What's New

What's New ( Thursday July 26 2001)
Added pages on the Okeechobee Connection, Intermall Shuttle, Brickell Key Shuttle, and the upcoming Airport Owl and Airport West / Blue Lagoon Conection.

What's New (Thursday August 16 2001)
Added pictures of 8022, 4009 and 9803. The lot at Coral Way division is being currently expanded. Several more Blue Birds have arrived, including 1959, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1973, and 1976. They will be replacing the 6000's, of which only 10 will be kept.

WHAT'S NEW (Sunday April 7 2002)
         Due to computer troubles I haven't updated this site in a significant amount of time, but now that I've got a new system I'm gonna do more frequent updates now. Here's a look at what's happened since last August.
            The last of the 1900's arrived in this period, with 1990 arriving around late September, completing that particular batch. Last month the next batch of Blue Birds arrived, numbered 2301 - 2310...there are some differences between the 1900's and the 2300's...the 2300's have a new flat rocker-switch control panel (versus the school-bus slanted pull-switch panel on the other 90.). Also the inside front end is all-gray colored. And the windows are all sealed (1 pane), although the sliding windows on the other 90 were screwed shut anyway. Also they have a new Ricon wheelchair lift versus the Braun lifts on the other 90. The buses, oddly enough, are numbered as 02301, 02302, etc. Actually all MDTA buses carry a '0' in front of their numbers (02074,05005,09342, etc.) however the firsrt zero is always omitted when the numbers are physically applied to the buses themselves...odd that it wasn't in this case. Additionally a new shipment of NABI low-floors is expected by September, they should have the "Amber" destination sign that 2021 currently sports as a demo. Sliding windows as in 2095 and 2096 are highly unlikely as those two buses were retrofitted strictly for politicians to be seen in parades. I am not making this up.
              We all know what happened on Tuesday September 11...2830 people died at the World Trade Center in New York City, 189 in the Pentagon and all 44 aboard United flight 93 in Shanksville, PA. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and our troops in Afghanistan. On the 11th I thankfully had to do a route 8 in the afternoon (with bus 9924), so I could take my mind off the morning's awful events...on that day MDTA provided extra service on several routes including the Tri-Rail Shuttle and the 95 express to get people home as things were shutting down...by the time I last arrived there at 7pm Downtown Miami was a ghost town...MDCC's downtown campus was closed so the routes 2, 7 and 8, which have their layovers there, were redirected to the nearby CBD bus terminal. There some scares later on, especially during the anthrax scare in October, one day 4005 was quarantined due to the driver finding a white powder on the bus...turned out to be cocaine. Later on the same thing happened to 1909.
                Currently there haven't been any big buses retired as of late, except 9086 which was pulled from service last month and reassigned to the County Manager's office. In August 8025 hit something very hard and was retired. Many of the 6000 series Ford minibuses have been retired, only 6003, 6005, 6011, 6013, 6014, 6020, 6024, 6029, 6036 and 6037 are still around, but they see service very infrequently. One of the newer Blue Birds is out of service, 1990 caught fire during the AM pull-out on January 4, a very cold Friday morning, when the heater was turned on and somehow the wiring caught fire. There is extensive damage under the dashboard and fire damage to the outside front grill where flames actually shot out, also the interior is covered in a layer of soot. The bus is currently back at the Blue Bird factory in Ft. Valley, Georgia, being re-wired and undergoing repairs.
                 In the area of rolling wrecks, 4020 is being repaired after a serious accident on the 38-Busway MAX in February - on the last bus of the night (1am) southbound the bus went off the Busway between 117 and 124 Street and took out a double fence, some small trees and came to rest next to a shed. The double fence was a wood fence inside and a chain link outside, 2 of the chain link posts penetrated the floor of the bus, one striking a seat, luckilly no one was sitting there. To add to the mess the tow truck, while trying to yank the bus out, accidentally damaged the hymer (hinge joint) and the accordion bellows, adding to the mess. That bus is undergoing repairs. And as hard as it is to imagine, 9918 HAS NOT returned to service yet, it's still in the shop, albeit no longer in the body shop, but now in a regular bay, getting engine work I presume.
                 The Coral Way repaving work is done, buses now park in an assigned stall insetad of being assigned to one general lot as before. More to come later.