Jump to content

SMART (Detroit)


A. Wong

Recommended Posts

  • 1 month later...
On 6/17/2023 at 1:40 AM, doglover44 said:

Finally caught another Proterra today: #4026 is sitting at MacTerm.

This one hasn't been seen in service... but #4024 hit the streets yesterday for the first time, on route 430. I'll see if I can track it down for a picture soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

September 11 service changes have officially been announced.

  • 261 FAST Michigan: new stops added at Merriman/Van Born and at Michigan/Beech-Daly
  • 280 Western Wayne Crosstown: time adjustments on all days, and headways changed from 60 to 75 minutes on weekends
  • 305 Grand River: extended to Wixom, rerouted to use Grand River between Telegraph and 7 Mile
  • 450 Woodward Local-Pontiac: new stop added at Woodward/Long Lake
  • 462 FAST Woodward-Auburn Hills: new stop added at Woodward/Long Lake
  • 525 Groesbeck: rerouted to use Gratiot instead of Beaconsfield between Masonic and 14 Mile
  • 740 12 Mile: extended to Wixom on all days except Sunday
  • 805 Grand River Park & Ride: extended to the Beck/12 Mile MDOT park & ride lot via Grand River, Novi Road, and 12 Mile

This will be the first time SMART has served Novi and Bloomfield Hills since 1995, and the first time ever SMART has served Wixom.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The following SMART service expansions have been announced at today's TRU Transit Talk in Dearborn (effective dates may change):

  • January 2024: new services to New Baltimore and downtown Romulus (potential revivals of the 567 and 202 respectively?)
  • April 2024: introduction of route 492 and reroute and extension of route 790
  • Summer 2024: introduction of route 759
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/24/2023 at 7:41 PM, 140 Southshore said:
  • January 2024: new services to New Baltimore and downtown Romulus (potential revivals of the 567 and 202 respectively?)

Got the info on these: New Baltimore will be a 560 extension, and Romulus will be a reroute of the 280.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

SMART has rolled out a couple of new special liveries on their buses.

One is a variant of the new standard livery, featuring the photos of each terminal's fixed-route and paratransit Operator of the Year.

image.thumb.png.4e39eda66755766dba53f7922e8e0030.png

The colors seem better on these, which makes me think they were, in fact, painted, rather than just a wrap. I imagine there's one Gillig and one minibus per terminal in this new scheme; so far I know of #3813 (Macomb), #3924 (Wayne), and #35022 (Wayne).

They also have a new series of "25 Year Club" buses, updated with the expanded group of longtime employees and the new logo. It's appeared on an articulated bus (I believe #4014, but they wrapped over the fleet number) so far, though I'm not sure if there are others in this series.

IMG_9230.thumb.JPG.183518444b8431a08ef790ae65408b27.JPG

Last year's "25 Year Club" wraps are still out.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

One of the elusive hybrid Gilligs appeared at SFTC on a driver training run this Monday; it's the first time I've seen one run in over a year.

IMG_0202.thumb.JPG.555325d1e7200fa9968c6e2277384cab.JPG

On 10/26/2023 at 7:09 PM, dtwtransit said:

They also have a new series of "25 Year Club" buses, updated with the expanded group of longtime employees and the new logo. It's appeared on one articulated bus (I believe #4014, but they wrapped over the fleet number) so far, though I'm not sure if there are others in this series.

It seems they did wrap one Flyer from each terminal; here's #4020 from MacTerm, seen today on the 510.

IMG_0244.thumb.JPG.06d1c04755af81e58c512ee6e47bf005.JPG

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

New run pick next week, with a few changes:

  • 280 rerouted via downtown Romulus on weekdays only- weekends keep q75 service and existing routing
  • 560 extended back to downtown New Baltimore, with every third bus on weekdays and every other on weekends continuing east along 23 Mile, the rest keeping the current terminus
  • 160 Wildlife Refuge branch discontinued outright, with time changes to the remaining route
  • 780 frequency improved to q50 on weekdays (to improve its OTP, which is currently one of the worst in the system)- will now run 4 buses at once, likely 2 Macomb + 2 Oakland
  • 740 stop at Twelve Oaks reconfigured; for pedestrian safety, westbound buses will make a u-turn to serve the eastbound stop, and then u-turn to head back west

GA3oWb0WAAA_NOK.thumb.jpg.8dc1ce15b916e14bc422a431d913bf7e.jpgGA3oWb7XkAAddEJ.thumb.jpg.c728cccca113dfc1fccff26f46f763dd.jpg

#4005 is the WayneTerm 25 Year Club artic. Still no sign of an operator-of-the-year bus from OakTerm.

