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A. Wong

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  • 1 year later...

HART’s MetroRapid Bus Service Begins Tuesday

http://tbo.com/news/...day-b82491811z1

TAMPA

Some call it Bus Rapid Transit – HART’s MetroRapid bus service that begins Tuesday with expectations it can lead Tampa toward a modern urban transportation system.

Others label MetroRapid as Bus Rapid Transit Lite -- a comparatively inexpensive consolation prize for funding neither light rail nor exclusive bus-only corridors like those in “gold standard” BRT cities.

Either way, the MetroRapid system between downtown and the northeast suburbs is bound to be successful, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority officials say. And with good reason.

MetroRapid will partially supplant HART’s busiest run, Route 2 along Nebraska and Fletcher avenues, traveling the 17.5-mile stretch in about 55 minutes. That’s more than 15 percent faster than local buses, using technology to extend green traffic signals and shorten red lights and stopping only at special MetroRapid stations.

The initial North-South line could lead to another five MetroRapid routes HART planners mapped out to improve transit after the 2010 Hillsborough County referendum failure to fund the area’s first light-rail line and other transportation projects.

But whether MetroRapid will shape Hillsborough County’s transit planning for years to come remains to be seen. That will depend on its performance and understanding what HART’s version of BRT can and cannot achieve — compared with more expensive light rail or Bus Rapid Transit systems that operate in bus-only corridors.

Tampa’s MetroRapid plan is similar to a successful strategy Nashville has employed by beginning with modest projects in busy corridors, using conventional, 60-foot articulated buses that made half as many stops as the local service.

“We chose to call our concept BRT Lite because our routes did not operate in designated lanes,” said Patricia Harris-Morehead, communications chief for the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Then Nashville conducted a year-long study on how to improve transit in a busy corridor through the heart of downtown, considering light rail, heavy rail, street cars and a true BRT system, with dedicated lanes for 80 percent of the route.

The BRT option with exclusive lanes for buses was selected and the new system that could begin in 2016 is expected to save 20 percent travel time over auto traffic.

The proposed Nashville BRT with exclusive bus lanes estimated $174 million for capital costs for the 7.1-mile corridor, compared with HART spending $31 million for design, land acquisition and construction, $2 million for transit signal priority equipment and $1.75 million for the Fletcher Park-n-Ride on a route more than twice as long as Nashville’s true BRT.

HART board member Karen Jaroch said that expensive exclusive lanes should not be needed on the city streets where MetroRapid will operate because of the signal changing technology.

“That is what makes MetroRapid relatively inexpensive compared with those using exclusive lanes,” she said.

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  • 4 months later...

The green bus is for their MetroRapid service, largely a limited stop version of their route 2 with some BRT features (like traffic priority, off bus ticket-vending and dedicated stations). The buses themselves has conventional front and BRT rear, the first ones to have such a combo.

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The green bus is for their MetroRapid service, largely a limited stop version of their route 2 with some BRT features (like traffic priority, off bus ticket-vending and dedicated stations). The buses themselves has conventional front and BRT rear, the first ones to have such a combo.

Correct. The 2012 order had 12 vehicles specced as "MetroRapid," with the green/gray color scheme and BRT frontend. The interior panels are gray, with lime green pattern seat cushions.

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There were two other vehicles in the order, 1215 and 1216, with the standard body and color scheme - same as the 1300s, except they have a Voith transmission and front-facing W/C seats. They shouldn't be orphans, but there wasn't enough funding available for the full 24 vehicle order.

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Forgot to mention: the 1300s will replace the worst of the 2100s. The rest of the 2100 fleet and worst of the 2200s will be replaced by the CNG order in 2014.

HART also has 28 new CNG cutaway vans on the way. 8 specced for Flex service, 20 for Paratransit service. These will retire the current Flex cutaways (1950-1958) and a huge chunk of the Paratransit fleet (1910-1927), with a pair of units for service expansion. 1928-1937 will be around for a while, as will the Dodge vans (3001-3006) and MV1s (3010-3022)

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  • 2 weeks later...

The following HART units have been withdrawn from service for end of life retirement:

2001 40ft Gillig: 2103, 2114, 2116, 2119, 2121

The previous batch of retired vehicles (1901-1909 and 913) were removed from the HART Operations Facility earlier this week. 2502 was involved in a serious accident earlier this year and is sitting in the corner, fate uncertain.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

40ft Gillig 2416 went out in a blaze of glory on Monday, quite literally. Unrecoverable. News article. 2222 will be restored with whatever can be salvaged from 2416/other retired vehicles and returned to service in order to cover the loss.

