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[MA] MBTA Fleet Update
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:36 am    Post subject: [MA] MBTA Fleet Update Reply with quote

Detailed inventory can be found at the NE Transit MBTA Inventory page

Highlights as of the 4/12/07 update:

- 75 of the New Flyer D40LF's have been delivered and are in service. The highest number accepted so far is #0685.

- As noted in the MBTA camera bus thread, #0601-0609 are temporarily on loan to Cabot garage and all 155 buses in the base order are scheduled to receive cameras.

- The New Flyer deliveries have bumped all but 16 of the Neoplan AN440LF's from the Charlestown garage. Most of those displaced buses have been assigned to the Quincy and Lynn garages.

- In turn, the RTS fleets assigned to Quincy and Lynn have been drastically reduced. Quincy is down to 13 RTS's and Lynn has 23. The best of the RTS's bumped from these garages have primarily moved to the Albany Street garage, which has allowed the worst of their fleet to be stored.

- The overall RTS fleet is currently down to 316 buses in service, in the following groups:

123 buses overhauled by Midwest Bus in 2004-05 - most expected to remain in service until 2010-2012

96 'Everett Phase II' buses overhauled in-house in 2005-07 - to be retired in 2008

91 'Everett Phase I' buses overhauled in-house and/or repainted in 2003-05 - to be removed from service by 7/1/07 with the best 50 buses retained as a contingency fleet

6 buses never overhauled or repainted - to be retired by 7/1/07. These final six buses (0013, 0023, 0047, 0121, 0282, 0295) will be the last to wear the 1985 thin stripe scheme designed for the RTS fleet.


Jim
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

4/19 update:

- 6 more D40LF's in service - all buses through #0685 are in service except #0600, 0628, 0675-0676 and 0678.

- 2 more Neoplans left Charlestown.

- Quincy is down to 10 RTS buses assigned there.

- No additional RTS buses have been removed from service.
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2007 1:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

5/2 update -

- 97 D40LF's accepted (0601-0627, 0629-0698)

- No more Neoplans at Charlestown

- Only 4 RTS buses left at Quincy

- Three RTS's removed from service since the last update (313 in service)

Jim
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Thu May 17, 2007 9:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

5/16 update -

- 111 D40LF's now in service (0601-0627, 0629-0711, 0713)

- Quincy Garage is now 100% Neoplan - the RTS era in Quincy is over (1985-2007)

- 296 RTS buses remain in service

- 17 RTS buses removed from service since the last update. 13 of these were placed in the new contingency fleet (the MBTA had previously maintained a contingency fleet of 8500's a few years ago).
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1/22/08 update:

- 237 RTS buses remain in service. All have been rebuilt and/or repainted - the last unrepainted bus in service was #0282.

- Thanks to the influx of New Flyers at Charlestown and Neoplans at Lynn and Quincy, few RTS's are used for weekend service these days on the MBTA.

- The prototype bus for the New Flyer D40LF option order (#0755-0909) is due to be delivered early this year, with production deliveries scheduled to begin in April. These buses will likely be assigned to Charlestown, Albany Street and Quincy.

- Quincy was 100% Neoplan only for a few months. It was discovered that the Neoplans are too heavy for a bridge used by the route 275/276 special services to the Long Island homeless shelter, so several RTS's were reassigned to Quincy last year for this service. This has since grown to 25 RTS's making their way back to Quincy and they do see peak-hour service on other routes. The shift involved the higher-numbered 0500's from Quincy moving to Lynn and low-numbered 0400's moving from Lynn to Charlestown.

- According to the 1/22/08 NE Transit roster update, Neoplan #0562 has returned to service from accident repair and is now painted in the Crosstown scheme. The Crosstown-painted RTS's are Midwest rebuilds #0008, 0018, 0033, 0244, 0262, 0267, 0268, 0271, 0274, 0275, 0279, 0296, 0303, 0322, 0324, 0356 and 0380. They are generally restricted to routes CT1, CT2 and CT3 but are occasionally used on other Albany Street routes in the event of a bus shortage.

- RTS #0215 has been removed from passenger service and equipped with trackless trolley poles for sleet-scraper duty at North Cambridge.
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The Port of Authority




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PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RailBus63 wrote:
- RTS #0215 has been removed from passenger service and equipped with trackless trolley poles for sleet-scraper duty at North Cambridge.


