MHV9218

Whats the biggest depot in the system?? I'm thinking its between Gunhill, College Point, and Yukon. I been to GH and CP, but never Yukon. But I've heard that at one point Yukon had over 400 buses...

 

Those three sound about right, WF has a huge capacity too, and don't forget Castleton. The largest numbers I can find for all of those are about 310 for JG, 320 for GH, 330 for WF, 350 for CP, 350 for CAS, and 390-400 for YUK. Back when SI was only two depots Yukon easily ran 390 buses, and a majority of those were 45-footers.

In terms of the building itself in square footage, my numbers are a little out of date, but Quill is 645,000 sq. ft., Kingsbridge is 426,000 sq. ft., Manhattanville is 340,000 sq. ft, Gun Hill is 292,000 sq. ft., Gleason is 262,000 sq. ft., and the rest is below that. Your place 126 came in at 106,000 sq. ft., and the winner for tiniest (hence all the buses are outdoors) is Stengel at 95,000 sq. ft. (and that's maintenance and transportation combined). WF is only 157,000 sq. ft. in the building, which is why they park outside too.

Speaking of this bus, saw it today and it looks great. Didn't ride it, but it sounded ok from the outside.

 

Looked good to me too.

http://ttmg.org/blog...e-transit-game/

 

Detroit Diesel back In effect...yeah buddy

 

It's about time. DD50s and 6v/8v92s are legendary stuff, hopefully the current offerings are a fraction of as good. Come to think of it, a Novabus with an Allison tranny and a DD engine, that's not too shabby. Be enough to make the grandparent RTS proud.

9221 is today's MHV loaner, to which I say, about time. One of my favorite buses and great to see back at the depot. Don't think 9498 or 9634 are here any more, 6760 left as well.

The M103s....even though they deal with the terrible Bowery traffic, they still run pretty well.

 

Like I said before, folks gotta stop looking at maps and check out the areas themselves.

 

They're gonna be running a lot better with the new buses too...last year I had a few months where I had to commute to Canal on the 103 I could count on a delay every day from a breakdown. Dispatcher was always beside himself at 6th St. trying to figure out how to make missing buses appear outta nowhere. I liked those 53-5400s but they weren't the most reliable batch in history...

Second part, truth.

Third NG-less day in a row today, caught a new LFSA, and 8999 showed up on the B25 which was a good 'un as well. I like it this way...

4899 ... Rumored to be coming in a different engine

 

Just to speculate, would that mean the MTA is happy enough with the Xcelsiors so far that they wanna try another engine?

Name another. Personally, I think the M28 could help out in the neighborhood. (P.S, The M23 & M34/A aren't that frequent. 8-10 min at AM rush, not frequent.)

I mean, just in Manhattan alone, you can't do much crosstown-wise from the park and above but downtown you've got West 4th Street at least as busy, Delancey/Broome are incredibly busy if not traffic-ridden, and then you've got tons of neighborhoods in Bk, Queens, and the Bronx completely lacking in bus service. I just don't think you need another crosstown bus in Midtown.

There's nothing all the way west anywhere you go...

 

West of 5th to about 8th, there are a lot of stores along 28th.

From the river to Lex, I'll grant you, there's a lot of pedestrian on 28th. From Lex to 8th though it's just a regular midtown Manhattan street with shops etc., and from 8th to 12th (Highway) there's nothing but residential areas and warehouses. There are plenty of places around the city that need bus service more than 28th, with two very high-frequency buses only 5 and 6 blocks away.

Trust me, you haven't been there when i've been there, it's busy.

Where though? It's got the hospitals on the East Side and you've kinda got the food area with all the cabbies on Lex or so but west of 5th there's not that much, and there's literally nothing all the way west.

Here is another idea, the M28 crosstown, point to assist the M23 & M34 along 28 St, a busy shopping corridor in some places.

It's not THAT busy! Definitely not busy enough to warrant another crosstown on top of the M23 and M34/M34A.

8865 is now at the JAM. depot.

 

So FB is losing its oldest and newest RTSes but getting middle-aged ones in return. Odd.

9493 at MHV for the day.

Just saw 8981 with FP Decals DHing down Hillside Avenue, possibly at QV/Jamaica? It turned onto Sutphin Blvd.

 

FP is bleeding RTSes at this point...

5886 & 87 at Airmen, shot both of them today.

