East New York

1 Road Call! Lol. Never seen An XD40 on Church Avenue. 

22 hours ago, aemoreira81 said:

Caused the death of a passenger on that bus, which was written off.

Wasn’t it 2 passengers on the bus, the Chinese bus operator, and a pedestrian that died? 

11 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

Yeah, BAE has been around for ages. They used to make planes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems

They still make parts and electronic systems for planes. They power the F-35 lightening as well. The BAE Systems hybrid is made based off turbine engine technology and design philosophy. 

9 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

I dont mean to bug you, but how many buses other then 5477 got into a bad accident yesterday.

5477 is not completely destroyed for one. It's a Nova, built in modules exactly like the RTS. As of right now it appears that the frame is in tact, and it will return to service at some point. Even if the frame is not in tact, the entire front section of the bus can be replaced. There were no fatalities as well, so the bus should return to service after a bit of work. 

My prelim reports show about 14 artics that are damaged, many of them having the articulated joints ripped open. We had a few bus-on-bus accidents including a pair of brand new 2018 LFS'. One slid into the other on a turn and they hit each other at the artic joint. All I can say is thank God it's Saturday. The shops are full from ZA to EC to GA and EN with pending repairs. 

3 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

I thought 9505 was in a major accident? So wouldn't that bus be the first "Cuomo" bus to have a major accident? For some weird reason pics never leaked 9505 after its accident.

That wasn't a major accident. I have a couple pics. A 2015 XD40 ran into the back of it. It should be out of the shop in short order. However, it may take a bit of time for it to come back because New Flyer will have to either repair it themselves, or supervise the repair of the bus because it is still under warranty. BAE will probably want to take a look at it as well seeing as this is a pilot fleet.

NOTE TO ALL: BAE is pronounced like B.A.E. I've heard quite a few people calling the company BAE (pronounced "Bay") like a term of endearment. It's British Aerospace Engineering to be exact.  

By the way, there was no time to prep for the storm as the actual accumulation was more than predicted. That’s why you didn’t see chains out like normal and by the time the forecast changed it was too late to put them on. 

There are quite a few buses that were damaged. Mainly artics, and many of them actually Novas. Lots of articulated sections are ripped or damaged. Yesterday was a complete transit disaster.

17 hours ago, paulrivera said:

Anyone who normally takes the SIM23/SIM24 tomorrow morning:

Don't.

It ain't coming. So many Academy drivers are running out of hours out there it's not even funny.

Thank heavens the doesn't do split shifts.

They actually do have split shifts. One of my friends actually has an express split out of BP, and another out of CP. 

19 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

@East New York Do you know why MTA has decided to stop giving the LTD treatment to buses and why they're so fixated on SBS?

Other than what was mentioned by VG8, the main reason is limited service has become obsolete at this point and it no longer fits in the MTA business plan. Eventually, SBS will slow down as MTA introduces all-door-boarding for the entire fleet. In the meanwhile any new service or significant changes to a LTD route will result in SBS service. The main reasons are to reduce dwell times. 

In short, there would be no point in starting new limited routes in this day and age, as any and all new limited and high capacity routes will be SBS and in the future it won’t even make a difference because all-door boarding will be introduced. 

On 11/11/2018 at 11:44 PM, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

I'm gonna tell you what you told me 5 years ago, "It's the same shifting. The only difference is the lack of HVAC." That's what I was trying to tell you about the 4800 XD40s with LBSS. 

Huh??? Lack of an HVAC? (Heating Ventalation and Cooling) That’s illegal for one, and all transit buses as well as any on road vehicles for that matter come with an HVAC. Where on Earth would you get an idea like that?

I will check the full C40 specs and mods for the entire production run and see if anything pops out. We are the only agency in the world with 3rd gen New Flyer low floors, and they did play with the specs a bit. The 570+ numbered buses were originally supposed to be Orion VII’s as well and it was an emergency production add in. 

Because these are 3rd Gen buses however, they are almost identical “operationally” to the XN40’s.

On 11/12/2018 at 9:34 AM, Future ENY OP said:

At least today is an observed holiday for most people.

But in all seriousness waiting 2 years for a new express bus order is completely unacceptable. Hope the  can put an emergency RFP to order some express buses at once. 

What’s the big deal fellas? Nothing is new here and this is a regular order cycle. Why issue an emergency RFP when the express RFP already went out? The decision has already been made on the next express buses and it will be made public in less than 6 months. 

