MTA Bus Operations: Fleet & Depots

[RSMG106]

7433, and 7436-7437 at Casey Stengel now has Hanover Full Colour displays as their original Luminator Spectrum signs have been removed. 

Edited April 28, 2023 by RSMG106

[DT323]

32 minutes ago, RSMG106 said:

7433, and 7436-7437 at Casey Stengel now has Hanover Full Colour displays as their original Luminator Spectrum signs have been removed. 

7435 also has Hanover. I wonder why Casey Stengel is giving them Hanover displays now...

[RSMG106]

3 minutes ago, DT323 said:

7435 also has Hanover. I wonder why Casey Stengel is giving them Hanover displays now...

Possibly due to issues with the signs.

[Cait Sith]

59 minutes ago, RSMG106 said:

7433, and 7436-7437 at Casey Stengel now has Hanover Full Colour displays as their original Luminator Spectrum signs have been removed. 

any images?

[RSMG106]

2 minutes ago, Cait Sith said:

any images?

[LegoBrickBreaker101]

30 minutes ago, Cait Sith said:

any images?

Would you care for a video instead ? 

 

[Cait Sith]

Just saw 7436 for myself...definitely a Hanover sign. It looks good, but those buses are still garbage.

[NewFlyer 230]

13 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

Just saw 7436 for myself...definitely a Hanover sign. It looks good, but those buses are still garbage.

I’m curious, what about those buses do you dislike? 
Me personally I’ve always found the NYCT units to be slow when accelerating and the bus feels like it drags. The MTA bus units were always my favorite from the bunch. 

[Cait Sith]

4 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I’m curious, what about those buses do you dislike? 
Me personally I’ve always found the NYCT units to be slow when accelerating and the bus feels like it drags. The MTA bus units were always my favorite from the bunch. 

They're slow.
Ride quality is trash.
They rock and sway too much at speed like a boat.
 

[R179 8258]

1 hour ago, Cait Sith said:

They're slow.
Ride quality is trash.
They rock and sway too much at speed like a boat.
 

Can’t lie , i heard an ENY operator says that there 2015 XDs run like trash also. She preferred the 2011 XDs over the 2015 Xd

[FLX9304]

4 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

They're slow.
Ride quality is trash.
They rock and sway too much at speed like a boat.
 

Trash? Before you call New Flyers Trash, take a look at the Novabuses that got issues first 

[Cait Sith]

19 minutes ago, FLX9304 said:

Trash? Before you call New Flyers Trash, take a look at the Novabuses that got issues first 

Again, you don't have single clue what you are talking about.

Have you BEEN ON the 7090-7437 batch of New Flyers? They are literal garbage(the Casey Stengel batch being the absolute worst of them). Those are the worst 40fters we have in the fleet. The ride quality is garbage, they rock and sway so much even at minimal speed, the suspensions are garbage to a point where some of them can't take bumps all that well(especially the Casey Stengel batch, again), they're slower than the rest of the Xcelsior fleet, they jerk a lot when braking compared to the rest of the Xcelsiors, the list of complaints goes on. I ride them damn near every single day. I have more of an opinion on them than someone who lives all the way in Philadelphia and thinks they know better and don't deal with them daily.

On the topic of New Flyers being trash, 5987-6125 are also trash.....operators(especially the Q44 operators) don't like those buses especially at speed because the transmission throttles the performance at the 4th to 6th gears....operators have to hold the transmission at 3rd gear to get any speed, and that in itself is also dangerous because you can blow the engine like that. 5987-6029 in particular are wearing out much faster than the 5900-series Novas ever did, to the point where they've been running more 4700s on the Q44. The ride quality on those buses have gotten really, really bad.

6126-6286 are the same way, but those are slower because of the HVAC units(but they do ride better than the previous batch).

The 8Ks are having parts replaced, but the issue is that it's interfering with the HVAC units. It has nothing to do with how the buses perform or ride in service. The LFS hybrids have been doing fine since the rear door issue. The issue is also being worked on by Nova Bus technicians as well.

As someone who lives in this damn city and uses the buses to commute to/from my destinations 6 days a week, I have more of an input about them than you do, especially since you're an outsider looking in.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Cait Sith

[Calvin]

4 hours ago, R179 8258 said:

Can’t lie , i heard an ENY operator says that there 2015 XDs run like trash also. She preferred the 2011 XDs over the 2015 Xd

It's the same from an operator I know out of Ulmer Park who did the B3 and B36. The operations on the 2015 (or as he calls it the white 7000s) aren't satisfying with a lot of jerks in his take. 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Calvin

[limitednyc]

The driver alsulo seem.to dislike the new xd's as well. Ps they love the 4800.

