Author Archives: Oren

Bus Photo of the Month: June 2024

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Mercedes-Benz O530G Citaro

Location: Trafalgar Square, London
Operator of Vehicle: Transport for London
Date of Photo: May 21, 2008

Articulated buses (or “Bendy Buses in British English) are common in many large cities across the globe, but not so much in the United Kingdom.  London’s brief period of running such buses began on June 2, 2002 and did not even last a whole decade.  Articulated buses were not permitted to operate in the UK until 1980 due to their length, though an exception to this rule was granted for a few trials of articulated buses from MAN and Leyland in 1979.  South Yorkshire Transport ordered 13 articulated buses from Leyland in 1985 and Grampian Regional Transport received a single Mercedes-Benz O405G in 1992, but bus operators wouldn’t really order any articulated buses in large numbers until near the turn of the 21st century when accessible low floor models became available.  

London transport companies were interested in articulated buses since they could carry more people than a double decker bus (albeit with more standees and fewer seats) and unlike the iconic Routemasters, they were handicapped accessible.  However, it was not long after these buses entered service that criticisms began to mount.  Due to their length, they sometimes blocked intersections and motorcyclists and bicycle riders disliked the larger blind spots that the longer buses had.  Engine fires in 2003 and 2004 only turned the public against the bendy buses even more.  In 2008, Boris Johnson’s mayoral campaign included a pledge to phase out articulated buses from London’s fleet as soon as their operating contracts expired.  Following his election, this happened as proposed, and the “New Routemaster” entered service in 2012.  The last articulated bus trips in London occurred on December 9, 2011.  At its peak, the articulated bus fleet in London consisted of just under 400 vehicles.

Following their withdrawal from service, the articulated buses were transferred to other parts of the UK, including Leicester, Liverpool, Brighton, and Hove.  Some were even transferred to an Arriva subsidiary in Malta.  

For more photos of London’s articulated Mercedes-Benz O530G Citaro buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: June 2024

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1992 Tube Stock 91155

Location: White City Station, London, England
Operator of Vehicle: Transport for London
Date of Photo: May 19, 2008

For reasons I’ll share in a separate post, my 4 year old has taken an interest in the London Underground lately.  As a result, the photo of the month is coming to us from London.  I find photography on the Tube to be a mixed experience.  The most positive aspect of it is that the staff are well trained on what the photography rules are and often come up to photographers to remind them that flash is not to be used instead of declaring (falsely in most circumstances) that photography on a subway system is illegal.  The more challenging part of photographing on the Tube is that many of the angles and perspectives I usually try capturing are “flipped” on account of the system’s left hand running.  You might now be thinking how big of a difference does this truly make in taking pictures, but for some reason, I’ve always felt something is a bit “off” when photographing in London or other locations with left hand running.  Have you experienced this?

Keen eyed readers might notice that the train in this photo isn’t running on the left side as one might expect.  The Central Line has a brief section of “right hand running” due to a long disused loop track that served the former Wood Lane station and White City Depot in this area.  This track arrangement allowed westbound trains to turn back for eastbound service without the train operator needing to change ends.

For more photos of London Underground 1992 Stock, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2024

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Gillig Advantage 5627

Location: Roberto Clemente Bridge, Pittsburgh, PA
Operator of Vehicle: Port Authority of Allegheny County
Date of Photo: October 21, 2020

I’m a huge baseball fan and have aspirations of making it to every Major League stadium at some point.  With a visit to Pittsburgh last month that included taking in a game at PNC Park, I’ve now visited 13 of 30 (as well as some stadiums that are no longer in use).  There are many reasons to like the Pirates’ home stadium, one of which is the experience of walking across the Roberto Clemente Bridge from Downtown Pittsburgh to the North Shore where the stadium is located.  Prior to games, the bridge is closed to vehicular traffic and is exclusively used by pedestrians.  At the north end of the bridge, immediately behind where I was standing to take this photo, is one of the entrances to PNC Park and a statue of Roberto Clemente, the Pirates’ hall of fame outfielder for whom the bridge is named after.  

