4P3607

On 8/7/2021 at 9:42 PM, Missabassie said:

We can thank Daimler for that.

Wasn't Diamler a part of Mercedes-Benz and the whole story basically came down to Mercedes-Benz was making more off their luxury cars and decided to focus on their cars and drop bus production because it wasn't profitable enough for them and at the same time they took a 6% share in New Flyer? Something like this, I know Diamler for sure didn't go out of business because of financial issues. I've heard an Orion 8 and 9 articulated was in the works before Mercedes suddenly decide to cut off all Diamler production.

Also, any word on how many 1700s are left in service? As someone who barely got any rides on them perhaps one more should happen. 

Has 3119 recently been a Far Rockaway Bus or has it been at CP for a while? Could have sworn I seen this unit recently in the Rockaways although that may have been just 3118. 

2 hours ago, Transit Enthusiast said:

This is reminding me of July/August 2019, when the last of the 6400s were being retired in Queens Village, and the 6600s in Manhattanville also. Those 6600s were also gone by September that year.

About 3 units in each depot stuck around for a few weeks longer. I remember 6432 being the last one out of QV for a while and believe it made it's last run on the Q27, something I witnessed and missed it despite running for it. 🙄 History is repeating itself again, and before we know it the same fate for the Next Gens.

(Apologies for being off topic, may this discussion continue in another thread 😁)

What's surprised me about this is how most of the Queens (Bus co) units remain in service (for now) while units of equal or older age are being retired at Transit yet they're the same exact buses. Not surprised that it's LGA and JFK that has the majority. BP and FR are still 100% Old Gens and I suggest anyone reading this make time to get some content before they recieve any NGs or replacements which could happen any day at this rate.

6693, 6724 and 6725 were out today for Manhattanville. MHV is the only depot that has lines serving the upper Manhattan parks, so the opportunity to get an Old Gen in service at Ft Tyron or Ft George is very soon about to be history. I'm surprised the remaining MHV units even made it into August, although in comparison the last few green sign 63/400s held on a little while past the others in 2019.

All of the lower 3500s remain for now. I do wonder if any specific units have not seen service for a while. As someone who grew up with the OGs at LGA it's going to be different not seeing them anymore quite soon.

4038 with LGA stickers is on the Q60. Not sure if loan or actual transfer. 

With the recent back and forth R46 issues discussion on other threads, I must ask what is the official word on the condition of the R46 cars? At this point different sources seem to have somewhat opposing information in terms of breakdown rates, structural issues and other overall issues. It's obvious they've served their time and are aging although I am curious to know if some sets or cars do actually have severe issues or if there really is a breakdown rate that is afflicting service daily (there was a mention of dropped runs however a lack of available operators sometimes is the reasoning). 

The Zerega facility on Google Maps shows quite a few Orion 1st and 2nd Gens including 6392, 6402, 6441, 6481 and a few 65/6xxs. I'm sure Maps has not been updated recently and some of those units have since been scrapped however it would be interesting if a few 2003/4/5 Hybrids have survived for driver training at Zerega and still run presently.

4 hours ago, Q39 to Ridgewood said:

2910 ran on the QM1 earlier this morning, so it is not scrapped yet.

This is why I was going to put a post on here yesterday asking if anyone knew if this unit was confirmed as legitimately retired or not as the wording of the previous posts only suggested it was heading to scrap, not confirming it was. There's been quite a few situations in the past with one or two units left of a retiring series that sticks around for a while longer. (174 & 180, 6333 & 6025, 9849, 6432, 6600 etc)

I knew I should have asked but waited to see if anyone was going to confirm, my gut feeling pushing me. Would have been out there this morning lol. 

So within the last week only 2858, 2859, 2871, 2895, 2897 and 2910 out of CP have been trackable and seen service. Earlier in the week I witnessed 2209 deadheading to Manhattan however it would not track and I didn't see it come back on Queens Blvd by Rego Park (where the majority of CP express buses come through during the PM). Both 2204 and 2209 and the rest of the 2002 MCIs at CP have not tracked at all within the last week, although there may be units that did see service that simply were not trackable (would love some insight on this).

2882 and 2885 from Staten have been out almost every day and 2926 daily with the exception of this morning; as ECH has just received two new Prevosts that last Ex-PBL unit is on very borrowed time.

Also witnessed 1319 deadheading back from an AM run on the LIE this morning with CP stickers (and minor scratches on one side). 

2204, 2209 and all but 4 2002 MCIs did not make their way into service today, and quite possibly yesterday as well. Only 2858, 2895, 2897 and 2910 were out today. 

