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For some reason I just assumed they were shipped, not driven cross-country.
Bus 2056 proving remarkably trackable on route to Boston, also proving that bus deliveries are still going I guess.
For some reason I just assumed they were shipped, not driven cross-country.
New Flyer's nearest factory is Jamestown, NY...so that would explain the I-90 Syracuse trip. They're coming either from there or Minnesota.
Midwest Bus Corp., which has done a majority of the Yellow Line's contracted midlife overhauls the last 20 years, is based in Michigan. You should see the Chicagoan reactions on Twitter when T buses get stuck in their rush hour traffic en route. Confuses them to no end.
Hmm. Acceptances into service have been sequential so far, with NETransit bumping the revenue roster up to #2040 mid- last week and only one unit from the 2030's still AWOL. If that's #2056 in-transit it means they've got a solid 15 more on delivery backlog which may or may not already be on-property for testing. Plus who knows how many more still parked at New Flyer awaiting more cross-country trips like ^this^.
Jibes with the reports that NF has been running way ahead of Everett's space crunch for parking new deliveries, because of the scrappers still removing the last of the retired high-floor buses from the property (a process expected to wrap next couple weeks). Meaning there's probably enough completed units here or still awaiting pickup at the NF factory that NF's COVID mfg. shutdown won't be felt at all on the bus acceptances pace for another month at minimum.
Despite all that, it's an entirely fair question "Why isn't this job loaded on the CIP budget already?" given the longstanding (and rapidly worsening) deplorable state of the surface and fact that FY2024 will be the 20-year mark of tunnel ops where basic standard 2-decade renewal tasks would've had to start ramping up for some tunnel structures regardless of whether incumbent conditions were good/bad. Present-tense COVID constraints aside, it's past time we should've heard about some weekend shutdown-a-thon coming into the pipeline to thoroughly replace all that shot surface. What are they waiting for...the rate of bus tire blowouts to start exploding fleet-wide from that rural dirt road they have to rumble over all day???
How has patronage been on the SL3? And did it start transforming its neighborhoods? Have people been using it to get from the East-Northeast "wedge" to the Seaport?Happy birthday to SL3. Happy birthday to SL3. Happy birthday dear SL3. Happy birthday to you.
The MBTA has been very cagey with ridership numbers and since it's been free inbound for most of its life due to the Chelsea curves project I suppose ridership data is probably quite incomplete anyway.How has patronage been on the SL3? And did it start transforming its neighborhoods? Have people been using it to get from the East-Northeast "wedge" to the Seaport?
McGrath is cut-thru city. Volumes are already a lot lower on it than they were pre- Big Dig, but McGrath teardown and road dieting of 28 to Wellington Circle in favor of new Complete Streets'ing is what's going to force the mental decision to stick to the recommended routes and not the induced demand temptation. Would also help if MassHighway gave some oomph to improving the half-broken interchanges just north of the decks for coherency's sake...like completing all four legs of the 16 interchange, cleaning up the all the ramp geometry vomit spewed around Mystic Ave./28, and doing some basic streamlining around 93/1 @ Rutherford Ave. so straight over Gilmore Bridge is head-and-shoulders the prevailing get-out-of-town route from Cambridge. Hell, I would even sign Land Blvd. + Gilmore as MA 2 and/or US 3 to put an exclamation point on it and end the nonsensical leaping-across riverbanks those routes do as people completely lose track of where they head.My secret hope:
1) Charles River Dam Rd gets "temporary" bus lanes for the upcoming Lechmere closure & bus link to Science Park and North Station
2) Car commuters, thinned by quarantine, don't notice or care
3) Cars don't need it for Apr May Jun lockdown, nor for July-August vacation season
4) Kendall employee shuttles find it really convenient
5) Schoolbus & Tourbus & Duck Tours return to the buslane faster than cars return to the general lanes
6) Cyclists like it too
7) The GLX opens for Camberville commuters
And so I hope the bus lanes will become permanent. It isn't clear where all the cars at rush hour "come from" but my sense is that Somerville-Cambridge-Boston will prefer to keep things transit friendly, not cut-through friendly.
The 31 RTSs that have been sold to Chuckran Auto Parts for scrap have all been removed to date.
Bus 2056 proving remarkably trackable on route to Boston, also proving that bus deliveries are still going I guess.