Currently, no bus routes use the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  However, in the fall of 2020 when this photo was taken, the nearby Rachel Carson Bridge was closed for rehabilitation so some bus routes were rerouted over the Clemente Bridge.  In addition, the pandemic meant that the baseball games that were played that year were played in empty stadiums, so the scene outside PNC Park that year often looked like this, with little traffic of any type crossing the bridge, whether that be cars, buses, or pedestrians.

For more photos of Pittsburgh buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: May 2024

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Siemens Charger SC-44 4623

Location: Jackson, MI
Operator of Vehicle: Amtrak
Date of Photo: October 17, 2020

Amtrak began operation on May 1, 1971, so it seems fitting for an Amtrak Rail Photo of the Month to mark the occasion.  After many years of associating the GE Genesis engines as the most common head end power on Amtrak services outside of the Northeast Corridor, the Siemens Charger is becoming a more frequent sight across the national rail company’s network.  Siemens Charger locomotives can be found on Amtrak’s long distance services, California state supported services, and on its “Amtrak Midwest” services such as the Wolverine, seen here departing from Jackson, Michigan on its way from Chicago to Pontiac in 2020.

For more photos of Amtrak’s Siemens Charger locomotives, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: April 2024

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New Flyer XN60 18711

Location: Las Vegas Boulevard at Fremont Street, August 16, 2019
Operator of Vehicle: Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Date of Photo: August 16, 2019

Given the amount of time tourists spend on the Strip in Las Vegas, it is reasonable for the double decker buses that operate along “the Duece” route along the city’s most famous street to be the bus model that transit fans associate with Sin City.  In fact, Las Vegas is one of six transit agencies in the United States to operate double decker buses.  However, the majority of the Las Vegas bus fleet is made up of New Flyer buses with just a single level.  Although many visitors to Las Vegas never venture far from the Strip (if at all), Las Vegas has one of the most extensive “night bus” networks in the United States due to the 24 hour nature of the casinos and hospitality industry.  

For more photos of RTC Transit buses in Las Vegas, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: April 2024

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Metro-Cammell Glasgow Underground Stock 118

Location: Cowcaddens Station, Glasgow, Scotland
Operator of Vehicle: Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
Date of Photo: August 2, 2005

A recent video by railfan and videographer extraordinaire Geoff Marshall about the new Glasgow Subway rolling stock caught my attention.  The third generation of rolling stock for this unique subway system is in the process of being introduced, which means that the second generation stock that has been in service since 1980 will be retired soon.  This second generation stock is what I rode when I visited Glasgow for a day in the summer of 2005, so it seemed fitting to feature the outgoing rolling stock as a Photo of the Month.

The Glasgow Subway opened on December 14, 1896, making it the third oldest subway in Europe (only London and Budapest are older).  However, it does have the distinction of being the first mass transit system in the world to be known as a subway.  The trains have an uncommon gauge of 4 feet, making the trains narrower than those on the deep level tube lines of the London Underground.  The Glasgow Subway also has the distinction of having never been expanded since it opened, it serves the exact same 15 stations and 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of track that it has been serving for over 127 since opening.

With the arrival of the third generation rolling stock, it is expected that the second generation stock will be phased out over the course of 2024.  The third generation of stock is designed to be converted to driverless operation and will have full front views for passengers, just like the Docklands Light Railway, once “ZPTO” begins.  There are also plans to install platform screen doors in conjunction with the transition to driverless operation.  Geoff Marshall covers these topics and more in his video, which can be seen here.  

Have you been on the Glasgow Subway?

For more photos of the Glasgow Subway, please click here.  

Oren’s Reading List: Inside the Massive Repair Shops Where Subway Cars Go for a Makeover

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R68 2582
Subway cars travel a lot of miles each day and each year over the course of their service lives.  And many subway cars in New York have been in service for nearly 40 years or more.  Ever wonder how they keep them maintained and running?  Wonder no more with this in depth look with photos from the New York Times.

