|
|
| Re: Valley Metro questions (mainly historical) (112275) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > BusChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: Valley Metro questions (mainly historical) |
|
|
Posted by roscoman1986 on Thu Aug 21 11:22:02 2008, in response to Re: Valley Metro questions (mainly historical), posted by PHXTUSbusfan on Thu Aug 21 01:30:28 2008. Yep, the summer of 2005 was really bad, also throw in a bunch of A/C problems (especially with the D40LFs). Most of this had to do with the bus shortage that developed when the ElDorado Transmarks were pulled out of service after 11 years and the fact that Arizona State University made all Valley Metro services free. With that, they could no longer run 30-footers on the 72 and 81 (mostly the 81) like they had previously been doing, and the ElDorado Transmarks could not survive the increased patronage. With this and the entire MV Transportation debacle, they had no choice but to lease buses from Foothill Transit and Hertz because that was the only thing that was available.The Tempe sign problems really did not start until the summer of 2006, when they recieved some ElDorados from the RPTA that essentially had no headsigns at all. It lasted until January 2007 when they replaced the headsigns with Luminator Horizons. I still remember the Hertz buses and their bright yellow interior lights as well as carpeted interiors. The biggest pain was that they had no stop request, so these buses required two drivers to operate (one to drive and the other to request stops), which was quite annoying. The Foothill buses were fun because they were suburbans (without luggage racks but with reading lights) and they had stop request and comfortable (non-reclining) seats. Overall, 2005-early 2006 was an interesting time for busfans (with Novas, Gilligs, and most of the 1994 D40LFs still alive) but not necessarily for riders. |
|
|
|