Tag Archives: TCAT

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.

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: March 2018

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NovaBUS LFS 107

NovaBUS LFS 107

Location: Tower Road and East Avenue, Ithaca, NY
Operator of Vehicle: Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit
Date of Photo: April 16, 2007

Last month, the first four of eleven new Gillig Advantage buses for Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) arrived in Ithaca.  These buses will be replacing all of TCAT’s remaining NovaBUS LFS buses (such as the one in this photo) and some of the New Flyer D40LF buses as well.  Like Orion I 914, which was featured as the bus photo of the month in February 2016, the NovaBus LFSs are now about as old as many of their passengers.  These buses were delivered in 2001, so a Cornell freshman is about as old as the bus he or she might be riding to class.  Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to how many of them might be aware of that fact?

The NovaBUS LFSs were the first 40 foot buses in the TCAT fleet.  This made them outliers initially, but that is no longer the case.  As the fleet has been renewed over the years, ordering 40 foot buses has become the norm for TCAT and now nearly every bus in the fleet is a 40 footer.  These buses also operated for about half of their service lives before and about half of their service lives after the implementation of a major route restructuring that took effect in 2010.  

For more photos of TCAT’s NovaBUS LFS buses, please click here. 

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2017

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New Flyer D40LF 208

New Flyer D40LF 208

Location: University Avenue at East Avenue, Ithaca, NY
Operator of Vehicle: Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit
Date of Photo: February 14, 2007

 

The rail photo of the month for this month came to us from sunny San Diego.  For the bus photo, we head to quite a different climate, snowy Ithaca, NY.  Ten years ago this month, Ithaca saw a snowstorm that brought about two feet of snow to the Finger Lakes region.  It was enough snow to see Cornell University cancel classes for the day and for TCAT, which operates through winter weather that most other agencies would probably balk at trying to provide service in, to suspend operations.  However, before that suspension kicked in, the buses were running despite the fast falling snow.  Taking photos of anything in these conditions can be challenging due to the temperature, potential condensation on the camera lens, and difficulty in getting the frame in focus if the camera focuses on the snow instead of my intended target.  Variances in light, such as those caused by an LED destination sign or vehicle headlights, pose additional challenges,  However, the photos came out, the buses kept running (at least for awhile), and the result is that one can see how TCAT keeps rolling no matter the weather.

Although the winter weather in Ithaca remains cold and snowy, some things do change in Ithaca.  The New Flyer bus seen in this photo is now one of the oldest in the fleet, and Route 81 is no longer the main service on the Cornell campus following a restructuring of campus routes in recent years.  

For more photos of TCAT’s New Flyer D40LF buses, please click here.

 

Transit Bloopers

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Last week, I showed a friend of mine a photo posted to a Facebook group of a Ride On bus that was supposedly going to a place called Glennont.  Here is the photo, courtesy of Dave Galp, who originally posted it online:

Good luck finding Glennont on a map of Montgomery County, MD...

Good luck finding Glennont on a map of Montgomery County, MD…

Photo by Dave Galp, used with permission

Did you find the error?  The sign is supposed to say “Glenmont” but the destination was misspelled in a recent update of all the destination sign readings.

At least that one is hard to notice at first glance, I had to look at the photo more than once to realize what was wrong.  The error on the destination sign of this TCAT bus in Ithaca, NY is probably a bit easier to spot:

I took this photo in the fall of 2006 and have yet to figure out how to pronounce the word on that destination sign.

This post is not meant to discredit the hard work of the transit professionals behind the scenes who make sure the overwhelming majority of the signs and brochures that passengers rely upon each day are correct.  However, we are all human and occasionally make mistakes, and in the case of transit employees, those minor misspellings have potentially wide audiences.  So what is the funniest “transit blooper” you’ve seen on a sign or heard in an announcement?  Feel free to share what you’ve seen or heard in the comments (with our without a photo attachment) below!

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2016

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Orion I 914
 

Orion I 914

Location: Campus Road at Central Avenue, Ithaca, NY
Operator of Vehicle:  Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT)
Date of Photo: May 16, 2006

The lone Orion I remaining in TCAT’s fleet might be the Energizer bunny of buses.  This bus was manufactured in 1991 and as of early 2016 at the age of 25, it is still in service.  In a college town such as Ithaca, it is likely that many of 914’s current passengers are younger than the bus itself.  To my knowledge, there is no concrete plan or timeline for when TCAT might retire this bus, which is likely the last Orion I to be in operation anywhere in the United States at this point.

TCAT has operated buses far past their expected 12 year lifespans before.  Orion I 565, which was delivered to the Utica Transit Authority in 1985, remained in service for a mere 21 years.  TCAT’s NovaBUS LFSs and New Flyer D40LFs are 15 and 14 years old, respectively, and their replacements have not been procured yet.  However, it is remarkable that nearly 5 years after the former CU Transit “hammerhead” Orion Is and the other 3 1991 former TomTran Orion Is were retired, that 914 is still rolling.

If you want to get your last ride on an Orion I in, you had better hurry.  With a bus this old, all it takes is one maintenance issue deemed to big to be worth solving to bring about retirement.

To see more photos of TCAT Orion I 914, as well as the other Orion I buses that used to be a part of the TCAT fleet, please click here.

Did you miss the rail photo of the month for February?  If so, you can check it out here.