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Bus Photo of the Month: March 2024

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New Flyer C40LF 259

Location: Brooklyn Avenue and St. Marks Place, Brooklyn, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: February 26, 2024

The New Flyer Low Floor bus model was the cornerstone of New Flyer Industries’ product line for nearly 30 years.  The model was introduced in 1991 after a Dutch bus model, Den Oudsten’s B86 Low Floor, was adapted for the North American market.  Ultimately, the New Flyer Low Floor would be available in 30, 35, 40, and 60 foot lengths and with CNG, diesel, diesel-electric hybrid, electric (trolleybus), hydrogen fuel cell, gasoline-electric hybrid, hydrogen electric hybrid, and LNG variants.  The New Flyer Low Floor was available commercially through the 2010 model year, having effectively been replaced by the “restyled” New Flyer Low Floor model starting in 2006.  However, when New York City Transit wished to purchase a large order of new CNG buses despite the original Low Floor line being discontinued, an additional four orders of C40LFs were manufactured for the United States’s largest transit agency.  One of those buses is pictured here.

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit’s C40LF buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: March 2024

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M9 9010

Location: Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: Long Island Railroad
Date of Photo: February 26, 2024

About a year ago and after about 60 years of planning and construction, the Long Island Railroad finally arrived at Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan’s east side.  Since 1910, the LIRR’s sole Manhattan terminal had been Penn Station on the west side but there had been a longstanding desire to make it convenient for LIRR passengers to reach the east side and avoid congestion at Penn Station.  The first proposal to bring the LIRR to Manhattan’s east side was formally made in 1963.  In 1968, the MTA proposed the construction of the 63rd Street Line, a two level tunnel under the East River and Roosevelt Island that would have subway trains running on its upper level and LIRR trains on its lower level.  Groundbreaking for the 63rd Street Line took place on November 24, 1969 and the upper level subway tunnels would open for service on October 29, 1989, initially as a stub line to 21st Street-Queensbridge before being connected to the Queens Boulevard Line at the end of 2001.  However, the LIRR tunnels remained unused and unconnected to any other tracks.

In the 1990s after a study showed that more LIRR riders worked closer to Grand Central than to Penn Station, the MTA began to make plans to make use of the lower level tunnel meant for LIRR trains.  Construction on the tunnels to the east (in Queens) and west (in Manhattan) of the initial tunnel, as well as the LIRR platforms at Grand Central itself, began in 2008.  On January 25, 2023, the new station, referred to officially as “Grand Central Madison”, opened for service.  For about a month, trains shuttled between Grand Central and the LIRR’s hub at Jamaica.  On February 27, “full service” at Grand Central Madison began.  In conjunction with the construction of a third track on the LIRR main line east of Jamaica, a significant increase in the number of trains that the LIRR could operate into Manhattan at peak periods was facilitated with this service change.

Grand Central Madison features eight tracks served by four platforms about 140 feet beneath street level.  The escalators that serve the station’s mezzanine are the longest in all of New York City.  One of the most remarkable things I found while exploring the station earlier this week is that despite this section of Grand Central being brand new, it was designed to feel as if it was a part of Grand Central “proper” with its curved roofs and using the same style of font and positioning for wayfinding as the older parts of Grand Central.  With the exception of the escalator that created the “transition” between the Metro-North section and LIRR section of the station which didn’t mesh nearly as well as the rest, the aesthetics really made for a unified station experience.  The artwork above each escalator from the concourse to the mezzanine featuring elements of the New York State seal was a nice touch as well.

Have you been to Grand Central Madison yet?

For more photos of the Long Island Railroad, please click here.  

Oren’s Reading List: First Stop Last Stop

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R160B 9093 at Coney Island, September 1, 2019

There is something alluring about the last stop on a train line.  Perhaps you take a train regularly and wonder what exactly is at a place such as Wonderland (end of the MBTA Blue Line) or Cockfosters (end of the London Piccadilly Line).  Since 2013, New York based artist and photographer Rita Nannini has been on a quest to photograph the first and last stations on each of New York’s 26 subway lines (she counts each of the three shuttles separately, the Z as its own line, and also included the Staten Island Railway).  It is interesting to see what she has selected for each station, since I myself have also been to each terminal station (as well as all the other intermediate stations along the way), and remarkable given the breadth of New York’s subway system the many different places you will be deposited should you ride a train to the end of its route.  One only has to take the A train to the Rockaways to understand.

You can see Rita Nannini’s work on her website.  

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.