The first of the new CNG paratransit cutaways arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Not sure what the fleet numbers are yet, but there are a total of 20 on the way. They will eventually replace 1910-1927, 1958 and MV-1 3021 (totaled in an accident). 8 additional cutaways for HARTFlex service will also be arriving, replacing 1950-1957. Those will have the same livery, though they'll be specced for fixed route service (14/1 seating, dest signs, etc.).

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  • 3 weeks later...

15 HART units are up for permanent disposal, pending Board of Directors authorization:

30ft: 2222, 2226, 2227, 2228

40ft: 2102, 2103, 2109, 2110, 2113, 2114, 2116, 2118, 2119, 2121, 2122

This action will further shrink the HART fleet by a couple of units.

Source: HART Finance, Governance, and Administration Committee Meeting agenda, http://www.gohart.org/departments/executive/packets/board_packet_FGA_02-17-2014.pdf, pp. 20-21

From the same document, paratransit vehicle delivery has been delayed to make a couple of small changes to the design. Delivery is expected to resume in late Feb/early March.

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How many buses are coming this year? Gillig CNG I believe?

No transit buses will be delivered in 2014. Twenty-one CNG 40ft Gilligs were just authorized for order a few weeks ago and are expected as early as late February, 2015.

HART currently has over $150MM in unfunded capital needs over the next 10 years, which includes bus and van procurement.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Pending FTA and Board of Directors approval in April, HART will be transferring 3 retired 2002 30ft Gillig vehicles to Hernando County The BUS. 2226-2228. Hernando County Board of County Commissioners have already approved the transfer on their end:

Source: http://www.gohart.or..._03-17-2014.pdf, pages 8-11.

So are these for Blue Bird CSFE or Ultra LF replacement?

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So are these for Blue Bird CSFE or Ultra LF replacement?

As I understand it, The BUS is going fully low floor. Not sure what they're doing with the CSFEs yet, but given that the Gilligs are older than the CSFEs and that 2226 has been a problem child at HART, I wouldn't be surprised if they stick around as spares.

HART will be retiring additional 30ft vehicles in early 2015, once the first CNG order arrives. Some of those will likely end up in Hernando as well, which will definitely retire the CSFEs and Ultra LFs if the quantity is large enough.

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  • 2 months later...

MegaBus: HART has forged a partnership with MegaBus to provide long-distance bus service to Orlando and Miami out of HART's Marion Transit Center. Service arrives and departs from the regional side of the MetroRapid platform.

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[Image Source: METRO Magazine]

Paratransit fleet: About half of the CNG paratransit order has arrived. HARTPlus units are numbered 4001-4020, with HARTFlex units numbered 4501-4508. All units are Champion Challengers outfitted with Ford E-450 6.8L V10 engines converted to CNG operation. HARTFlex units have additional seats and destination signs for fixed route demand responsive service. About a third of these vehicles have already been placed in service. Select paratransit units from the ranges of 1910-1928 and 1950-1958 will be retired, with a few handpicked units retained as contingency fleet.

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Bus fleet: 2226-2228 have been stripped of livery and are ready for transfer to Hernando The BUS. 2502 was sent to CoachCrafters for a full rebuild due to accident damage and will return to service in the future. 2418 has been stripped for parts and prematurely retired due to catastrophic fire damage. Due to additional federal grant formula funding resulting from BRT operation, HART has enough capital funding in FY2015 to expand the 2015 CNG bus order to 22 units (+1). This action is pending board approval.

Upcoming service changes: HART has received permission from the board to explore Hybrid Express service in the New Tampa area. Route 51X will become Route 51LX, offering express service during peak and limited express service during off-peak (using express buses to provide limited express service when the express isn't in operation). Optionally, the current express service may be eliminated in favor of all-day limited express service. Routing will also be modified to serve Wiregrass Mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, linking PCPT Route 54 with HART's main transit hub near the University of South Florida and MetroRapid North-South. Depending on the results of community outreach and resulting board action, this new service would begin in November. The CrossRoads Park-n-Ride will eventually be eliminated upon completion of a new Park-n-Ride located at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (just to the north of Wiregrass Mall).

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Of course, the proposal map makes the proposed service look deceptively small. Displayed on the HART local service map with PCPT's Route 54...

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As an aside, can we have the thread title changed to "HART (Hillsborough Transit Authority) Tampa, FL" for clarity purposes?

Similar to how LYNX is actually Central Florida Regional Transit Authority, HART's legal name is Hillsborough Transit Authority (but never initialized as HTA). HARTline/HART/Hillsborough Area Regional Transit/Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority are all DBAs (with HARTline never used to refer to the agency in the present tense).

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  • 3 months later...

