Category Archives: Bus Photo of the Month

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2020

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New Flyer D60HF 3014

New Flyer D60HF 3014

Location: Alma Street at W 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Operator of Vehicle: Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC)
Date of Photo: August 6, 2007

What does a bus line have to do in order to keep its traditional branding when other routes with the same branding are rebranded?  Being the most used bus route in Canada and the United States apparently helps.  For many years, there were a handful of bus routes in Vancouver called “B-Lines” that offered high frequency, limited stop service.  Two of them were replaced by Skytrain extensions over the years.  Earlier this year, TransLink decided to rebrand two of them under its new RapidBus brand, but the 99 B-Line that connects the Commercial-Broadway transit hub with the University of British Columbia campus, is retaining the B-Line branding.  Ultimately, the 99 B-Line will be phased out when SkyTrain’s Millennium Line is extended to UBC, and this is the primary reason I’ve found that explains why the route designation wasn’t changed.  However, serving an average of 55,900 passengers daily (as of 2018) probably doesn’t hurt the avoiding rebranding effort.

In addition to being the busiest bus route in either the US or Canada, the 99 B-Line also has the distinction of being the first Vancouver area bus route to have all door boarding with fare inspections to ensure that all passengers have paid.

For more photos of CMBC New Flyer buses, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2020

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Gillig Advantage 59096

Gillig Advantage 59096

Location: Downtown Sarasota Transfer Station, Sarasota, FL
Operator of Vehicle: Manatee County Area Transit (MCAT)
Date of Photo: March 15, 2019

Usually bus routes are operated by a single agency, for as one can imagine, coordinating service across multiple agencies is potentially quite challenging.  As it is, even within a single agency, the overwhelming majority of agencies often avoid splitting the operation of a single route among different garages when possible.  And the other split agency operation that I can think of (routes 400 and 402 connecting Jerusalem and Bnei Brak in Israel) was changed to have a single operator for each route in order to simplify the service.  Yet the bus route connecting Sarasota and Bradenton, one of the busiest transit lines on the Florida Suncoast, is a split operation between Manatee County Area Transit (MCAT) and Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT).  In preparing the new Tampa Bay & Florida Suncoast section, I was unable to find any explanation for how this split operation came to be or any other historical information, though I did find proposed plans to have MCAT operate the entire route on its own.  

Do you know how this split operation on the 99 between Sarasota and Bradenton came about?  Can you think of another example of a route operated by multiple agencies like this?  If so, please leave a comment below, as I (and I’m sure others) would love to learn more about these unique operations.

For more photos of Manatee County Area Transit (MCAT) buses, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: June 2020

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New Flyer D60HF 5519

New Flyer D60HF 5519

Location: Lexington Avenue at East 75th Street, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: April 25, 2012

I’ve spilled some digital ink on the retirement of various New York City Subway cars and the venerable RTS buses, but other buses in New York City that have distinctions of their own have been retired in the time I was redesigning the New York City section of this website.  This post will profile one of them, the New Flyer D60HF, the first articulated bus to operate in the Big Apple.  

The first D60HF buses arrived in 1996 and debuted in The Bronx on the Bx1 route.  In late 1999, they were introduced to Manhattan on the M79 and M86 routes.  Ultimately, New York City Transit (and the MTA Bus Company) would order and operate several hundred D60HF buses.  For most of their careers, they operated in The Bronx and Manhattan.  They also made some appearances on routes in Queens and Brooklyn towards the end of their careers in New York.

In addition to being the first articulated buses in New York and the only high floor articulated bus model ever ordered by NYCT, the D60HF was one of the first bus models in New York to be built with a front door wheelchair lift, and was the bus type that was used when the first Select Bus Service route, the Bx12, was launched in 2008.

As a busfan, I enjoy getting to ride articulated buses, and I really enjoyed sitting in the pair of seats in the D60HF’s articulated joint.  However, commuters were not always as excited by the sight of articulated buses on their routes.  When converting a route from standard buses to articulated buses, the MTA often reduces the frequency of the buses slightly since each articulated bus can carry more people than a standard 40 foot bus.  

Although the D60HF made its last revenue trip on March 31, 2019, articulated buses remain a significant part of New York City’s bus fleet.  They operate in four of the five boroughs, and while some of the articulated buses in the current fleet were built by NovaBUS, New Flyer’s articulated Xcelsior model has replaced some of their D60HF predecessors.  

