Solar contractor defends TriMet's $366,000 panel array, calling it 'art'
APTA list ranks Portland #11 in nation for transit savings
Friday, December 23, 2011
New Year's Eve TriMet Service
Everything runs normally, but as we've seen in past years, MAX will get extra service on New Year's Eve night, but bus will not.
For the full wrap of everything, click here to see all the love TriMet is giving to MAX.
For the full wrap of everything, click here to see all the love TriMet is giving to MAX.
TriMet's Christmas Service
Or lack of...
As usual, MAX, Streetcar, and Bus will be on Sunday schedules meaning a whole lot of bus lines will not run at all, WES won't run, and since the Christmas holiday falls on a Sunday we get to have the delightful TriMet attitude that the next day, Monday, instead of the system running as usual, everything will run on the same schedules it ran on the day before.
For the full scope of things, here is TriMet's explanation.
As usual, MAX, Streetcar, and Bus will be on Sunday schedules meaning a whole lot of bus lines will not run at all, WES won't run, and since the Christmas holiday falls on a Sunday we get to have the delightful TriMet attitude that the next day, Monday, instead of the system running as usual, everything will run on the same schedules it ran on the day before.
For the full scope of things, here is TriMet's explanation.
In Portland, separation is the new standard
Have you noticed?
Something interesting is going on in transportation projects around Portland. There hasn't been a press conference or an official decree about it; but it looks as though separated bicycling infrastructure is now just a standard procedure when new roads and bridges are built.
Transit Maintenance Hub = Garage
Transit maintenance hub planned for Wilsonville | DJC Oregon
Erik H. explains:
Transit maintenance hub
What the...
It's a FREAKING GARAGE!
Got it?
GARAGE!!!!
Say it with me:
GARAGE!
Stop all this nonsensical stupid ballyhooing word-mumble-jumble to make something seem like it isn't.
It's a GARAGE.
Not a "hub". I'll go with "maintenance facility", but just call the damn thing a garage.
What the...
It's a FREAKING GARAGE!
Got it?
GARAGE!!!!
Say it with me:
GARAGE!
Stop all this nonsensical stupid ballyhooing word-mumble-jumble to make something seem like it isn't.
It's a GARAGE.
Not a "hub". I'll go with "maintenance facility", but just call the damn thing a garage.
HR202 Blog
Service changes
Lives of Dispatchers
Yeah. Remember this blog? I had forgotten about it despite it being in my bookmarks bar. Funny how that happens.
Lives of Dispatchers
Yeah. Remember this blog? I had forgotten about it despite it being in my bookmarks bar. Funny how that happens.
That other TriMet geek activist’s unauthorized guide to TriMet’s deranged bus fleet
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| 67-Jenkins/158th laying over at Beaverton TC |
So after we got the brilliant unauthorized guide to TriMet’s defunct buses and 1400s/1600s, Cameron has inspired me to write the next chapter of the story of TriMet’s buses: the 1700/1800/1900 flxible metro buses (yes, flxible is actually spelled that way for the fleet of buses. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s supposed to be ‘different’ or something).
But anyways, we all know that a little over a month ago, on November 16th, TriMet announced that they are going to deploy 55 new buses for 2012 as replacements (or at least they’d better be) for some of the older buses in the fleet. Thus, Cameron and I figured we’d go through the fleet of TriMet’s buses and make unauthorized guides to them. I guess we’re trading back and forth on the bus series or something like that.
The guides are complete with our own photography!
1700/1800 series – Flxible Metros
I can’t count the number of times I’ve ridden one of these buses. These buses primarily live on the West side where nearly ever bus line except a select few get to use these buses, fondly (or not so fondly) called the West side dinosaurs by many of their operators and some of the other transit geek bloggers.
The 1700s and 1800s are nearly identical. Often times unless you see the bus id you cannot tell the difference between the series (or at least I can’t, for the most part). They’re also just about as comfortable as the 1400s—not very comfortable! They’ve got the classic TriMet hard plastic or cloth covered plastic seats just like every one of TriMet’s buses. The only differences besides the time TriMet purchased some of the buses is some groups of 1700s or 1800s have slightly different engines or transmissions, but that’s not my specialty and I don’t know much of anything about that so go to a different blog place to read about that!
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| Bus 1838 on line 67-Jenkins/158th laying over at Beaverton TC |
But getting back to when the buses became part of the TriMet fleet as we know it, all of the 1700s and 1800-1808 were added to the fleet back in 1992 and they are now 19 years old—too damn old for a transit bus! The next in the series of buses was 1809-1816 which were purchased in 1993 and are now 18 which is still too old. Finally, in 1994, TriMet got the last of their flexible metro buses added to the fleet of the buses numbered 1817 to 1843. You guessed it! These buses are now 17 years old. The age of a transit buses life should be only around 8-12 years or so according to this website. If TriMet were to actually follow this, the 2200s would be the oldest buses in the fleet meaning each one of TriMet’s buses would have air conditioning and low floors and we’d have many newer buses than just the 2900s.
