This site is for public transportation enthusiasts who are interested in various types of public transportation agencies in the Delaware Valley region.
The first 75 NABIs, which happen to be the suburbans, will be split between Fairview Garage in the north and Camden's Newton Ave Garage, according to a letter from New Jersey Transit Customer Service to a member of the Transitstuff forum . Later, Hilton Garage in the north will receive the first transit style NABI buses.
At this time, Washington Twp isn't expected to receive NABIs, but things may change once the production models start coming in.
The casino consortium, which owns NJT's new Atlantic City Express Service (ACES) from New York to Atlantic City, just announced that they will add a stop at Newark Penn Station. This stop was added in addition to the stop at New York Penn Station, Trenton Station, and, of course, Atlantic City Terminal.
ACES is expected to begin in the 2nd half of this year with 8 multilevel cars with retrofitted interiors. The cars will have 1st class and coach seating. They will have leather seating, food and beverage kiosks, and space for luggage. Just last week, NJT approved the contract with Bombardier to have these 8 cars modified. The casino consortium will pay nearly 15 million dollars to purchase and modify these cars. Additionally, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority paid 4.5 million dollars towards the purchase of P40s from Amtrak, since the trains will need both diesel and electric engines.
ACES is owned by a consortium of 3 casino-hotels: the Borgata, Caesars and Harrah's Resort Atlantic City. They are contracting NJT for the operation of the line, and it will be operated at no cost to NJT. At this time, it's unclear how many trains will be running on this new weekend service, and the consortium doesn't have any rider projections. The price of the tickets is still being determined as well.
You can read more about the ACES update in this article: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880317007
Monday was a traffic nightmare when a support for I-95 cracked, causing ALL traffic in Northeast Philadelphia to be diverted off the highway and onto local Philadelphia streets. This section, between Girard and the Betsy Ross Bridge, is the busiest section of I-95 in Pennsylvania, so streets were clogged everywhere.
With traffic spilling onto local city streets, these routes were affected with significant delays: 1, 3, 5, 14, 20, 25, 39, 43, 50, 54, 60, 66, 73 and 84. Also, the route 15 trolley was operated with buses between Richmond and Cumberland and Richmond and Westmoreland Streets. Passengers were advised that they can expect delays of 40-50 minutes on these routes, some of which are operating with detours.
In an effort to provide alternatives for those who my opt for the train into town, SEPTA is adding 20 cars to the R7 Trenton and R3 West Trenton peak hour trains. These trains are basically operating with normal peak hour schedules, with an additional R7 local scheduled from Cornwell Heights Station to Philadelphia.
SEPTA set up a special I-95 Advisory page on their website: http://www.septa.org/travel_advisory/I95alternatives.html
Chuck on the forums, has reported that New Flyer E40LF’s #801-804 has arrived at Frankford within the past few weeks.
Training of the supervisors began today. Once their training is completed. Training crews will start training the operators. Depending on their seniority, the operators will be trained for 3-5 days. Once the training is nearly completed, expect these units in revenue service retiring the 35 Neoplans in service.
http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/index.php?showtopic=1454&st=0
The old rollsigns that were formerly used on the route 100 cars are now for sale at the Transit Museum store. Each sign costs $60.00, but you can get them for $51.00 with Pass Perks!!
New Jersey Transit's 3077 had a similar life as 3000; it was basically used as a training bus, only out of Newton Ave Garage instead of Hamilton. Now, 3077 is running in revenue service out of Washington Township.
NJT has a serious bus shortage, and those NABIs can't come in soon enough.
Just in case you didn't notice, DART First State has a new look to their website. It seems to be based of the State of Delaware Template.
This "new" website also brings news of the dates for the public hearings for the May-June service changes. The major highlights include:
You can read more about the proposed service changes by visiting the following location on DART's website: http://www.dartfirststate.com/press_releases/may_june_svc_chg.shtml.
As reported on our discussion boards. The temporary swap bettween Midvale, and frankford has begun. Expect the famlier batch (5674, 5668, 5692, 5698, 5702, 5714, 5749, 5925, 5928, 5931, 5935, 5937, 5938, and 5948) of Midvale flyers spotted on Frankford's routes for the next several weeks.
Due to a steel shortage and the bankruptcy of a communications equipment supplier, SEPTA granted Rotem an extension of the delivery of the first three Silverliner Vs until April of 2009. This means that the rest of the order will be pushed back a few months as well, with the final delivery of the cars arriving in October of 2010. More details in the Inquirer article: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/20080229_SEPTA_wont_get_new_rail_cars_for_months.html
NJ Department of Transportation has stated that the NABIs are overweight. NJDOT has certain axle weight requirements for buses that operate reguarly in the state, which tend to be lower than the average limits. Since NABIs are a T-drive bus (using transmissions like the B400) than a V-drive bus (using transmissions like the V731), the rear axle is moved forward to accomodate the engine set-up. Hopefully, NABI will be able to do something, such as move the a/c unit to the roof of the bus over the front axle, to fix this problem.