There are 32 really old MCI’s, and then there are the 3000 series buses which are up for retirement now anyway.

It’s handled. 😉

On 11/13/2018 at 7:44 PM, trainfan22 said:

I rode a weird sounding RTS today. I been on DD50 RTS more times than I can remember and I never been on one that sounded like this one.

 

EDIT: here's a small sound clip of the bus

 

 

Sounds like a hole or leak in the turbocharged, or the turbocharger could be going bad. What bus was this? And OMG is disgusting in the back!!! 🤢

7 hours ago, Coney Island Av said:

Speaking of RTS, will any of the units that were/are retired be reactivated for the  shutdown? ECH apparently still has a handful of RTS that were said to be retired/scrapped, some dating back from summer. 

 

Originally yes, however now there will probably still be some used when needed and probably during the winter. We will have at least 132 brand new buses that will be used solely for the  shuttle. There are only supposed to be 25 RTS’ remaining by the end of next year. 

On 11/12/2018 at 11:18 PM, Brillant93 said:

First it was said to be permanent then temporary. At this point we don’t know because various sources are saying different things. 

I was never actually said to be permanent. It was still in the planning phase. MTA will evaluate as time progresses. 14th Street will also close to motor vehicle traffic as well to accommodate the M14A, M14D, and M14SBS routes. 

as far as the launch, it was originally April, and now it is set for January. That's why I told you all when I created this thread that things would not all be the way that they appeared, or what was written in black and white. They also said no new SBS, yet I was told that meant "no new SBS for Queens" anytime soon.

On 11/10/2018 at 5:37 AM, Brillant93 said:

Would you say walkers should be treated the same as strollers? 

Yes but if the walker cannot be closed, then that is another issue. I’m am pretty sure they all close now though....

On 11/7/2018 at 11:28 PM, paulrivera said:

Fare beating’s not allowed either, but no one does anything about *that*...

All I’m saying is if NYCT B/O’s have the stones to park their buses and get out of their seats to confront women with open baby strollers, they should also grow a set and confront farebeaters also.

That’s a sticky situation. Drivers have been assaulted and even killed over demanding fare on multiple occasions. It’s not their jobs to demand anything actually. With strollers that’s a differ thing. It’s about common courtesy. 

5 hours ago, Orion6025 said:

So 0011 is no longer in NYC. Looks like it's headed back to NFI, but I'm not sure?

anyway point is, it's not in NYC...

It’s actually be back up there for about a week now. Its time for the production models to undergo final design, and I am being told this one (0011) is being used for audit purposes and modification. This means it could essentially be sort of a “blueprint” or audit bus for the production XE40 order as we all as the XE60 order of this is in fact correct. 

Either way, it is also time to get into the next phase of this electric test and evaluation program. About halfway through, Quill and GA were supposed to swap fleets. However, due to the current issues, the fact that the halfway point passed, as well as the way this has all played out, I don’t see it happening. 

We have to see what this means for the program as a whole, because if MTA decides to continue with the current timeline and guidelines, they will be awarding by June. According to my data knowledge, that would be for New Flyer, as Proterra would still have to qualify or prove that they can qualify before we begin to take delivery of production models at the end of next year and early 2020. 

Because of this, I see options being attached to the end of this next 40 foot electric order. If MTA were to base this solely off logistics, best value and commonality, its going to be 100% New Flyer. 

Award for the XE60 is now pending and due within the next 90 days or so unless the schedule slips. 

23 hours ago, NewFlyerFan said:

I don't believe this has been mentioned already but as of writing this, all the new XD40s at MJQ currently have what I believe is the Aesys Multicolor destination signs. From what I've heard, the rest of the XD40s to MJQ will receive these destination signs but AFAIK, this isn't 100% confirmed.

Not sure if it was mentioned either, but it is true. We are testing those signs out as well. As of right now the only approved default manufacturer is Hanover. They were approved as an official MTA spec after the successful install on the 4800’s and the ‘99 build RTS’ retrofit. 

Luminator is now testing again via the Proterra buses, as they were disqualified after the issues with the color signs on the LFSA’s and 7000 series XD40’s. 

On 11/6/2018 at 9:13 PM, Orion6025 said:

Well IIRC 0016-0018 are all OOS because of some brake issue from like late august or early sept (and 0020 too but given what that bus has been up to, I assume there are more issues with that one than just brakes...) so  if you are referring to that, then yes 0017 had a failure technically..