These 17/1800 buses aren’t seen very often downtown, actually, TriMet doesn’t have them running on the transit mall except for sometimes on the line 1 – Vermont, or bus lines where the original bus broke down and was rendered a need to have another bus come replace it for the day and have a mechanic bring the bus limping back to a garage or get a flatbed truck to bring the dead bus back to a garage to get fixed.
There are a few bus lines that run East-West or vice versa through downtown such as the 68, 58, 45, and 43 (and maybe a few more that I can’t remember off the top of my head) that normally use the 1700s or 1800s, otherwise, you won’t see them much around downtown.
These buses also do not have the kneel feature like the Gilligs or New Flyer buses for some reason. These flxible buses were originally made with a kneel feature, but none of TriMet's flxible buses do have it, although, what they do have is the old stickers by the driver's controls along with a button that, if the buses could kneel, the button is right there for the driver to press to get the buses to do it. Don't really know why. Only thing I know is that TriMet was dumb enough to decide that the buses don't need it.
Fun fact: not one of the flexible metro buses has been repainted in the new paint scheme (none of those 1900s either) while every other series of buses has at least two or three buses repainted in the new scheme for one reason or another. I wonder why?
But what the flxible metro buses used to have was a whole bunch of bus wraps. There’s one, maybe two out there right now with full wraps, so they’re rare to see.
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| The 'Culture Bus' on a layover downtown at 16th and Columbia |
This bus, which is 1701, is named (err, nicknamed?) the Culture bus—it is easy to see why when you take a close look at the bus’s design. The other wrapped bus out there is a bus with an Evergreen Waterpark/ Space Museum wrap advertisement. It actually looks pretty cool, but I’ve only seen it once and wasn’t able to get my camera out in time to get a picture or two before it was gone. When I do eventually get a picture of this bus I’ll post it to my blog, but until then you’ve just gotta imagine!
These buses are also classically known for having near unreadable overhead sign, black sign, broken sign, actually, anything you could really think of possible to go wrong with a bus’s overhead signs, one of these buses have had it. Heck, there’s even a bus with glowing ghostly blue overhead signs going around on some (I think?) 1700 bus around the fleet.
Soon (hopefully?) these should be gone, replaced with buses that have years more life ahead of them and are much nicer, but for now we’ll just stand and listen as the dinosaur clunker rumbles on by to run another day as a part of TriMet’s ancient bus fleet.
1900 Series – Flxible Metro
You might be thinking, ‘wait, didn’t I just get finished reading about these?’ Well, yes, and no. These buses are mini sized 1700/1800s. In other words, they’re 30 foot buses instead of 40 foot like the 1700/1800s. These buses were purchased in 1992 with the 1700-1808 buses. They’re nearly 20 years old, but yet they are in pretty decent shape. They’re mostly the same as the 1700/1800s, but only come out of Merlo garage and there are only ten of them. Yep, you heard right. Ten. 1901-1910 run on routes 89, 50, 53, and 63 primarily, but when the Washington Park Shuttle runs, it also uses the 1900s and will sometimes make appearances on the 47, 46, and 59 lines.
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| 51-Vista at SW 12th and Salmon stop with an unusual 1900 bus |
They’re not often seen anywhere except when around the West side or up by the zoo, but every once in a while they’ll make an appearance on another bus line that normally would not get a 1900. This was the case last Friday, the 16th of December in the morning on the 51-Vista line where I got a big surprise to have a line 51 pull up to my stop as a 1900 bus.
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| 56-Scholls Ferry Rd shocking everybody with a 1900 |
And here’s this for a shocker: this last November I even caught a picture of a 56 with a 1900 going up 5th on the transit mall!
Now that definitely tells you something at TriMet is seriously wrong if they were dumb enough to stick a 30 foot bus on a frequent service, high capacity route…at rush hour. Now, clearly (I really, really hope so), this was only because the other bus that the line had broken down, but still…lines like that should never get 30 foot buses. Period.
Fun fact: 1992 was the year that the first bike racks were installed on buses as trials. Anyone who experienced using them or has simply heard about them knows that these bike racks were horrible…But more on that another day.
Oh yeah, and those stickers that you see on a few buses still? Those little stickers that say ‘Air conditioning works best with windows closed’? Yeah. They’re kinda teasing us because as long as TriMet has owned them, those buses have never had air conditioning. You see, that flxible metro fleet TriMet has originally had air conditioning installed in them, but before TriMet had them delivered, TriMet told the company to take the air conditioning out. Yes, you heard me right. Oh, but it gets even better: the reason TriMet had the air conditioning taken out? Apparently, it doesn't get hot in Portland.
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| Zoom in to read what one sticker has written on it. |
Things don't change much at TriMet
Funny how things have not changed a bit concerning the buses since I wrote this last April...
One of the Oldest Transit Bus Fleets in Amerika
One of the Oldest Transit Bus Fleets in Amerika
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