MHV9218

Most of the buses described are in the lists @SevenEleven and I provided above. I'm not going back to type up the full 140, they're only there for a couple days!

100th Street has 71 NGs loaned from various depots ready for snow service. It also has five OGs from Manhattanville ready for snow service. Grand total 76 buses. Realistically, may be the last time you see OGs on those routes. MJQ has 30 O7 3Gs and 41 LFSes from various depots. Grand total 71 buses. WF has 25 LFSes from QV for snow service. Grand total 25 buses. GH has 46 LFSes from various depots for snow service. Grand total 46 buses. KB has 17 NGs from QV and other depots for snow service. Grand total 17 buses. I also have 355-357 and 360 at WF from JG, those may or may not outlast the storm.

Looks like this snow is starting this afternoon/evening, all day tomorrow, and then a little into Tuesday AM. Everything I've seen has chains on already, and my guess is they're yanking the artics this evening. Fairly certain we'll see the loans both Monday and Tuesday at the least. The expected forecast is now 14-18", with a low-end chance into the low 20" totals. If we get the higher end of that, this will take some work to clear out.

I would look at what happened during the last storm. MJQ kept SI loans for 2 full days of service – as long as there is significant accumulation on the ground and artics are grounded/buses are chained, expect at least some of the loans to stay. In that case, the storm hit on an afternoon, so the loans were out before and after the snowfall. In this case, I think we're expecting overnight Sunday, so it's possible they'll run loans Monday only. If it ends up 5" of snow and they plow it quickly, it could be a one day affair. If it's 12" and it freezes over night, then it could be a couple days. Really depends on what kind of storm hits and the condition of the streets. For what it's worth, OH had artics chained just the other day this week (I forget what day it was, Tuesday or something) when we had flurries. DOB has been burned before on this (2010 was the year that changed everything) and I wouldn't expect them to mess around here.

Frankly, at the Chambers Street JMZ, I'm looking up to make sure a chunk of the ceiling doesn't fall on me...

I would look to the last storm for a blueprint - probably some FP and/or EN buses in the mix, but it's way easier to pull from SI than BK as a rule. Any Brooklyn buses that are coming have not yet been moved. But Quill has enough SI buses to ground its artics and to loan to some other depots.

No and no, all of those buses are still at their respective depots. Where did you hear that? That's not how they've been transferring buses so I wouldn't expect any exact numerical block that way. Also, if 6853 turns up on any route, I'd like to see it!

Damn they really sent in the cavalry. Well, looks like we'll see the same as last time, 40-footers on every route instead of than subbing out the artics. Add 8144, 8156, 8161, 8169, 8173, 8176, 8179 CH to MQ. 8001, 8007, 8016-8017, 8020, 8027-8029, 8031, 8033, 8074, 8076, 8081 QV to WF. 8047, 8056, 8063, 8084, 8087, 8091, 8100-8101, 8106, 8407, 8409, 8412-8413, 8417-8418, 8422, 8432, 8446, 8462, 8464, 8466, 8469 JA to GH. And one transfer that might outlast the snow loans, we'll see: 4393 QV to KB.

Not aware of that happening yet for Quill or any of the Manhattan depots. Probably will happen over the weekend for Monday.

3861 still rocking the TU stickers after a while moved.

As opposed to those fiberglass urinals at the ends of each car? 😉 Why I keep the basic rule: outside clothes come off the minute I walk in the door. Cold day in hell before I sit on my bed in the jeans I wore on the subway.

Hell, even a state lawmaker should be able to figure that out!

Didn't know that, that's a bad sign. They're getting a lot of attention as a company but not sure that's translated into build quality yet. Seems like they're doing best in Miami where it's a warm climate. I know LA split their electric order between BYD and Proterra, which doesn't sound like the most reliable combo. Normally I'd bet we order more XE40s than BE40s, but the charging/battery setup sort of makes me think they'll want to try BE40s - the XE40 fleet clearly isn't designed for anything except crosstowns and niche routes. Worth noting that BYD is soaking up all the Latin American contracts since they're cheap and Chinese-run, more compatible politics there.

To be fair that was a different situation, that was the turbine was too weak to power the electric propulsion system; this is about how much range the bus has. No doubt a Proterra/XE40 makes it across the route, probably even goes faster than a diesel – question is how long it keeps its charge. DOB says on cold days it's only 2/3 advertised range.

Interesting, that'd make sense they'd be ahead on electrics out there. It seems to me like XE40 > Proterra > BYD in terms of how the technology goes, not sure why so few agencies are pursuing LFSe fleets. Interesting too that agencies seem more comfortable with XE60s than XE40s. Also a ton of states and localities that are supposed to buy American, which makes it complicated, since BYD is practically a Chinese state company that happens to have a factory in CA, and (less controversially) New Flyer is obviously Canadian with US plants). With Biden just announcing the federal fleet is going electric, I think this whole field is about to get crowded in a hurry. Hopefully that means these fleets do a little better.

