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| PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (148478) | |
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| (148478) | |
PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 |
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Posted by phxtusbusfan on Tue May 5 00:15:08 2009 Today was probably my last busfanning day in the Phoenix area for quite a while. I am moving to San Francisco in August and will be living in San Diego and Northern Virginia in the interim (I hope to get some MTS and WMATA, Fairfax Connector, and CUE photos in).Anyways, the first bus I saw today happened to be good ole 1994 D40LF #4005 in service on the 30 at the start of the trip at the Sycamore St. transit center (albeit with a broken headsign/sidesign):  The next stop was Central Station (via the METRO light rail) for some photos of the DASH and other Phoenix Division buses:      After Central Station, I headed up to Sunnyslope (via a 1998 NABI 40-LFW on the 8-N):    I took the 0-S to Central / Indian School (via the 2002 NABI 40-LFW in the next photo) and got this shot:  The next stop was Lolama Station (via 2007 New Flyer D60LF #8040 on the 41-W):     The next stop was the Tempe Transit Center (via 1998 ElDorado National #4108 on the 66-S):   It's interesting that the RPTA uses a local (not semi-suburban) configured 2007 D40LFR on the 536 Express (sorry about photo quality):  Lastly, I was able to take good ole 4005 on the 30-E from College Ave to Sycamore St. to pick up my car. 
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| (148499) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by roscoman1986 on Tue May 5 01:40:05 2009, in response to PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09, posted by phxtusbusfan on Tue May 5 00:15:08 2009. Nice pics! Here are my comments:1 and 18. Nice catch of 4005! I haven't been on a 1994 D40LF in a very long time. I wonder how are they holding up despite lasting longer than the 1996 D40LFs? Hopefully once I am less busy I will get a chance to do a busfan excursion and get a ride on the 1994 D40LFs (although I don't know when they will disappear as I described below) 2-4. The DASH new colors look great. I haven't ridden on the 2001 E-Z Riders since they have been rehabilitated but they look great from the outside. Speaking of Phoenix E-Z Riders, would you happen to know what happened to the 2002 E-Z Riders 4173-4175? I haven't seen these buses in Tempe and I would guess that Phoenix no longer has them (it would seem odd to retire three of the newest E-Z Riders in the fleet). 5-6. The 2002 NABIs have been holding up pretty well. I rode on some of them a couple weeks ago. 7-8. I wonder if they are rehabbing any more 1998 NABIs or if they suspended the program in Phoenix due to budget cuts (I didn't see this in the budget at the Phoenix website). However it would be nice if they started to put the new logo on the buses besides the LINK. The 1998 NABI rehabs (I went on one two weeks ago) also seem to be doing well. 11-13. I haven't had the chance to ride on route 41 since it was transferred over to Phoenix-West and I have only ridden on the Phoenix-West 2007 D60LFs when they were running light rail shuttle. From what I remember (and what you said) they were not in great shape, especially in the back. Have they cleaned up these buses at all? 15. I got the chance to ride on 6647 a few weeks ago on route 72 southbound from Camelback to the Tempe Transit Center. Since they don't run them on routes 56 or 77 (as far as I know), Tempe has really been able to keep their 2008 C40LFRs clean, possibly even more so than the RPTA ones. From a busfan's perspective, the Tempe takeover of routes 72 and 81 turned out to be more diverse (in terms of buses) than when they were running under the RPTA (especially after December 2008). Now, the 72 and 81 use three types of 1998 NABI 40-LFWs, an occasional 1998 35-LFW (there are only seven left that are not used in FLASH service), 1999 35-LFWs, 1999 40-LFWs (6246-6254), 1999 40-LFW 6255, 2000 35-LFWs, 2002 40-LFWs, 2008 C40LFRs, and (reportedly) CompoBuses (on route 81 on weekends at least)! This is quite an improvement from what the RPTA was operating before on routes 72 and 81 (2001 NABI 40-LFW, 2006 C40LFR, 2007 D40LFR, 2007 D40LFR semi-suburbans until July 2008, 2008 C40LFRs after July 2008, and a handful of 1994 D40LF, 1998 40-LFWs, and 1999 40-LFWs on route 81). However, I do miss the semi-suburban D40LFRs as even the soft-seated NABIs are not as nice in my opinion (mostly because the bottom seat cushions are not firmly attached) 17. The 536 Express is interesting in the fact that it mostly uses 2006-2008 C40LFRs/D40LFRs rather than Nova Buses or semi-suburban D40LFRs (although Nova Buses appear during rush hour trips from time to time). I would guess that (1) this route is short enough to warrant a transit-seated bus (given that it is just a version of the 535 that is cut back to downtown Tempe) and (2) the Nova