BusTalk

[Bill D]

Today’s snow storm hit Connecticut with a vengeance, dumping over two feet of snow in many areas. As a result of the storm, many transit systems in the state ran reduced service, or in some cases delayed or even cancelled service altogether. Waterbury was hit particularly hard. All paratransit service was cancelled, and the fixed route buses were held until 8:00 AM. Shortly after pullout, many drivers reported white out conditions with poor visibitity, and all buses were ordered to return to the garage. Finally by noon the snow let up, and road conditions had improved enough to operate service in the Waterbury and Meriden divisions. Wallingford and Naugatuck local routes were cancelled though, and all buses were equipped with tire chains, including Meriden routes. Only RTS buses were used, and the D40LF’s remained at the garage. Two New Flyers did see service later in the day, one in Meriden and one on a Waterbury tripper. After 3:00 PM some buses did have the chains removed, including all the Meriden runs. The major problem now is narrow streets in many areas due to accumulated snow, and plowed streets that have been covered again as people dig out their cars. How did other systems fare with this storm?

Bill

[thehartfordboy]

http://www.newhavenregister.com/articles/2011/01/12/news/doc4d2e127c2fc41993545947.txt

Go figure. Sad. I didn't go out but it sure hit.

[massbusmark]

Here in Lowell MA the LRTA ran from first trip (5:30AM) to last trip (8:20 PM) with snow routes and avoiding hills and unplowed streets and shopping centers. I heard of 8 or 9 stuck bus calls that maintainance had to go out on. Upriver from here, the Merrimack Valley RTA ran it's entire service day, with snow routes in effect and one Lawrence route (34 Prospect Hill) cancelled entirely after the first 2 trips of the day got stuck and the road supervisor was unable to find a detour that would avoid hills or unplowed streets.

From website and media reports:The MBTA had many snow route diversions, Brockton operated on a snow schedule, PVTA operated a Saturday schedule. RIPTA in Rhode Island had many snow route diversions. In NH, COAST (Dover/Portsmouth) did not run today, Nashua Transit did not run it's After 7 evening service, Manchester Transit ran with delays.

Bill, you mentioned the issues in Waterbury. I saw on the CT Transit website that they suspended service in Hartford, New Haven & Stamford betwen 8:30 & 9:30PM, depnding on the division. Do you know if New Britain had any sevice suspensions or problems today?

Thanks,
Mark

[ripta42]

RIPTA attempted normal service but was reporting an average delay of 25 minutes on its website yesterday morning, with a few dozen trips already cancelled by 8:00 a.m. Some routes were detoured due to downed power lines and water main breaks. The service that was running appeared to be doing well, and ridership was extremely light.

[Bill D]

[ripta42]

Here are some photos of RIPTA after the snowstorm:

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