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| Re: pix:ALBANY yesterday (264918) | |||
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Re: pix:ALBANY yesterday |
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Posted by BrianB on Tue Aug 7 06:28:36 2012, in response to Re: pix:ALBANY yesterday, posted by CapitalCruiser on Sun Aug 5 16:13:05 2012. At the moment, I live in a region where the entire coach fleet, save 9 Optima Opus 30ft coaches (and 8 MCI's being sold to other properties), is comprised of Gillig Phantoms and Low Floors. I can assure you that they are very happy with Gillig.The transit agency has tested NFI and Orion equipment in the past, and chosen to stick with Gillig, to the point where they actively seek other systems to piggyback on to get them delivered faster. I can state with confidence that our worst Gillig rides better than NYMTA's best Orion V. I speak from experience on both counts. My experience with the Orion 7, both in NYC, and more recently in Seattle, has been that it rides a bit rough, like the airbags are overinflated. On a related note, systems in Washington State can be picky on what they purchase because the funding structure allows for "nice spec" coaches. So the systems tend to have coaches with better parts that don't wear out so quickly, not to mention, are maintained properly. So far, in the last 15 years, King County Metro has been the only agency to buy anything from Orion. Skagit Transit is the only agency to buy any NABI coaches (presumed to have originally been for Opus coaches, they've since gone back to Gillig), even though their regional part distribution warehouse is in Fife. Giving credit where it is due, Seattle bought their Orions because they scored the highest on their evaluation scoring system. Gillig scored 2nd, and NFI scored 3rd. New Flyer has an interesting history in Washington State. The only system that consistently purchases their rigid equipment (40ft or less) is Community Transit. CT has always bought from New Flyer, with the only exceptions being Orion for 3 30ft coaches, Neoplan and Ikarus back in the early '90s, and GMC/TMC for their commuter service, upon recommendation by ATE, the contractor at the time (the Gilligs they used were provided by ATE). Pierce Transit bought their CNG coaches from NFI because the Orion 6 (the purple monster) did not seat enough passengers. Now that Gillig offers a CNG coach, I expect them to buy Gillig when they need to buy more equipment. I'm not really trying to beat you down too harshly, I'm just defending what is a perfectly good bus. Brian Bradford Kennewick, WA |
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