Lots of new things have gone down in the last month. On September 26th the 2000 NABI 40LFW's began to trickle in to Central. 0001, 0002, 0003 arrived from the Anniston, AL plant on the 26th. 0004, 0005, 0006 and 0008 arrived on the 27th. I was pleased to be there when they arrived that day. Currently they number up to 0014, with 0007 staying in Tampa for a demonstration. The first two to hit the streets were 0004 and 0005, which were sent to Coral Way and began running on October 18th, possibly on the 24 and the 56. 0001 followed on Friday the 20th, as a evening replacement for a Busway MAX that broke down that day. 0002 appeared on Saturday the 21st at Coral Way.
As some of you may've heard, on Tuesday October 3 the Miami Metro area was hit by a horrible series of storms that spread bad floods throughout the area. That was a bad day for Metrobus in particular. It took roughly 5 hours for a route 40 bus to do one westbound trip, from Coral Gables to SW 132 Ave./ 8 Street is one example. Another and very glaring one was what happened to 4032. The 3:15 PM L bus leaving the Amtrak station, the driver arrived to the station's flooded parking lot at about 3, at the height of the storm. He drove as best he could, but with the lot flooded he couldn't tell the pavement from the ground, and he ran off the pavement into a shoulder, and sank in. The poor man wound up stranded in there until 8PM THE NEXT DAY. An operator was sent to relieve him in a pickup, and he sank in, too. Finally a supervisor was dispatched to rescue them. They had to swim. the poor bus was stuck there, and was towed away to Central on Friday the 6th. The water rose to floor level, flooding the engine, shorting out all the electrical components and the batteries. She will be out of service for a while.
The storms left cars stranded everywhere. About 30 were stuck on Country Walk Drive, with 1 SUV catching fire the next day, insult to injury. About 35 were stuck on the median and the edges of Coral Way just between SW 87th Avenue and the Palmetto expressway, roughly 77th Avenue, near the garage. Many more were stuck west of 87th. And an almost uncountable amount (100+ easy) were stuck on NW 36 St. between 107th avenue and the Plametto, about 5 cars deep around 87th. Yikes. Well Central and Northeast were flooded out, with Central people parking at the Earlington Heights rail station and catching a special shuttle to Central. One poor fool, though, decided to park his new 2001 Corolla at Central anyway. He blundered in to the flooded lot at 40 MPH, flooded his engine, flooded his interiors, then drove off the pavement into a hole and the axle broke. I swear I am not making this up. Well as a result of the storms, for whatever reason, Mayor Penelas ordered Metrobus to run on a Saturday schedule on Thursday the 5th. Don't know why. The day began as a Saturday schedule and abruptly switched to weekday schedule at midmorning, causing a total disaster. Biscayne Boulevard was flooded with 3's while there was only one 75 running. the 37 was a delightful mix of Central buses on weekday schedule and Coral Way buses on the weekend 37/72 interline. I will add to this page now, stay tuned.
It's been a while, I know. Here's what's gone on: 9918 is under repair. 1917 spent two weeks in the shop being repaired. 9009 had been placed in the new livery, CW is finally doing an artic: 4013 is also in the new colors. There are new Blue Birds yet on the horizon, it was a false alarm. But the first 80 or so NABI low floors are only weeks away from delivery. The bodies this time were built in Hungary, though, unlike the 98- and 9900 series low floors, which were completely built here. This settles the mystery of how MDTA was able to score 642 low floors at bargain basement prices. Over in Broward, BCT's 2000 series Gillig low floors have arrived and should be in service by now. Currently they are based out of the Copans Road garage. PalmTran is also awaiting it's order of 2000- series Gilligs.By the way, our NABI's may be numbered 0001 - 0080, instead of 2001-2080.
Two new PA routes will begin running on Sept. 25- the new route 243- Seaport Shuttle and the already infamous 246 - Night Owl. The 243 will run from the CBD terminal in downtown to the Port of Miami. The 246 will run from NW 167 St/ 1 ave., by Parkway Hospital, and will run in a circular fashion - 2 buses clockwise, two counter clockwise. It'll run down 167th to NW 22 Ave., then down to 54th street, going through the Pork-N-Beans projects, then down 54th to 12 avenue. It will serve the Allapattah rail station, it will wind through Overtown, and enter Downtown. Then it's down the MacArtur and onto the Beach, up Washington. east on Lincoln Road, then north on Collins to the Sunny Isles Causeway, over the SIC onto the mainland, down 163rd/167th to the layover. It's a 4 hour journey, and the bus will also run in the opposite direction. There will be 4 buses, with service from 11 PM to 6 AM.
I have finished my page on 1912.
I am working on my Metrobus history page. I'm in the middle of listing all of the immediate pre- Metrorail era, which would be 1975 - 1985.
More to come. Stay tuned.
I hate a slow computer!!!!!!!!!!
Due to technical difficulties, my planned whole day of work bombed. I did, however, add pages on Routes 54, 75 and the West Dade Connection. I was going to update my Route 62 page, adding the following westbound destination: 62 HIALEAH 62 / 62 E 8 AV - 9 ST which is used late in the evening when the 62 doesn't go down Palm Ave. to the triangle. That page is in a subdirectory, however, so it's a pain to retrieve.
In roster news, the last 48 hours were a demolition derby for Coral Way / Paratransit. On Monday there was an accident on the West Dade involving an unidentified minibus, and another crash on Kendall KAT involving 1917. The there was the big one Monday evening: 9918 went head-on into a concrete pillar at 98th and the Busway. It was pretty nasty, 9918 will be out for a long time as the front is badly damaged.
The first new Blue Birds may have arrived, they are at a Hialeah shop where they will be striped.
And please go visit my other page, which is on Metrobus' history.
