A trip to DC on Veterans Day

[Tritransit Area]

Hi all!  Once again I am hopefully making the trek down to my "2nd home", the DC area.  As it will be a weekday trip (and a one day trip at that - only one day off!)  I'm trying to get all of the weekday only stuff that I possibly can so that I can build up my photo collection. Just a few questions, though:

1) Are the NABI 60-BRTs still running exclusively on the U8?  Is the U8 now 100% NABI 60-BRTs, and do these buses run with Voiths?

2) I really want to at least get one photograph (and a recording!) of the Ride-On Flxes.  Are they still around, and where do they generally roam up North?

3) Is Neilson (is that the name of the new Ride-On depot) sneaking Orion Is and Gilligs on routes like the 18?

4) Does Arlington generally run a lot of Flxes during the midday weekday, or will I find myself among a lot of Orion Vs?

5) I'm looking for final 40 foot Metro B rides.  Are they still running much, and if so, are the J's the best place to find them?

6)  Where is a fantastic place to find PG THE BUS's Orion Vs and Gillig Low Floors?  Is New Carrolton good enough, or are there better locations out there?  It would be fantastic if I could find them in Langley Park!

Tis all for now!

[rideonrulez]

1) Are the NABI 60-BRTs still running exclusively on the U8?  Is the U8 now 100% NABI 60-BRTs, and do these buses run with Voiths?

2) I really want to at least get one photograph (and a recording!) of the Ride-On Flxes.  Are they still around, and where do they generally roam up North?

3) Is Neilson (is that the name of the new Ride-On depot) sneaking Orion Is and Gilligs on routes like the 18?

4) Does Arlington generally run a lot of Flxes during the midday weekday, or will I find myself among a lot of Orion Vs?

5) I'm looking for final 40 foot Metro B rides.  Are they still running much, and if so, are the J's the best place to find them?

6)  Where is a fantastic place to find PG THE BUS's Orion Vs and Gillig Low Floors?  Is New Carrolton good enough, or are there better locations out there?  It would be fantastic if I could find them in Langley Park!

Tis all for now!

1) You can find them on the 5A Dulles Airport-L'Enfant Plaza route. But not all blocks have them as I experienced yesterday.

2) The Ride On Flx's are still on property but I doubt you will find one as they are rarely used nowadays.

3) The 3rd Ride On depot is named "Nicholson Court". There are seven 1999 Gilligs there (5417-5423) that are used on the 23 & 30 on weekedays and the T2 on the weekends. You might find one out on a cutaway block. I saw one on the route 4 one day. 

4) Arlington runs the 4000 series Flx E's and Orion V's in the midday.

5) If you want a 40ft Flx B (93-9400 series), you might want to head down to Virginia and catch a Royal Division route since that is where most of them are.

6) The PG THE BUS Gillig Advantages seem to be spread through out there system. I would probably stick with Greenbelt or New Carrolton for those. I have yet to see in person the Orion V's though, maybe some of the other PG service experts here can tell you where to find them.

[LandoverDivision]

I actually haven't seen the DUH BuS' Orion Vs lately. They are on the 18, 21X, 27 (in the afternoon), and probably the 20 (in the evening). But I have yet to see one in the past week.

To answer your U8 question, they aren't 100% BRTs. Maybe 90-95%. I saw a C40LF on this route the other day. The BRTs have Allison B500R Transmissions in them.

Also to answer your 40 ft Flxible B question, come to P.G and you'll find a fair amount here also. 9332, 9333, 9361, 9364, 9366, and 9371 are here.

Find Arlintgon's Flx's at Pentagon and Ballston Stations. A lot of them appear during non-rush hour as well as rush hour especially on the 22A, 25A-B, and the 10A (You'll actually see a Flx B at times on this line).

[btconet]

Hmm, just one day, huh...

Not sure what your times and transportation are looking like, so it's gonna be hard to get the "6 pack" of your itinerary.

