MHV9218

Don't get me started on that one. Morons at 2 Bway take the perfectly good M1/M6 to SF and M5 to Houston pattern, destroy the M5 by sending it to SF, make the M1 a meaningless dupe of the M3, realize the M5 is way too long, destroy it again by sending it to Midtown (useless), create the M55 to completely duplicate the M6 they got rid of, and extend the M1 again. No part of this makes sense and service is worse in every way than it was pre-2010.

Somewhere somebody at 2 Broadway is yelling "preventable!" Damn though. Reminds me of the risk the TA runs these days with the hybrids through the Transverse. Yeah, you can clear 11' or so by sticking to the yellow lines, but still wonder, if a bus ever had to swerve to the edge and nicked into the tighter clearance? Risky business. That ship has sailed obviously but I never quite got why they decided to throw caution to the window once the RTSes were out.

Really a shame to see all of the cars go out like this. At least leave one of them, especially seeing some of the interiors are in tact. Those interiors were designed by Massimo Vignelli and have major design significance. Agree that they should be at the NYTM. They could have easily used a 62A or R134 for the extra pump car in the set, given that these cars are getting a full reconstruction.

Some excellent throwbacks. Sad how boring the MTA fleet has gotten in such a short period of time!

This is your language in the article: "Since the MTA does not know where you get off, there should be a fare based on all transfers that can be made within two hours of entering the system. While not entirely eliminating double fares, which would still be required for extra lengthy trips, no one making a short trip would be penalized as is presently the case." "Imagine how many more would use transit if the cost of a one-bus trip was reduced to $2.50; the subway fare and a two-bus trip, and a subway-bus transfer remained at $2.75; and a two-hour trip on unlimited buses and subways would cost $3, with a daily fare cap of $5.50 or $6." This reads to me as suggesting that the cost of a trip would be dependent on its length, so that longer trips cost more, and shorter trips cost less. I chose the A as an example of a very long trip that could be a two-hour unlimited trip. Is this not what you're suggesting?

This is arguably a pretty regressive model, given that most people who live further away from the city center and commute for longer times have less money, not more. If we were talking wealthy people commuting in from the suburbs, that's one thing. But the effect here of a guy in East New York having to pay, let's say, $4.00 to get to Midtown, while a guy going from his house on the Upper East Side to Midtown paying $2.00 – I'm not really sure why that's a desirable outcome. Seems like penalizing people who live further away for living further away, even though it's rarely a choice that people do. I get that you're throwing in the bus trips, but I'd be surprised if there are really so many three-legged bus-bus-subway rides so much as just long, long bus-subway rides for most people coming into Manhattan from the boroughs. Your average Far Rockaway commuter is not going to benefit from an extra bus ride being thrown in, but would definitely be angry about paying more for the one-seat ride on the A.

This whole thing was a mess, but we do need some basic reasoning and responsible fact-checking. This whole thing was bad on like, a 5/10 level. At this point everybody in this community seems to relish the drama of it / the righteousness of being mad, but we don't need to make it out to be a terrorist attack on the tracks. A few notes and lessons: 1) The guy kicked off the train clearly had some sort of mental issues. The security handled that TERRIBLY, and that's what you get when you hire cheap security. Huge mistake putting them in MTA vests and creating the bad optics. Shouldn't be done again. But not obvious to me this counts as a 'buff problem,' or even that this was exclusive to the fan trip. 2) No way in hell those missing map sections were 'stolen.' Clearly they had been removed from the cars beforehand, which makes perfect sense, since the TA likely needed spare parts and the 32s were mothballed for months. You guys really think the kids on there brought powerdrills and carried a 30 x 30 steel frame off the train without anybody looking? Not reasonable. 3) The rollsign changing, etc. is stupid and annoying, but not a safety risk, and not worth writing home about. These are already special trips, and unlike NYTM cars where the rolls are extremely valuable vellum or historic printings, 32 rollsigns are dime a dozen. They're not going to tear, because mylar doesn't tear unless it's pinched at an angle, but even if they did, not a huge deal. 4) Whatever the vaping thing was, whatever. Find the kid, hold him and give him a summons at the next station. But to be totally frank, that's no worse than most of the BS that goes down on a Harlem-bound train midday these days. Could have been worse substances than that. 5) What they do need to do is enforce mask-wearing better. This is a huge covid risk, it was obvious given the timing that there would be multiple covid cases on the train, and there were. I'll be going for the outdoor portion of this trip, but I'm not cramming myself in a contained space with a bunch of people screaming with masks on their chins. These trips can and should continue. Everybody involved needs to behave better next time (fans, private security, etc.), but it would be a mistake to scrap this plan for some relatively minor hijinks.

