Category: Uncategorized

Major Changes on the Current Assignments Page( http://www.philadelphiatransitvehicles.info/Current_fleet_Assignments.php ).

With these changes: Callowhill has lost 1/3 of their fleet of NABIS. 5249, 5259-5263 are now assigned to Midvale. Southern has received 5320, 5322-5323, 5325 from Callowhill. Frontier has scrap more of their Eldorado buses and have received more 2004 New Flyers in return. Latest update on 4581, which was remove from service at Frontier a month ago, is that it now the bus is wrapped in the Lucy scheme.

Once again, the Silverliner Vs are delayed again.  The three that were due on December 20th, which would have allowed SEPTA to try to run a 6 car train of Vs, will not make it on time.  In fact, now there is no definite date as to when these cars will be delivered.  With the problems these three cars have had, in addition to the prototypes built in Korea that are running on the system now, this is par for the course.

More details here: http://planphilly.com/news/notebook/septa-misses-another-silverliner-v-deadline

Remember that massive bus reassignment several months ago which robbed Frontier of much of their fleet of Zfers (#5892-up)? Well now they are getting their zfers back with more zfers being reassigned in the future! As been reported on the forums for the past month. SEPTA has started retired the Eldorados assigned to Frontier. So far, to replace these Eldorados, 5890-5892, 5903-5904, 5911-5923, 5928-5929 with 5932 has been reassigned to Frontier. This is the most bizarre assignment because much of the fleet of buses listed above were assign at Frontier only a few months ago and were sent to Comly and Midvale just prior of the Fall 2010 schedule. Now, they are giving these buses back to Frontier with possibly more zfers to come down the road.

Get your last shots of the Eldorados while you still can, it is quite possible that these little bouncy boxes will meet their demise sooner versus later. On a side, but related note, some of the Eldorados, which were removed from Service, has been reassigned to Contract operations. 4552 is now dressed in the Lucy scheme.

A contract to rebuild PATCO’s aging fleet of railcars has finally been award. Alstom of France recently won the $194.2 Million contract to strip there cars down to there bare stainless steel bodies. New interiors, brake and propulsion systems, lighting and messaging systems, and  heating and cooling systems will be installed. The cars will reportedly keep there original wheel assemblies and traction motors. The cars were built in 1968 and 1980 by Budd and Vickers respectively and the project will extend the cars life 25 years. All 120 cars will be rebuilt at Alstom’s Hornell NY facility over a 5 year period!

Article by Daryl Jackson (Philly Transport)

This afternoon at around 1:30, 4571 collided with a Lexus that was heading in the opposite direction.  The accident occured in Norristown by the old Logan Square Shopping Center as 4571 was heading to Norristown TC on route 90.  The Lexus driver was flown to University of Pennsylvania Hospital as 8 passengers on the bus were taken to local hospitals.

Link to the ABC news report: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7814925

On Friday morning, October 29th, SEPTA is holding a press conference/ceremony to announce the start of passenger service for the Silverliner Vs.  This will be held at track 0 in Suburban Station, starting at 9:30 AM.  The train is due to run from Norristown to Center City before the ceremony, but we do not know what train it will run as.  It’s quite likely that this will be an “extra wildcat” train.

Last Saturday, SEPTA held it’s bus roadeo at Cornwall Heights parking lot. During this event, SEPTA introduced two milestone buses.  The first unit, Frankford’s 8411 was the 1000th bus ever produced by New Flyer for SEPTA. The second bus is Southern’s 8450, this is a greater milestone as this is the 30,000th bus which New Flyer ever built.

Photographer: Michael EEEEE Pearson

PTV forum member Reeko_8197 spotted Silverliner IV #280 with a LED sign. The sign resembles the exact same units that are mounted on the rear of the New Flyer hybrid buses. Over the year 280 was chosen to test out the new wireless recievers for the new Silverliner Vs which is expected to be delievered over the next 2 years. 280 also had an interesting device mounted on the on the top left corner of the car.

Reeko_8197 spotted 280 today at Suburban station 

http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/topic/7223088/3/#new

   

Later last night, 8425 has been delivered to Southern, this completes the list of which depots will receive the New Flyer DE40LFRs. It’s been reported that Southern WILL indeed get the remaining 35 of these restyles. According to the “Southern’s Number 1 Informants”, the lucky driver of the day to receive this bus was on 7357 on the route 37. They also reported that all of the 5000 with the 5100s assigned at Southern will be scrapped within the next few weeks.  Be sure to check out the forums (http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/index/) for more infomation.

According our newest member on the forums, Phillydriver, Frankford still has three to four restyles that still needs to be delivered. During the past several weeks, the delivery of these restyles offset the recently overhauled Zfers (5775-5799) off to Comly. By doing this, this enabled SEPTA to scrap some of their remaining nabis at comly.

The offical break down for the 2010 order of New flyers restyles are: 8340-8379 (40), Victory; 8380-8404 (25), Frontier; 8405-8424(20), Frankford; and Southern, which currently will receive the remaining 35 units  8425-8459 (35).

As of today, July 25th, the R designators for the Regional Rail lines are no more.  Gray decals now cover any reference to the R identifiers in the Center City Stations, replaced by the new line names.  The new schedules, which were put out last week, are the same blue-gray color, with the Trenton/Chestnut Hill East and the Fox Chase/Chestnut Hill West schedules separated.

However, sources say that we may be seeing the colored placards used on the railcars for some time – the new placards aren’t ready yet!