16 and 17 are still OOS, 18 and 19 are in service, and 20 is at Proterra. 

21 hours ago, B53RICH said:

Don't know if it's a loan or a move , 4946 is being tracked on the Q54.

20 hours ago, Orion6025 said:

It's at FP. Don't know if it's a short term loan or not.

It was borrowed from Grand just to cover service. It went back promptly. 

5390 JK to GA for Maintenance/training.

6600-6601 FP to JK

New Bus Delivery review as of 2pm 11/07/18 (please not some are new arrivals as of today, and some buses assigned may be out of the depot at their respective vendors)

EN 7663-7684

FB 7615-7662

FP 7508-7519

GA 16-20, 7520-7526, 7528-7530, 9500-9503, 9505, 9507, 9509

GH 5468-5482, 5531-5536

JA 7484, 7487-7503, 7505-7507, 7572

JG 1031, 1032, 1035, 1073-1109

MQ 11-15, 5439, 5440, 5442-5467, 5483-5530, 7576-7579

UP 7531-7535, 7537, 7539, 7540, 7552

WF 1001-1015, 1021-1030, 1033, 1034, 1036-1055, 1057-1061, 1072, 7549-7551

On 11/4/2018 at 10:28 AM, mine248 said:

I’ve seen 2nd Gen LFSes run by Academy for Columbia...until this fall when the XE40s took over. 

NYU:

1 XDE40. 

2 Orion 7 E10 hybrid

5 Gen 3 LFS’

10 Gen 4 LFS’

Columbia:

5 Gen 2 LFS’

6 XE40’s on order

In addition Acedemy has 5 Gen 3 LFS’ that they accoasionally use when and where needed. 

On 11/5/2018 at 6:19 PM, Lil 57 said:

The last clip was an Orion V (transit) X10. They ran local buses on Express Routes also?

Or was that a suburban bus?

Prior to 1998 all express buses were Fishbowls, RTS’ and Orion V’s. 

On 11/5/2018 at 6:50 PM, MysteriousBtrain said:

A handful of RTS and Orion V had suburban seats until the mid 2000's. Namely most of the 100's, 611-630, and some 1000 and 4000 series RTS. 

Even 9250-9349 were once were used for express service. And today we have 9307 and 9348 remaining. The last two buses in service formerly for express.

There were a lot more than a handful lol. By the time you came along there were likely only a handful. Including the PBL’s the above mentioned buses dominated express and local service. As mentioned by others, many of the buses had hard seats back in the day, but quite a few has suburban and most had semi-suburban. 

Note to all. I have repeatedly asked over and over again to NOT partake in general discussions in this thread. Take it to the Fleet & Depots forum. This is the absolute last time I’m saying and from this moment forward they will be deleted. I’m not going to keep going behind people and moving most every other day. 

In addition, I’m going to just start suspending accounts. I don’t care who you are. I’m about to delete 10 posts and if one of them is yours be warned. 

All of these side discussions cause everyone to loose track of the moves that have or have not been posted. 

Final warning for everyone. And that will be the absolute last time I’m saying it. No warnings next time. If you find yourself not being able to post, you know why. 

Carry on.

Ok..... For the 75th time, there are 88 unassigned XD40’s. 

You all act like if a change is made you are so confused. I’m more confused than most of you are because I have to change things so much I start to forget what is going on. But seriously? Can we stop with the speculation and just wait until we have concrete information please. JG doesn’t need any until January actually. As long as operators are trained prior to the start of the shuttle that is all that matters. Let planning ops do what they do, and let us report it when it happens. I will be updating the first page this weekend.

On 11/1/2018 at 2:31 AM, garyQ3 said:

i saw about 6 xd60's out of Baisley park depot with mta bus titles on them, use to be just the mta logo on them.

Yes, since we are going back to my plan of having titles, management has now decided MTA Bus will remain until at least 2021 at earliest. Once command and fare collection operations are merged we will likely go to an all NYC bus platform. As of now to the public all buses are branded as NYC Bus even though actual vehicles may reflect  something else. The Q70 SBS information on DOT website even shows MTA NYC Transit now. I haven’t noticed if any others were changed, but this is still developing. 

On 10/27/2018 at 9:44 AM, danielhg121 said:

Why scrap it if it’s still in excellent condition? 

