northwesterner

Also, the red Stop Requested LED strips used in the newer OBS-guided displays are unreliable. In many coaches, the red lights have already burned out.

I've been pretty disappointed with the performance of those LED strips. They should last much longer than they have been lasting. There are many units where only one or two of the tiny LED lights in a strip lite up, if any light up at all.

Most Canadian properties did not order air conditioning in their D900's so there was no real justification for ordering the more powerful engine option.

Some of the American properties that order D900s with the Cummins 903 did not order air conditioning. The more powerful engine wasn't just there for a/c load considerations. American properties starting in the 70s ordered their vehicles with big engines to allow them to perform on all types of service (in city, hill climbing, freeway) for maximum flexibility. Canadian properties continued (through the late 80s in some cases) to spec small engine with specified gear ratios for the service the vehicle was expected to perform.

I'm glad that I can ride the newer coaches on Ryerson routes - but just a curious question.

Why didn't Metro provide older DE60LFs to Ryerson instead? They would have parts and maintenance experience available from their work on D60LF coaches, and one would think that the DE60LFRs with the new battery configuration and fresher Li-Ion batteries would be better equipped for tunnel usage (in which I believe Ryerson routes don't use the tunnel).

I agree that providing the older DE60LF coaches to Ryerson base would provide great parts commonality with their existing D60LF coaches.

However, Ryerson badly needs some newer artics for their heaviest inner city routes (8, 48, and 120 - though the 8 would be better served with 40ftrs). The 2004 DE60LFs are getting pretty old and aren't that much better than the 2300s that are being phased out. From a reliability stand point its probably better get some of the newest coaches into day base service on these heavy routes.

What isn't wrong with those US DL's? One thing after another. 6183 sat broken down in Merritt for over a week until someone went out and brought her back to Vancouver yesterday. Some of them are in serious need of a house cleaning. Mind you I drove 6051 last week. She wasn't too bad to drive. Quite surprising considering she had that crazy 12 speed ZF Tranny.

What did you think of the ZF? Had you ever driven one before? I've only driven a coach with a ZF once and found it hard to get used to.

For more information on what CBL H3-45 is alluding to, Google "Jones Act" Most of what you will read will be in the context of ocean shipping but the act also applies to land based carriers.

You're misreading the law. The actual Jones Act only applies to ocean shipping. While the Jones Act does address cabotage in the context of ocean shipping there is another set of obscure cabotage laws that apply to bus and truck companies doing land based shipping. There are additional cabotage laws that apply to airlines (which is why my uncle in Guam cannot travel to the U.S. via Japan on a single airline ticket, etc).

Greyhound Canada 1120 (Batman Bus) has found her way to Portland OR on a charter. I have some photos which I will try to post in a few minutes. I also have a photo of TNM&O 30600 at the Portland Bus Depot preparing to board for Seattle as well as GLI 6103 awaiting servicing before taking another assignment.

Here you go gang. These are photos of 1120 picking up her charter yesterday in Vancouver BC

TNM&O 30600 rolled into (and immediately back out of ) Seattle this week. I did not get close enough to see if she has a "Fleet" sticker so we can tell which maintenance base she runs out of.

I'm told that the balance of the order will be assigned to New Flyer. There should be an announcement before the end of the year.

I understand that a New Flyer 40ft Xcelsior is on property and being tested by the operators coach procurement committee this week.

Probably yes some inveros probably went to the in house fleet. The reason I say that is the First Transit fleet handles most of the commuter routes, and no local routes. All the in-house are local, I think a few commuter, and the UDistrict routes. We have pictures of 2004/2005 on local routes above (see the pictures running 1xx and 2xx routes).

I spent a little while at Ash Way Park and Ride the other day during the PM Rush. I saw a couple of 201/202 coaches pass through and they were all Inveros. I suspect that all of the Inveros are now operating as part of the in-house fleet on what were previously "local" routes with a semi-suburban feel to them (201/202, Monroe, Boeing Commuter Routes, etc).

Like another poster noted, I haven't seen one in downtown Seattle in ages.