They're gonna have to do some serious thinking about range if they run them out of Eastchester. Q50 runs probably have some of the highest daily mileage of any one route, and I don't know if you can charge them up enough during lay-overs. The 23 on the other hand is short and sweet, but I assume everything's interlined. Question is how well the Proterras are doing on the 57/59/62, longer routes like that which really test the range. Seems like at least 1-2 of the BE40s are on the 32/39 every day. One of them's been at the vendor.

Just to clarify my own point (lol), I was re-reading the MTA's original test announcement. The XE40s are specced for on-route charging and have much smaller batteries than the Proterras (about 1/3 the size). The Proterras are designed for overnight charging and that's why they run longer-distance routes. Sort of odd to me the MTA would test two totally different systems on two totally different buses. Wouldn't apples-to-apples (an XE40 fleet with both large and small batteries; a Proterra fleet with both large and small batteries) be a good way to control for manufacturing differences as well as figuring out whether the on-route or overnight is better for the MTA? The MTA is actually leasing everything: buses, overnight chargers, and on-route chargers from both New Flyer and Proterra. Word from the DOB guys is that range is depleted by roughly 30% when weather drops below 45º, which is a challenge. Award of the 45 bus order was supposed to happen in 2020 with delivery in 2021. I don't think the award ever actually happened. What the board meetings as of 2020 show is 70 electric buses total, with 45 for NYCT and 25 for MTAB. T7030216 Purchase 45 All-Electric Buses U8030201 Purchase 25 Standard All-Electric Buses

Looking at this again. At this point, do we think the Proterras edge out XE40s for the order? They haven't tested XE40s on any long-distance routes, which doesn't seem like a vote of confidence. And no interest in so far in the LFSe, even though we have LFS HEVs a plenty.

And more than that, bad mayors kill imaginations... Yeah, she was good on the MTA board – but you have to remember that was with the blessing of de Blasio, who had her on the board as a city appointee. When it came to her DOT role answering to him, weak sauce.

Dunno, she'll be perfectly effective at keeping things running effectively. She's well-credentialed for it from her past DC experience. The problem is that she lacks imagination and creativity, as well as force. In NY, that made her limp – she never fought back. In this post, it's really the Secretary that needs the imagination and boldness, and Pete – who desperately wants to make a name for himself and remain in the public eye – will probably push for some serious stuff. And she'll be competent at executing it. Just be glad she isn't Secretary!

The Trolley Museum of NY is the one museum that does have PATH cars on hand (two cars that survived the 9/11 attacks, as you said). They're PA-1 cars, which aren't quite PA-4s, but they're extremely close in design and extremely similar on the inside. I think that's the best bet. You could get lucky with a work train stopped at a station and a particularly friendly crew member, but that's about the extent of it. PATH has never really run 'excursion' trains like the MTA, and they don't even keep preserved cars from their old fleets.

Exactly the question I've been wondering. You'd basically be running the equivalent of a Cold Weather Plan V every evening, and I can't even imagine how tedious that would be to restore service each AM, let alone what it would look like staging crews at stations without crew rooms all over the subway. Assuming 1-2 hours' time to lay up and reactivate trains, you'd probably have the whole thing shut for barely 3-4 hours total. Not sure what the point of that would be.

Yeah, my question with this has always been, how wide is the 'airport-specific' benefit? Cause what Lex is saying is perfectly plausible to me, and you have to figure something like the JFK Express or other direct-to-airport services combined a direct benefit to the airport and its passengers with a general service system-wide. Arguably, you could even claim a subway extension to the airport is 'airport-specific' if it massively increased traffic to the airport. I don't really understand why the law would require a distinct modal form (i.e., sky-tram rather than subway) just to distinguish the new service from other available options. But I don't know really know how narrow the federal language is.

My guy. Here's how this went. This thread started, all of us were like 'damn what happened.' You came in and told everybody to stop wondering, for no good reason. I posted from Channel 7 to update people. Never said it was last the word. Never said I worked at the MTA. You posted again, called me a 'big mouth know-it-all' (because I...linked to the news?), then said 'everybody has to stop speculating, my nameless source says this.' We are now here. ---- Anyway, for those of us who actually just want to talk about the news in this story, here's Gothamist's new coverage: https://gothamist.com/news/bus-driver-harrowing-bronx-crash-disputes-mtas-claims-he-refused-drug-test

If anybody wants to come at me for *checks notes* linking to Channel 7, I'm here all day for it. Said from the start, glad everybody's ok, we'll see what happened.