[MysteriousBtrain]

I just would like to remind everyone at the end of the day a bus is a bus. It's not that serious to attend others bc they said they don't like Xcelsiors and bc they don't like LFS. 

Personally, it feels like many recent orders have slipped from quality and started going on quantity. However, they been fixed as time goes by. The difference between the most recent issues with the 2022 9xxx and 8xxx buses is one was completely taken out for long periods of time. With the 2015 buses, the main issue I have with them is the problematic signs that glitched colors before they just now replaced them on a couple buses. And before anyone attacks me on this, a GOOD CHUNK of the LFSA pre-2016 have the same signs and glitch in a similar matter. It was just more noticeable in the 7000's. 

Would also like to remind everyone that even if it technically wasn't rushed, the MTA had to add 72 buses from the option order to the 7000's because the 6000's were rusting to the point they became unusable for service. And with NF being very famous in cities (and taking over many former bus factories) all over the country it was probably easy to build another 70 so buses bc they probably had enough workers to build the buses and test them in a matter of days. 

 

Edit: what I meant was NF started to purchase many companies beginning in the mid-2010's, but the most notable lot bought at the time was NABI's lot, which was purchased and phased out with the Xcelsior product line.

Edited April 30, 2023 by MysteriousBtrain

[FLX9304]

2 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

Again, you don't have single clue what you are talking about.

Have you BEEN ON the 7090-7437 batch of New Flyers? They are literal garbage(the Casey Stengel batch being the absolute worst of them). Those are the worst 40fters we have in the fleet. The ride quality is garbage, they rock and sway so much even at minimal speed, the suspensions are garbage to a point where some of them can't take bumps all that well(especially the Casey Stengel batch, again), they're slower than the rest of the Xcelsior fleet, they jerk a lot when braking compared to the rest of the Xcelsiors, the list of complaints goes on. I ride them damn near every single day. I have more of an opinion on them than someone who lives all the way in Philadelphia and thinks they know better and don't deal with them daily.

On the topic of New Flyers being trash, 5987-6125 are also trash.....operators(especially the Q44 operators) don't like those buses especially at speed because the transmission throttles the performance at the 4th to 6th gears....operators have to hold the transmission at 3rd gear to get any speed, and that in itself is also dangerous because you can blow the engine like that. 5987-6029 in particular are wearing out much faster than the 5900-series Novas ever did, to the point where they've been running more 4700s on the Q44. The ride quality on those buses have gotten really, really bad.

6126-6286 are the same way, but those are slower because of the HVAC units(but they do ride better than the previous batch).

The 8Ks are having parts replaced, but the issue is that it's interfering with the HVAC units. It has nothing to do with how the buses perform or ride in service. The LFS hybrids have been doing fine since the rear door issue. The issue is also being worked on by Nova Bus technicians as well.

As someone who lives in this damn city and uses the buses to commute to/from my destinations 6 days a week, I have more of an input about them than you do, especially since you're an outsider looking in.

Let me tell you a little something that you don’t know about. I’m from the city myself, that’s number 1. Where I live is 80% New Flyer dominant. (And they got new XDE40s with BAEs on the streets already) That’s number 2. And 3. I’ve been on both 2015s AND 2018s during my visits to NYC, and I have 40 models of New Flyers to my collection. 
 

I’ve seen Nova Artics break down during service runs, so there’s nothing that you can’t tell me that begs the differ. By your standards, you should know better. You can’t compare a bus type to another. Because at the end of the day, it’s just a bus that’s in service that gets you to point A to point B ————— SAFELY and in 1 piece. 

[Cait Sith]

37 minutes ago, FLX9304 said:

Let me tell you a little something that you don’t know about. I’m from the city myself, that’s number 1. Where I live is 80% New Flyer dominant. (And they got new XDE40s with BAEs on the streets already) That’s number 2. And 3. I’ve been on both 2015s AND 2018s during my visits to NYC, and I have 40 models of New Flyers to my collection. 
 

I’ve seen Nova Artics break down during service runs, so there’s nothing that you can’t tell me that begs the differ. By your standards, you should know better. You can’t compare a bus type to another. Because at the end of the day, it’s just a bus that’s in service that gets you to point A to point B ————— SAFELY and in 1 piece. 

I'm going to need you to think before you speak, because clearly your responses are on autopilot.

You're sitting here telling me not to compare bus types to another when you literally did the same thing in your first response to me. Also, point out where I compared bus models to another bus model, because I clearly didn't.

