I was in Annapolis yesterday and I have a few questions and observations about Annapolis Transit and their services to ask.
1: I knew they had Thomas SLF's, but until yesterday I never new that at some point they acquired Opuses (with those huge fugly rollsigns!). When did they acquire them?
2: I noticed that the interior of their Thomases looks very similar to the ones at PG's The Bus that were originally at MTA. Were those buses rejects from MTA or a piggyback order or was it just coincidence?
3: I noticed that an Opus Hybrid demonstrator(!) was in service yesterday. Actually managed to get a picture of said demonstrator which I'll try to share at some point.
4: Since MTA abandoned the 921 (quite foolishly, IMO), would it make $en$e for there to be an Annapolis-New Carrollton express route in the same vein of the one that goes to BWI? Name it the C-80 or something, any way there's one transit connection that should not have severed.
If you are talking about the one single ones, I don't think so, because MTA never got one door ones. If they are the front and rear door ones most likely unless they got one from Loudoun Transit.
The ones I saw had two doors.
Maybe Annapolis also acquired ex-MTA SLFs.
With respect to question #4 this is another "back to the future" issue. Baltimore, Washington and Annapolis were once connected by the Baltimore and Annapolis RR that offered hourly service between the three cities. Once the railroad was disbanded the B&A became a bus company that operated really clean suburban coaches (both old look and new look). Now there is nothing left of the B&A network and it would cost millions to recreate the system but no one wants to pay for it. The same thing happened to the Pacific Electric in Los Angeles but California has spent billions to recreate the Pacific Electric network. I don't think any of us will live to see the restoration of the B&A network but an express bus that uses the (under construction) ICC might be a good start.
Quote from: aznboy4305 on April 15, 2009, 08:42:01 PM
Maybe Annapolis also acquired ex-MTA SLFs.
All I know is that retrofit job to those doofy rollsigns would have been a joke to have seen if they are ex-MTA SLFs. Come to think of it, they might have been single door in retrospect.
And Re: WMAVeteran, abandoning railroads was a very short-sighted move by society, more than the MTA ending the 921 because they just couldn't hike express bus and MARC fares. This would be more fit for another post, but Anne Arundel County's transit infrastructure is beyond abysmal and they could really use a unifying agency for the county.