Embarrassing behavior. Looking at those uniforms, sad the TA had to hire private security for these runs, and sad they had to use them.

I think you guys are massively overthinking this. And why we had to dox a PATH employee who's a decent guy and a former member here is, frankly, beyond me. The Arnines attract huge crowds. That simply isn't sustainable during covid. Also, when the decision had to be made in terms of staffing and planning, we had no idea what was ahead of us re: omicron and its transmissibility. They didn't want massive overcrowding, so they're not running them this year. The 32s are coming out as 1) a bone to the transit fans, who had every trip canceled, 2) a little promotion for the NYTM, which is trying to come back, and 3) a compromise over multiple weekends (outdoors) that won't draw anywhere near the level of crowds we see with the Arnines. The Arnines will run again – they're not going to replace them with an R32 set, that would be meaningless for most of the non-buff public. They're the single best promotion the NYTM has each year, and they keep them in very good shape for that reason. Maybe next year – till then, let's be glad about the 32s, which are a treat for us fans alone.

I mean, with the foamers, "unauthorized touching" is right. You're more at risk of those kids making out with a bus than damaging it, but I digress...

I'd focus on missed runs, faked covid tests, employee safety etc. before I had a fit over a paper sticker, but maybe that's why I don't have a job at 2 Bway...

Hope it's not that nice guy who works the 12, the kids seem to love him.

Can you stick to the topic? I'm glad you think the guy who talked for four years straight about "Infrastructure Week" and never signed a single thing would have been better for the MTA. At least we have a bipartisan stimulus bill and work is actually getting done.

Given that the system was at near-capacity with those same fares pre-covid, I don't see fares as the issue. Covid, and its lingering variants etc., seems like the problem. I'm not so sure that slashing the fares would fill Metro North up again. Riders are generally wealthier and they often own cars too. What we have right now is a complete modal shift, not necessarily a price point issue. Generally, NJT and Metro North commuter/business riders will pay pretty much whatever is needed to get to the city. In economic terms, you might say that during normal times commuter rail is an inelastic service, and local buses and subways are slightly more elastic (we have evidence that more people ride when the service is less expensive).

We established this.

Ah, okay. The color of the film on the front and the "HYBRID" sticker made it look like the teal of SBS with the SBS markings. I still think it's dumb that these buses are all wrap below the windows rather than paint, but that's a separate complaint...

Why in god's name are they still building these buses in the SBS paint scheme and then wrapping them! I don't even know what BRT 40-foot routes they could conceivably run all the XD40s and XDE40s on...

Just went back to check – it was *before* this paint job, from after it got whiteback'd until the new scheme that it had no roof numbers. So probably 2009/2010 to 2014 or so. They must have added with the new scheme.

I'd estimate about a week or so for the remaining OGs at Quill. Basically, those buses did formally retire (6700, 6709, etc.) but were not scrapped and sat at Quill on hold. I think fareboxes were still inside, not sure. During the LFS HEV meltdown, everything in the depot not yet stripped was reactivated and that's why we saw the return. But with all the loans returning and the LFSes coming back one-by-one, the regular retirement schedule should be back in effect soon. 6700 is still notable as one of the last buses with Arial numbers, from the very beginning of the new-scheme repaint program for the OGs. To my knowledge, at NYCT the only other buses with those numbers were in the 6490-6689 series, and all the 6690+ buses were repainted later with the right numbers. Can't totally remember but I think 6700 never received roof numbers, either.

Just the B-cars.

Another week, and the Yukon LFSes remain at Quill.

I wouldn't count them out for the future. They need to work out the QC issues that plagued them here and in Philly, but they just won a big old order out in LA (where range is less of an issue, anyway), and they have a pretty sizable market share that's going to allow them to grow and mature up ahead.

I saw that video – it seems like it didn't blow off, but rather the bus hit it while it was uneven, and tipped the cover so it was vertical, and the cover is so strong that it supported the weight of the whole bus on top of it. Which is crazy to think about by itself, but I guess those things are some tough steel.

8313 and 8317 still in service at Quill as of today, but generally the SI fleet seems to be gone. Quill's OGs are still out and about (including 6737, which I remember there was some doubt about). The Quill loans are still at Tuskegee, and MV still has a mess of other buses with few to no hybrids running regular service. I don't really understand the math here, returning the LFSes without returning the hybrids, but DOB must have something in mind.

Yukon loans still out at MQ, day whatever lol.