dtwtransit Posted January 29, 2023 Report Share Posted January 29, 2023 7 hours ago, UnitedTransit said: 2017 Gillig BRT 40' (coach no. 3762) at Southland Center in Taylor, Michigan spotted in 2021 Only a handful still have the "SMART" lettering on the windows; most of the fleet has had their windows replaced with opening ones which means removing those letters. I haven't seen one in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted February 5, 2023 Report Share Posted February 5, 2023 A couple of Flex fleet updates: I've surmised that Flex units are no longer being stored at Avis facilities, but rather exclusively at SMART park-and-ride lots. From what I can tell, vehicles for the west division (Farmington, Dearborn) are now stored only at OCC Orchard Ridge, and those for the east division (Troy, AH/Pontiac, Hall Road) are all stored at the Troy Civic Center lot (where route 461 terminates). I have a list of other locations to check, but I'm fairly confident these two are now the only locations; they may, however, still be repaired at Avis hubs. Lots more new black Chrysler Pacificas and Voyagers have been added to the fleet (all of the latter being wheelchair-accessible), as have more white and silver Chevrolet Malibus. Most of these now bear the round Flex door badge with the new SMART logo, as opposed to the rectangle badge with the old logo. A couple of black Toyota Siennas have also appeared (with the same badges), as has a single Chevy Equinox. These new additions brought Siennas to the west division for the first time; they added quite a few more states' plates to the fleet as well, though a good number of them are still being registered in Michigan. At least two new '22 Siennas have also been added bearing the full Flex livery - these are (to the best of my knowledge) the first new units to be wrapped for Flex since 2021, and as such are the first to have the full livery with the new SMART logo. Finally, four new white Voyagers, all wheelchair-accessible, just recently appeared at OCC Orchard Ridge, bearing no plates. They're late 2022 models and still have their window stickers, which show they were purchased from an Iowa dealer. I'm eager to see what happens with these. All told, this brings my Flex fleet count to 64, with more sure to come. Some of the more temporary-looking units haven't been seen in a while, but there's no other evidence to suggest any have been removed from the Flex pool. Even that oddball Blazer is still around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted February 11, 2023 Report Share Posted February 11, 2023 SMART has now begun to repaint Gilligs in the new livery. This (#3606) is the first I've seen; it's the FAST version, which seems to be exactly the same but with the FAST lettering at the back. I'll be going around the system tomorrow hunting down other units for pictures. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnitedTransit Posted February 11, 2023 Report Share Posted February 11, 2023 17 hours ago, dtwtransit said: SMART has now begun to repaint Gilligs in the new livery. This (#3606) is the first I've seen; it's the FAST version, which seems to be exactly the same but with the FAST lettering on the back. I'll be going around the system tomorrow hunting down other units for pictures. yo that's amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted February 12, 2023 Report Share Posted February 12, 2023 Had no luck finding any other units in the new scheme today but I did catch #3606 again for better pictures. In typical SMART fashion they didn't repaint over the grilles so there's still a bit of the retro livery there. Personally I think the new livery looks pretty nice on the Gilligs, but much better on the Proterras. Here's #4027 (seen Wednesday on the 400/405) for comparison: The Proterras were done with actual metallic silver paint, while the Gilligs were repainted with solid gray. I suppose, perhaps, that could be a regular-vs.-FAST difference too. I do like the larger fleet number on the Gillig, however. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
140 Southshore Posted February 12, 2023 Report Share Posted February 12, 2023 Great catch! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVTArider Posted February 12, 2023 Report Share Posted February 12, 2023 Looking at all the bits of yellow around the edges on 3606, I wonder if that's actually a wrap instead of paint? Either way it's nice to see them keeping up appearances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 Posted February 12, 2023 Report Share Posted February 12, 2023 5 hours ago, MVTArider said: Looking at all the bits of yellow around the edges on 3606, I wonder if that's actually a wrap instead of paint? Either way it's nice to see them keeping up appearances. It’s a wrap. If they repainted it they wouldn’t leave any yellow and certainly not on the grilles and other open spaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted February 12, 2023 Report Share Posted February 12, 2023 A SMART employee told me after the August reveal that they were painting them, but I suppose they could've switched to vinyl wraps since as a cost-saving measure... It does look more like a wrap now that you mention it. There appear to still be outlined bits of the old livery visible beneath the gray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 Posted February 12, 2023 Report Share Posted February 12, 2023 6 hours ago, dtwtransit said: A SMART employee told me after the August reveal that they were painting them, but I suppose they could've switched to vinyl wraps