Tag Archives: New York City Transit

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2022

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GMC TDH-5106 Old Look 9098

Location: Circle Line Pier, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 12, 2012

In addition to the holiday vintage train featured in this month’s rail photo of the month post, in some years, the MTA has also operated buses from its vintage fleet in revenue service at this time of year.  A quick Google search suggests this hasn’t happened since 2018 and it isn’t happening this year, but it is a nice complement to the vintage subway trains that get run on Sundays in December.  Typically, the buses have operated on a route in Midtown Manhattan during weekday rush hours, but there have been years in which they were spread out to the other boroughs as well.  Unfortunately, catching them was always a bit harder than the vintage trains.  Not only do traffic conditions impact the schedules (and gridlock is a sure thing in Midtown Manhattan at this time of year), they also would not operate even if there was light precipitation in the forecast.  

I was in New York in December 2012 and had a chance to ride some of the buses in the vintage fleet.  Have you had this opportunity?

For more photos of New York City Transit’s GMC “Old Look” buses, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2021

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Orion VII/HEV 6735

Location: East 79th Street & Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: May 8, 2017

With the gradual retirement of the RTS buses that had been a mainstay on the streets of New York for decades, the Orion VII became the most prevalent bus in the Big Apple.  Although the Orion VII is not on the verge of being entirely removed from service, the number of buses in the “original” style of construction is dwindling.  As of this writing, some depots have fewer than 10 buses of this style available for service.  Since the “Next Generation” model of the Orion VII was introduced in 2007 and a transit bus in the United States is typically in service for between 12 and 15 years, it is not surprising to see that the last of the Orion VIIs to be built using the original design are being retired.  

Although the original Orion VII design was quite boxy and not particurily streamlined, I actually prefer it over the “Next Generation” design.  To me, the latter looks like a poor imitation of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro models frequently found in Europe, and just doesn’t look right as a US bus model.  Which one do you prefer?

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit’s Orion VII 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.

Rail Photo of the Month: June 2020

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R46 5984

R46 5984

Location: Smith-9th Streets Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: August 6, 2002

Last month, I posted about the retirement of the R32 subway cars.  In conjunction with the launch of the redesigned New York section of this site, it seems appropriate to use the Rail Photo of the Month post for June to highlight what is now the oldest subway car class in New York City, the R46.  I’m not going to mince words; these are not my favorite NYC subway cars.  However, they do have a certain character thanks to their wood paneled windscreens and the New York seals on their interior walls.  Their LCD side destination signs also give the impression to some they are newer than they actually are, as these cars were manufactured starting in 1975 and are now 45 years old (two cars even had special red, white, and blue stripes and stars to commemorate the U.S. Bicentennial, shortly after their delivery).  

For many years, the R46 was a mainstay on the Queens Boulevard Line, including the F and G lines.  Therefore, many railfans have photos of these cars at the Smith-9th Streets Station, the highest elevated station on the New York City Subway.  The backdrop of photos of trains approaching from the north is Lower Manhattan and before 9/11 this included the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  With the upcoming installation of CBTC on the Queens Boulevard Line, the R46 has been shifted to other lines and the R160 has become the most common train type on the F while the G is now operated by R68s.  However, the R46 will remain an active car type for the New York City Subway until the arrival of the R211s, expected in the early 2020s.

For more photos of the R46, please click here.

New York City is Back on Oren’s Transit Page

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96th Street/2nd Avenue
When I redesigned my website to use WordPress instead of coding everything by hand as I had since initial launch nearly 20 years ago, I opted to launch the new design without including the New York City section.  That decision was made in January 2016 due to the fact that rebuilding process included reuploading all the original images on the site, reentering their captions, and building out pages for each city, agency, and vehicle type.  The New York City section has always been one of the largest on my site, and it seemed better to push out the redesigned website minus one section than to hold it back until it was 100 percent complete.  Finding the time to complete the redesign of the New York section hasn’t always been easy, especially since I much prefer to add new content rather than tinker with code and rebuild old pages when I have time to work on the site.  However, nearly four years later, I am pleased to announce that the New York City section of the site has been rebuilt and many new photos have been added to this section.

Since the redesigned Oren’s Transit Page was launched, there have been some significant changes to the New York City Transit scene.  The most notable development is probably the opening of the long awaited Second Avenue Subway, but that isn’t all that has happened in recent years.  The Hudson Yards Extension of the 7 line opened in 2015, and multiple subway car types, including the seemingly ageless R32s and the R42s have been retired and the R179s have been introduced.  The venerable RTS buses have also been retired and New Flyer and NovaBUS now fulfill most of the MTA’s equipment purchases.  The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North fleets remain dominated by new car types, though a handful of M3s continue to hang on at each railroad.  The “Oculus”, the centerpiece of the reconstructed PATH station at the World Trade Center, officially opened in March 2016.  

Between images that had been on the site prior to 2016 and new images added during the redesign (including pretty much everything that was New York related in my photo queue at this point), there are now nearly 1,400 photos of New York City transportation here on Oren’s Transit Page.  I invite you to check them out at the redesigned New York City section, and as always, there will be more to come when my travels take me to New York.

Click here to visit the New York City section of Oren’s Transit Page.  A very small selection of teaser photos from this update can be found below.

New Flyer XD40 4827

New Flyer XD40 4827 on Cadman Plaza West at Middagh Street, September 4, 2019

R62A 1750

R62A 1750 at 42nd Street-Grand Central, March 24, 2017

1958 GMC TDH-5106 Old Look 9098

1958 GMC TDH-5106 Old Look 9098 on East 42nd Street at 3rd Avenue, December 12, 2012

M-3

M-3 at White Plains, April 24, 2012

34th Street-Hudson Yards

34th Street-Hudson Yards, December 27, 2015

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2018

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NovaBUS LFS-A 5490

NovaBUS LFS-A 5490

Location: Broadway & West 86th Street, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 15, 2018

On June 29, 2008, New York City Transit introduced its first “Select Bus Service” route, the Bx12 on Fordham Road in the Bronx.  The Bx12 SBS featured off board fare payment, all door boarding, new bus lanes, and traffic signal prioritization. Over the past ten years, SBS service has expanded to 17 routes serving all five boroughs, which most of these same features being introduced on the subsequent SBS lines.  In addition, the SBS bus fleet features a special light blue livery, seen in the photo above, so passengers can easily distinguish SBS from regular local buses.  Have you been on SBS in New York City?  What do you think of it?  

For more photos of New York City area buses, please click here.