Orion V Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Why do they use the 60-BRT buses for the regular Orange coloured routes? This doesn't distinguish them from the Silver Orange line BRT buses. In fact, I see the 60-BRT model painted in all 4 of their liveries which means they use this model for all their bus routes? I initially thought they used the BRT for their BRT route while regular routes use regular artics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonMETROFan Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Why do they use the 60-BRT buses for the regular Orange coloured routes? This doesn't distinguish them from the Silver Orange line BRT buses. In fact, I see the 60-BRT model painted in all 4 of their liveries which means they use this model for all their bus routes? I initially thought they used the BRT for their BRT route while regular routes use regular artics. While I can't answer that question, what I can tell you is that since I have yet to see a fully painted 60-BRT bus in the Metro Express "Business Blue" scheme, those models are only painted in THREE liveries---not four. Metro Local 60-BRT buses are painted orange (which Metro dubs "California Poppy"). Metro Rapid 60-BRT buses are painted "Rapid Red." Metro Liner 60-BRT buses are painted in a two-tone silver paint scheme with orange "Metro Liner" text. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2044 Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 LA Metro probably believes more into the BRT service than the styling of the bus. For example if they used a New Flyer D60LF instead of a NABI 60-BRT, not much would be different. Also they probably want to standardize, since the only artic NABI now offers is 60-BRT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general682002 Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 LA Metro probably believes more into the BRT service than the styling of the bus. For example if they used a New Flyer D60LF instead of a NABI 60-BRT, not much would be different. Also they probably want to standardize, since the only artic NABI now offers is 60-BRT. Keep that in mind that LACMTA is CNG land and it has to be CNG! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2044 Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Keep that in mind that LACMTA is CNG land and it has to be CNG! Oh yes that's right too. No diesel for Southern California, so again NABI got the order for the gasoline electric hybrid 60-BRTs as well as CNG 60-BRTs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. McConnell Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Why do they use the 60-BRT buses for the regular Orange coloured routes? This doesn't distinguish them from the Silver Orange line BRT buses. In fact, I see the 60-BRT model painted in all 4 of their liveries which means they use this model for all their bus routes? I initially thought they used the BRT for their BRT route while regular routes use regular artics. The 60-BRT is used on a number of Metro Rapid routes, a few Metro Locals, and the Metro Orange Line. The "BRT" in the name doesn't have anything to do with the service it provides. Also, the 60-BRTs are only found in Local, Rapid and Liner paint schemes -- there aren't any in Metro Express colors (now that would look nice, though...) LACMTA doesn't have any gasoline-electric hybrid 60-BRTs on order -- they're all CNG. However, LACMTA will take delivery of ~16 gasoline-electric 42-BRTs as well as 800+ Metro 45Cs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2044 Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 LACMTA doesn't have any gasoline-electric hybrid 60-BRTs on order -- they're all CNG. However, LACMTA will take delivery of ~16 gasoline-electric 42-BRTs as well as 800+ Metro 45Cs. Sorry, my bad. I confused the two BRT orders. Do you know what scheme the Metro 45Cs will be in. I saw a photo in Metro Magazine of a partially complete one in the California Popy scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion V Posted October 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Sorry, my bad. I confused the two BRT orders.Do you know what scheme the Metro 45Cs will be in. I saw a photo in Metro Magazine of a partially complete one in the California Popy scheme. The red coloured one is shown on wiki. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2044 Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 The red coloured one is shown on wiki. Yeah that's the older batch, which are all in the Rapid Red scheme. I was asking about this current batch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Engineer Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Sorry, my bad. I confused the two BRT orders.Do you know what scheme the Metro 45Cs will be in. I saw a photo in Metro Magazine of a partially complete one in the California Popy scheme. There is a completed one on display at APTA. Its in the orange scheme. The pics are in the APTA thread in the up coming events section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. McConnell Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Sorry, my bad. I confused the two BRT orders.Do you know what scheme the Metro 45Cs will be in. I saw a photo in Metro Magazine of a partially complete one in the California Popy scheme. Most will probably be in orange, although there could be some in red as well to replace the older Rapid NABI 40-LFWs (when that happens far in the future.) Would be nice to see one in Metro Express livery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztonyg Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 I was in LA over this past weekend and dediced to do some transit fanning. Unforuntately, I wasn't able to track down a NABI 42BRT. Here are some photos I was able to take though. Enjoy! Some from Saturday: The WORST Bus Model Ever: Some from yesterday: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBL Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 ^ Nice! And thanks! I wish I'd have taken pictures of RTD buses back in the '70s and '80s. I'd like to see any pictures of the MTA Express buses, which are painted blue. There aren't that many, I don't think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. McConnell Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 I'd like to see any pictures of the MTA Express buses, which are painted blue. There aren't that many, I don't think.Eric The only routes that use the blue Metro Express buses are 450x and 577x, which use New Flyer C40LFs and NABI 40-LFWs respectively: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBL Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 I wonder if anyone's ever gotten those confused with Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, even though they're not the same shade of blue. Seems like a strange color choice to me. Maybe green would have been better, unless some other agency uses green (Torrance? Culver City? Gardena?