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| Re: NJT Cruiser bus shuffling (327729) | |||
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Re: NJT Cruiser bus shuffling |
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Posted by kcram3500 on Fri Mar 16 17:07:49 2018, in response to Re: NJT Cruiser bus shuffling, posted by NJT Oradell on Fri Mar 16 08:28:15 2018. We've discussed this before, but the annual bus purchases by Public Service helped that morale issue because buses at any given garage turned over regularly. No issues about getting some other garage's wasted leftovers.My dad and two of my uncles worked for PS/TNJ - Dad in the 60s, and the uncs into the 70s. As your seniority grew, you could not only pick your routes, but you could "claim" a bus back then. My uncle who drove out of Orange had radar lock on 308A - drove it for years. Doing that gave the drivers a little sense of pride and responsibility - the more you drove a given bus, the faster you'd notice something wrong with it and got it to maintenance. Then came the 1976 Flxibles from NJDOT... here was a 102-inch bus with factory AC, power steering, and a V8 with the 3-speed overdrive automatic - all the GMCs were 96-inch, some had the retrofitted AC (that dripped water on the seats), manual steering, and the V6/2 speed automatic powertrain. Only time Unc saw a GMC after that was if he was doing a combo where he switched mid-schedule with another driver. Felt really bad for drivers in garages that were primarily suburban equipment - the deluxe-transit 500s and suburban 700-800s. Not only did you have manual steering, but that 4-speed Spicer was non-synchro, so you double-clutched every shift (unless you were REALLY good). Dad worked out of Lake Street and they occasionally did rush-hour runs on the 118 (NJT 108 before its service was sliced to the bone) so they had a few suburban Fishbowls. Dad hated that... you earned a day's pay driving those because you had all 4 limbs working - left arm yanking that huge steering wheel, right arm working the fare register, left leg clutching like mad, right leg on the accelerator and brake. When the Flxible suburbans came in... power steering, V8, overdrive automatic... you could hear the sighs of relief. We were living in Teaneck by then and half of Oradell turned over to the Flx - made all the runs more driver-friendly. |
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