It's time for them to go. Many of these scrapped RTS' are/were still in good condition. However almost all of them are over 20 years old now. 5105 and up will be 20 next year.

Random though....... Things will never be the same.....

The last run of a champ. 4983 was pulled out of the scrap line for one last hoorah.... I rode her brand new out of ENY. Built in September 1998, she just turned 20 years old last month. 

Got to spend the evening with her on my home line. Was very poetic, and with one of my good friends at that. This will likely be his last time driving an ENY original, and she will be retired in the morning. 

And this bus is FAST!!!! Headed to the scrapper in excellent condition. 😢 Farewell to the Rapid Transit Series. The most legendary and longest lasting bus ever built. To this day, this was the favorite bus ever tested at Altoona and still holds the record of most reliable product ever tested. 

4 hours ago, Calvin said:

Disregard 4983: 5207 is the unit 

4983 as well. Me and my homie pulled it out of scrap for one last run tonight. She’s one of the best RTS’ still in the city. This is a sad day. I remember when she was brand new out of East New York 🥺

Heres to run 431 😢😭😭

Today I’ve officially decided to retire from transit consulting after the Fast Forward plan is complete, and the merger comes around. It finally set in today that things will never be the same. By 2040 everything will be electric. I will remain a Tech, so now I guess I need to be trained on electric propulsion systems. 🤷🏾‍♂️

33 minutes ago, Blitz said:

There is no diesel only mode on our hybrids. The diesel engine only runs the ACTM (hybrid generator) and other accessories. The "diesel only mode" you guys are referring to may be the PCS emergency override switch.

Yes, the PCS overrides the computer and shuts off the hybrid generator.

2 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

7551 is currently at the vendor and is assigned to Jackie Gleason Depot.

Whether it actually goes there or not is another thing. We'll officially know in a matter of days.

How about a matter of minutes!!!!!

😂😂😂

7551 to West Farms (I better not see 1 question about it in this thread!! lol)

1049 to West Farms

1103 to Gleason

1 hour ago, trife86 said:

As I only know how to drive them, I wonder why they would be retiring the hybrids earlier, I know retrofits to straight diesels were considered but what about just disabling the hybrid system together and run only on the current diesel engine.

I have driven a few with dying HEV systems and while they won't have a good top speed they are still good for city use under say 30mph.

Well I said the main reason is for retirement lol. Nothing last longer than an RTS. These other buses would have to be rebuilt to last as long. The OG hybrids are already at retirement age. It just seems like yesterday that they were flooding the city brand new. Hybrids cost more to maintain than straight diesels, and at this time the only justification for them is they are 'SLIGHTLY" cleaner than a brand new straight diesel. 

Even though I've driven almost every American bus type ever built, I am also a Maintenance Tech, and own buses so I look at things from a few different sides. 

Operating in diesel only mode would eventually kill the computer, and drive maintenance costs up significantly. Not only that, but if you operate in that mode for too long and consistently you will start to develop other problems. That engine is not made to operate on its own power at all times. It is a Cummins ISB. The Cummins straight diesel buses, including the bus company repower are more powerful ISL's. You will start burning up oil, and blowing turbochargers. The electronic engine controls on that bus wouldn't know what to do. An RTS or any other Detroit (DDEC) system for example will shut the bus down at first detection of a problem so as not to worsen a situation.

*Fun fact of the day. Notice how when many buses break down they make take a while to get back on the road and out of maintenance. An RTS can break down this afternoon and be on the run line tomorrow. Reason being is the electronic controls will shut the bus down at the first sign of a problem, whereas most others you can run into the ground and not even know something is wrong until the bus completely breaks down, starts blowing turbo chargers and sometime at worse catch fire. When a DDEC bus breaks down or retires, it can usually be driven back to the depot or to scrap. If these other buses break down, we usually see them on tow trucks. How often do you see an RTS or a D60 on a tow truck?? How often do we see everything else on a tow truck? Which ones are newer???

Hybrid buses do not have transmissions like diesel buses do. This is one of the reasons the buses will likely top out at 30, and won't have much power at all because it's overall purpose is to supply power to the generator and motor(s). An automatic transmission can shift gears, whereas most hybrid systems do not have gears at all other than D and R, and spool up and down similar to jet engines.

Let's take an automatic trans with LBSS for example. Allison Load Based Shift Scheduling. The transmission shifts based on the weight and weight distribution of the bus to further save fuel.

