Big CJ

Yeah, they just keep driving along for whatever reason. 146-414 had an interesting night today on the 300. No clue what happened whether it was a breakdown or a crash, but it seems like everything has cleared up. The incident happened an hour and half ago.

In some surprising news, I've been informed one of the NABI artics has a new wrap on it. It's promoting Dunkin Donuts as it says "Orlando runs on Dunkin" on the bus. I guess we know what's sticking around for a bit.

Yup, they are refurbishing them apparently, the buses are too young to be retired. No idea why Lynx is doing so, but I better buy a friend who told me about this a beer for the information. I can assume it has to do with the fact Lynx won't be able to get CNG buses out to Osceola. It would insane to deadhead buses from LOC to Osceola, despite it being not uncommon for Lynx to send buses out there.

I'm going to go a little off topic too and say this. DeSantis is on his way out the door no matter what he does now, cause term limits as written in the Florida Constitution. Any anti-transit bill or whatever damage he does to Disney from now until 2026, will only make it harder for his party to ever get elected again in Florida. As far as I see it, it's a minor setback for transit in Orlando and in the state in general. Any anti-transit bill he passes, will simply be repealed. Brightline also isn't losing sleep on not going to Tampa either. The Orlando to Miami route is over capacity now, especially in South Florida. It's bad enough, to the point Brightline is losing money, because they have to turn away riders due to the full trains. Thankfully, additional passenger cars will arrive this year, followed by more in 2025, which will increase the trains from 4 to 7 car sets by 2025. That's just the existing trainsets, there are rumors of additional passenger car orders in the works.

That's not bad for those CNG buses and glad more diesel buses are returning into service. Looks like 2026 is when they'll revist the sales tax. https://www.wftv.com/news/local/orange-county-commissioners-suspend-transportation-sales-tax-initiative/VBXSFMODNZEURHPKTJVKRQNTOQ/#:~:text=The Orange County Board of,Sales Tax initiative until 2026.&text=That would have given voters,a-penny for several years. By the time they get through that, I'll be leaving Florida permanently. My time in Orlando is running out fast.

Wow, that's wild. Just 10 years ago when I was last in the city, Orion VIIs were everywhere. 2012, I rode the 7000 series EPA10 Orion VIIs, that were part of the 90 bus evaluation. They were still new, having been delivered in late 2011. They rode nice and I believe that was the same series, where some of the buses were equipped with bike racks IIRC. That's going to be a shock to me when I return to the city late this year or early next year for a visit.

Well I didn't want to say this, but I'm going to be honest about this whole we need North American buses to be built in our country, and foreign makers need to stay away nonsense. I've been hearing it for the past number of years, and I'm tired of it. Like people posting in all caps on Facebook "BRING BACK GENERAL MOTORS" as one of the many posts I've seen. Many fans forget the fact that by the mid 1970s, GM wanted out of the bus industry. The quality of some of the 5307s built in the United States like the huge order for CTA was poor. Add deferred maintenance into the equation from CTA, it only made a bad situation worse. I won't get too detailed into CTA as this thread is for NYC, but that era of the fishbowl in Chicago is not fondly looked at by CTA fans. There were also a number of bus companies that owned GM parlor coaches like the 4905s, H8H-649s, etc., who wanted GM to upgrade those coaches, so they can stay with GM, but once again that's beyond the scope of this thread. To make that long story short, GM said no. Then we get to the RTS, the icon of New York City as some call it. The only reason GM even built that bus, was because of the government mandates coming into the industry at the time. None of the fans talk about the rough riding from the independent front suspension that never got addressed, until the last few years of GM in the industry. They went back to the straight beam front suspension, which was found on the fishbowls and made the RTS ride better. The rear wheelchair lifts was another source of issue with transit properties and the crappy air conditioning. While New York City and a number of cities went back for more RTS after their first order, many never bought an RTS ever again. Turning to Flxible, Gillig, or foreign bus builders to fill their needs. If there was any other reason for GM to leave, was because of how few the RTS sold compared to the fishbowl, which they were still selling in Canada through GMDD. So what makes anyone think GM will return now? It's been decades since they left, and just on the slight chance that GM announced next week they were returning to the industry. It won't be the GM of the 1950s and 1960s people are thinking of. The company today is a completely different animal, and who is to say many transit properties will actually put up with GM in 2024? Like what's going to be different today versus the 1970s or 1980s? With that said, going back to MTA, I wonder how many of the next generation Orion VIIs are left, following the retirement of the older Orion VIIs? I know those are also in the process of being phased out as well.

Awesome news, I'm glad this is happening. Unlike some people, I'd like to see the bus industry in both Canada and the United States be competitive, instead of relying on just two bus builders with long backlogs. This is just a small start yes, but let's wait and see how they perform before we judge.

