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Akron Metro RTA


Straypuft

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Hello, I wish to share my knowlege of my current city of Akron Ohio's bus system.

Starting off with the Buses:

Akron Metro currently uses a mix of New Flyers and Gilligs for main line service.

1200's-1400's are New Flyer D40LF's(1200's and 1300's being phased out)

1500's-1800's are a mix of 35ft and 40ft Low Floor Gilligs

2100's are Low Floor Gillig CNG's

5000's Gillig Low Floor Hybrids

6000's(6) New Flyer XN60 Articulated CNG's(entering service Fall 2013)

Akron Metro also operates MCI D4500's from Downtown Akron to Downtown Cleveland and Clevelands Wade Park neighborhood far into Clevelands East Side.

Some Photos:(click for larger versions)

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Akron Metro New Flyer bus by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro Gillig CNG Bus by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro New Flyer XN60 CNG #6001 by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro RTA MCI D4500 #2011 by Seluryar, on Flickr

Akron Metro built and opened a Transit Center in 2009 located just south of Downtown Akron. Recently named "The Robert K Paft Transit Center", Is where you can find almost every bus route that Metro offers other than circulator service and weekly grocery buses, You Will find connections to Downtown Cleveland Ohio to the North and Canton Ohio to the South.

Greyhoud also uses this transit center to Cleveland and points North, East and West, Columbus and points South and West, and to Pittsburgh and points North, East and South.

From the transit center, you can find a Downtown Loop bus which operates from Wednesday to Sunday, offering free rides. This bus serves certain stops in Downtown Akron from Lock 3 to Northside Train Station and to The Akron Zoo before returning to the transit center.

There are 2 circulator routes not served from the transit center, One at Summit Mall that travels around Montrose to the west, and one at Chapel Hill Mall that serves parts of Tallmage and Cuyahoga Falls.

Grocery buses serve certain neighborhoods once a week monday through Friday.

Akron Metro also offers Dial-a-ride service to the elderly and disabled, this service is called SCAT, This service is run with Eldorado Aerotech buses in both Ford and Chevrolet flavor.

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Akron Metro SCAT by Seluryar, on Flickr

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Feel free to offer updates!

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here are some interior shots of out XN60's:

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Akron Metro RTA New Flyer XN60 CNG #6005 by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro RTA New Flyer XN60 CNG #6005 by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro RTA New Flyer XN60 CNG #6005 by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro RTA New Flyer XN60 CNG #6005 by Seluryar, on Flickr

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Akron Metro RTA New Flyer XN60 CNG #6005 by Seluryar, on Flickr

and a 10 minute ride video from yesterday!:

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From Ohio.com

Metro RTA to add buses, cut fares on links to Cleveland

By Dave Scott

Beacon Journal staff writer

Published: January 29, 2014 - 06:19 PM

Metro RTA’s board on Wednesday approved the purchase of six low-floor, 40-foot Gillig buses expected to arrive in August.

Federal grants will pay for 80 percent of the $465,000 cost per bus. They are expected to go into service later that month. A Metro spokeswoman said they require about two weeks of preparation before going on the road.

No specific routes will receive the new vehicles.

The board also approved eliminating the $1.25 charge when Metro riders transfer from the system’s North Coast Express to Cleveland RTA buses. The Cleveland bus system is eliminating the $2.25 charge for its riders transferring to Metro RTA.

The change takes effect Monday and is expected to cost Metro $13,000 a year.

Metro’s board also approved 10 percent discounts for riders to the Job Center on Tallmadge Avenue. That measure will cost about $31,000 a year.

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This bus is pretending to be a gate:

h4eqEwPl.jpg

Looks like the gate is broke and they are making their buses work overtime, this was seen on Thanksgiving Evening, a day with no Metro service or office hours.

Are these new Gillig buses CNG or diesel? Thanks!

CNG, Metro has recently built a new CNG fueling facility as well

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On 9/18/2016 at 10:41 PM, Seluryar said:

Metro now has a new Downtown Circulator serving Downtown and University of Akron Campus with new Gilligs.

Akron Metro DASH Gillig by Raymond, on Flickr

That's a nice looking livery! Although not a big fan of the window covering graphics. More importantly though, does Roo drive?

 

On 11/27/2015 at 6:04 PM, Seluryar said:

This bus is pretending to be a gate:

Looks like the gate is broke and they are making their buses work overtime, this was seen on Thanksgiving Evening, a day with no Metro service or office hours.

We run into problems with broken gates in the rental car biz too, those suckers are expensive to repair! One gate has had $20,000 of various repairs invested in it due to software glitches for example, and it still doesn't work right. An artic to block the entry is a good backup :lol:

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1 hour ago, MVTArider said:

That's a nice looking livery! Although not a big fan of the window covering graphics. More importantly though, does Roo drive?