They are still in the market for more 40ftrs to finish off the Gillig Phantom replacement.

The did replace some Gilligs with 60ftrs, so we will end up with an artic heavy fleet.

Thanks for the information. I just looked over some of the door-side photos on the Wiki and noticed the refurbished 102-DL3 units sent to Canada do not have wheelchair lifts, while the ones that have stayed in the US all seem to have wheelchair lifts. I guess by the end of this month that will be a good indication on whether refurbished buses are part of the Canadian or American fleets.

My knowledge on Greyhound USA is rather limited, but based on photos it looks like the 2000 and 2001 orders (65xx, 66xx and 69xx) were built with wheelchair lifts while the 1998/1999 orders (60xx to 64xx) have no wheelchair lifts; hopefully this will distinguish which units are going where.

Most Toronto buses are not BC plated; the MC-12s and the Quicklink buses do not have BC plates. Mostly the BC plates are in the 104x range.

I believe that GLI had contracted with ABC Coaches to retrofit w/c lifts into all/most of the non-lift 45ft DL3s. They've been retrofitting them in little by little for many years.

The Greyhound USA 102D3s (of the 110 or so originally ordered, how many are even left? 50?) are obviously migrating to Canada because effective Oct 31 all scheduled service operating in the US must be done with wheelchair lift equipped coaches. This is the same reason the last 18 MC-12s active this year in the USA fleet have been retired as any maintenance items come due (3144 was retired in Seattle for need of a brake reline).

As an aside, I did see one of the 102D3s parked on the street in New York City still operating for GLI in August.

I am still a bit confused.... I was in Seattle last month for a few days and saw both Gray Line of Seattle lettered coaches as well as Washington State plated Horizon Coach Lines lettered buses. Also, while in Vancouver and Victoria, I found British Columbia plated Horizon Coach Lines buses. The Wiki shows nothing for Horizon Coach Lines being listed for Washington State. But Gray Line of Seattle is listed and states that they are operated by Evergreen Trails. I also see discussion of Gray Line of Seattle buses being re-lettered from Gray Line of Seattle to Horizon.

Attached are a couple of photos.

Gray Line of Seattle roster: http://www.cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Gray_Line_of_Seattle

Horizon Coach Lines Roster (BC): http://www.cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Horizon_Coach_Lines

If only you knew someone who worked there that could straighten this up...

I rode coach 2451 (Central Base) on the 5 today. I was very suprised when I sat down - OBS was not installed.

Must be one of a handful of coaches still operating without OBS. Atlantic probably has about 15 trolleys w/o OBS, who knows how many left at Central without OBS (probably 5 or fewer) and North Base, the last base to get OBS seems to be just about done.

Latest Rumor is the 17(?) East Base Orions will be transfered to Central Base in exchange for some of Central's Gilligs. The EB Orions are seeing very little service as all Metro day base service has been moved to Bellevue Base (save for the 255) and they are doing nothing but single trip (ok, there are a handful of 40ft trippers that make 2 trips) trippers AM and PM five days a week with no weekend utilization.

This is obviously the kind of work your oldest fleet should be doing, not the newest fleet, which should be running day base 7 days a week.

Those signs are turning up fleet wide.

Of course, 3192 operates on routes that are always Pay As You Enter, so its a little redundant.

Retirement.

Didn't realize those Phantoms were seperate. They definitely are showing their age, though.

Really? The different upholstery, reclining seats, and TwinVision signs didn't tip you off that these coaches could be from a different order?

Do we know if any CT Inveros have been transfered from the First Transit fleet back to CT's in house fleet? I thought they were only operating the 2005s in house... or was it the other way around?

I believe we will have a higher proportion of artics when its all done. Of course, KCM has had (for over a decade) the greatest 60ft to 40ft ratio in the country. They've actually gone a little overkill with these artics - many routes need headway bumps because the artics can't keep up, others don't need artics in the first place but just happen to have them (see route 8).