You have to take into consideration of the possibility, that some of these accidents may have been fatal. Plus it's a legal issue too that likely gets settled out of court, and personally, I don't want to dig up information on how bad these accidents were to the point they led to the buses being totaled. That's going beyond the scope of this hobby and into something else, which is where I draw the line in the sand. Lynx trying to cover up the accident with 132 was stupid, because it happened in Downtown Orlando and everyone could see it. Thankfully no one got hurt badly as far as I know.

Florida being Florida lol, best way I could describe that one. I don't know how many BRTs have been lost due to accidents caused by motorists, as it's very extensive. Quite a number of buses Lynx lost that I can recall or was told about. Lynx lost the original 625 in an accident. The Flxible Metro was on the 20 when it was T boned by a semi and retired in late 1998. I recalled seeing an Orlando Sentinel newspaper article about that accident. The original 236 and 281 were also involved in accidents, hence their early retirement. 381 caught fire, which I suspect was caused by the EGR overheating, 381 was also auctioned the same year 554 had it's accident. I also suspect that fire led to the entire 2001 Phantom fleet (381-394) being pulled out of service in 2009. A 1999 Phantom was also lost due to a fire, and I suspect it may have been an EGR fire too. Note, I don't know the whole details of why 381 and that 99 Phantom caught fire. I'm guessing it's a possible EGR fire, due to the fact I've been told by some in the industry that EGRs, if not maintained properly can catch fire. It doesn't help that when Lynx got those 2001 Phantoms, they wound up having to replace all the ZF transmissions in them not long after they entered service. Good luck getting any information from Lynx about those fires, Lynx is very touchy on subjects that leads to bad publicity on them, even though it's possibly available via public records. Funny I mention 381-394, 385 was "destroyed" by negligence from a driver. It was on the 4 and the bus had transmission issues. The driver for whatever reason kept pushing it despite the issue. By the time it got to Lynx Central Station, it basically limped into the station. On a board report from 2009 (September 24), it is mentioned as a bus that had severe internal damage done to the transmission, the repair of which would've costed Lynx $17,000. 132-613 being struck by a train in Downtown Orlando about 9-10 years ago. The incident with 132 happened on the KnightLynx 209 route I think it was. Lynx tried to cover that up, but photos of it online still popped up, so that was an epic fail. The original 272 was wrecked in the yard (very likely at South Street). I have yet to find out what replaced 272, but I heard it was a demo bus that replaced 272. What demo bus, has not been made clear to me, but 272 was the last 200 series Phantom to operate is one thing I do know. That's just an example of accidents happening over the last 26 years that I know of. I do know one 1982 Grumman was written off in an accident years ago. Plus a 1980 RTS, think 502 was also involved in an accident during the Tri-County Transit era, but for those two, I've got little to no data on what happened.

I was just informed all of the 2015 diesel Gilligs are being rehabbed. It includes new rims, engines, seat upgrades, and other stuff being repaired. No word on whether any buses older than the 2015s will get a similar rehab, but that's something new. Before anyone asks, no I don't know why Lynx is doing this. Also, a number of Mears' 1997 NABIs are now owned by Escot Bus Lines. Two have been spotted running by someone, and I have a feeling Escot has more thin just two buses as it wouldn't make sense to get just two buses. Going back to Lynx, a Nova artic was spotted running on OBT yesterday, I presume it was 189?

I wonder what they're planning to do with it? I guess the Novas have been out of service due to all the issues they've had with the hybrid buses, but the Novas, Lynx has had issues getting parts from Nova, which doesn't make sense. So I hope that means further use for those buses.

In other news, come December, the new Pine Hills Transfer Center will open. Here is an article Lynx has on it. I'm glad there will be an area for the bus drivers to be able to use the bathroom and have some time away from the passengers. https://www.golynx.com/news-events/pine-hills-transfer-center.stml

I think they're going to do it. It's not odd for buses in Osceola to find their way to routes coming out of LOC and vice versa. When I use to actively fan, 353 (1998 Gillig Phantom) got around, despite being a 14 year old bus in 2012. On some days it would run on the 38, but I've seen it and ridden it on routes like 54, 7, and even 56 on several occasions. Right around the time the BRTs started showing up for Lynx in 2006, buses like 268 and 271, were often in the same situation. One day on the 38, the next week or so out there on the 10 or 26. Buses were not always assigned to one place back then, something to remember. So I guess Lynx maybe willing to do it, despite the mileage on the CNG buses getting higher that way.

Here is a very interesting situation. Lynx has been hinting in some of the board reports, that they plan to phase out diesel buses come next year. Are they realistically going to deadhead buses from LOC to Osceola? IDK if they're planning to build a new facility between now and 2025, but even then, that's ambitious for even this region. I've been scratching my head about this for a bit now.