Folks, on Dec. 11th, I went to Charlottesville to get my glimpse on the transit scene in my hometown. Here are my observations:
Charlottesville Transit Service
1. The New Flyers are still in service. From what I was told by Bill Waterson (Transit Manager of CTS) and my grandfather, the New Flyers will be in service until at least 2010. The buses will dominate routes 5 and 8 for the time being. I spotted buses 820, 823, and 829 on this route at my time of visit. Speaking of the route 5.....
2. The route 5 now has night service, running on 30 minute headways.
3. The Gillig Low Floors are numbered #100-107 (35-footers) and #200 (for the 30 footers). These buses have the Cummins ISL engine and VOITH D864.3 ADR transmission, which is a BIG first for CTS (which has ALWAYS used Allison transmissions). These buses have Clever Devices systems which only announce major points of interest. No other bus (except #400) has Clever Devices installed. Speaking of bus #400....
4. CTS has a Low Floor version of the Optima American Heritage Streetcar (basically an Opus with the trolley features). This bus is #400.
University Transit Service
1. The Gillig Low Floors are in full swing, buses being numbered #9032-9232. These buses have the Cummins ISL engine/Allison B400R transmission.
2. UTS is installing bikeracks on their buses. I believe these bikeracks will be able to accomodate up to 3 bikes at a time (as seen in the photo of bus #5236 below). Manufactuer is unknown, probably Sportworks (and I'm guessing here)
I have videos available, and they can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBoe1Zksb1w (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBoe1Zksb1w) (CTS Bus #102)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN_um9lLlI8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN_um9lLlI8) (UTS Bus #9032)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0FhZ03JM_A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0FhZ03JM_A) (CTS Bus #400)
And now, some photography from that trip.....
Whatever happened to the UTS/CTS merger by the way?
Quote from: Tristan on December 21, 2008, 03:01:42 AM
Whatever happened to the UTS/CTS merger by the way?
They're still trying to work things out, as there are funding issues by the local governments putting the merge on hold. The City of Charlottesville can't afford to go thru with it due to budget issues, Albermarle County is still skeptical about heading foward.
Though this is a somewhat old (2006) document, you can read up on the public comment in reguard to RTA here:
http://www.tjpdc.org/pdf/RTA/RTA%20%20Work%20Session%20Summary.pdf.
Thank you for the trip report, the history and the photographs. Normally, I drive through or around Charlottesville while enroute to other places so I would never have time to stop to ride transit there.