Buses do not run during middays at all. As far as the semi-suburban D40LFRs go I don't know if there are any left running with the RPTA in Mesa. I remember seeing 6458(?) a while back on route 30, but I would guess they traded them for Nova Buses from Valutrans, and when I went downtown a couple weeks ago I did not see any of them running on East Valley RPTA routes. So, as far as I know the only D40LFRs at Mesa are 6453-6456, which are essentially run on the same routes as the C40LFRs. Anyway, I have been quite busy so I haven't had much time to post but I wanted to add some recent Valley Metro news regarding bus movements. Bus movements: There really has not been much in terms of bus movements in Phoenix, however Phoenix-South gave some higher-numbered NABIs (up to possibly 6099) to Phoenix-West/First Transit (thanks to transitbusfan for this information) The reason for this was probably because the 2008 D60LFs came into service and allowed for Phoenix-South to give some 1998 NABIs (rather than 2002 NABIs or 2004 D60LFs as previously thought) over to First Transit. The only thing that is "unfortunate" (from the busfan's perspective at least) is that the 1996 D40LFs are probably history as transitbusfan (who reports on West Valley operations) has not seen one in a while if I recall. In addition, unless Phoenix-North is still operating 1-2 route 44 trips, some of the lower-numbered 1998 NABIs have been transferred to Phoenix-South from Phoenix-North (I hope Phoenix-South cleans these buses up). Finally (although not a "movement" per se) I have seen a couple of D60LFs on route 44 on weekend evenings (which makes no sense unless they are filling in as replacement buses). Moving over to the East Valley, Tempe has taken the RPTA's spot of having the greatest fleet diversity. The "newest" additions to the Tempe fleet are 2000 ElDorado E-Z Riders 4146-4149 and 2001 ElDorado E-Z Riders 4155-4163. This move probably happened last week as I saw 4163 last Thursday and 4146 this past weekend. These buses are ex-Scottsdale, although I don't know if Scottsdale still owns them (I would guess that Tempe now owns them) and they are finally being pulled out of "exile" in Mesa. Note that buses 4146 and 4163 are former "poetry" buses but have been repainted in the new colors (4146 has smaller titles for some reason). I would guess that the RPTA will be getting some buses back in return (possibly some of the lower-numbered 2008 C40LFRs because it would make no sense for the RPTA to have a few LNG buses). |
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| (148508) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by phxtusbusfan on Tue May 5 05:51:08 2009, in response to Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates), posted by roscoman1986 on Tue May 5 01:40:05 2009. 1.) 4005 is holding up VERY well. In fact the bus seemed to be relatively clean on the inside and from my observations didn't have any ripped seat cushions. The only problem I noticed with it was that its headsign was non functioning(although it did have a working Route Scout). The bus, unlike 4022 and 4023 (which were the last 1994 D40LFs that I had been on didn't seem to shake all that much, if at all, on idle either.2.) Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to the 2001 EZ Riders. I would assume that they likely would be on the 122-Cactus (if they are still around and in the Phoenix division). 3.) The 2002 NABIs are holding up well (as are the 1998 NABIs) with the exception of the fact that it seems that tagging is more prevalent on Phoenix-South buses (they may not be cleaning them as often due to budget cuts). 4.) 8040 was like 2 buses in one. The front of the bus was quite clean. The rear of the bus was a disaster (the bus looks older than the 18-19 months old). 5.) Tempe does seem to have a lot of fleet diversity. I did see 6632 on either the 72 or the 81 today, I am guessing that some of the 2008 C40LFRs have been returned to the RPTA (as the 72 seemed to be mostly NABIs) 6.) I was SHOCKED when I pulled into Sunnyslope today to see a 2008 D60LF on Route 12. It almost reminded me of the days when I rode on the 1985 MAN artics on that route. I also seem to think that the 1996 D40LFs are history as both the 29 and the 41 were running a mixture of 2007 D60LFs and 1998 NABI 40-LFWs with a few random 2007 D40LFs (in the past, as in a few months ago, the NABIs rarely seemed to make it to the 29 and 41 although the 17 did have NABIs). 7.) The FLASH fleet seemed really interesting. There were several NABI 35-LFWs painted in the old Valley Metro color scheme operating the flash along with the old FLASH painted NABI 35-LFWs and I saw at least one bus in the white FLASH scheme. |