Hybrid systems usually just have 1 speed and 2 gears, with generators and motors connected to the wheels and engines. Now something that is interesting that I can't wait to check out is a brand new derivative of the hybrid system we have now.  All of our hybrid (except 9500-9509) have the original BAE Systems hybrid. A new version (ER-Series) allows the bus to be operated in all-electric mode at times and diesel-electric hybrid mode at others. We have the new Allison on 9500-9504 which is my favorite, and will work best for NYC, and the BAE E-Series on 9505-9509. I would have preferred we tried out the BAE ER series if the goal is to start moving towards electric. IDK what these people are thinking these days.

The BAE standard E-series is a Series Hybrid system, and the Allison is a Parallel System which works great for stop-and-go as well as high speed routes. The BAE is just an upgraded version of what we have now and is only optimal in Manhattan or at rush hours when they will only be 100% efficient in stop-and-go conditions. Love the new BAE, but it's just not as efficient as the Allison and if this comes down to a numbers game, 9505-9509 might not pass this evaluation. 9505 is back in the shop at Zerega too. The prelim report says brakes locked up. I however think the traction motor locked up. We shall see. That bus was supposed to be in service months ago. The others can't come until that pilot goes into service for at least a few days. 

(I will get into the difference between series and parallel a bit later)

1 hour ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

Because the transmission connected to the engine is a hybrid system. If you disable the hybrid transmission system, the bus would have no other way to shift gears and move. That hybrid system doesn't have gear shift speeds like regular diesel buses. You would have to take the hybrid transmission system out, and put a diesel transmission system in order to run on the diesel engine. That's the part that's not cost worthy. 

No, that's incorrect. lol. The hybrids don't even have transmissions, and they don't shift gears. See my notes above. It has a generator, controller box, and an electric motor attached to the wheels. The engine drives all of that. As  @trife86 just said it can be driven, however I explained the details and consequences when behind driving in diesel mode. 

23 hours ago, LTA1992 said:

Hey @East New York, with the next wave of SI buses possibly being electric, could that decision have been made because SI is a high mileage depot and thus could make the most out of electric operations? 

Not to mention the environmental factors of course. While I am mostly ignorant to how the Proterra program is going, part of me feels like we may not be utilizing them to their full potential.

Staten Island for obvious reason along with Queens will benefit the most from the electric buses.

However, not to say SI won't get hybrids in the future, even though it is highly unlikely. If we go with the Allison Parallel system they will be more fuel efficient than the BAE, and will not be as expensive to maintain. The current hybrids that we have were designed for Manhattan and Brooklyn only for the most part. The higher speeds and longer distances are not good for that type of system, and have thus costed the MTA much more than expected, or planned.

This was motivation behind the plans to convert the entire Bus Company fleet to straight diesel, which was later scrapped because it was found not to be cost effective at all.

23 hours ago, trife86 said:

Not sure if I'd say loads of mileage I think there around 275-300k which isn't much when the 05s and RTS go to 500+

You can't really compare the two seeing as the NG's still have a lot of life left in them. The V's have been retired for a while now, and the RTS doesn't even count. That's the longest lasting bus ever built to date. There are plenty out there with even more mileage than that. I have about 460K on mine and it's a 2000 model. 

SI division is high mileage so naturally most of the buses out there have slightly higher mileage numbers. The newest of the RTS' are 19 years old now, whereas the oldest are approaching 22 years old. We have hybrids retiring alongside the RTS now. We will never have any NG's long enough to even be able to compare them to the likes of an 05 or RTS, but if you consider the other depots, the mileage is quite high on them. 

The B32 and most GA runs have Interlines with others. If something happens on one line and there’s a run-off to the the next line, it’s inevitably going to be late and have to play catch up. If an op gets to then end of the line and has to take a personal for a emergency bathroom break they get up to 15 minutes. 

There may also be other issues with this like that need to be analyzed and addressed. 

1025, 1026, 1030 JG to WF

1049 just arrived at Vendor, awaiting delivery to WF

1050-1052 NFI to WF

7532 to UP, 7534 finally registered at UP

5178 pending GA to ECS

On 10/22/2018 at 4:10 PM, Orion6025 said:

9505 is now at GA. 7524 is there too, though i don't know if that's recent or not...

Check the roster. It was updated yesterday. In addition, we have several moves and new deliveries.

I will post all of them in short order.