From what I understand the other remaining units at CP are 2843, 2852/5/9, 2861/6/8, 2871/8, 2897 & 2905/7 (12). 

2926 from ECH did see a usual PM run. At least one of Staten's '02 units saw PM service today; those probably will continue to run until the depot they're in recieves new or some buses to push them out. 

Those of you who wished these buses gone, are finally getting what you wished for. Lol

Only four 2002 MCI units out of College Point made service this morning: 2858, 2895, 2897 & 2910. 2868, 2882, 2885 and 2926 also were out there (surprised with 2926 still being at play, that I seriously need to get a ride on it already considering it's the literal last Private Bus Lines bus in service in the entire five boroughs). 

Both 2001 units (2204 and 2209) did not make it out for service. I was unable to check yesterday due to the app I use glitching out however will check again for the PM rush. 

As CP seems to have near or all 25 of their Prevosts in now it's expected the remaining 2002 units have very little time left however it also appears the worst performing 2004-6 units have and are retiring first, borrowing a little more time for those last Flipdot units. 

So 1318 was out today and it's digital run number box displayed the characters upside down... The bus still has a temp plate in the window so it probably just hit service, but still kind of funny they must have missed that during inspection. 

2204 & 2209 are still in service on the daily. Those new Prevosts are becoming increasingly common to see pass by.

Also witnessed 2856 break down on Monday at LIE / 99th with a Tow Truck to the rescue. I'll be surprised if it sees service ever again. 

Not sure if this was mentioned but the set that pulled apart (3288-3292) has been back in service as of a few weeks ago. 

3607 must be at BP as it's tracking on the Q111 right now. 

That thing (including most of 3600-3609) has been LGA for almost it's entire life. 

On 2/10/2021 at 11:10 PM, Calvin said:

The  had a drop in ridership, the TA had plans to continue the route with its cut schedule. 

The , the fleet amount may be the cause of this (pooled with the  using R46)

 

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-subway-service-cuts-f-c-lines-mta-20210211-3f2a644bhzctjmoqqebjzzywj4-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3PHt8XUI5imO3Hgj8gXmqcJrcLj-xiICe1h9fWwlb7D5nKICglqyj3Dx4

Of course the news doesn't give the full story; the main reason the was on a supplement schedule was a result of Culver CBTC and Kings Highway interlocking work. Those extra rush hour to Kings Hwy runs couldn't terminate on the middle track at that station and therefore couldn't run. Ridership was another factor that contributed to the decision to keep the schedule this way but CBTC work was the primary reason, planned before 2020 even began. 

Those two runs were likely paused for ridership reasons; I don't know the details on that.

Over the summer there were several given dates the interim R160s on the were supposed to return to the to restore full service, the first date being August 25 then postponed by a few weeks a few more times; of course that didn't happen and the R160s slowly left the from September until Dec 11. 

A few R160s seem to be or were doing random interim service on the (at least what I observed in December on top of the Siemens / 98-9900s swap, there were a few more 94xxs being borrowed in the mix). 

Now the line's main issue is those R46's: remember before March 2020 they pulled them off the because they didn't want to pay an extra crew just to relay them beyond the terminal and back*? The main reason they returned was to push off and retire the remaining R32s from political pressure**; there were several official options for fleet plans right before the R32 retirement; one being keep some 32s on the just to keep the 46s off the line. Of course they went through with option B retiring ALL the R32s; despite this as a plan however this somehow still caused an "equipment shortage" in the works (also remember there aren't as many 4-car R179s to fully provide service as they originally planned as some of those sets had an extra free B-car inserted for free by Bombardier and became 5-car sets for the ). 

*- more on that R46 issue: when an pulls up at Euclid or 168th, the train has to be taken into the relay after the station then change ends and pull back in the other way: with an R179 or R32 the operator can simply cross back to the other end of the train with already unlocked storm doors; with an R46 the operator must go through and unlock, relock and double check 12 storm doors and 4 cab doors just to get to the other end which is time consuming; this can be solved by simply paying another crew to board the rear cab when going into relay (double ended) and simply reversing back out however paying another crew is cost consuming.

**-Edit: @R32 3838 beat me lol, essentially this was all a result of them rushing the R32s out of service thus how this "equipment shortage" came to reality; and really the only thing they're short on is not wanting to deal with R46s requiring additional crews or manpower, therefore the situation was settled for a supplement schedule and run less trains under the reason of limited ridership. 

On 1/16/2021 at 10:54 PM, Calvin said:

Scratch off 6829 from the scrap list for now. It's currently at Zerega facility. 