Secondly, just because your New Flyers in Philly are good, doesn't mean New Flyer everywhere are just as good. Every city has their bad batch of buses, our 7090-7437 batch is one of them. Operators and mechanics can attest to how bad these buses can be.

Also, where the hell did I mention buses breaking down? Not once in my response did I mention buses breaking down. Buses break down all the time, but you're basically talking to yourself about that because no one else is.

Lastly, I don't care if you're from the city or not. The point is that you live in Philadelphia and you're not here on a daily basis to deal with them, so you don't have a single clue how shitty some of these buses are, yet you somehow have a strong opinion of them. Imagine if I did the same thing about your buses, your response would be very similar to mine.

And yes, I know better. You clearly don't, because you didn't even read my response properly, which is evident by your autopilot responses and the typical "BuSeS GeT PeOpLe tO point A tO pOiNt B sAfElY" copout statement schitck....which is common sense to virtually everyone.

 

2 hours ago, MysteriousBtrain said:

I just would like to remind everyone at the end of the day a bus is a bus.

Anyone with common sense knows that.

As for the rest of your post.

Spectrum signs have been known to have problems, but the point of this discussion had nothing to do with that. Signs are also the least of the problems, as they do not equate to actual performance and overall quality(and they are easily replaceable).

Also, 7366-7437 weren't rushed since those were a part of the option order and were built alongside the rest of the buses. The MTA was being wildly cheap with that entire order, especially with how low the contract was at the time of award. If you can compare these with any of the blue diesel Xcelsiors we have, you can clearly tell that they invested more into the blue buses because the difference in quality is very noticeable. Hell, 4810-4899 as a whole is better then 7090-7437.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Cait Sith

[BreeddekalbL]

Heard E mirrors are coming

[RandomRider0101]

@Cait Sith If you could rank all of our current bus fleets from best to worse (or vice versa), how would you rank them based on quality? 

[MTA Bus]

21 hours ago, FLX9304 said:

Trash? Before you call New Flyers Trash, take a look at the Novabuses that got issues first 

As someone who rides them at least once a day, they are trash. They jerk too much when braking, ride quality is not great, and they’re just not the best built Xcelsiors we have in the fleet tbh.

[RSMG106]

23 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

Again, you don't have single clue what you are talking about.

Have you BEEN ON the 7090-7437 batch of New Flyers? They are literal garbage(the Casey Stengel batch being the absolute worst of them). Those are the worst 40fters we have in the fleet. The ride quality is garbage, they rock and sway so much even at minimal speed, the suspensions are garbage to a point where some of them can't take bumps all that well(especially the Casey Stengel batch, again), they're slower than the rest of the Xcelsior fleet, they jerk a lot when braking compared to the rest of the Xcelsiors, the list of complaints goes on. I ride them damn near every single day. I have more of an opinion on them than someone who lives all the way in Philadelphia and thinks they know better and don't deal with them daily.

On the topic of New Flyers being trash, 5987-6125 are also trash.....operators(especially the Q44 operators) don't like those buses especially at speed because the transmission throttles the performance at the 4th to 6th gears....operators have to hold the transmission at 3rd gear to get any speed, and that in itself is also dangerous because you can blow the engine like that. 5987-6029 in particular are wearing out much faster than the 5900-series Novas ever did, to the point where they've been running more 4700s on the Q44. The ride quality on those buses have gotten really, really bad.

6126-6286 are the same way, but those are slower because of the HVAC units(but they do ride better than the previous batch).

The 8Ks are having parts replaced, but the issue is that it's interfering with the HVAC units. It has nothing to do with how the buses perform or ride in service. The LFS hybrids have been doing fine since the rear door issue. The issue is also being worked on by Nova Bus technicians as well.

As someone who lives in this damn city and uses the buses to commute to/from my destinations 6 days a week, I have more of an input about them than you do, especially since you're an outsider looking in.

I will admit, throughout my three years as an transit enthusiast, I will say that the 2014-15 XD40s are bad. The ride quality is not good unlike the other XD40s in the MTA's fleet. The XD60s from 5987-6125 are also bad as well. Despite the buses being lighter than 6126-6286, the transmission set-up is messed up. Whether or not the MTA set it up like that or New Flyer themselves, these are definitely problematic. I've been to every depot that was originally assigned for the 2014-15 XD40s, and on the 2016-17 XD60s. I've thought Ulmer Park's XD40 batch was bad, but Stengel seems to be getting the worst out of the bunch. I've also been on Stengel's XD60s from 5987-6029, and it seems that Stengel's batch are suffering the most. Although I enjoy these buses, I do see why these specific orders of XD40s and 60s are the worst compared to the others.

