Thursday, February 21, 2002

ARCHIVES - 2/21/02

The second batch of New Flyers is now on the production line at the New Flyer plant in Winnipeg. Based upon the last deliveries, it's possible that the 5500 series destined to Comly and Frankford could arrive as early as Easter. 15 more buses are tentatively slated to go to Red Arrow, which could hasten the departure of the 3117-3131 series Neos, while the remaining batch will be sent to Comly (45), Frankford (20) and Midvale (20), though the assignments have not been finalized. (Updated from February 18)...

On a related note, operators at Comly and Frankford will be trained on the New Flyers, borrowing two D40LFs from Callowhill over the next few weeks...

At least 8-10 ElDorados will eventually be shifted from Midvale to Callowhill once operator training is completed. The buses will be used on the 30, 63, and Spree. Despite it's low ridership, they will not be used on the 121, because those trips are tied in with the 44...

A demo MCI D4501 will be on SEPTA property within the next couple of weeks, once paperwork is cleared by SEPTA's world famous legal department. The demo cruisers will be used on the 104 trips to West Chester, the Sunday 120 trips to Cheyney, and on the 123, 124, and 125. Apparently, within SEPTA, there is some mixed reaction to cruisers, however, they'd be a huge improvement over hard seated Neoplans...

There's talk that the Breeze I and II buses (2001-2018) will be replaced by 27-ft cutaway buses built on either an International or Freightliner chasis. For those who don't like cutaways, we have more cutaways. In any case, the likely candidate for the first batch of new cutaways would be Germantown...

An update on the supposed Annual Service Plan changes that would have affected Delaware County. The majority of those changes are on hold indefinitely, mainly due to funding issues raised by Delaware County. The only part of the original ASP that may be implemented this summer is the 104 extension to the West Chester University campus. The rest of the proposal may not be implemented until the fall...

As speculated earlier, parts of the R and 26 will be sent to Midvale in June. It's not clear as to whether all R trips assigned to Frankford will be sent to Midvale or if some trips will be sent there...

On Saturday, SEPTA is holding an "Absolute Auction" at 4301 Wissahickon Av, Philadelphia (Midvale Depot). While the notice wasn't specific, one item listed "(44) Multi-Passenger Transport Vehicles), which were later discovered to be retired Paratransit vans, rather than older Neoplans, which are disposed of in a separate bid process.

No comments: