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WMATA Washington


DCAreaTransitFan

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Will they be diesel, diesel-electric hybrid, or CNG?
Diesel electric hybrid
We'll just have to wait and see---unless somebody can ask either WMATA or New Flyer of the propulsion type of the Xcelsiors.
well im guessing Cummins ISL9 Ep-40 like our LFAs
Are there any press releases or official documents about this order?
i dont know about that but me and my freians where talking to wmata employees and they said we are getting them
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i dont know about that but me and my freians where talking to wmata employees and they said we are getting them

I don't mean to offend, but were these employees in a department who would actually know this stuff for sure? I ask because it's common for employees not affiliated with a specific department to get information wrong about that department. Not to mention there's always rumours and missinformation that goes around in every agency or company.

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I don't mean to offend, but were these employees in a department who would actually know this stuff for sure? I ask because it's common for employees not affiliated with a specific department to get information wrong about that department. Not to mention there's always rumours and missinformation that goes around in every agency or company.
yes were sure we asked many of them and this was at a roadeo when we asked them
This means the remaining 1995 Flxible Metro Es days are numbered. ;)
yes indeed same with some orion vs
Got any proof, otherwise have fun trying to get people to believe you!
well u can ask any other dc bus fans and they would say yeahh and me and my firend spoke to employess face to face
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yes were sure we asked many of them and this was at a roadeo when we asked them

well u can ask any other dc bus fans and they would say yeahh and me and my firend spoke to employess face to face

The point that others are trying to make is that ordinary transit employees (whom I'm sure you're referring to here) can often be the source of misinformation regarding issues such as new bus orders. It's much more reliable to point to confirmed sources such as agency/manufacturer press releases.

Case in point: there were hundreds of rumors coming from New York MTA employees about future articulated bus orders after the New Flyer D60HF order was terminated abruptly in 2004. Some said that the MTA was going to order D60LFs. Others said DE60LFs. Some mentioned that New Flyer would restart production of the D60HF only for the MTA. Others argued that the MTA was to order a future Orion artic (which still hasn't been produced). The MTA didn't do any of these things -- they went with NovaBus instead, an action that few expected back in 2004.

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The point that others are trying to make is that ordinary transit employees (whom I'm sure you're referring to here) can often be the source of misinformation regarding issues such as new bus orders. It's much more reliable to point to confirmed sources such as agency/manufacturer press releases.

Case in point: there were hundreds of rumors coming from New York MTA employees about future articulated bus orders after the New Flyer D60HF order was terminated abruptly in 2004. Some said that the MTA was going to order D60LFs. Others said DE60LFs. Some mentioned that New Flyer would restart production of the D60HF only for the MTA. Others argued that the MTA was to order a future Orion artic (which still hasn't been produced). The MTA didn't do any of these things -- they went with NovaBus instead, an action that few expected back in 2004.

so whats your point????? im not lieing here contact this person http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000116446482 he was here with me!!!
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The last press release from New Flyer about a WMATA order was issued in November 2009 for the 48-bus order which was just recently delivered. I find it odd that no official announcement has been made yet for an order of buses that is supposedly going to be delivered in less than five months.

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so whats your point????? im not lieing here contact this person http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000116446482 he was here with me!!!

I'm not implying that you're not telling the truth. I'm just saying that nothing is absolute until it's officially announced. In other words, "I'll believe it when I see it."

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If this is true, I'm sure New Flyer will issue a press release pretty quickly.
The last press release from New Flyer about a WMATA order was issued in November 2009 for the 48-bus order which was just recently delivered. I find it odd that no official announcement has been made yet for an order of buses that is supposedly going to be delivered in less than five months.

With the new NYC MTA order, it took NFI weeks to release the news on their website. That deal went through in late July. It wasn't news on NFIs website till late August. Also, I have noticed that NFI tends to leave order anouncements for their quarterly report, with the exception of *some* larger orders. The 3rd quarter just finished, so maybe thy'll report it then along with all the other orders last quarter. If they keep with the date they reported the 2nd quarter orders (July 16th), the 3rd quarter report should come out next week.

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With the new NYC MTA order, it took NFI weeks to release the news on their website. That deal went through in late July. It wasn't news on NFIs website till late August. Also, I have noticed that NFI tends to leave order anouncements for their quarterly report, with the exception of *some* larger orders. The 3rd quarter just finished, so maybe thy'll report it then along with all the other orders last quarter. If they keep with the date they reported the 2nd quarter orders (July 16th), the 3rd quarter report should come out next week.

Your actually making my point for me - the New York order was announced on August 20th for a delivery that will take place in the fourth quarter of 2011 and early 2012. If the WMATA order is supposed to begin next spring then shouldn't it have been announced earlier this year?

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Your actually making my point for me - the New York order was announced on August 20th for a delivery that will take place in the fourth quarter of 2011 and early 2012. If the WMATA order is supposed to begin next spring then shouldn't it have been announced earlier this year?

Not necessarily. When NFI announced the 2nd quarter Orders and Backlog, the new Brampton Transit order was also listed for the first time. Although it was small, it was for more XD40s and delivery is scheduled for December/January IIRC. I think the actual delivery time has less to do with it than the time at which the contract was actually signed. If WMATA didnt sign the contract till last month, then how could news of it have come out earlier? Also keep in mind that NFI is trying to fill out its production schedule. This may have allowed WMATA to get this order in on shorter notice. The NYC order came out b/c its so big, and it also marks the return of NFIs to NYC. That's big news. I believe that the winter 2011 delivery time has little to do with the timing of the announcement.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Couldn't find a general topic about WMATA.... so here it is! Post news, photos, info, etc. :D

Starting off with some news:

Feds arrest N.Va. man in D.C. Metro bomb plot

Federal law enforcement authorities arrested a Northern Virginia man Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to carry out terrorist bombings at stations in the Washington Metro system.

Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn conspired with people he thought to be al-Qaeda operatives to bomb the Arlington Cemetery, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Court House stations, according to a federal indictment.

An Obama administration official said Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, first drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials. He later became the target of an undercover sting, officials said.

According to the indictment, federal agents posing as Islamic radicals began meeting with Ahmed in April. At the meetings, held in Northern Virginia hotels, he allegedly agreed to conduct video surveillance of the stations and suggested the best time to attack and the best locations to place explosives to maximize casualties. He is also accused of later turning over video and sketches he made of the stations.

Officials stressed that the public was never in danger. Still, Neil H. MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said it was "chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks."

Muslim leaders in Northern Virginia said that, as of late Wednesday, no one had reported knowing or having interacted with Ahmed at local mosques. His arrest, however, touched off a conversation about whether Ahmed might have initiated a plot or whether law enforcement officials had floated the idea to him, as has been suggested in other FBI sting operations.

"It's a conversation that's definitely going on in the community," said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, spokesman for Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. "At the same time, though, if you're dumb enough and sick enough to think you're working for al-Qaeda, then maybe your behind should be put in jail. If what the authorities accuse him of turns out to be true, I have very little sympathy for someone who plans something like that."

Ahmed was arrested in Herndon at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday after he was told to come to a meeting where he would discuss his surveillance activities, officials said. He later appeared in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on terrorism charges.

Sporting a full beard and wearing a gray polo shirt and bluejeans, Ahmed shook his head and let out a deep sigh in apparent disbelief as the charges against him were read. "Yes, yes," Ahmed said as the judge told him the charges were serious.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson ordered him held until a detention hearing Friday.

'Too close to home'

Ahmed, who holds a bachelor's in computer science from City University of New York, works in Northern Virginia for Ericsson, a telecommunications company, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was pursuing a graduate degree online in risk management and data security at Aspen University, according to the profile.

Kathy Egan, an Ericsson spokeswoman, confirmed that Ahmed is a Reston-based contractor for the firm but declined to release any other details about his employment. "We will cooperate with the authorities," she said.

Neighbors described Ahmed as pleasant but private. Shaya Fitzgerald, 39, a physician's assistant who lives across the street from Ahmed's brick townhouse, said he has a young son and a wife who dress conservatively.

She "wore a full hijab, the whole thing. She seemed relatively young," Fitzgerald said. "My only impression of him was that he was not that sociable."

Ahmed moved to Virginia from Staten Island, N.Y. His wife, Sahar Mirza-Ahmed, is from Birmingham, England, and is an active member of "Hip Muslim Moms," a Northern Virginia playdate group for women with children younger than 5.

"I don't know what to do. This is too close to home. You don't know anybody," said Esraa Bani, an organizer of the mothers group. She said she wants people to understand what her group is really about: "We are hip, as in a lot of us are born and raised here. We're very savvy moms, working moms, tolerant moms. If we saw any signs of this, it's just not at all part of our demographic."

Phone messages left for Mirza-Ahmed were not returned.

Barbi Shires, Ahmed's next-door neighbor and a resident of the Ashburn neighborhood for 16 years, said that she occasionally exchanged greetings with Ahmed but that they never got together socially. She said that Ahmed's wife once brought over a traditional chicken dinner, soon after his family moved in, and that Ahmed once invited her into his home when she noticed that he was looking at the night sky through a telescope.

"He invited me over," Shires said, "and I looked at Jupiter through his telescope. . . . He was a very nice gentleman."

According to the indictment, Ahmed planned to attend the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, next month and told the people who he thought were his co-conspirators that he would be ready to go overseas "to conduct jihad" in January.

Unlike other U.S. citizens implicated in recent terrorism plots, Ahmed does not appear to have received overseas training from al-Qaeda or any of its affiliates, intelligence sources said. In some previous investigations, however, evidence of connections to overseas organizations have surfaced several days after an arrest.

Series of cases

The arrest is the latest in a series of cases involving U.S. citizens, including another Pakistani American, who was convicted of planning to set off a car bomb in Times Square, that have raised concerns about an increasing number of Americans drawn to violent jihad.

Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Connecticut resident, was sentenced to life in prison this month; the bomb he left in a car in Times Square in May failed to detonate.

Since last year, more than 6o U.S. citizens have been charged or convicted in terrorism cases, according to federal officials. And in some of those cases, suspects were caught in sting operations.

In one case, the suspect allegedly drove an FBI-supplied van that he thought contained a ton of explosives to blow up the Paul Findley Federal Building and Courthouse in Springfield, Ill. The suspect, Michael Finton, 29, is awaiting trial.

This month, a Jordanian man was sentenced to 24 years in prison for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up a Dallas skyscraper. Hosam Smadi, 20, was arrested in September 2009 after leaving what he thought was a truck bomb but was really a decoy from FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda operatives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ST2010102705265

This isn't good publicity for transit fans... apparently the suspects videotaped the subway trains and stations to analyze for their plot. Many transit fans also videotape trains passing and going and this can make it more sensitive for people to see transit fans videotaping trains in stations without the thought of a terrorist! :P

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I was thinking the same thing. It wasn't really a myth but the prevailing thought that people aimed to commit terrorist activities on transit properties didn't need to photograph or record to do harm. Now this will cause any Tom, Dick or Harry to jump out and accuse anyone with a camera of wrongdoing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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