Month: April 2005

This site experienced some problems a week back apparently the old version of the site got mixed with the new version of the site. It all has been repaired. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hello you guys it’s been a while since I’ve been on my home machine to provide what is going on what the SEPTA fleet news apparently my internet connection at home was disable due to some issues however it has now been restored and now I can provide some fleet news. Some of this news was not release on this date listed above I have provided a date next to it when I first recorded this news.

To add to the wrap posting it appears that a great deal of buses thought out west Philly and it’s surrounding suburban divisions has received fully wraps and side ads wraps. There are way to many buses to count with the current affair wrap however the list of buses that were recorded are listed below. The buses are 5422, 5416 with the WMRR “Black” 103.9 wrap. #5435 with the Franklin plaza wrap, 5427 with the BMW?/Mini wrap, 5411 and 5592 with the #5411 (Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus) wrap. With the older buses with wraps #5621 with the SEPTA.org wrap, #5628 with the KYW Free bus promotion wrap, with 5140 and 5151 with the THP properties wrap which 3488 and 3487 had prior to it, and #5902 from frontier having a current affair side wrap from the frontier division. (4-16) Also add Callowhill’s #5433,5455 Frankford’s #5777, Southern 5793, 5807 are the list of buses with the “A current affair Fox29” Side wrap. It’s possible that there could be a great deal more of buses with this side-wrap considering that every time when I check out a bus it appears to be sporting this wrap plus one red arrow bus :). It appears that the buses which received this wrap so far is nothing but new flyers.

It has been 20 years since the R1 Airport line was running. And SEPTA is celebrating it by making a cake and hand it out to their commuters at the airport also as part of a promotional of the R1 Line as well. (4-27)

Hello you guys long time no see This is apparently consider “OLD
NEWS” to some new news to others however it’s
still is consider to be news. SEPTA was testing
a NYC Orion 7 Hybrid on southern based routes,
which SEPTA renumber this bus to #3999. It’s
now back at MTA Wednesday as of the 12th of
April. A modified version of the Cummins ISB-250
engine powers the hybrid with a BEV Unit. Something
similar to the units used in our hybrids however
not the same. To learn more about these hybrids
please click here.
www.bustalk.net.
This could give the idea that SEPTA is testing
hybrids for the next order of buses due in 2008
which is not sure who will make them or what
kind of buses they will rather it’s straight
diesel or it’s a hybrid diesel bus running on
Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) Fuel. (Kyle O.)
(4-13) For a photo taken by Felix Tse please
click here (

http://gtabus.natransit.com/ote05/Img_6559.jpg)

It appears that the Vehicle Overhaul of the Neoplan An460 is clearly over half-way completed. 7173,7172,7181, and 7168 the VOH are already spotted on the streets as the newest overhauled vehicles. Most of the artic spotted today (4-13) were that of a Vehicle Overhaul of 2004 and 2005

5462 appears to be the new fully wrap sesame street bus which I spotted it twice on the 44. It’s a really nice wrap and it would look really nice in photos. 5820 before it was moved to southern as a loaner bus in place of 5628 sported this full wrap. Kyle O.) (4-14)

SEPTA fiscal 2006-2017 fiscal proposals– Accorded to the new
sheet release annually by SEPTA. There are going
to be some interesting changes regarding the
future of the SEPTA fleet. Here’s a breakdown
as to what this sheet says please bare with
us. (kyle o.) (3-27)

2007-2010

In 2008 400 buses are
expected to be delivery. It will take four (4)
years to complete with one hundred (100) buses
arriving annually. These units will replace
the North American Industrials (NABI) 416.08TA.
Which SEPTA received back in 1996 throughout
the summer of 1997. This will completely make
SEPTA 40 foot bus fleet 100 percent Low Floor
assessable again the details on this order remains
to be very vague.

2010-2017

Light Rail Fleet Replacement
is also specify in the fiscal sheet, which
will replace the existing fleet of Light Rail
vehicles manufacted by Kawasaki. This replacement
affects both single ended and doubled ended
units. By that time the Kawasaki trolleys will
be over 30 years old. This is a typical step
for SEPTA to save money by replacing when they
set life is over vs. back in the 1970’s-early
1990’s operating PCC cars which has been in
service for 50 years.

According to Darryl Bulls (an extremely reliable source for those who don’t know) the next batch of D40LFs will in fact be numbered in the 8000 series numbers 8000-8099 to be correct and all buses will be assigned to the Southern bus garage.

Well here is the first rumor concerning SEPTA’s next batch of D40LFs. This rumor states that according to a source at 1234 Market SEPTA is planning to number this batch 8001-8100, the reason being that the first set numbers (5951-6050) would conflict with the paratransit van fleet. The rumor also states that all 100 of these buses will be assigned to Southern because they will run on a special low sulfur fuel like that on the Hybrids, if this happens they will then transfer a large number of Southern current D40LFs to other Depots. As stated in the beginning this is an unconfirmed rumor. I invite inquiry and debate about this on the forums.