MHV9218

Quill's buses might be there for a little while. Manhattanville can pull off a bus-for-bus replacement, as can MCH, but if they want to retire troublesome NGs at the same time from MV, they might not necessarily move their whole fleet over to Quill.

2 hours ago, SoSpectacular said:

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!

It's funny, buses are still free out in LA, and you still have to beg a lot of people to take the bus lol. 

19 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

I actually like our XN60s to be honest.....our XD60s on the other hand, only 5364-5438 lol.

WMATA's XD60s are absolute rockets and sound WAY better than ours.

Ours aren't bad, but the LA stuff, I've never been on buses overtaking cars at 40 lmao. The pickup from a standstill is insane and they're still way quieter than those old NABIs with the ridiculous AC fan LA always has. LACMTA hasn't been the same since the end of the DD50s (same with the city, I guess), but it's still something else getting flung around on those buses.

12 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

They sure do! I like almost the entire LACMTA fleet, even their NABI 60-BRT CNGs. And the way LACMTA set up their XE60s on the Orange Line is what made me like the XE60s, because between the MTA and those M14 drivers, I wasn't feeling them. 

Check out this XE60 absolutely HAULING on the Orange Line! Nahh check out this XE60 actually HAULING. Between quick acceleration and top speed these buses are ELITE. 

Also here's a throwback video of when I first was getting into LACMTA and came across this video. This is when I was like yeah they ABSOLUTELY HAUL out there in LA. And those NABI CNGs have some crazy sound effects. 

Yeah, those LACMTA buses are the truth. You've got the combination of fast roads, buses geared for speed, and a long distance between stops, and you just fly. It's a shame the long headways make it such a pain to get around via bus because once you're in motion, it's better than any other major US city. When I was there back in '17 they still had the un-repowered C40s and NABIs and it was a treat hearing those DD50s working. I bet the 6v92 era was even crazier, but I pretty much missed that clean.

4 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

SEPTA's D40LFs and DE40LFs being a case in point... I have never been on an MTA bus that accelerates as fast in Manhattan as those do in Center City Philly (and of course in the rest of the area)

Yeah, we must just be gearing them for economy and dealing with it. Probably makes sense from a bean-counting perspective, though of course if you set a vehicle up to accelerate slowly and consequently have to floor it to go anyway, you actually lose all your fuel savings. Lots more lugging on MTA buses, but on the other hand nice and efficient when they're sitting in traffic/crawling around (which our buses sure do). It's a balance. I wonder when stop-start will come to buses. You'd think the hybrids at least could do it pretty easily, switching motors, but I guess the HVAC is a real bitch to power up.

If only our XN60s were anything like LACMTA's XN60s. LA always has the most fun buses in the country since they gear them for speed, but goddamn, their XN60s absolutely fly. New Flyer makes some crazy good stuff if you let them...

9565 out on the M7 today.

A little oopsie for anybody who catches it –

9566 is out on its first day of service, and whoever programmed the signs misspelled all of the readings (front, side) for Grand St.:

Reads: M1 GRANT ST 

Pretty much!

Also, anybody catch the extensive subway scenes in the In the Heights? Looked to me like 9th Ave lower, which is a damn good location to use for a shoot, surprised nobody's thought of that before.

The W4 sign for the  has finally been covered up by a new sign for the . And the lower level's new enamel pillar signs are now all installed.

MTA left the homeless encampment in front of the station, but they did replace the sign lmao.

Have to say, not to sound like VG8, but MAN is West 4th eight different kinds of f**ked up sideways. Every time I walk into that station now, any of hour of the day, ten different junkies sitting on the stairs, set up in tents by the stairs, waiting by the turnstiles. The PD came and cleared out the tent city before the Pride stuff just to make it look cleaner, but it's all back as it was. I couldn't even walk out today cause some dude had OD'd and/or died and was face down over all the steps from 6th Ave. We all just walked up, saw that, turned for the other stairwell, and went through the fifteen different junkies lining the stairs there. This is all always the north part of the station on 6th. The other side has never been as bad. 

32 minutes ago, R10 2952 said:

Those tiny windows look even worse from the inside.

Wait till they shatter all the screens too.

The yellow poles are hideous and a failed design feature with no safety purpose on surface and transit vehicles, but so be it.

I at least like the dark seats a lot.

Proterra just landed a big old order in Miami (by US, non-MTA standards), so they must be doing something right in some places!

42 minutes ago, 1train2255railfan said:

All Novabus LFS Hybrids in the city are currently out of service. 

Time to ask Gleason to give back those swing buses!

All things being equal, given the Proterra disaster at SEPTA, and the TA's relationship with New Flyer, I see the order going to New Flyer.

Having said that, I still see Proterra eking out a lot of ground in the electric bus market generally. They've got a decent head start on NovaBUS etc., and in the warmer climates their fleet seems to do pretty well. Nobody's solved the winter problem yet though.

46 minutes ago, MeeP15-9112 said:

When the TA did that whole front transplant onto Orion V (ex-BL) 133, what former NYCT O5 was the new front taken from?

That happened ages ago, like 2010 or so, before the later 600s had even been retired yet. So it would have had to have been a 1993 100-300 series or a 1994-1995 400-500 series, whatever was still sitting around in Eastchester for the surgery. CS and WF were still running the 1996 order at that point. So yeah, transplant and everything else, that was an old, old bus. Rumor was they actually wired the hoodlum lights to work, even though the Bee Lines were specced without them. Never saw them flash myself though. 

