SEPTA FLEET NEWS ARCHIVES

October-December 2000

December 15, 2000

• If you haven't noticed, the current contract for Transport Workers Union Local 234 bus and rail operators in the City Transit Division expires in exactly three months. Already, there is some controversy within the union. The International office of the TWU attempted to remove Steve Brookens and his officers from power due to mismanagement, however Local 234 obtained a restraining order in federal court delaying the move. The outcome of this court case could have a dramatic effect on the upcoming negotiations.

  Some odd bus assignments have been occuring as of late. Neoplan artics from Midvale - which were originally designated for Routes 18, 22, and 55 - have been seeing more service on the C of late. Also, #7137 was spotted at the Ridge & Lyceum layover point - where the 32 ends its runs. The reason given was that Midvale has a shortage of wheelchair accessible buses. Several NABIs and Neo EZs were recently swapped from Midvale to Callowhill, with other EZs ending up at Southern, Frankford, and Comly.
  Also, a few Neo EBs were sent from Southern to Comly within the past couple of weeks. This tends to indicate that the first batch of New Flyer D40LF buses will go to Southern. Comly is also expected to get the low floor buses as they arrive, since the bulk of their fleet are Neo CDs. Expect Callowhill and Midvale to get the low floors as well, since the majority of the Neo BM fleet is split between the two garages.

  In another strange bus assignment, the late evening (after 6:00pm) Route 92 run between West Chester and Exton Square has seen a 40-foot bus - usually a Neo - either #8717 or 8718, but NABI #5326 has also been used on this trip - instead of the usual Breeze cutaway bus. Though this isn't a daily occurance, it has happened at least 2 to 3 times per week since the 92 was split into two routes.

November 29, 2000

• SEPTA is adding later service on some of it's City and Subruban routes to accomodate late night holiday ridership. Service is expected to be added on trips serving Exton Square, Granite Run, Springfield Mall, King of Prussia, Plymouth Meeting, and Montgomery Mall. Click here for details.

November 20, 2000

• It's official: Comly Depot is in fact cursed. For the third time this month, a NABI from Comly is out of service due to an accident. This time, #5088 suffered front end damage after an accident on Bustleton Av while working a late night 58 run this past Saturday night/Sunday morning. The driver of the car that struck #5088 allegedly ran a red light. Fortunately, no people were injured in this wreck.

November 14, 2000

• Schedules will change for virtually all Frontier District routes and a couple of Red Arrow routes on Sunday, November 19. The highlights to the changes are as follows:

  • Route 93 will be extended in Pottstown Borough to serve the new bus stop opposite Montgomery County Community College/West Campus
  • Route 94 will lose an early AM trip as the 6:06am weekday trip between Ambler and Chestnut Hill is dropped; in addition, Route 94 express service between Montgomery Twp and Chestnut Hill via PA 309 and Bethlehem Pk will be redesignated as Route 134, however the trip departure times will not change
  • The Saturday 6:20am Plymouth Meeting-Penn Square and 6:35am Penn Square-Gulph Mills round trip on Route 95 will be discontinued
  • Route 97 will see added service between Spring Mill and Norristown Terminal on evenings and Sundays, in addition to changes made as part of ASP 2001
  • The 9:20am Plymouth Meeting-Blue Bell short trip on Route 98 has been cut. In addition, the Monday-Saturday 7:27pm trip between Plymouth Meeting and Norristown Terminal will also be discontinued. Alternate departures within 10 minutes of these short trips are available
  • Route 99 will see expanded Sunday service, with all Norristown-King of Prussia trips extended to Phoenixville, terminating at Valley Forge Christian College. Selected weekday peak hour trips will operate directly to the Oaks and 422 Business Centers. In Pottstown Borough, buses will operate via High St and Armand Hammer Blvd instead of Hanover St and US 422
  • Route 105 will see a new 5:15am departure from 69 St Terminal to Paoli, which will not stop at Wynnewood Shopping Center. This trip will be coordinated with a new early AM Route 206 run to Great Valley at Paoli Rail Station
  • Additional Route 109 weekday AM peak trips from Chester to 69 St Terminal will serve Springfield Mall. These early AM trips previously bypassed the mall, operating via Chester Rd to Baltimore Pk
  • Route 124 will see added service between Center City Philadelphia and Chesterbrook, replacing discontinued service of the former Route 92
  • Five Saturday and four Sunday trips on Route 204 will be extended further north into Uwchlan Twp/Lionville. In addition, several added Sunday night trips will operate between Exton Mall and Paoli Rail Station during the holiday season.
  • Route 208 has seen some minor schedule adjustments as the Valley Forge Rd routing has been dropped in favor of service via Swedesford Rd to Chesterbrook Corporate Center; these changes took effect on October 30