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztonyg Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 I wonder if anyone's ever gotten those confused with Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, even though they're not the same shade of blue. Seems like a strange color choice to me. Maybe green would have been better, unless some other agency uses green (Torrance? Culver City? Gardena?). Culver City uses green Buses: Santa Monica's blue is more like "sky blue": Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBL Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 Honestly, the all-white with gold stripe Metro paint job worked just fine. Now that they still have those, along with the poppy Locals, red Rapids, blue Expresses, and silver Orange Line BRTs, Metro has the most messed up color array of vehicles that I know of. Orange Line buses that are silver? This reminds me of back in the '70s when they were running the GM Old Looks that still had the 1950s MTA color scheme of green/dark green/white, the all white with a light green stripe, the yellow/white/champagne of RTD, some all white Old Looks, and some peach and cream Old Looks that they got from Georgia. Interesting, indeed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAverageJoe Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 I wonder if anyone's ever gotten those confused with Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, even though they're not the same shade of blue. Seems like a strange color choice to me. Maybe green would have been better, unless some other agency uses green (Torrance? Culver City? Gardena?). It looks more closer to Edmonton then Santa Monica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ieko Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 Can't really confuse the Metro Express buses with the Big Blue Bus because they essentially never cross paths. Torrance Transit btw will be transitioning from red stripes to Green, Blue, and Bronze soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. McConnell Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 Torrance Transit btw will be transitioning from red stripes to Green, Blue, and Bronze soon. That's too bad, I liked the red stripes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJ7006 Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 The only 42BRTs that are out in the weekends are 4203 and 4204 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ieko Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 That's too bad, I liked the red stripes. They've been around since the 1970's and so they decided they didn't want to look like Avis rent-a-car anymore. But anyway the new paint scheme is really nice, might even be the nicest in the region. We'll see when they get their first GE40LFR's in Q1 2010. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codedude Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Does anyone have information as to whether or not LACMTA rotates buses amongst the divisions and is there any info online as to which fleet numbers are assigned to which divisions. It does appear that some rotating occured with the arrival of the 8300 series buses. I've noticed some of the 9400 series assigned to SFV-8 or 15 and were used for the 233 line are now operating on line 4 out of WSC-10. In particular I've seen 9415-9418 on line 4 as of the past few weeks. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but line 333 is now using the 60-foot NABIs 9400 series. I guess 9415-9418 were moved to accomodate line 333, but wouldn't that create a shortage of 9400s on line 233? Or did LACMTA get more 60 foot NABIs? I'm just a bus observer in L.A., so I really don't know that much. One more note: IMO LACMTA did a poor job in executing the new silver line. I see mostly the new 8300 series on the line, but also there are a number of 8200s on the line as well. The headsigns are not consistent either. Some headsigns are using a different color (bluish?) while others are using the standard color. Some display "910" and some don't display "910". Very inconsistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. McConnell Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 One more note: IMO LACMTA did a poor job in executing the new silver line. I see mostly the new 8300 series on the line, but also there are a number of 8200s on the line as well. The headsigns are not consistent either. Some headsigns are using a different color (bluish?) while others are using the standard color. Some display "910" and some don't display "910". Very inconsistent. Based on the photos I've seen, I feel the same way. There needs to be a uniform system in place, akin to the Orange Line setup. I also question the motive behind assigning the orange-colored Metro 45Cs to the Silver Line -- shouldn't they be using the silver buses they specifically ordered for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LosAngeles7 Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 LACMTA often seems to rotate buses. I read that they have to do this to maintain similar fleet type and average fleet age at each division and also, of course, to meet fleet requirements for specific lines. Division 8, for example, never received any NABIs in the early 2000s for local service, just for Metro Rapid and the Orange Line. The division had a relatively young fleet composted mostly of 4500 and 4600-series Neoplans at the time. As the last remaining RTS buses went away and the division's Neoplans started to become the oldest in the fleet, the 4700-series Neoplans were brought in, both maintaining bus-type continuity and decreasing fleet age. Over the past year, Division 8 has seen an influx of 45Cs for local service because the 4500s-4700s are now all eligible for retirement or will be soon and the division is due for new buses. I also read online that service reductions on Line 233, and to a lesser extent other SFV lines, are being used to fund Line 902; there is no net increase in cost or service or fleet requirements for LACMTA. Apparently it is considered an early demonstration line in the Measure R bus speed improvement project and was quickly moved up by decision of the board. There was virtually no consultation with the San Fernando Valley Governance Council before implementation; the change was very abrupt. Whoever does fleet management must have elected to operate the new line with 45Cs rather than with Metro Local or Metro Rapid 40 foot or articulated buses already available at Division 15. That seems to have freed up a few buses for "testing" on Lines 33 and 333. The Westside Governance Council reported in their October meeting that as many as 15 articulated buses would be acquired for Line 333 in the December shakeup. This makes sense, given ridership and the Westside Bus Restructuring Study (from a decade ago) that identified Lines 33 and 333 as needing articulated buses, contingent on their deployment in the fleet. Now it seems they may finally be pushed in... This November 2005 memo detailing bus procurement plans contains the latest official listing of fleet assignments I could find online. If you're interested in historical data for comparison, 1998 and 2002 assignments are also available from the LACMTA site. More recent memos provided on the site detail bus procurements, but none deals with fleet assignments.: http://boardarchives.metro.net/BoardBox/Bo...Nov%2015-05.pdf I'm just an observer, too, but I thought I'd just share some of what I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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