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Rome Transit District (Rome, Ga.) - The other RTD!


Buzz2kb

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When you think about RTD, most of you will say that's Denver's transit agency. However, I'm presenting a much less known RTD here. Rome Transit District is a small system based at the northwestern Georgia city of Rome, and its five-bus system is yet another motley of interesting(despicable?) buses. Taken at its downtown transfer location in December 2013 are Chevy cutaways 1155 and 1156 with Glaval Bodies, Ford/Goshen cutaway 1154 and Blue Bird CSFE 1160.

RTDGa-r3-  1155-2.JPGRTDGa-r3  1155-3.JPGRTDGa-r3-  1155-1.JPGRTDGa-r3  1155-4.JPGRTDGa-r2B-1156.JPGRTDGa-r1B-1154-1.JPGRTDGa-r1B-  1154-2.JPGRTDGa-r1A-  1160-2.JPGRTDGa-r1A-  1160-1.JPG

However, the gem(curse?) of the fleet is bus 1168, one of its at least two Blue Bird Ultra LF 30ft buses. It was the only low-floor bus I spotted on that trip. While I'm not sure how many buses of its kind this RTD has in its fleet, my guess is that the Ultra LF's give this agency so many maintenance headaches (like most operators of it) that the agency had to assemble this motley of buses (2 obviously aging bus/van and 2 cutaways ostensibly lettered for para-transit use) to maintain its main services.

RTDGa-r2A-1168.JPG

While enjoying my exclusive shots, just allow me to raise some general questions about Blue Birds used in transit applications:

1. Among the Blue Birds built for transit purposes (CS FE/RE, Xcel 102, Ultra LF and Ultra LMB), what do you think is the best/worst bus?

2. Why is the Ultra LF a particularly unreliable bus?

3. Why pretty few agencies have nice things to say about Blue Birds in transit use (other than the preference of drivers at Battle Creek Transit for Xcel 102's over Gillig LF's)?

Thanks!

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Ive heard a lot of bad things about the Ultra LF. Many agencies in Maine retired the buses prematurely due to frame cracking issues. I was in Norman Oklahoma in 2007 and rode an ultra lf and it was the roughest riding bus out there. Battle Creek has one and it is used as a back up. Sometimes the diver will ask for a cutaway instead.

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