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| (148539) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by roscoman1986 on Tue May 5 12:21:59 2009, in response to Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates), posted by phxtusbusfan on Tue May 5 05:51:08 2009. 1. I will keep an eye out for D40LFs today as it seems that when one comes out all of them come out. It also seems that they go into hibernation for a week or two and then come out in full force (at least the ones that are remaining). I can sometimes hear them when they are on route 40-Apache.2. Hopefully the 2002 E-Z Riders will show up again. 3. The thing is, it doesn't seem that hard (at least from what I see) to clean off window tags on buses. The plastic from the bus windows just needs to be removed and I would guess that anyone could do that. 4. Most of the tagging happens in the back because the driver can't see what is going on (although there are cameras that are recording what is going on). 5. As far as I know none of the 2008 C40LFRs have returned to the RPTA but that may change with the arrival of the 2000 and 2001 E-Z Riders. 6. The only reason I can think of that Valley Metro is running artics on Route 12 is because of North High School. However, it doesn't make sense to just run an artic all day on that route because it is not a major route by any means. There are many other Phoenix-South routes that could use artics rather than route 12 (with the exception of North High School). As I stated before it seemed that the artics were being used on route 12 because it terminated in downtown Phoenix and buses could just drive down to the State Capitol and start an express route. 7. The FLASH roster now consists of the following: 1998 NABI 40-LFWs 6177-6178 and 6180 (all in the old FLASH scheme) 1998 NABI 35-LFWs 6181 (the first 35-LFW ever built and in the Tempe "house colors, this bus was formerly the 10th Anniversary bus and had "handprints" all over it but they have been removed). 1998 NABI 35-LFWs 6182-6183 (both in the old FLASH scheme, formerly in Valley Metro colors but transferred over in 2004-2005) 1998 NABI 35-LFWs 6184-6188 (these buses were transferred over in August 2007 to trade for some of the 1998 40-LFWs, note that 6187 is in the new green FLASH color scheme while the rest are still in old Valley Metro colors). Occasionally, other buses will run on this route (once Tempe ran a 2008 C40LFR, which was a huge surprise). |
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| (148579) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by T8H5307N on Tue May 5 17:12:26 2009, in response to Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates), posted by roscoman1986 on Tue May 5 12:21:59 2009. >>1. I will keep an eye out for D40LFs today as it seems that when one comes out all of them come out. It also seems that they go into hibernation for a week or two and then come out in full force (at least the ones that are remaining). I can sometimes hear them when they are on route 40-Apache.<<<4032 was on route 156 on Saturday. Saw another in the dark this AM deadheading on Loop 101. |
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| (148607) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by roscoman1986 on Tue May 5 20:15:34 2009, in response to Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates), posted by T8H5307N on Tue May 5 17:12:26 2009. Also wanted to add that on the chicagobus.org forum Minneapolis section, there was an unconfirmed report that a Valley Metro C40LFR was up in Minnesota about two weeks ago. I don't know if this was a new bus or a bus that was up in Minnesota for servicing (although I have no idea why the bus would go all the way back to New Flyer except for a recall or something like that). However, it apparently had the 2006 scheme (green and white).If this was a new bus, I was really hoping that Valley Metro would introduce a new color scheme, however I haven't heard anything about this. The only new color scheme that I know of is on the LINK bus. |
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| (148634) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by roscoman1986 on Tue May 5 21:41:18 2009, in response to Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates), posted by phxtusbusfan on Tue May 5 05:51:08 2009. Also wanted to add that the new "Design a Bus Wrap" winning design is up (http://www.valleymetro.org/valley_metro/pressroom/press_releases/tempe_student_designs_winning_bus_artwork/), again on bus 6269 like it has been for the past 3 years. Apparently the reason for this has been that the past 3 winners have come from the East Valley rather than Phoenix. Although I would have rather had the design on a Tempe bus (since the winner is from Tempe) an RPTA bus is fine considering that routes 30, 40, 45, and 61 run through Tempe. |
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| (148650) | |
Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates) |
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Posted by phxtusbusfan on Tue May 5 23:13:12 2009, in response to Re: PHOTOS Valley Metro 05.04.09 (and bus movement updates), posted by T8H5307N on Tue May 5 17:12:26 2009. It's nice to see the 1994 D40LFs living on. |
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