That should be interesting. Doesn't Dayton, OH have similar vehicles for scraping ice off of the trolley wires there?
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Port of Authority wrote:

That should be interesting. Doesn't Dayton, OH have similar vehicles for scraping ice off of the trolley wires there?


Yes.
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fleet updates:

- As of August 10th, the RTS fleet is down to 206 buses - 120 Midwest rebuilds and 86 Everett overhauls.

- The Neoplan AN440LF era at Quincy Garage has ended for now. All of these buses were transferred to Lynn and Albany Street following the arrival of Quincy's allotment of 65 New Flyer D40LF's.

- Most if not all of Lynn's AN440LF's are expected to be bumped once the next 70 new D40LF's are assigned there, with Fellsway and/or Charlestown the likely landing point for the Neoplans.

- Only three of the T's small fleet of C40LF's remain at Cabot Garage - 6002, 6004 and 6016. There are now 14 C40LF's at Southampton - 6000 and 6001 in the standard yellow scheme and 6003 and 6005-6015 in the Silver Line scheme. The C40LF's are now seeing more service on the Washington St. branch of the Silver Line, particularly on weekends.
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sjd0356




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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RTS #0267 and #0291 are also in the process of being converted to sleet cutters for the trackless trolley lines.
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sjd0356 wrote:
RTS #0267 and #0291 are also in the process of being converted to sleet cutters for the trackless trolley lines.


Interesting - both of those buses had been overhauled by Midwest Bus (0215 was an 'Everett II' bus).

Have any of the sleet cutter buses been repainted in a different paint scheme? I drove past North Cambridge carhouse when I was back in town last weekend but 0215 was not parked in a visible location.
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sjd0356




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PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I believe the sleet cutters have been or will be repainted. I'll try to go by North Cambridge this weekend and I'll check it out.
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sjd0356




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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

0215 sleet cutter is still in the current RTS paint scheme
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some updates based on my observations during the holiday weekend and the always-invaluable MBTA roster page:

RTS buses -

The count of active RTS buses is currently at 183, but where they are assigned has changed greatly in recent weeks. Albany Street and Fellsway (the two weekday-only garages) are now 100% Neoplan (more on this below). Charlestown now has the majority of the RTS's (114) but Lynn (26) and Quincy (20) have retained some as well. The big surprise was the assignment of 23 RTS's to Cabot garage. I spotted several of these buses in service on Friday morning.

The Charlestown RTS's can be seen on various routes during rush hours and a few are making it out during midday hours as well. The big recent development is the MBTA's use of these older buses on Saturdays and Sundays, as a response to the high mileage that the New Flyer D40LF's have been quickly racking up. I was out and about on Saturday afternoon running errands and the mix between RTS's and NF's was approximately 50/50. For those interested in riding and photographing the MBTA's RTS's, now would be a good time for a trip. At some point in the near future, the latest New Flyer delivery will be complete and the MBTA is expected to retire the 63 remaining 'Everett' RTS rehabs and probably some of the 'Midwest' rehabs as well.

Neoplan AN440LF buses -

As noted above, the Neoplan AN440LF's have all been moved to Albany Street and Fellsway garages. This essentially restricts these buses to weekday-only use, although one was being used on the route 87 on Saturday afternoon (buses from Fellsway sometimes migrate to Charlestown garage for a short time, and vice versa). For the near term, this also means that regular yellow buses are being used on the three Crosstown routes out of Albany St. since the specially-painted RTS's were sent elsewhere and only one AN440LF (#0562) has been painted for this service.

New Flyer D40LF buses -

Delivery of the latest order (#0755-0909) is essentially complete, although some buses do not appear to be in service yet. Cabot garage will receive the last 20 buses and is still operating 16 of the earlier D40LF's from Charlestown that were equipped with security cameras and automatic passenger-counting devices (0735, 0737-0740, 0742-0745, 0747-0750 and 0752-0754). Presumably these 0700's will return to Charlestown once the new buses are all in service.
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The MBTA enters 2009 with 179 RTS's still on the active roster:

Midwest rehabs - 120
'Everett II' rehabs - 48
'Everett I' rehabs - 7
Repainted non-rehabs - 4

Most of the 59 non-Midwest buses should be retired soon, but the MBTA may keep some around to provide spares once the NABI rehab programs begin this year.
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

January 28th update - 161 RTS's still on the active roster (down 18 from last month):

Midwest rehabs - 120
'Everett II' rehabs - 37
'Everett I' rehabs - 3
Repainted non-rehabs - 1
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