Did this bump off 6402 to scrap? If so then there goes any possible hope of a first gen Orion VII being saved. 

On 10/27/2020 at 3:16 PM, MHV9218 said:

West 3rd Street would like to have a word...

But West 4th DID used to have an actual entrance at West 4th Street. (Wish someone had more info on this + historical pics)

Also hearing a work train derailed in CI yard just before 😬

A truly random thought: Beach 60 Street on the really should be Beach 59 Street as the station entrance staircases are much closer to B59. Guess Beach 60th sounded better. 

Add 3278-3282 to the list. 9 × 10-car trains back in service. I don't know which 4-car sets have returned.

There's still one half-Cuomo, one full Siemens and about 3-4 other Alstom sets still along the  mostly found during rush hours (at least one goes to / from Rock Park almost every weekday if not two). 9502-7, 9118-9122, 8683-7 (the Blue LED set) which is hooked up to that 95xx Cuomo set. 8983-7 and another Siemens are some of the R160s I've seen but they rotate with other Jamaica sets often. 

For anyone that's curious I have happened to see the following sets return to service on the as of Thursday October 22 1 PM:

                           3015-3019
3020-3024        3025-3029
3030-3034        3035-3039
                           3045-3049
3243-3247        3248-3252
3263-3267        3268-3272
3273-3277
3283-3287
                           3298-3302
3303-3307
3313-3317        3318-3322
3323-3327

This would make 8.5 full trainsets available. There may be more that I haven't witnessed yet or placed into service today.

There are still around 5-6 R160s on the primarily on Rush Hour runs that regularly rotate between Jamaica.

Guessing the total number of NTTs on the since June has surpassed 13 (seen 15+ different R160s out during this summer especially on Weekends) as the is also borrowing a number of R46 sets off the until all of their lemons return as well as increased amounts of R46s being shopped (off topic but one AM Rockaway Park trip was cancelled this morning as an R46 had a mechanical issue).

4646 is on the Q11. This and the Q21 are normally 100% Old Gens (good lines to get 6500s too), guessing this will become more of a thing as more 3800s come in. 

Edit: 6540 is right behind it. Although in previous years I disliked the Arial font numbering on them they've become a part of their character. And 6600 passes as I type this lol

2 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

They're not going to. FR/JFK have had issues with missing Q22 and QM17 trips for a while, so if anything, all this would so is reduce the amount of trips missing on the Q22. However, the Q22 will continue to run hourly at night during the overnight hours on weekends (and Saturday into Monday is when ridership was higher on the QM17 too, go figure). 

I've thought about doing a video on the QM17, but it would be incredibly glary because of the nighttime. When the days were longer during the summer, and when there was light by the time the last trip departed Far Rockaway, it would have been a better time. However, I didn't want to go through the hassle of getting to/from Far Rockaway, nor was I willing to time it.

It will be at least three bus rides no matter how you slice it. Here are the options for residents on the eastern end of the peninsula:

• Q114 > Walk,  Shuttle, Q24, Q54, or Q56 > Q60 > Q32, M15, or Bx99
• Q22 > Q35 > B99 > Crosstown Bus (potentially)
• Q22 > Q53 > Q32 or Q60

I'm not too enthusiastic about the QM17, as I used it and it was a quick ride home. Additionally, my path home from Woodhaven Blvd & 61st Road was closer, and I didn't have to go up stairs, cross bridges, and go up hills to get home (which is the case if I walk from Hoffman Drive).

Just the fact an Orion VII ride through the midtown tunnel won't ever happen again. I rode it several times but didn't record because of no battery or wanted a better opportunity. This is miserable having no footage whatsoever. 

I attempted to get an interior video ride on the last QM17 hybrid to Manhattan via the Midtown tunnel but overslept and missed it by minutes. Very disappointed with myself considering I have no videos of it and there doesn't seem to be any out there while having plenty of opportunity to do so.

The real question is, what the hell are riders supposed to do who work in Far Rockaway and travel to / from late? For those that use fare it would be at least two and three bus rides. I would only hope they're reassigning those runs as Q22 runs to connect with the Q53 at least. 

Expect to see an increasing amount of R179s return to the in the next few days. Get your R160 shots while you can.

Now it's eyes on when they'll hit the again as eventually they want to remove all or some of the 46s off the as relaying at each terminal with R46s requires paying extra crew or the op walking through the entire train having to relock each storm door as they pass which potentially could cause a delay. Although anything is possible at the moment with the future of the 's equipment considering the only reason 46s returned to the in March was to push out the 32s. 

Get your R160 shots. This may be the final week. Four and counting lemons have returned to the .