For more photos of NYCT’s New Flyer D60HF Buses, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2020

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Neoplan AN460LF 1132

Neoplan AN460LF 1132

Location: South Station, Boston, MA
Operator of Vehicle: Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority
Date of Photo: January 28, 2018

The MBTA Silver Line is certainly a curious hybrid within one of the few transit agencies in the United States to operate such a wide variety of route types.  The line is served by buses, but portions of the line operate in a tunnel where the buses are powered by electricity rather than diesel.  There are named stations with signage in the style of the agency’s rail lines, and the route appears in its own color on the system map.  But once the buses reach the Boston Waterfront district, they operate on the surface seemingly like any other MBTA bus service would.  

The dual powered Neoplan buses on the SL1, SL2, and SL3 routes are reaching retirement age, and the MBTA is already testing battery powered New Flyer buses that could replace the original Silver Line fleet.  While the exact plans for replacing the Neoplans are still undecided from what I understand, there will only be so many more opportunities to ride these buses on this one of a kind line in Boston.

For more photos of the MBTA’s Neoplan AN460LF buses, please click here.

 

Bus Photo of the Month: April 2020

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BredaMenarinibus M321 108

BredaMenarinibus M321 108

Location: Via Torre de Argentina at Largo Argentina, Rome, Italy Operator of Vehicle: ATAC Date of Photo: February 5, 2008

There’s no sugarcoating what is on my mind right now.  I spent five months living in the heart of Rome in early 2008.  When I picture the streets of Rome, I picture bustling sidewalks and piazzas full of people.  The streets are filled with vehicular traffic, and buses go by packed with people to the point you always have to be aware of potential pickpockets.  The photos I’ve seen from Italy (among other places) in the world in light of the current Covid-19 health crisis are surreal.  I haven’t been on a transit vehicle in two weeks.  Who knows when I’ll next take a transit ride.  And let’s be honest, that’s a pretty trivial question right now.  However, I do hope that as a society, we are able to return to our normal ways of life as soon as it is safe to do so, and that the streets of Rome look more like they did at this time in 2008, pictured here, than they do today. For more photos of Rome’s BredaMenarinibus Buses, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: March 2020

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NABI Metro 45C 8392

NABI Metro 45C 8392

Location: Arcadia Street at Main Street, Los Angeles, CA
Operator of Vehicle: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA)
Date of Photo: July 11, 2014

As mentioned in this post, I recently took the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle from Los Angeles to Austin.  However, in order to catch the train, I had to fly out to Los Angeles where I had about 10 hours to fill before the train departed.  I ended up making an impromptu trip out to the Southern California Railway Museum, but my previous plan had been to use most of those 10 hours for transitfanning, and at the suggestion of a good friend, focus my transitfanning on the Silver Line BRT route.  The Silver Line extends 38 miles from El Monte to San Pedro, with much of the route utilizing two transit ways in the middle of interstate highways.  As a result of this setup, the Silver Line (and the other buses using these transitways) have dedicated stations in the interstate medians that give off a “full fledged” transit station look from afar.  It is certainly a unique operation!

While I have no regrets about how I spent my Sunday in Los Angeles, I wound up taking no photos of LA transit other than some photos of Angels Flight, which was closed during my previous visit in 2014.  However, I did get a photo of the Silver Line on its street running section in Downtown LA on that same 2014 trip, which I offer as the Photo of the Month for March 2020.  On a future visit to Los Angeles, perhaps I will have the opportunity to check out the Silver Line in actuality (I did see the Harbor Transitway from the Flyaway Bus that operates between LAX and Union Station) and get additional photos of it.

For more photos of LACMTA Buses, please click here.

 

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2020

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New Flyer E800 5208 & ETI Sakoda Trolleybus 5495

New Flyer E800 5208 & ETI Sakoda Trolleybus 5495

Location: Market Street at Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA
Operator of Vehicle: San Francisco Municipal Railway
Date of Photo: January 9, 2006

If you ignore the fact that neither bus in this photo is still in revenue service, you might think I took this photo in recent days.  A fair amount of digital ink has been devoted ot the fact that Market Street, one of the main thoroughfares in San Francisco, is now only open to public transit vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians.  I took this photo in 2006, long before the “Better Market Street” plan was implemented last week, much less devised.  It just so happens that there was basically no other traffic captured in this photo, but it might be a fascinating project to try recreating the photo with the current rolling stock and reconfigured street the next time I am in San Francisco.  