Roo is the mascot of the University Of Akron, This route has something to do with helping students get to the transit center and transfer to other buses that do not go near campus.

 

As for me, I very recently took my first trip on that bus to help cut down on the walk to my pharmacy which was still a mile off the closest stop the DASH serves, but with them running every 10 minutes and saving me a mile of walking in each direction, I might start using that bus to get to and from my pharmacy, as well as the closest gas station to where I live, I live in Downtown Akron and the closest gas station is a mile away. :/

Now I hope renovate that gas station to offer more slushie flavors :)

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The new Gilligs(as seen in my previous post above) Do not have windows that open, I am reminded of a time when this is a bad thing, Last Autumn I was on one of them, the weather was cool, not the type you would usually use air conditioning, But the bus was packed, even though the heat wasnt on, it was broiling in there and the driver didnt think the a/c needed to be turned on, But towards the back of the bus where I was on, it was just too warm in there and the windows couldnt be opened.

 

I asked a bus driver about this recently and she told me it was to prevent the windows from being opened when the a/c was on.

 

Why not create a lock system for these windows to prevent that? I swear this was possible, I am reminded of the mid-90's Flxibles in Cleveland to the north and how many of them the window lever thingies seemed locked, or maybe they were broke, who knows? From the look of it all you needed was some kind of allen wrench to lock it.

 

I do admit this is a sleek look for the Gilligs, But there will be times when the a/c cannot be turned on after the bus ages over the course of a few years to to them breaking or something and we would need the ability to open the windows.

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So the Transit center has 2 sides for buses, West Side Departures and East side Departures, These dont mean buses heading for the west side or east side, Just that one side is on the West and one side is on the East of the Transit Center, In the past for as long as the TC existed, East side departures exited out onto E Barteges and onto Broadway, Most buses that had to get to S Main st Northbound would then turn on Rosa Parks Drive(Red on below map). Current construction and future plans will not allow buses to turn left onto Rosa Parks Drive due to traffic merging from South Main before Barteges onto Broadway(orange on below map), Now These East Side Departures going to Rosa Parks Drive now need to stay on the TC property to go to the north exit driveway so they can travel onto Rosa Parks Drive.(Green on below map)

 

There is a concrete center median preventing buses from safely making a left turn onto Rosa Parks Drive from Broadway. 

 

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There was a single bus that took Barteges to S Main St Northbound, There is a chance that in the future all buses that use S Main St Northbound could take Barteges and bypass Rosa Parks Dr entirely but for the time being Barteges will be closed for the entirely of the Main St interchange construction.

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Barteges opened up today between High and Broadway, Not sure if its a temp thing until construction is complete, the Westbound side had its curb lane coned off, But buses are using the street inbound and outbound. The DASH is using it to get to S Main Northbound and other buses at least using it to get to S Main Southbound.(High St turns into South Main Southbound at Barteges while South Main 2 way to the north is the next street over.)

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Some of the new Gillig arrivals featuring the black window line as shown in that last quoted image above this post have windows that do open in the passenger area, I think this feature is on the 2330's and up with a few late-2320's having them.

 

Construction happening on South Main at Cascade Plaza, I think they are completely removing the purpose built transit-way that was built for when Metro had their bus line ups there before moving to the Transit Center. With the Southbound S Main St lanes shut down for construction, Northern inbound buses are using S High St to get to the Transit Center.

 

Edit:

 

The later 2320's and up feature hard plastic seating supposedly to make cleaning them easier.

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Was on a 1600 series Gillig this evening, It was running on the 50 - Montrose Circulator, I was the only passenger on the bus and the driver knew I wanted to catch the soon departing 1 back towards downtown, He turned onto Rothrock Loop, the road before the turn the route goes on, beeping noise (Which started on Heritage Woods Dr as we were crossing Medina Road) started hapopening, bus shut off half way up Rothrock Loop(before the right turn behind Toys r Us), Driver waits a minute then tries to start the bus back up,  3 tries did the trick, Bus shuts down again halfway up this stretch of the Rothrock Loop, wait a minute, start back up and we move on, We get to the end of Rothrock Loop and just before we can turn onto Rothrock, it shuts down again, Starts back up and now the driver is desperate to get to the turn around spot and I see my bus up there, We get there, I get off and the bus shuts off again, I think I heard the driver say something about overheat alarm, The beeping noise sounded like the wheelchair ramp extend/retract beep.

 

Bus driver was all cool about it, I made my connecting bus and just got home. I was in no hurry, If I had missed the bus, I would have gone over to World Market to kill time.

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