Here is a picture of 30601, the twin to 30600 involved in that wreck on I-5:

http://www.norcalbusfans.fotki.com/greyhound/tnmo-/sj-34-apr152010.html

I believe the other three 2006 D4505s ended up at Cruceros. I rode one between Fresno and Calexico on an overnight schedule in 2007. The bus was still pretty new.

Here is 1120 at the Silver Lake Rest Area south of Everett WA as well as TNM&O 30600 and GLI 6103 at the Portland Greyhound Bus Depot. You can see the front of 1120 in the background of the photo of 6103.

30600 has been kicking around the west coast for the last few months. I've seen it pass through Seattle a couple of times. Please not the TNM&O "ghost" livery. That was the best livery of that series - mostly because the running dog doesn't cover the letting like it did on the Greyhound version.

Also I believe TNM&O received only two D4505s - the second one rolled over about a year ago on I-5 in Central California on an overnight San Francisco - Los Angeles schedule. IIRC the very senior operator was killed in that accident.

Coaches 4227 and 4247 were spotted today with OBS hats. They join coach 4200 as OBS equipped Bredas.

I've always wondered why they treat Ryerson like the red headed stepchild. Gilligs and D60s aren't so bad (in fact the D60s are still the best coach in the fleet in terms of ride comfort and seating IMO), but years ago I thought it was ridiculous when Metro starting pressing the MAN Americanas and Breda Duobuses onto Ryerson when the New Flyer LFs were coming down the pipeline.

Thankfully they are at least getting some of the newer Orion coaches.

Let's get it straight. Ryerson Base never operated Breda coaches. Ever. The MAN Americanas had a checkered history, originally delivered to North Seattle (closed when Ryerson opened), Central, and East bases. They did not last long at East before being sent to Ryerson and Central exclusively. When the Gilligs were delivered, the Americana fleet moved in its entirety to Ryerson. For a couple of shakeups in 1999 all 157 of them operated at Ryerson. As additional coaches were delivered (see 1100-series Gilligs) Ryerson picked up 40ft Gilligs. Post I-695 only 35 3000s were in service at Ryerson, mostly on weekday tripper only runs. As service was restored with new funding mechanisms, as many as about 75 of them were in service at Ryerson until they were finally replaced by the 3600s in 2004.

South has not had D60s for a while now, at least a shake-up on the 40' Gilligs. East also departed its last 40' Metro Gillig about 2 months ago, its last D60 at least a shakeup ago, and shipped its 30' gilligs over to Bellevue this shake up (2 weeks ago), making East the only all A/C Base.

I have always felt North was the RHSC, They will be last to get any 68s, or 7000s, and probably will never see any RR coaches (E line will be out of Central upon start up). North just got a bunch of Ryerson 3600s while RB collected their 7000s. And don't forget, most of the 3600s went directly to Ryerson upon arrival, with a small handful going to Central, those were never out of South.

When the 3600s were delivered, there was more than a "small handful" at Central Base. I believe it was a 60/40 split, with Ryerson having more coaches. Keep in mind that in 2004 about half of all day base runs on route 15 were operated with 40ft equipment. These runs were always operated with 3600s. The Central Base scheduler at the time was very specific on which routes and runs would receive 3600s and which ones would receive 3200s (it was rare to see 3600s on the 36, route 5 family trippers, or the Sunday surface 106). As more and more hybrids were delivered and Ballard's condo-boom occurred, the 15 gradually moved to 100% artics, with the excess 3600s gradually moving to Ryerson Base (and then, eventually, North Base about two years ago).

I remember when the "converted" coach started hitting the streets, it was still a dual bus with the engine still intact and the old Delachux brass receivers. I assume they just disabled the switch that allowed the coach to go to diesel mode.

5101 hit the streets with the engine removed. When it was redone and emerged as 4200, it had a twin 4201, which still had the engine in the back for comparison purposes re: overhead voltage draw and traction/weight distribution.

Here is a scan of my photo (the scanner needs cleaning, very dusty) of coach 5101 on its first day in service in April, 2002.

Word on the street is that this coach, now 4200, returned to revenue service on Friday.