Bus Photo of the Month: November 2020

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Gillig Phantom 3212Gillig Phantom 3212

Location: 2nd Avenue at Broad Street, Seattle, WA
Operator of Vehicle: King County Metro
Date of Photo: August 3, 2007

On Friday, October 23, 2020, King County Metro retired the last of its diesel buses.  At the time that the first of its “1100 Series” Gillig Phantoms was delivered, there were 1,100 buses in the King County Metro fleet, all of which were diesel powered.  The one featured in this photograph was among them.  Fast forward to today, and with the retirement of the last Gillig Phantom, the KCM fleet is now made up entirely of diesel electric hybrids, electric trolleybuses, or electric buses such as Proterra Catalyst and BYD K9 models.  It is one of the largest bus fleets in the United States that does not have any vehicles to only be powered by diesel.  King County Metro is aiming to have the entire fleet consist of zero-emissions vehicles by 2040.

For more photos of King County Metro buses, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: October 2020

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R62A 1946R62A 1946

Location: Times Square Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: March 24, 2017

Later this month on October 27, the New York City Subway will mark the 116th anniversary of its opening.  Since then, the system has grown from a single line within Manhattan to a sprawling system with nearly 500 stations and nearly 6 million passengers on an average weekday (as of 2017).  Although the original route is no longer operated as it was on October 27, 1904, trains continue to ply the route between Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central on the 4, 5, and 6 trains, Grand Central and Times Square on the 42nd Street Shuttle, and between Times Square and 145th Street on the 1, 2, and 3 trains.  This routing was used until the “H” system was inaugurated on August 1, 1918.  The shuttle platforms that are in use today date back to the original IRT opening in 1904, although the MTA is currently in the process of rebuilding the Shuttle in order to make the line ADA compliant.  Until this project began, it was very easy to see the original IRT construction while standing on the Times Square Shuttle platforms.

For more photos of New York City’s R62A subway cars, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: October 2020

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New Flyer XN40 2992New Flyer XN40 2992

Location: Hayes Street at 18th Street, Crystal City, VA
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: March 24, 2019

In just a few weeks, there will be a second BRT system operating in the DC area.  On October 14, Montgomery County will launch FLASH on US 29 in Maryland, connecting Silver Spring, White Oak, and Burtonsville.  So while Metroway, a bus rapid transit line connecting Crystal City to Alexandria in Virginia will no longer be the only BRT route in the DC area, it can always claim to be the first.  

Metroway launched on August 24, 2014.  The route stops at designated stations with level boarding, distinct canopy designs, and real time countdown clocks.  However, fare payment is still made on board the buses.  While Metroway buses use dedicated roadways for a portion of the route, there are other segments where they operate in mixed traffic.  The route originally launched with NABI 42 BRT buses, but since December 18, 2016, New Flyer XN40 buses such as this one have served the route.

FLASH will be operated by Ride On and will feature things that Metroway lacks, such as off vehicle payments and bike racks inside the buses rather than on the front.  So not only will the DC area be getting a second BRT service, it will also be introduced to some additional BRT features that are not present in the area just yet.  

For more photos of WMATA’s New Flyer XN40 Buses, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: September 2020

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Orion I 387Orion I 387

Location: East Avenue at Tower Road
Operator of Vehicle: Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit
Date of Photo: December 2, 2005

Much has changed for transit systems in terms of levels of service provided, routes, schedules, and more since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic earlier this year.  This is especially true for a transit system that primarily serves a college town, such as TCAT in Ithaca, NY.  TCAT’s Fall 2020 service plan includes an interesting quirk where an old route has been partially revived nearly 15 years after its discontinuation.  Prior to January 2006, Route 84 operated between Collegetown and the B-Lot on Cornell University’s campus.  At that time, the 84 was discontinued and replaced by a modified Route 50 and a new route, the 54.  The 50 and 54 were replaced by during the 2010 Transit Development Plan by the 51 and 53, and those routes have basically remained as is since that time.  However, in order to provide additional capacity on routes serving Cornell’s campus (which is open for in person learning this fall), a new circulator route was created to operate between Collegetown and Central Campus, and it will be known as Route 84.  While it won’t extend all the way to the Vet School, what was old is new again, at least to some extent.