  These changes are in addition to the already released changes in Bucks County. For more details, follow this link.

  Route 92 is back on Pottstown Pk in Exton following a lengthy detour due to bridge construction.

  ElDorado pilot bus #4501 is now at Midvale, apparently as part of the training process. I would not be surprised to see it on the 35 or 77 over the course of the next week or so.

  At least 5 instances of brake failure have plagued SEPTA's Neoplan articulated fleet. These may not be isolated cases, as reports have come in that the brakes on these new buses seem to stick after the buses stop, which apparently produces a loud "rubbing" sound.

November 8, 2000

• Perhaps it's time to find out if Comly Depot is in fact cursed. For the second time in less than a week, another NABI from Comly was involved in an accident on Roosevelt Blvd (US 1) while in service northbound on the 14. Again, the bus was struck from the rear. This time, #5115 was involved in an accident at US 1 near the Neshaminy Interplex, just north of the city line in Bensalem Twp. For the full story, follow this link to the Bucks County Courier Times web site. This is the third SEPTA bus involved an an accident involving major damage to the bus in the last two weeks.

November 2, 2000

• Add Comly #5076 to the list of SEPTA buses on the disabled list following an accident. On Wednesday morning, November 1, #5076 was rear-ended while northbound on the 14 at Roosevelt Blvd and Haldeman Av. The car subsequently caught fire after the victim was extricated from the vehicle. The driver of the car died as a result of injuries sustained in the collision.

October 30, 2000

• Red Arrow #8698 is slated to be restored as a "museum bus" in the same fashion as #6569 (1974 Flxible 53096-8-1), #4462 (1980 GM T7W-603, 35 ft RTS), and #4300 (1969 GM Fishbowl - T6H-5306A).

October 28, 2000

• Red Arrow #8859 was involved in a rather bizarre incident in Southwest Philadelphia. Two teens simply walked onto the Victory District lot in Upper Darby at around 11:30pm on Thursday, October 26, and took off with 8859, which was in the fueling lane following that day's runs. Red Arrow operator Julius Major followed the stolen bus down Market St to 63 St, where he flagged down a Philadelphia Police officer. The chase ended at the corner of 62 and Walton Sts in West Philadelphia, when 8859 crashed into a PPD cruiser and eventually struck a building. One Philadelphia Police officer was taken to the Hospital of the Univ. of Pennsylvania for minor injuries. 8859 suffered damage to the left windshield, front bumper, side panel, and frame.
  This incident brings back memories of a similar incident nearly three years ago when Allegheny (at the time) #5267 was hijacked on Lehigh Av during a 54 trip early one weekday morning. 5267 - the only NABI to be officially listed as scrapped on the SEPTA roster - crashed into the El structure at Kensington and Lehigh, and is now stored at Berridge, awaiting disposition.
  SEPTA Spokesman/Apologist Richard Maloney said that this was the third SEPTA bus to be stolen this year (the other two buses were taken from Callowhill and Midvale), and that 8859 would be out of service temporarily, however may be scrapped, as a few 8800s have been retired recently. Maloney also told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "If neccesary, we could add more security, but it would come at the expense of ease of operations." Well, it's not as though SEPTA Police were exactly doing their jobs last Thursday night, now were they?
  As of November 12, #8859 has been repaired and is now back in revenue service.

