SoSpectacular

Artic differential is now $2/hr extra but yeah OT is time and a half so most guys will work their RDOs and can pull in 100+ hours a week worth of work. I've seen it. Pulling doubles is also pretty common.

Same deal with the Jay Street restriction in Downtown Brooklyn... It's stupid. Nobody listens to the signs

Manhattan can get dicey depending on the time of day, Brooklyn is nearly right up there in terms of difficulty (largely depends on routes, Flatbush Avenue gets very dicey during the PM rush and a lot of routes intersect or pass through), Bronx and Queens should be largely similar considering their geographical makeups with less densely populated areas and more suburbs, can't speak for traffic conditions on the Island though.

The NGs are a definite night and day difference in both handling and pedal response. One of the biggest gripes with the Old Gen model were the brake pedals which require significant more force to get adequate braking power. Operators tend to complain about knee pain afterwards. Having driven a 6600 out of Zerega for an observation drive I can definitely see where they come from...

They're also not very fun or comfortable to drive based on personal experience...

That's very rare. When I worked in summer camp programs we usually took the subway or chartered a school bus when the subway wasn't feasible. DYCD may have made some changes...

236 has the original doors that 230 once came with. Not sure about 200-229 or 266-299 as far as differences go.

You're definitely gonna recertify around the time you qualify because I also came from school buses and I still had to fill out a 19A form when I qualified.

It's still two attempts if you qualify on day 9

I've heard stories of the senior operators taking a literal backseat while the student drives the route if they are comfortable enough LOL

Some of them are prone to doing that on acceleration That depends, sometimes you might not get the driver who holds that run and may just be filling in. Had that happen about three times during my line training. It does require extra certification to line train student operators but it pays a little extra when they do get assigned a student.

The questions change up but they are still the samefor the most part, the same. If you really want practice I suggest getting a copy of the Commercial Drivers' Manual from the DMV, as it has all the answers word for word in its sections

I definitely don't miss when the buses were free. I could hardly keep the bus on time with the volumes of people trying to squeeze on my vehicle. I've had to flag stops because the bus was packed to the gills. Talk about taking complete advantage of the "free" service! It was so bad to the point that people were complaining for fare collection to be reinstated because they couldn't get seats on the bus!

I remember last fall while waiting at Prospect Park to make a relief another operator talking about how fast off the line the C40LFs used to be when they were brand new. Their acceleration was toned down to account for the increase of customer injuries. Since the throttle is basically electronic on today's buses all Transit has to do is adjust some numbers concerning the throttle sensitivity and boom you get less engine power. As far as transmissions go, I'm not a big fan of the newer ZF EcoLife transmissions because of their tendency to shift at lower speeds in an effort to keep RPMs low and fuel economy high. It just feels like a drag when coming off the line in either an XN40 or XN60 for this reason. But, then again, there's also those engine parameters that get screwed with. The ZFs have a pretty high torque requirement according to the operation manual... The Allison transmissions are basically taking a page out of their playbook and adding computerized shift schedules to make them competitive with the things ZF is doing but they still have their default shift schedule which I feel works best for the street conditions. Plus, it's also smoother. With the LBSS/Dynamic Shift Scheduling feature it tries to find the best gear range for the vehicle's current speed but I find that it isn't very good when going up inclines. Slogging at 20 MPH uphill in 4th gear is pretty terrible. Trying to start on a hill sucks at times too. Sometimes the transmission will buck pretty hard if the bus goes too high in the gears and you have to let off the throttle and come on. Without it enabled the bus would stay in 3rd gear and it would climb a hill no problem. Anyway, they need to figure that stuff out if they want real improved performance.

Ours have a bit of pep to them, don't let them fool you!

According to a fellow operator on a group forum, "they're driver friendly but are rattling shit boxes" LMAO

They're known as relief trips, and no, it's not usually after every trip that a bus changes hands.

Having spent 22 years of my life living on Sanford Avenue I second this. Moved out of Flushing back in early 2019 so not too sure what that's looking like over there nowadays

Our underlying infrastructure is the problem. Just last summer we had a massive water main break in Sunset Park that had part of 5th Avenue closed for weeks. This time around there was another near-miss around 49th Street where they're doing more underground work . Don't know if they finished that yet since I'm not on the B63 anymore but definitely something that needs to be looked at going forth.

The crew might find some menial task for you to do eventually, but yes, depending on whether you're qualified to be a shifter or not you might find yourself sitting in the crew room bored to high hell.

That is definitely a GOOD way to get yourself in trouble... 10 over?! Sheesh!! I've heard the express buses were capable of 60 but DO NOT do that as a probie!!

About 11% of folks (going off a video I'd seen on YouTube from Transit themselves) don't get past the probationary period but that's not too bad considering most other civil service positions have 18-month (or more) probationary periods. What I have noticed is that you'd have to screw up pretty badly or repeat mistakes more than once to even get your probation extended.

The recent incident concerning a certain bus and a certain building may have something to do with it.

That's an all-hands-on-deck shuttle. Last weekend when I was on the B67 I saw buses from West Farms and College Point hanging out by Jay Street at late hours via the radio and still looking for extra help at 12 AM via the radio

Yeah, it looked like he pulled the brake but what happened after he sat back down happened in an instant it seemed like. I don't know if the diesel Xcelsiors allow the engine to rev with the brake set but on our buses you would know if you are applying gas once you tap the accelerator.