EDMONTON TRANSIT SYSTEM DATS
2004 Corbeil / Ford E-350 and E-450

Since the inception of DATS in 1975 contractors have been heavily involved in it's operation. Initially contractors operated all sedan service, as well as providing drivers for City own DATS buses. By mid-1997 all DATS service was provided by contracted operators and their supplied buses, vans, and sedans. This included owner/ operator lift buses. Following a review of DATS, while the status quo was cheapest, the contracted owner/ operator fleet was identified as having reliability issues on account of each owner/ operators need for backup coverage, and as well as remuneration as ATU had successfully argued that the owner/ operators were City employees, and brought them into ATU 569. At the time this was a very unique model in the industry. In 2002 the decision was made to move to a hybrid model with lift buses owned by the City and operated and maintained  by City employees, while sedan and van services were contracted out. While setting up DATS to be run in house would take until 2005, as part of this decision #5001 was purchased, and then followed up with this order for 9 Corbeil's. Given that the owner/ operators were already City employees, I would imagine these vehicles were perhaps used as as backup to the owner/ operators if a vehicle wasn't available until July 2005 when the service model would change.
One major spotting difference between this order and the later ones is the different rear door configuration; the rear doors on this series only have one window instead of two. Units 5002-5004 have the lighter duty Ford E-350 chassis, while the rest have the Ford E-450. #5003 was retired prematurely due to a major engine fire in 2007. The rest ran until sometime in late 2012 / early 2013..

Thumbnail	Bus #	Date	Description
	5002	June 24th, 2009	5002 Southbound on 178st at 81ave.
	5004	April 18, 2008	#5004 Westbound on Jasper Ave at 101 St.
	5004	January 18, 2011	#5004 turning onto 97 Ave from Bellamy Hill.
	5005	July 27th, 2009	5005 Westbound on 137ave at 97st. Here you can see the rear door styling unique to the 2004 order.
	5005	Spring 2004	#5005 northbound on 112 St at 87 Ave.
	5005	Spring 2004	#5005 northbound on 112 St at 87 Ave.
	5006	February 21st, 2009	5006 Northbound on 83st at 82ave.
	5006	October 15, 2009	#5006 turning onto 97 St from Yellowhead Trail after an early season snowfall.
	5006	October 15, 2009	#5006 turning onto 97 St from Yellowhead Trail after an early season snowfall.
	5006	January 21, 2010	#5006 southbound on 112 St at 76 Ave.
	5007	July 28th, 2009	5007 Westbound on Jasper Avenue at 101st.
	5008	June 25th, 2007	5008 shortly after departing the fuel station near Percy Wickman Garage.
	5008	July 9, 2010	#5008 Westbound on 129 Ave at 66 St.
	5010	July 17th, 2009	5010 Northbound on 111st adjacent to Southgate Transit Centre.

This page last updated on May 5, 2025.

Back