Quick follow-up to the previous post: Pending final approval of the Fiscal 2015 budget later this month, Route 51LX is a go for December 7, 2014. Option 1 was selected, so 51LX service will operate as an hourly limited express service between UATC and Shoppes at Wiregrass from 8AM to 4PM. Additionally, a fixed route HARTFlex service along the same corridor between UATC and I-75 has been accelerated and will be a proposed element for the Fiscal 2016 budget. All-day local service has also been moved up to Fiscal 2017 long range unfunded transit plans.

Current 10-year transit plans (many proposals are unfunded at this time):

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  • 1 month later...

A couple of HART things for today:

First, the first phase of the CNG van fleet transition is now complete. Vans 1910-1928 and 1950-1958 have all been retired. 9 more CNG vans are on order (4021-4029), which will replace 1929-1937 in the spring and mark the end of diesel van service.

Second, let's talk December service changes. The scope of planned changes has been cut back quite a bit, with a majority of the previously planned changes bumped to March due to operator shortages. New Tampa service will have to wait for March.

Here are the proposed changes that are in the process of being scheduled for December 7:

- Route 6LTD will be renumbered Route 21LX - UATC to Downtown via Temple Terrace. This route follows the same alignment as the current Route 6LTD, except it will now use the Crosstown Connector to bypass the I-4/I-275 interchange during AM peak. All trips will travel northbound through the Marion Street Transitway, with the west express platform at Marion Transit Center being the last downtown stop in both directions. This also means that ridership will start showing up in reports again.

- Route 10: Routing changed to eliminate delays associated with Westshore Blvd. Trips leaving Social Security Administration will turn south at O'Brien St instead of Westshore Blvd, with service now running bi-directional along Cypress Ave from O'Brien St to Westshore Blvd.

- Route 25LX: PM trips rerouted to travel southbound on Culbreath Rd instead of northbound. This change allows buses to drop off next to Culbreath Park-N-Ride, eliminating the need for disembarking passengers to cross the street to get to the parking lot.

- Route 31: All trips rerouted to service Amazon Distribution Center.

- Route 37: Weekday midday service will be increased to every 30 minutes (improved from every 60 minutes). Trips will continue to alternate between short via Providence Rd/Brandon Main St and long via Brandon Regional Hospital/Oakfield Dr.

- Route 571 (HARTFlex South County): All trips rerouted to service Amazon Distribution Center.


Due to a shortage of operators available for expanded service, all other planned changes (Routes 12/15/16/51LX) have been delayed until March. Additional details and schedules will come out in late November, in advance of service changes.

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  • 3 months later...

Quick fleet update:

Units in the 2300, 2400 and 2500 series are in the process of receiving a minor overhaul consisting of new engines, transmissions and seat coverings, in order to extend service life to 15 years.

Units 1501-1522 will be arriving in the next few months. These are 40ft CNG Gillig Low Floor buses (standard front/rear) and will replace the remaining 2100 series buses/the worst of the 2200 series fleet. As some of the 2200s being replaced are 30ft vehicles, several bus routes will begin running 40ft vehicles exclusively as new units become available.

Units 4021-4029 will be arriving in late spring. These are 23ft Champion/Ford CNG cutaways with the same specs as 4001-4020 and will replace the remainder of the diesel cutaways (1929-1937).

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HART has received 8 of the 22 incoming 1500-series 2015 40ft CNG Gillig buses so far. The new vehicles are currently waiting on a few minor things like decals before hitting the road. 1502's in the below picture, plus I caught 1507 and 1508 coming down I-75 while heading up to USF this morning.


Via @GoHART:


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  • 3 weeks later...

Great pic! They would have to probably train the operators on a few things I would imagine. Thanks for the updates.

Mmhmm. Vehicle route assignments are randomized, so everyone has to be trained before they hit the road. Otherwise, a quarter of them are already prepped for service.

Interior shots:

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The CNG model is a bit taller than the hybrid... The sign in the front says the bus height 11'11". IIRC the Gillig Hybrid buses are 11'6". Looks like it may of been running when you took these shots? I don't know if it is just me, but buses with the electric engine cooling fans seem quite a bit quieter, or less hum, compared to a hydraulic fan.

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The CNG model is a bit taller than the hybrid... The sign in the front says the bus height 11'11". IIRC the Gillig Hybrid buses are 11'6". Looks like it may of been running when you took these shots? I don't know if it is just me, but buses with the electric engine cooling fans seem quite a bit quieter, or less hum, compared to a hydraulic fan.

Nope, this particular one was powered down at the time. The new units with the electric fan setup are indeed much quieter on the interior than the older vehicles, especially at idle. The noisiest thing now is the air conditioner, which white noises over the engine pretty well.

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