WHAT'S NEW (Monday August 7, 2000)
Miami is now in the dog days of summer. There have been a few changes in the bus assignments at PA division. The North Dade Connection is no longer being run by Blue Birds. It's now being run by the 20000 series ex- STS Dodge vans. Ridership doesn't go beyond a very small, core group of people, and an occasional disgruntled 22 passenger. A van works well there. The Blue Birds were supposed to be reassigned to the Coral Reef MAX, but only one has been assigned there regularly. I believe they're being funnelled onto the KAT's again. Money talks.
Also, in a highly questionable move, the Startrans buses on the Doral Connection were also replaced with vans. The Doral has brisk ridership, and already there have been problems with passengers trying to squeeze onto a packed van. Somebody had some boonk before they made this decision.
6005 has totally vanished. 6029 is back from Potamkin and 6008 is now there.
With the final five months of the 7000 era I have now found out that we are in the final five months of the 6000 era. When the new Blue Birds arrive the 6000 series minibuses will be retired. And their retirement is well deserved, the surviving 45 that are running have been put through much more than what they were built for. I hope to take one of these home with me.
They're good for a family day trip to the Keys or maybe to Orlando , Daytona Beach or Tampa. 6022 is my personal pick.
7004 has vanished from Central, whereabouts unknown. 9077 has a new engine and is happilly running around on the J. 8061 has been wrapped for E-trade.
A couple of accidents happened recently. On the beach a man got off the bus on Collins Avenue in the 170's, He somehow tripped and fell under the bus as it was taking off and was killed. 9064 is currently in the shop.
On the Doral on Thursday, 20700 was hit by a car on NW 17 street. The front is all bashed up. And at Coral Way, on Friday there was another hillarious in-the-yard accident, this time involving 4011 and 9929. 4011 was pulling out of it's space and I guess whoever was driving it went out too far before turning, and the articulated hinge locked onto 9929's bike rack. No real damage was done and I made that last forever with my camera.
I'll be working on this throughout the day, stay tuned for new stuff.
WHAT'S NEW (SUNDAY JULY 23, 2000)
The current April 30th lineup officially ends at 2:47 AM this morning when the last northbound S bus pulls into Central after finishing at Aventura at 2:14 AM (That's 10 minutes from the time I type this) . The new line-up (or 'shake-up' as it's known in other cities) officially begins at 4:16 AM when the first southbound S pulls out of Central and heads to Collins and 163rd Street to go into service there at 4:45 AM. Nothing is new this lineup, not at Metrobus nor Paratransit.
I was at Central again the other day. Central might want to take a brief break from wrapping buses. Twice in a row, buses have blown their engines within days of being wrapped. It first happened to 8058, 2 or 3 days after being wrapped for E*Trade, and more recently to 9077, just after being wrapped for Miami.com. Both are out of commission for the time being.
Aww crap!! 7004 blew an engine this past week while running on the 9. It's now at Central and she faces an uncertain future. Also there is 7091, which has been retired after it was rear-ended very hard. The frame buckled, and Northeast shipped her off to Central.
We are now officially in the final six months of the 7000 Flxible era. The retired buses at Coral Way, Central, and Northeast that have been painted white have been towed off to the Lehman yard in advnce of the October arrivals (About 6 or 7 per division, if these 20 are split up evenly.) , and the January arrivals total 80, which is about the same number of 7000's left in service. CW has 34 of the original 7001 - 7056 family plus 7122. Central only has 7126, 7127, 7128 and 7129. NE has the rest. The January arrivals will probably further gut the 8000 series, which will become the senior group, and they'll probably be done by 2002.
I've added interior shots of 5011 and I've created a page for 647
The Power 96 and Deering Hospital ad campaigns are still going on. See a close up of that hot Power girl here.
More is coming. Stay tuned!!
WHAT'S NEW (Sunday July 16, 2000)
I've added new pictures to the pages on 1905 and 7046.
I've alo created new pages for 1911 , 7052 and 9017 .
9805 is back at Coral Way. It spent a short time at Detroit Diesel. It should be back soon. 9803 is almost ready to return to service . And 1904 will probably be back soon, too. The new front frame section arrived and has been installed.
9339 is now in the new livery. It debuted on Tuesday on the Busway MAX. In true MDTA spirit, it broke down at Dadeland South after a few hours. It had a bad air leak.
Identical was the story of 5023's return. It made it's grand return on Wednesday, and it soon had a mechanical. Oil leak, I believe. I went by Central recently. 5011 is a total los from a fire last fall. It was on the S I believe in December. It had a roadcall, the rear brakes were grabbing. So the driver was instructed to return to Central, from Aventura, via I-95 (Smart!!!!) The bus hit the freeway, hit 40 and before you knew it, BAM!!!! A huge ball of fire erupted it the trailer portion of the artic. Total loss, walking through the inside is a bit like walking through my house following Hurricane Andrew. One seat half melted, and another turned Green (!!). I have shots of it that are forthcoming.
A big Blue Bird motorcoach spent some time at CW recently. I have a shot of it, you can see it here.
I'm in the process of scanning in more pictures and some 20 year old schedules that Joe was kind enough to lend me. More coming soon.