1 hour ago, East New York said:

Smh...... No updates to Fleet & Depots since I left 2 years ago? I also see no one is posting any of the exclusive news, fleet updates or contract procurements.  I see you all didn't know the leases were extended till December 2021 either. 

Welp. They say you don't know what you've got till is gone. My information and sources here were questioned one too many times and the last time was the final straw. So I'm just grab some popcorn and see what y'all been talking about.... Or NOT talking about... 😂

Why you gotta do us like that! 😂

Hope you've been having a good one. Sane man for leaving the rest of us nuts here, for real... 

2 hours ago, BrooklynBus said:

Who proposed to remove Citibike? Nobody. Typical lies and distortions by you a Democrats. Sliwa has said nothing and Mateo asked that citibike stands that took away parking should be removed. Many Citibank stands are on the sidewalk. He didn’t ask that those be removed. And you don’t think that Stringers position to force all cars off the BQE into Downtown Brooklyn isn’t dumb? He thinks with a BQE on,y for trucks, the cars will just disappear. What a fool! Lowering the speed limit from 30 to 25 has greatly increased travel time by causing unnecessary missing of green signals. Of course it makes no difference when cars can only do 10 mph anyway. But there are many times and places where that is not true. When there isn’t a single car, bike or pedestrian in front of you for a quarter mile, going at 25 mph (and now the dems want 20 mph) is just ludicrous. 

Buddy, read his own press releases before going on about 'lies and distortions.' https://www.mateothemayor.com/post/evict-citibike-street-docks-restore-parking His exact words are "EVICT CITIBIKE."

Anybody with eyes can tell you that removing the Citibike stands on streets would take away about 70% of all Citibike locations, especially since there are specific rules about which sidewalks are and aren't wide enough to fit bike parking. The vast majority are not and there's not a single reasonable interpretation of his unreasonable plan that doesn't make it clear how much this would neuter Citibike capacity in the city.

The Stringer plan is dumb, he is dumb, I agree.

What is this 'unnecessary missing of green signals?' If anything, more streets are actually timed now to allow for you to make all the lights if you cruise at 25. I just enjoyed this myself a week ago – made every single green light up Amsterdam from 58th to 96th St. at around 5pm by averaging 25mph (sometimes 20, sometimes 30). It's pretty nice. If you're speeding too much, yes, you will miss the lights. But what you're describing is not consistent with the timing of the lights.

13 hours ago, BrooklynBus said:

Pray for a miracle that a Republican is elected.

What a dumb statement. Have you seen the Republicans running? They are clowns. One of their proposals is to remove Citibike? Are you kidding me? Those two can remain in the circus. They don't even understand or believe in transit, and it's embarrassing to have that opinion on this transit-based forum.

By the way, traffic speeds have fallen because of congestion and the rise of rideshare services like Uber etc. clogging the roads. Lowering the speed limit from 30mph to 25mph had essentially 0 effect on most of Manhattan and Brooklyn where the average speed on arterial roads was determined by traffic anyway, and people still drive at the same 30mph when the roads open. 

19 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

Actually, during Covid they were planning on layoffs and service cuts.

They (NYCT in particular) only plan ahead when it comes to cuts and layoffs. When it comes to adding, it must be "cost neutral" meaning whatever does get added has to be taken away from someplace else.

They've been this way before Byford, during Byford to an extent, and it'll continue after Feinberg and her successor's successor is gone, and so on.

Sure. My point is that they knew full service would return, they knew they were receiving the stimulus, and they knew they'd have fewer crews on hand. Why didn't they plan for this and the service impacts that have been the arbitrary result? It's not like we're running a modified pick right now with reduced but consistent frequencies; it's just random delays because they're missing trips. That's just bad planning.

20 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

If youre talking about today in particular, the and  are all having staffing issues at the moment.

Today, but every day. It's bizarre to me they didn't plan for this glut of retirements/sick days and think ahead with a new class, etc. They had 12 months to figure out what the system would look like on reopening and now they're caught with their pants down, daily. Feels like everything under that hack Feinberg is like this. Byford would never have allowed something as easily solved as staffing to ruin on-time performance, but here we are.

Two observations:

1) The is such crap every morning now. I wait 15 minutes + every time I try to take it to work

2) W4 lower is getting the same new enamel signs (with wheelchair symbol) as W4 upper. They're done by a private contractor, so they're much nicer than the stuff the Sign Shop turns out. They've done the southbound side only so far, so you get to see both eras of signs (mid-1990s and 2021) across the tracks.

9308 (museum car, now a bluebird) got tagged up by some tourist jabronis, by the looks of it. At least 9306 is untouched in the museum.

On 5/31/2021 at 12:00 AM, QM1to6Ave said:

So Stringer rented a prop bus to film his commercial? I wonder if the MTA didn’t allow him to film on an active bus. Or he didn’t want to risk real people yelling at him lol. 

They almost never use real buses. Probably an insurance thing / MTA branding and in this case, avoiding endorsement. The only time I can think of a real bus being used was that film a few years back, The We and the I. Was about a bunch of kids in the Bronx and they filmed it on a KB or GH O7 NG if I remember.

Sorta funny, the TA installed these new signs at W4 to replace the 1990s overhead signs. Unfortunately, they followed the 1990s service patterns, so they read ACE Uptown to the Bronx and Queens. 

Finally saw one of those new LFS HEVs. Them things are reallllly quiet. Nice, since the XD40s are actually fairly loud.

9 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

That bus has been delivered to Manhattanville since last week.

Are we sure it's been physically there? I'm seeing it as a new registration in the depot for the first time.