For more photos of SF MUNI buses, please click here.

 

Bus Photo of the Month: January 2020

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Proterra Catalyst 3001

Proterra Catalyst 3001

Location: New Hampshire Avenue at Sunderland Place, NW, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: District Department of Transportation
Date of Photo: September 7, 2018

Yesterday, I shared a photo of a vehicle type that will not be serving passengers in the new decade.  Today, we will turn our focus towards the future and look at a vehicle that I expect to be serving more and more people in the next ten years.  

There has been a longstanding desire in the transit world to operate electric vehicles due to their energy efficiencies.  While electric powered trolley buses or trackless trollies have been around for many years, I think it is only recently that bus manufacturers have developed rubber tired battery powered vehicles that do not need to run under a wire all or most of the time.  Although 99 percent of the world’s electric buses currently operate in China, they are gradually becoming more widespread elsewhere.  While it is a far cry from the 421,000 electric buses in China as of 2019, there are about 300 electric buses serving transit agencies in the United States and that number is growing.  In fact, as of November 2019, American demand for electric buses has exceeded manufacturing capacity for the first time, and only five states (Arkansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia) do not have a single transit agency planning to procure electric buses if they have not done so already.

I’ll hopefully write about my first time on board one of DDOT’s Proterra electric buses that have been a part of the DC Circulator fleet since 2018 sometime soon.  But in the meantime, enjoy one of the first photos I took of an electric Circulator bus in late 2018.

Have you been on an electric bus yet?  If so, where was it and what did you think of it?  Post about it in the comments below!  

For more photos of DC Circulator Proterra buses, please click here.

 

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2019

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Gillig Advantage 606

Gillig Advantage 606

Location: Campus Road at Central Avenue, Ithaca, NY
Operator of Vehicle: Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit
Date of Photo: February 14, 2007

In some places, it doesn’t take more than a few snowflakes to shut down transit service.  In others, snow needs to be measured in feet before that thought even crosses anyone’s mind.  TCAT in Ithaca, New York is quite familiar with winter weather and knows how to operate in it.  Same goes for the other local institutions in the area, such as Cornell University, which rarely cancels classes due to snowfall.  However, it does happen on rare occasions, such as yesterday, when nearly a foot of snow fell as students were returning from Thanksgiving break.  It was one of Cornell’s rare snow days, the university has only had four complete shutdowns for snow in the past 26 years.

In light of this, it seemed appropriate to share a photo from another Cornell Snow Day, albeit a partial one (classes weren’t cancelled until about 10:00 AM) on February 14, 2007.  TCAT kept the buses running for much of the morning, ultimately suspending service after the university closure took effect.  

For more photos of TCAT’s Gillig Advantage Buses, please click here.

 

Bus Photo of the Month: November 2019

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Gillig Advantage 4019

Gillig Advantage 4019

Location: West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville, TN
Operator of Vehicle: Knoxville Area Transit (KAT)
Date of Photo: November 28, 2014

My family never had any particularly strong Thanksgiving traditions.  However, Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page comes from a family that has been gathering for a family reunion each Thanksgiving for decades.  There are two significant upsides to this situation.  The first is that there is virtually no discussion about whose family we spend the holiday with, which is a topic that I understand to be a difficult one in some homes.  The second (and the one probably of more interest to the people reading this) is that since the reunion moves from place to place each year, I have had the opportunity to photograph and ride transit in places that I had never been previously (though that streak comes to an end this year as the reunion returns to a “repeat” location since I’ve been invited for the first time).  Within this second upside, there is an upside and a downside.  The upside is that many transit agencies operate a regular, weekday schedule on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which means transit fans such as myself get to enjoy rush hour frequencies on a day with less street traffic, which is a pleasure.  The downside is that service is sometimes limited over the holiday weekend, resulting in situations such as what I experienced when we were in Knoxville for Thanksgiving in 2014.  Knoxville Area Transit doesn’t have a particularly large transit system to begin with, so the holiday schedules coupled with the long headways in that system resulted in my getting a single transit photo during the reunion there.  So in honor of the holiday at the end of this month, for the Bus Photo of the Month for November 2019, I present my lone photo (to date) from Knoxville, TN.  

For more information about Knoxville Area Transit, please click here.