[xD4nn]

11 minutes ago, RSMG106 said:

I will admit, throughout my three years as an transit enthusiast, I will say that the 2014-15 XD40s are bad. The ride quality is not good unlike the other XD40s in the MTA's fleet. The XD60s from 5987-6125 are also bad as well. Despite the buses being lighter than 6126-6286, the transmission set-up is messed up. Whether or not the MTA set it up like that or New Flyer themselves, these are definitely problematic. I've been to every depot that was originally assigned for the 2014-15 XD40s, and on the 2016-17 XD60s. I've thought Ulmer Park's XD40 batch was bad, but Stengel seems to be getting the worst out of the bunch. I've also been on Stengel's XD60s from 5987-6029, and it seems that Stengel's batch are suffering the most. Although I enjoy these buses, I do see why these specific orders of XD40s and 60s are the worst compared to the others.

I've ridden most of Stengel's stuff and they aren't that bad. They ride better than those new LFSes.

[IAlam]

On 4/29/2023 at 8:22 PM, Cait Sith said:

Have you BEEN ON the 7090-7437 batch of New Flyers? They are literal garbage(the Casey Stengel batch being the absolute worst of them). Those are the worst 40fters we have in the fleet. The ride quality is garbage, they rock and sway so much even at minimal speed, the suspensions are garbage to a point where some of them can't take bumps all that well(especially the Casey Stengel batch, again), they're slower than the rest of the Xcelsior fleet, they jerk a lot when braking compared to the rest of the Xcelsiors, the list of complaints goes on. I ride them damn near every single day. I have more of an opinion on them than someone who lives all the way in Philadelphia and thinks they know better and don't deal with them daily.

On the topic of New Flyers being trash, 5987-6125 are also trash.....operators(especially the Q44 operators) don't like those buses especially at speed because the transmission throttles the performance at the 4th to 6th gears....operators have to hold the transmission at 3rd gear to get any speed, and that in itself is also dangerous because you can blow the engine like that. 5987-6029 in particular are wearing out much faster than the 5900-series Novas ever did, to the point where they've been running more 4700s on the Q44. The ride quality on those buses have gotten really, really bad.

6126-6286 are the same way, but those are slower because of the HVAC units(but they do ride better than the previous batch).

 

2 hours ago, RSMG106 said:

I will admit, throughout my three years as an transit enthusiast, I will say that the 2014-15 XD40s are bad. The ride quality is not good unlike the other XD40s in the MTA's fleet. The XD60s from 5987-6125 are also bad as well. Despite the buses being lighter than 6126-6286, the transmission set-up is messed up. Whether or not the MTA set it up like that or New Flyer themselves, these are definitely problematic. I've been to every depot that was originally assigned for the 2014-15 XD40s, and on the 2016-17 XD60s. I've thought Ulmer Park's XD40 batch was bad, but Stengel seems to be getting the worst out of the bunch. I've also been on Stengel's XD60s from 5987-6029, and it seems that Stengel's batch are suffering the most. Although I enjoy these buses, I do see why these specific orders of XD40s and 60s are the worst compared to the others.

Yeah CS in general got one bad batch after another, the XD40/60's has so many issues from just a passenger perspective. On the regular, I see buses with broken signs and the ride quality is awful. There's so much leakage from the HVAC units that often you can see the trail of grime on the walls. (I typically find it worse on the blue and golds.) Not to mention the fact that the depo got a bunch of hand-me-downs for the Q12. Almost every day I see a couple 40ft's running on the line and the newer XD60s already look like they need to be replaced now. Heck, I can even see ops avoiding the XD40's I see the NG's running all the time into the night and weekend it amazes me how almost every day I get an NG considering they're aren't many remaining now. It's either that or the Nova but it seems like those ops are steering clear of the XD40's as much as they can. Those LFSA buses that CS originally had were much better in quality, and I can only hope that these new Novas are good since we're getting the majority of them.

[Express Bus Operator]

On 4/29/2023 at 10:39 AM, NewFlyer 230 said:

I’m curious, what about those buses do you dislike? 
Me personally I’ve always found the NYCT units to be slow when accelerating and the bus feels like it drags. The MTA bus units were always my favorite from the bunch. 

The TA programs the speed on these buses before they go out on revenue service.

The only buses on the NF that are extremely fast are the 4800s but, they have poor suspensions. 

[Transit Enthusiast]

This Hybrid sounds like it is on it's last legs (well, they ALL are at this point, some even more so than others). New fleets coming to MTA Bus Company soon, so I'm glad I got to ride one of these OGs again.

P.S., anyone got advice for Sound Recordings?