A few Gilligs are still floating around with the old serif lettering on the windows. #3824 has made the rounds lately.

20231212_181347.thumb.jpg.1820c998f44f383384c7ce2a38c97577.jpg

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

New headsign programs out for 280: the route name has been changed from "WAYNE WESTERN CROSSTOWN" to simply "WESTERN WAYNE," the southern terminus was changed to say 
"Evans Terminal" (having previously said North Terminal; the terminal was renamed in 2022), and "via Romulus" was added to weekday trips.

20240117_175922.thumb.jpg.f0e351e20ce195e38aa5d323d4cbbdce.jpg20240117_175926.thumb.jpg.52139507c310b28ea3c344cbd3695d99.jpg

And here's the new headsign for the 560 to New Baltimore:

IMG_2910.thumb.JPG.539534ddf769df2de8a3b89d0b91d76c.JPG

There are a few buses floating around with old headsign programs; on occasion you'll still see a Wixom-bound 740 reading "to Farmington Hills" on the front.
That oddball #3712, which had old names for a lot of routes (and showed 261 as a RefleX) has been fixed, however.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

SMART's new cutaways are Glaval Universals on E-450 chassis, purchased from Tesco. #43001-43024, in Community Transit colors, are currently sitting at OakTerm waiting for distribution to operators.

image.thumb.jpeg.802c18155dd4dacd0789a87e971dc3a7.jpeg

40 new cutaways and 19 new vans - likely bearing the new gray-and-red scheme - are in SMART's possession and are slated to enter service on Connector this spring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, dtwtransit said:

SMART's new cutaways are Glaval Universals on F-450 chassis, purchased from Tesco. #43001-43024, in Community Transit colors, are currently sitting at OakTerm waiting for distribution to operators.

image.thumb.jpeg.802c18155dd4dacd0789a87e971dc3a7.jpeg

40 new cutaways and 19 new vans - likely bearing the new gray-and-red scheme - are in SMART's possession and are slated to enter service on Connector this spring.

Those are E450’s for what it’s worth. You can get F-series cutaways so it’s worth distinguishing. A couple of the county dial-a-ride services in northern michigan have F550 derived cutaways. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/29/2024 at 11:04 PM, ns8401 said:

Those are E450’s for what it’s worth. You can get F-series cutaways so it’s worth distinguishing. A couple of the county dial-a-ride services in northern michigan have F550 derived cutaways. 

Typo, sorry

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of SMART's buses have a "!! GO LIONS !!" exposure still running. #3703-3704 (Oak) for sure.

IMG_4411.thumb.JPG.5fda407acf555669ae2e7beff6bf596d.JPG

#3703 is newly wrapped in FAST colors- no others recently redone afaik.
There aren't enough FAST-wrapped buses to cover current FAST service nowadays, so each FAST line will usually have one or two plain buses at a given time. WayneTerm has been using their 25 Year and Zoom to the Zoo units on 261.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

#3008 ran on 495 last night; this was the first time I've seen one of the hybrid Gilligs in revenue service in over a year. I'm hoping it'll make the rounds so I can get better pictures.

20240207_210112.thumb.jpg.01c33032dd1e9708e0e8e28e733992ed.jpg20240207_205754.thumb.jpg.95153f450a733982c32df5f2da68c9bf.jpg

This one didn't have the new Clever LCD screen installed (and its amber dot-matrix wasn't working)- so I'd assume the same is true of the rest hybrids.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SMART has a new wrap for Black History Month, honoring Granville T. Woods, a notable Black inventor credited with inventing the third rail, among other innovations in transit and electrical engineering.

https://www.facebook.com/smartmovesus/videos/granville-t-woods-was-often-referred-to-as-the-black-edison-due-to-his-numerous-/330145656681124/

It's out on #3926 (Macomb) at least- I'll be on the lookout for it to appear on other terminals' units.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...