Item #2, while noble, is gonna be a REALLLLLLL hard catch, taking a serious stroke of luck.  I think only one of those coaches is running now, and its use is pretty limited.

Starting with the Maryland items, as mentioned above New Carrollton or Greenbelt should be good spots to find the Advantages.  I took my first PG ride on an Advantage a couple of weeks ago on the #16 between Greenbelt and New Carrollton.

r-o-r is the authority on the Nicholson buses, though I did spot an Orion I on the #29 line early last month - on a Saturday at that!

From what it appears so far, the Nabi Artics seem more a peak fixture on the #5A.  I'd gather it to be 2 AM and 2 PM blocks specifically running that service.  Middays and early PM was the typical "Four Miles but one kind of Bus" assignment.

You can rather readily find midday Arlington Flx's hubbing out of Ballston.  A Flx B can occasionally be part of that equation as well, but 4000's tend to be more the rule.  For some reason, the #24P tends to be  a more common place to find the B's. 35 Footers seem pretty common on the 24T and 28T - or at least they were yesterday! , and as has been suggested, the Royal peak services in particular are a very likely score for a 40 Footer Flx B.

[Tritransit Area]

Wow, thanks so much for your advice!  I'm disappointed that the Ride-On Flxes barely see the light of day anymore...are they having issues or are they just old?  Hopefully I'll be extraordinarily lucky to see one, but I won't bank on it.

Also, since when did PG's route 18 gain so much ridership to require 40ft buses?  Last time I rode it, the route was rocking the ODVs and CAGVs!  Maybe I'll run into an Orion V during my travels.  I must admit, it's something that I've got to see to believe - THE BUS with Orions.

Pardon my ignorance, but which routes come out of Royal?  Is Ballston also a good place for these routes?

[LandoverDivision]

I'm not 100% sure about all of Royal's routes, but I know they run the 11Y and the 3Y. I think they run one of the buses that go to George Mason University. I think they run the 28s and the 18s too.

[Tristan]

Some 8 blocks
Some 9E/10E blocks
Most 10A/B blocks
11Y
Some 17s
Some 18s
Most 21s
28A/B
29K/N

[LandoverDivision]

10E? There's a 10E?

[79MetroExtraMD]

10E? There's a 10E?

Yep. It runs peak hours from Pentagon to Braddock Road station. The 9E runs reverse peak.

Some 8 blocks
Some 9E/10E blocks
Most 10A/B blocks
11Y
Some 17s
Some 18s
Most 21s
28A/B
29K/N

I didn't think about the 17 line for Royal. I did see a couple on the 17M and 17K at a few times.

[Tristan]

Yes, the 9E runs from Pentagon to Braddock M via Rte 1 then changes to a 10E which runs from Braddock M to the Pentagon via Mount Vernon Ave.

[LandoverDivision]

Oh i'm stupid I forgot there is a 10E. Didn't they discontinue the 9E? I got a 9A schedule from Pentagon some months ago, and there was no 9E there. I still have that schedule BTW.

[Tristan]

They discontinued the 9B, not the 9E.  The 9E and 10E are interlined ... the 9E is really just sort of a revenue deadhead for the peak flow 10E, so the 9E always represents more service in the opposite direction of the 9A's peak.  Kinda backwards, but it's better than running the empty bus from the Pentagon back to Braddock.  It's kind of like the 8S, which is a revenue deadhead for the 8Z that ends at Quaker & Radford...8S is Quaker & Radford to the Pentagon to do another 8 trip.

[btconet]

Hope you didn't plan to ride MARC or Commuter Buses at all:

From mtamaryland.com:

MARC TRAIN:  No Service

COMMUTER BUS:  No Service

[Tritransit Area]

Oh wow!  I was hoping to get pictures of their service....why would they be closed on that day?  Don't people generally work on Veteran's Day?  I know I used to...

I hope VRE will be running?

[Tristan]

Budget cuts a few cycles ago led to cuts in service in lower ridership days...doesn't the new service cut proposal include even more holiday cuts?