RailBus63

I had the same reaction when I got my CDL permit! I was at the window at the DMV after passing the test and I thought they had screwed up - the woman was very helpful though and quickly explained it to me. Congrats on passing the test and good luck!

Did he have a right to refuse?

He started out as a teenager riding and reviewing MBTA routes in Boston for his blog. I guess he's down in the Philly-South Jersey area now.

All of the route assessments on his site are like that.

You many want to also consider contacting your local Assembly member or State Senator to see if they can help.

Nice shots. What is it with so many of the 9600's having non-functioning front signs? The 9500's don't seem to have nearly the same problem with their signs.

Congratulations and best of luck out there!

Those are great resources! Remember, practice practice practice! Memorize those - you should be saying them in your sleep by the time the road test comes around!

How often do they practice the skills test (backup, offset and parallel parking)? If you're not doing that every working day in the week or two leading up to the road test, I could see why people fail it. I found the backup and offset to be pretty easy once you got the hang of it, but parallel parking a 40-foot bus in a 55-foot 'box' takes time to get it down so you can do it consistently.

The Pretrip is all about memorization of course, but it's also about doing it confidently so that the DMV examiner thinks you know what you're talking about. The other trick is to be ready to start anywhere and not get flustered - we had one woman at our place who the examiner asked to start her inspection outside the bus, and when she got to the in-cab inspection she forgot to do the static brake test and failed (she later passed on her next try).

I agree with this - why pay for CDL training when an agency will pay you to get your license? If you are skilled enough to get through the 10-day training, you will be qualified enough to pass the DMV road test.

The medical examination is only required if you self-certify as 'NI' (Non-Excepted Interstate) or 'NA' (Non-Excepted Intrastate) when applying for your CDL permit. If you select 'EI' (Excepted Interstate) or 'EA' (Excepted Intrastate), you will not need to have the medical exam completed prior to taking the permit test and they will add the A3 restriction to your permit. Good luck on the permit test - study the DMV Commercial Driver's Manual well.

About giving your current employer no notice if you pass the 10-day training - maybe I'm just old school, but I believe in not burning any bridges with previous employers if at all possible. Getting an MTA job is a big deal, like entering the police or fire academies. In my life experience most people respect that. I would recommend being honest with your employer if you feel comfortable doing so and tell them what's up and when you are going for training. Some employers might be jerks and show you the door, but if you are a valued employee then others will likely be willing to have you come back if things don't work out with the B/O training. Just my two cents worth.

Someone should have called 911 on those idiots.

There is no reason for railfans to be rushing to the J/Z in the middle of a pandemic if the R32's come back - you've had since 2013 to get in all your RFW rides and take pictures and video of the 32's on these lines. Respect the transit workers who are trying to do their jobs and stay healthy. Hopefully we can come out of this sooner rather than later and you can get your last R32 ride in during a proper farewell run.

I get your skepticism but that would be unfortunate - Kawasaki is two and half years into designing and preparing to build these cars, so if the order was curtailed the MTA would have to pay them many millions for this work with little or nothing to show for it. My guess (and that's all it is) is that the base order cars will be delivered and that the MTA will find money for enough option order cars to fully replace the R46's and the Staten Island R44's, but that will be it.

Just the resumption of in-store retail alone will increase ridership in my opinion, as more employees return to work. I hope the MTA is prepared.

Thanks for the update. Just curious - by 'normal', do you mean the same level of service that has been operating during Phase 1 of reopening?

Exactly - also, if the MTA tries to screw over Bombardier and pull some nonsense, they will very likely have some other carbuilders refuse to bid on their contracts.

It is ridiculous to suggest that the R179's may not return to service. The MTA certainly has the right to require Bombardier to make the necessary fixes, but the expectation will be that the fleet will return to service as soon as satisfactory repairs are completed. I have not seen the contract between the authority and Bombardier but I have negotiated numerous multimillion-dollar business contracts myself - a purchase of this size will have a lengthy contract which will no doubt stipulate in detail how any defects or disagreements are to be resolved. There would be no language or provisions in a contract of this magnitude that would allow the MTA to simply walk away and send the cars back to Bombardier and get their money back - that is just not how it works.

How do those essential riders get into the stations?

This plan is OK I guess as a quick stopgap measure, but they are going to have to come up with actual replacement service if this is going to be in effect more than a couple of weeks. I can only hope that the lack of serious effort at running replacement routes along the rail lines means that they are intending to resume overnight rail service fairly quickly.

IMO, the solution is for Nassau County to do a better job of funding NICE Bus, not have it taken over by a larger entity.

I don't know about generating sympathy for the homeless on the subways, but this crisis is definitely shining a strong light on the homeless issue in general. I also believe that there will be a demand to address it in some manner because I don't see how people will be able to resume 'normal' activities with fears of infected homeless people wandering the streets. I only hope that it is done compassionately and that citizens hold our leaders and institutions accountable to look for real solutions and not just get the homeless out of sight.

Exactly this - it is also about restoring a sense of order to the system and instilling confidence in riders who will need to use it, as well as for the safety, health and well-being of employees. The images of homeless encampments on trains became a national news story and no doubt would have depressed ridership even more had it not been addressed. The city and state do need to seriously address the health and shelter issues which have driven those poor people into the subways as part of the overall drive to end the spread of the virus.