tracked at all times or shut down entirely in order to conduct accelerated track work and system rehabilitation.  During the SafeTrack surges that impacted the Red Line in Montgomery County, Ride On provided free shuttles as an alternative to the reduced train service, and used buses in the ready-reserve fleet to do so.  In this case, one of the 40 foot Orion Vs in the reserve fleet was operating a Red Line shuttle between Grosvenor and Friendship Heights, and I photographed it as it passed through Bethesda.

The Orion V might not be the “prettiest” bus to ever ply the streets of North America, but it was a mainstay in the DC area in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as it was operated not only by Ride On but also WMATA, DASH, Fairfax Connector, and PRTC.  I personally liked them and recall many high speed rides on these buses throughout Montgomery County.  I don’t know if all transit fans liked them as much as I did, but I was certainly sorry to see them go.

For more photos of Ride On’s 40 foot Orion Vs, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2025

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Orion V 2197

Location: 20th Street, NW at Q Street, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: December 5, 2017

A video circulating on YouTube in recent days commented on the homogeneity of WMATA’s bus fleet.  As is frequently the case with such videos, there isn’t much historical context to the claims made in the video, especially if the content creator only recently came to the area in question.  As someone who has spent most of his life in the DC area, I can recall several instances where it seemed the Metrobus fleet was about to be dominated by a single vehicle type, and then something else was ordered to maintain the variety of the fleet.  Even if the purpose of the “different” order wasn’t explicitly to maintain fleet variety, that was the effective outcome.  Admittedly, consolidation among bus manufacturing industry makes it more likely that a single manufacturer would come to dominate a city’s fleet, even for an agency as large as WMATA.  

In short, I can recall when it felt as if the WMATA fleet was on its way to becoming an all Orion fleet, with models such as the Orion V pictured here being a common sight.  Before that, I recall when Flxible was the most common bus on the streets of the nation’s capital.  The point is manufacturers come and go, bus models change and evolve, and the needs of transit agencies change over time.  Just because WMATA’s fleet is nearly exclusively New Flyers at this point doesn’t mean that it will remain that way forever, or that New Flyer is the only manufacturer WMATA is able to order from.  Transit fans with preconceived notions about how things work are usually surprised later.

For more photos of the WMATA Orion Vs, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2025

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Orion V 545

Location: Main Street at Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 27, 2003

June 29, 2025 was a major day for bus network redesigns.  On this single day, Winnipeg, Canada, WMATA, TheBus, and to an extent Ride On in the Washington, DC area, and Queens, NY (and maybe elsewhere, too, but those are the ones I am aware of) all implemented new bus networks.  In “honor” of the occasion, I posted about the now former L2 route in DC last month, so I thought for this month I should shift the focus to somewhere else.  I don’t have so many photos of buses in Queens, but I did find this one from 2003.  The Q15 still exists post redesign phase one, but with some minor rerouting, and a new limited stop Q61 also parallels portions of its route.  However, the Orion V pictured here won’t be operating on any of the revised routes as it was retired from the New York City bus fleet in the mid-2010s.

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit Orion Vs, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2022

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Orion V 82

Location: National Airport Station, Arlington, VA
Operator of Vehicle: Alexandria Transit Company (DASH)
Date of Photo: June 16, 2019

From the time of its establishment in 1984, DASH in Alexandria, VA has operated buses manufactured by Orion Industries until exactly one month ago.  On July 1 of this year, DASH ran a ceremonial farewell trip to its last Orion built buses, two Orion V units similar to the one in this photo.  Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this event, but from what I’ve seen, DASH made the event a special one.  The headsigns created for the special trips were definitely noteworthy.  In addition to marking the end of the Orion era at DASH, the retirement of the Orion Vs marks the end of high floor bus operations at DASH as the entire fleet is now made up of low floor vehicles.  

Orion ended manufacturing of the Orion V in 2009.  Considering the standard lifespan of a transit bus in North America is typically in the 12 to 15 year range, it is not surprising that the last Orion Vs still standing are gradually being retired now, with only a handful still in operation.  Given that Orion announced on April 25, 2012 that it would no longer take any orders for new buses and that its factories would close when outstanding orders were fulfilled, it should be expected that Orion built buses will no longer be plying the streets of North America within the next few years as the last Orion VIIs built by the company upon its closure are removed from service.