In addition to the differences in alignment between this version of the 84 and its predecessor, the bus seen operating the 84 in this photo from 2005 will not be serving the 2020 version.  This Orion I bus was manufactured in 1989, featured a single panel sliding front door (and was not wheelchair accessible), and was retired in 2007, not too long (relatively speaking) after the 84’s previous incarnation was discontinued.  Given the current makeup of the TCAT fleet, the new 84 is likely to be served primarily by Gillig Advantage low floor buses, which weren’t even a part of the fleet in early 2006.

For more photos of TCAT’s Orion I buses, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: September 2020

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B92 Stock 69

B92 Stock 69

Location: Poonton Dock, London, England
Operator of Vehicle: Transport for London
Date of Photo: May 20, 2008

Given the significance of the London Underground in transportation history, it is understandable that other rapid transit systems in Greater London do not have nearly as much attention paid to them.  However, they should not be overlooked entirely.  Yesterday, the Docklands Light Railway marked its 32nd anniversary.  It initially opened on August 31, 1987 with 8 miles of track, and has rapidly expanded to its current size of 24 miles of track with several additional extensions being proposed as well.  Passenger traffic on the system has often exceeded expectations.  When the system was designed, the Docklands area of London were largely undeveloped and hard to get to.  While DLR was meant to address the latter issue, development boomed as the area around Canary Wharf became a financial center; the population of the Docklands area has doubled in the past 30 years.  

Much of the DLR runs at grade or on elevated structures, as seen in this photo of a train approaching Poonton Dock station, with views of the Docklands developments and the City of London from many locations.  Trains are automated but have a staff attendant on board to check fares and take over operations in emergencies.  There has often not been enough rolling stock to cope with demand.  The B92 stock seen here was delivered in the mid-1990s and is expected to be retired upon the delivery of new cars built by CAF starting in 2023.

For more photos of the Docklands Light Railway, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: August 2020

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Bombardier Mark II Car 204

Bombardier Mark II Car 204

Location: VCC/Clark Station, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Operator of Vehicle: British Columbia Rapid Transit Company
Date of Photo: August 7, 2007

SkyTrain is certainly one of the most unique transit systems I’ve been on.  At one time, it was the longest fully automated driverless system in the world, but it has since been surpassed by systems in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (though it is still the longest rapid transit system in all of Canada).  The mostly elevated system averages speeds of 28 MPH (45 KPH) including stops, significantly faster than standard buses or even the B-Line buses I wrote about for the August 2020 Bus Photo of the Month.  The system includes what was the longest cable-supported transit-only bridge in the world from 1990 until 2019, aptly named SkyBridge, and also uses the Dunsmuir Tunnel in Downtown Vancouver, originally constructed in 1932 for use by the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1932.

I rode the entire system in 2007 during my only visit to Vancouver.  Since then, the Canada Line and Evergreen Extension have both opened, and the Expo Line and Millennium Line use a type of rolling stock that was only ordered and delivered in the past four years.  I hope to visit Vancouver and explore its transit system again at some point in the future, and certainly encourage others to do the same, as Vancouver is a delightful place to visit.

For more photos of Skytrain, please click here.

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.

A Final Ride on a WMATA Orion V

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Orion V 2160
On this date one year ago, I took what turned out to be my final ride on board a WMATA Orion V.  The Orion V model was a part of WMATA’s fleet for 27 years.  The first Orion Vs were ordered and delivered in 1992.  Subsequent orders would be made in 1997, 1999, and 2000.  A total of 454 Orion Vs served WMATA during this time frame, accounting for a significant portion of the fleet in the late 1990s and much of the 2000s.  When considering the Orion Vs operated by Montgomery County Ride On and Fairfax Connector, the Orion V was easy to find throughout the DC area.

The 1992 Orion Vs never made a huge impression on me from what I can remember, but I was drawn to the 1997 Orion Vs due to the fact they were the first buses to be delivered in the “fourth scheme” livery and the first buses to have CleverDevices that made automated announcements in advance of each stop.  The 1997 Orion Vs also had Vultron flip dot LED destination signs that really made these buses stand out for the brief period the signs worked well (WMATA ultimately replaced the Vultron signs with orange LED destination signs on these buses).  Once on board, the 1997 Orion Vs (and subsequent orders) also featured seats far more comfortable than any of the seats on the Flxible Metro buses in the WMATA fleet at that time.  