since as a cost-saving measure... It does look more like a wrap now that you mention it. There appear to still be outlined bits of the old livery visible beneath the gray. A real tell is the grilles... It's a royal pain to wrap across them with all the small bits of crisscrossing metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted February 14, 2023 Report Share Posted February 14, 2023 Today I spotted #3655 in the new FAST livery as well; I haven't seen any others yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted February 14, 2023 Report Share Posted February 14, 2023 Interesting things have transpired in the Flex realm... Two of the '22 Pacificas have recently been wrapped in the full livery with the new logo. Both of these were in service prior to being wrapped, and were used with only the door badges. The four white Voyagers are still at Orchard Ridge, still out-of-service without plates. Last week I saw a couple of guys (presumably from Via) show up in a nondescript Florida-plated car and start working on them, installing floor mats & repairing instrumentation; one was taken out for fuel without a plate. The strangest development yet is the arrival of five new Ford Transit Connect units liveried for Hampton Roads Transit On Demand. All Virginia-plated, all wheelchair-accessible. At least two were present Friday evening, with all five there by this morning. Given that HRT On Demand is another Via service, I imagine these were reassigned here to cope with increasing Flex demand. I figure they wouldn't drag them here all the way from Virginia to *not* use them, lol. Where this gets really weird is their potential history... The service launched there in '22, so it's kind of weird that these are 2020 units. Alongside their Virginia plates and inspection tags they also have New York inspection tags... and NYC taxi tags? These tags show previous plate numbers for each - eight-character serials beginning in T, which are consistent with New York taxi plates. There are also visible bits of taxi-yellow paint on each van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted March 3, 2023 Report Share Posted March 3, 2023 Those HRT units disappeared a couple of days later. Today all five reappeared at the lot in Flex livery. They arrived gradually throughout the day; with the arrival of each Transit Connect, one of the white Voyagers, now bearing Maryland temporary plates, disappeared. Not too much else is new with Flex aside from a couple of Pacificae being wrapped in the new livery, and a couple of new Siennas entering service. The Equinox, damaged in a crash, seems to have been removed from the fleet, and it also appears that they're phasing out the sedans as new vans arrive, as only one Malibu was parked across the two lots today. In the fixed route realm, #3604 now bears the new FAST livery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted March 24, 2023 Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 The white Voyagers are now wrapped and in service with Michigan commercial vehicle (AA 11111) plates. I landed a ride on one on its first day in service, and found that these are equipped with a small fold-down third row in the wheelchair bay, making for five passenger seats; the other WAVs in the fleet lack a third row and only seat three (since the front passenger seat isn't used). The driver of this one told me that these four aren't owned by Avis, but rather by the aptly-named Voyager Global Mobility. This makes me wonder the ownership status of some of the other units in the fleet... More and more of the black Pacificae are also being wrapped, leaving very few plain-black units still in service. The Blazer and at least two Malibus are still being used, though I haven't seen the Equinox since it was damaged in a crash last month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted March 24, 2023 Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 More Gilligs are being wrapped in the FAST version of the new livery, all of them 2016 units. The known ones so far: #3602 #3603 #3604 #3605 #3606 #3618 #3636 #3640 #3641 #3648 #3649 #3655 Some of these units have been reassigned from Wayne to Oakland. None have yet been spotted in the new livery without the FAST logo at the rear. I paid another visit to Oakland Terminal earlier this week to look for the Proterras; none were stored outdoors, so I imagine they're inside the garage. I'm not even sure if they've been painted yet, since #4024-4026 have still never been spotted in service as far as I know. Some new Community Transit units are also sitting at OakTerm. #42001-42003 are Ford Transit vans with the Driverge bus-style door upfit; they've currently yet to be painted or assigned to operators, though they do have license plates. There are also three Ford-chassis ElDorado Advantage minibuses painted with the red-and-orange stripes, but they don't bear fleet numbers or any other SMART branding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnitedTransit Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 On 3/24/2023 at 6:11 PM, dtwtransit said: More Gilligs are being wrapped in the FAST version of the new livery, all of them 2016 units. The known ones so far: #3602 #3603 #3604 #3605 #3606 #3618 #3636 #3640 #3641 #3648 #3649 #3655 Some of these units have been reassigned from Wayne to Oakland. None have yet been spotted in the new livery without the FAST logo at the rear. I paid another visit to Oakland Terminal earlier this week to look for the Proterras; none were stored outdoors, so I imagine they're inside the garage. I'm not