For more photos of DASH buses, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2021

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Orion V 69

Location: King Street Station, Alexandria, VA
Operator of Vehicle: Alexandria Transit Company
Date of Photo: June 17, 2009

The DC transit scene used to be dominated by the Orion V.  They made up a sizeable portion of WMATA’s bus fleet, and also had a significant presence at Ride On and Fairfax Connector.  Now, the only local agency to operate the bus type is DASH, and even those days are numbered.  DASH, the local bus system in the City of Alexandria, is about to undergo other changes, too.  In addition to the imminent retirement of what remains of the Orion V fleet, starting next month, DASH will be launching its redesigned bus network and going fare-free.  Along with new articulated buses from New Flyer and electric buses manufactured by Proterra, transit in Alexandria is not going to look like this come next month.  

For more photos of DASH buses, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: October 2018

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Orion V 70

Orion V 70

Location: South Eads Street at South Rotary Road, Arlington, VA
Operator of Vehicle: Alexandria Transit Company
Date of Photo: July 19, 2018

For those of you who know the DC area well, your first reaction to seeing this photo is that one isn’t supposed to be taking photographs at this location.  It is a reasonable first reaction, as this photo was taken on the Pentagon Reservation, and photography is generally prohibited there.  But notice my use of the word generally.  Photography is allowed at the September 11th Memorial adjacent to the Pentagon (though the DoD was reluctant to permit this when the memorial opened). However, this isn’t where the photo was taken.  So what’s the secret?  I did have authorization to be taking photos at the Pentagon that morning, and there were Pentagon police officers nearby at the time.  However, like many things that go on at the Pentagon, I can’t really reveal how I got this authorization or how one might go about doing so (other than to say the circumstances were somewhat unique, so anyone else trying to replicate them is likely to be unsuccessful).  

As for the bus itself, as rare as photos of DASH buses of any sort at the Pentagon might be, photos of Orion V DASH buses are becoming a rarity as well.  This specific unit is about 16 years old, is among the last high floor buses remaining in the DASH fleet.  Catch these while you can anywhere in the DASH service area, because they are due to be reassigned to the “big bus garage in the sky” in the very near future as newer Gillig Advantages arrive.

For more photos of DASH, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2016

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Orion V 2198

Orion V 2198

Location: Fort Totten Station, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: June 17, 2009

 

Since 1992, the Orion V has been part of WMATA’s bus fleet.  In a matter of weeks or even days, depending on what you hear, that will no longer be the case.  The last of Metro’s Orion Vs, which have been in service for over 16 years, are expected to be retired in the very near future, though a few will hang on in the agency’s “reserve fleet.”  These buses have operated from every division at one time or another and made up the bulk of the fleet for much of their service lives.  Their 1992 counterparts were retired a few years ago, and the last of their 1997 counterparts were retired earlier this year.  They outlived their “siblings”, the 1999 30 foot Orion Vs, which ultimately finished their days with Ride On in 2014.  They also remained in service longer than their younger “cousins”, the Orion VIs that WMATA ordered in 2000 but withdrew from service in 2012 following a series of engine fires on board the buses.  

WMATA was not the only Orion V operator in the region.  Ride On‘s last Orion Vs (from 1999 and 2001-2002) have clung on to life by serving some of the Red Line SafeTrack shuttles, but they have not been used in regular revenue service since earlier this year.  DASH and Fairfax Connector operated the Orion V as well.  

While the Orion VII remains in service at all of these agencies, Orion was bought by New Flyer in 2013, and production of Orion buses was ceased shortly thereafter.  In the same way that the Orions displaced Flxible as the dominant bus in WMATA’s fleet, New Flyer has done the same to WMATA’s Orions.  As the DC region’s Orion VIIs reach the end of their service lives in the coming years, the Orion chapter of DC transit history will come to an end.

For more photos of WMATA’s 2000 Orion Vs, please click here.

 

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2016

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Orion V 5622

Orion V 5622

Location: Little Falls Parkway and Dorset Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On (Montgomery County Transit)
Date of Photo: June 11, 2014

Ride On is the county owned and operated bus system in Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC.  It’s hard to believe, but about 15 years ago, the fleet only had a handful of 40 foot buses.  Nowadays, 40 footers dominate.  While the first order of 30 foot buses in a number of years was made in 2014, no new 35 foot buses have been ordered in about 10 years.  As a result, as the 2016 Gillig Phantoms arrive on the property, the Orion Vs, like the one pictured here, will be retired, leaving no diesel 35 footers in the Ride On fleet and even fewer buses remaining in the “traditional” blue and white scheme.  In addition, the arrival of the new Gilligs will mark the retirement of Ride On’s last high floor buses, as Ride On’s fleet will be entirely low floor.

Photos of the new Gilligs, which also feature a new unit numbering scheme, will be plentiful in the months and years to come, so enjoy this oldie but goodie while you can!

For more photos of the Ride On 35 foot Orion Vs, please click here.