 

Apparently up to 5890 already, this order is going FAST! Just wondering when Quill's gonna get its buses back.

NovaBus RTS-06 #8869 @ JA.

 

Darn.

That's what I said a little more than a month ago! The number of RTS buses is decreasing at a good rate. Soon, Fresh Pond could become the Brooklyn Division's first all-hybrid bus depot.

 

Now that would be plain awful. Between FP and UP, those RTSes are dying much too fast.

--

9639 at Manhattanville for the day.

9634 may be staying over at Manhattanville for a little while -- just saw it on its second run of the night, which means that bus didn't go straight back to 126th like every other loaner has. Still could go back to 126th, but it seems like that bus was more needed than any in the past.

You know what I didn't realize: The buses all have their number stamped on top of the roof. With all my years of using buses, I never realized that.

 

I've ONLY ever seen the numbers on top. Lived above a bus stop all my life. The older buses have no numbers left thanks to the stickers peeling off, and the oldest buses (this was most common on GMC RTSes) the roof rusts completely and all you see is bare metal and rust.

Few buses came back to to MHV today all rehabbed and fixed up including 6422-6423.

Still had three loaners though: 6760 from TU, and 9498 and 9634 from 126th.

5886 at TU.

hehe there is plenty you do NOT KNOW about me some of em ARE PLANNERS one is steve kressler

I can name drop too! So can a lot of people on this forum!

We don't.

as for M20 its weekend service needs to get axed and off peak service reduced to 35 min headways or 40 night service on this HA HA it makes express buses look cheaper to operate

No, that's a horrible idea.

The M20 is literally the only bus service to the massive residential neighborhood that is Battery Park City and the huge Gateway Plaza. It may be a waste of money, but you cannot cut weekend service. You also cannot make headways 35 minutes because, as I just said, it's the only bus service in that area. Not to mention, it's the only transit service. There's no subway either. And, and, on top of that, the area has huge political influence.

cait that was NOT NESSESARY I made ZERO or bs in that post now try and READ I was referring to mv's rant on express buses I don't think you even understand what I said which is why you posted that

 

No, you posted a rant. I posted a point, which is that local routes all around the city have suffered to keep express buses alive.

You'd most likely garner more riders if it were to be extended north of houston on the western end, as opposed to the south....

The areas the M20 covers in that general section of manhattan is pretty dead... I see virtually empty NB M20's 5 days a week... only reason that route isn't a weekday only route is b/c of it's usage north of 14th st.....

 

I had an old idea that had the 21 going to chelsea piers, running up 6th & down 7th av...

None of my old google map links seem to work anymore, so I'll just briefly describe it:

 

WB route simply had buses turning off houston onto 6th av & shooting across 23rd etc. to chelsea piers

EB route had buses shooting across 23rd, down 7th, down greenwich, across 8th, down macdougal, to get to houston....

 

- main problem I saw was that, the EB route would be too prone to delays/double parked vehicles.... having buses stay on 7th (varick) couldn't be done b/w houston becomes 1-way westbound west of 6th av... meaning buses would have to pan all the way down to spring, and do what they currently do to get back to houston.....

 

Thing is though, the LES already has the 14a & 14d, so having

 

Not wrong about the M20. I catch the 9-9:30pm M20 heading n/b on weekends pretty often, nine times outta ten it's just me and the op. Even had one rap seat discussion where the B/O told me he's literally never seen anybody get on the bus where I catch it at night. I hate to say it, but that weekend service is a waste. One person on a bus is a huge waste of money, even if it's nice for me -- I get an express to 14th st.

M21 to Chelsea idea is interesting, s/b MacDougal would be hopeless though...you can barely fit a car down that street let alone a bus. You could have it as an M8 supplement though and have it hook a right at Cooper Union, get to Houston from there.

I dunno if 9598 was white backed at FP or recently, but it is. Only 'oddity' is the number plate is black with white numbers (instead of white with blue numbers).

 

9587 is the same, a few FP buses were done that way. 8953 had a blue stripe, a white back, and black number plate.

Express buses didn't exist back then.

 

Those were the days...

Do you think weekend service would work? Currently there's no weekend crosstown between the M22 and the M14.

 

Which is ridiculous. I want M8 weekend service back, the fact that bus was cut and we're still running ludicrously expensive express buses is ridiculous. M21 weekend service hasn't really been tried on this current route, but I'm sure it'd be helpful.