even sure if they've been painted yet, since #4024-4026 have still never been spotted in service as far as I know. Some new Community Transit units are also sitting at OakTerm. #42001-42003 are Ford Transit vans with the Driverge bus-style door upfit; they've currently yet to be painted or assigned to operators, though they do have license plates. There are also three Ford-chassis ElDorado Advantage minibuses painted with the red-and-orange stripes, but they don't bear fleet numbers or any other SMART branding. Honestly, SMART needs to purchase more of those extended buses for the FAST service if they want to make it a regional transit system. They could even bring Coach #3002 out of retirement as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted April 1, 2023 Report Share Posted April 1, 2023 You would think eight artics at each terminal would be enough to run the FAST... I guess not, since they run other routes from time to time. They're often used on the Woodward Local, and occasionally on the 495 and 710. Sometimes they show up on others too - I rode one from WayneTerm on the 305 on a Sunday about a month ago. Some are out for repairs too. #4011 is sitting at OakTerm without a windshield as we speak. I doubt they even still have #3002. I saw it at WayneTerm about two years ago but since then they've removed all of the D40LFs from their premises, so I bet their articulated sibling was put out to pasture with them. They definitely need to buy more artics if you ask me. Aside from the capacity boost, the rider experience on the bendys is a huge upgrade from the Gilligs - nowadays it's really disappointing to find that a Gillig is running your FAST run. The Flyers' nicer cabins would probably do a lot to retain riders too... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnitedTransit Posted April 1, 2023 Report Share Posted April 1, 2023 22 hours ago, dtwtransit said: You would think eight artics at each terminal would be enough to run the FAST... I guess not, since they run other routes from time to time. They're often used on the Woodward Local, and occasionally on the 495 and 710. Sometimes they show up on others too - I rode one from WayneTerm on the 305 on a Sunday about a month ago. Some are out for repairs too. #4011 is sitting at OakTerm without a windshield as we speak. I doubt they even still have #3002. I saw it at WayneTerm about two years ago but since then they've removed all of the D40LFs from their premises, so I bet their articulated sibling was put out to pasture with them. They definitely need to buy more artics if you ask me. Aside from the capacity boost, the rider experience on the bendys is a huge upgrade from the Gilligs - nowadays it's really disappointing to find that a Gillig is running your FAST run. The Flyers' nicer cabins would probably do a lot to retain riders too... according to reports, #3002 is in storage at SMART's Oakland terminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted April 14, 2023 Report Share Posted April 14, 2023 If anyone local wants to check out one of SMART's Proterras, I've heard through the grapevine that one will be on display at the Earth Day fair in Royal Oak on Saturday 4/22. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted May 4, 2023 Report Share Posted May 4, 2023 #3723 is the first confirmed 2017 Gillig to be rewrapped in the new colors. All rewraps in the new livery so far have been the FAST version. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted May 7, 2023 Report Share Posted May 7, 2023 I've done some investigating into SMART's support fleet, and can confidently say that almost all vehicles listed on the Wiki's page are now retired; of those listed, I've only found #(12)04. The support fleet nowadays consists mostly of GMC vehicles - a mix of Acadias, Sierras, and Terrains - with a handful of Ford vehicles mixed in. The support vehicles I've observed are recorded in my SMART spreadsheet. I haven't been able to definitively link any of them to terminals, though I've seen many of the trucks at OakTerm. The unmarked vehicles (without fleet numbers) spend a lot of time at the Buhl Building parking garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted June 15, 2023 Report Share Posted June 15, 2023 Finally caught another Proterra today: #4026 is sitting at MacTerm. Yesterday brought some fun SMART activity too: they hosted a hiring event at the M-1 Concourse where interviewees got the chance to drive a bus, so that meant some cool shots of Gilligs on a racetrack... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doglover44 Posted June 17, 2023 Report Share Posted June 17, 2023 On 6/15/2023 at 1:12 AM, dtwtransit said: Finally caught another Proterra today: #4026 is sitting at MacTerm. Yesterday brought some fun SMART activity too: they hosted a hiring event at the M-1 Concourse where interviewees got the chance to drive a bus, so that meant some cool shots of Gilligs on a racetrack... Are those Gilligs new ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 Posted June 17, 2023 Report Share Posted June 17, 2023 9 hours ago, doglover44 said: Are those Gilligs new ? No. That one specifically is a 2019 if I’m reading the number correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtwtransit Posted June 17, 2023 Report Share Posted June 17, 2023 8 hours ago, doglover44 said: Are those Gilligs new ? Nope, just recently rewrapped in the new colors. Most of the rewrapped ones (including that one) are 2016s. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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