Reflecting their “workhorse” status, the Orion Vs outlasted several other newer buses in the fleet.  In the mid-to-late 2010s, the Orion Vs became harder to find, yet they had a tendency to resurface when there were equipment shortages or other circumstances that stretched the fleet thin.  For example, the Orion Vs came out in full force when the 2014 NABI 42-BRT Hybrid Buses were pulled from service due to various safety concerns.  

On July 15, 2019, I had an appointment near the Tenleytown Metro at 8:20 AM and then another appointment on K Street near Washington Circle at 10:30 AM.  I had originally planned to take the Red Line to get between these appointments, but while I was on my way to the first one, I saw an Orion V heading inbound on Wisconsin Avenue.  WMATA’s real time arrival tracker (BusETA) shows the vehicle number of each bus it tracks, so I was able to see that this was Orion V 2160 and it was operating on the 37, a peak directional route with inbound service in the morning rush hour and outbound service in the evening rush hour.  This means that after a bus arrives at Archives and completes an inbound 37 trip in the morning, it deadheads (operates not in service) back to Friendship Heights and then does another inbound 37 trip.  

When my 8:20 appointment finished, I went outside and saw that 2160 was going to operate the final inbound 37 trip for that morning’s rush hour.  A quick check of the timetable showed that waiting the 20 or so minutes for 2160 to reach me and taking the bus as opposed to Metrorail would still get me to my next appointment on time, so I decided to do that, knowing full well this could very well be my last ride on a WMATA Orion V.

This was not my first time on an Orion V on the “even 30s” routes (as I and others who remember when Wisconsin Avenue was served by the 30, 32, 34, and 36) by any means.  The seats were worn and sagged a bit when people sat down on them.  The CleverDevice worked intermittently.  I recall the bus engine showing its age and straining at times.  But the feel of being on a high floor Orion bus with the wood interior panels and all the other trappings I associated with these buses for so many years was nonetheless familiar.  

I disembarked on Pennsylvania Avenue at 21st Street, where I had the sun mostly to my back and was able to get a few quick shots of the bus on my iPhone before it pulled off.  I’ve seen WMATA Orion Vs on various occasions since that morning.  Some were in revenue service, others were operating on employee shuttles between Montgomery Division and various driver relief points, mostly at the Silver Spring Metro.  As time went on, WMATA Orion V sightings began to fall solely in the latter group.  I’m not aware of an “official” retirement date for the WMATA Orion V fleet, but the consensus of the transit fan community is that they are not going to run in revenue service again.  With a year having gone by since my last ride on one, a host of theories as to why they are not to be operated in revenue service anymore, and the ongoing service reductions due to WMATA’s Covid-19 response, I have no expectations of ever doing so again, and am glad my schedule and the timing of things worked out so I could have one final ride last summer.

Rail Photo of the Month: July 2020

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Siemens SD-400 4251

Siemens SD-400 4251

Location: Station Square, Pittsburgh, PA
Operator of Vehicle: Port Authority of Allegheny County
Date of Photo: November 29, 2019

There are a number of noteworthy items of interest for a transit enthusiast in Pittsburgh, one of which is the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel.  Following the removal of buses from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel became the only transit tunnel in the United States to serve both buses and light rail trains, though the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel does not have any intermediate stations (whereas the Seattle tunnel did).  The tunnel opened in 1904, significantly improving access from the south to Downtown Pittsburgh by allowing transit vehicles to avoid the hilly topography on Mount Washington.  The natural geography and convergence of several transit lines made South Hills Junction a logical point for a tunnel to Downtown to be built.  In 1977, the South Busway, the first of Pittsburgh’s three busways, opened; this bus corridor ends at South Hills Junction and then the buses continue through the tunnel to Downtown.  At the north end, the tunnel originally allowed streetcars to proceed in to downtown via the Smithfield Street Bridge, and buses still do this today.  PCC Streetcars have solely used the Panhandle Bridge to cross the Monongahela River since 1985 (the PCC streetcars were mostly replaced by modern light rail vehicles in 1987).

Needless to say, it is quite fascinating merely to watch the buses and trains enter and leave the transit tunnel at either end, and riding through the tunnel is quite the experience as well! 

For more photos of the Pittsburgh Light Rail, 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.