October 25, 2000

• THE PHOTO GALLERY IS NOW OPEN! After putting it off for several weeks, the SEPTA Photo Gallery is now back on-line. Some images have been removed due to poor quality, however no new images have been added as of yet. I hope to have some brand new photos within the next few months.

October 23, 2000

• The scheduled changes in Bucks County will take place on November 19. Routes 14, 20, 127, 128, and 130 will change on the 19th as part of Phase 1 of the Bucks County Route Improvement Plan. Routes 92 and 118 will also see some changes on the 19th as part of the misnamed Chester County Route Improvement Plan, as the spliting of the 92 is not something I would call an improvement. Also, Routes 27, 95, and 97 will be routed into the Metroplex center in Plymouth Twp, and the 97 will see minor routing changes in Norristown Boro. In January 2001, Route 129 will see changes, and Routes 203 and 304 will be introduced. The scheduled changes for Route 58 and introduction of Route 303 will not take place due to a lack of external funding (possible translation: Bucks County doesn't want to pay for it, not shocking since Bucks is on of the least transit friendly counties in the state). The extension of Routes H/XH have been put on hold since the added service has not been budgeted (ie. no extra funding from the City of Philadelphia).

  The 30-foot ElDorado demo bus is now on SEPTA property and being used to train the trainers, thus it will not see revenue service at this time. The rest of the 80 bus order will be on SEPTA property starting in December. The New Flyer D40LF is also apparently on SEPTA property, bus hasn't been spotted yet.

  Frontier is apparently also being used as a scrap yard, along with Midvale. The rest of the Neoplan BD series (8500-series) which were assigned to Frankford, have been scrapped.

October 17, 2000

• Route 92 is being detoured through the Exton area due to road construction at PA 100 and Business US 30. The 92 is operating regular route to Boot and King Rds, then via King Rd, Ship Rd, and Business US 30 to Exton Square Mall. This detour is expected to last until early December. For whatever reason, however, SEPTA has not posted this information on it's web site like it has for most of the other detours in the system.

October 12, 2000

• NJ Transit recently recieved the first of its new generation of MCI cruiser coaches. The bulk of the order will consist of the D4000 (formerly 102D3), however some D4500 (formerly 102DL3) and D4000/96 (formerly 96D3) buses are included in the order. The first buses to be replaced will be the Eagle AE-20 buses (5500- and 5600-series), followed by the MCI 9A (6000s) and 9B (5000s) fleet. Since some Eagles are presently assigned to Newton Avenue shops in Camden, and since the bulk of the cruiser bus fleet at both Newton Avenue and Washington Twp garages consist of MC-9As, don't be surprised to see the new buses on Market Street in Center City in the immediate future. The new MCIs have a brand new paint scheme. Follow this link to Trevor Logan's Transitalk web site for pictures of the new buses..

  DART First State recently placed an order for another 39 buses, with an option for an additional 25 buses, from NABI. The order will consist of 20 low-floor buses (40LFW) and 19 standard-floor buses (416). The NABIs, along with the seven Gillig low-floor buses (101-107) recently put into service, will replace the Flxible Metro B fleet (200- and 300-series buses) over the next two years. For more on the DART order, follow this link to the NABI web site.

October 10, 2000

• The detours on the southbound 9, 27, 61X, 124, and 125 have ended. These trips will resume operation via I-76.

  The new 30-foot bus from Eldorado was on display at a bus convention in Baltimore last month. It would appear, then, that the 30-foot demo will be in SEPTA territory within the next few weeks, if it hasn't arrived already. The fleet number of this bus is 4501 - the same fleet number as the Metrotrans demo.

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