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Hampton Roads Transit will have the Grand Opening of The Tide light rail line on August 19th. The first ride will take place at 5:55am. I'm assuming the ride will begin from Newton Rd. station, but that is yet to be confirmed.

As y'all know, The Tide will be the first light rail line operated in Virginia by any transit agency. Anyone who wants to come along is encouraged to tag along. I'll be in the area from Wednesday morning to Friday evening for some serious transit fanning. In fact, it'll be the first time in 5 years since I've last did any transit fanning in the Tidewater area.

For more information:

http://www.norfolk.gov/light_rail/pdf/Opening_Events_Schedule.pdf

Fred did inform me of this. Here's the actual press release for those that didn't see it...

http://newflyer.com/index/cms-filesystem-action/investor_relations/news%20releases/2011_07_18_q2_orders_and_backlog.pdf

It has been rumored that there are some New Flyer articulateds already here in Richmond. Some people spotted them a few months back, but since then, there's been no mention of them.

I have not seen any of those artics, and the GRTC CEO (Eldridge Coles) denied (well, sideskirted) around that question when I asked him about them in the March meeting.

According to the official website, MegaBus is going to expand service from Pittsburgh starting May 11th. They've added 9 new destinations that you can go to from Pittsburgh.

The cities are Cleveland, Detroit, Columbus, Toledo, Toronto, Erie, Buffalo, Akron, and Cinncinati.

IMO, this "midwest" connection couldn't come fast enough. Now I have two cities for me to hit up and transit-fan the crap out of!

For more information:
http://us.megabus.com/pittsburghhub.aspx

[The downside is that nobody in Richmond seems to be supporting it; heading down 1 person got off and nobody got on, heading up 2 people got off and 1 person got on.]

I just came back from the trip I had mentioned (I wrote an in-depth review in the Beyond the Beltway) forum. I think Megabus hit a home run with the service to North Carolina as my bus down was mostly full and my bus up was packed. The downside is that nobody in Richmond seems to be supporting it; heading down 1 person got off and nobody got on, heading up 2 people got off and 1 person got on.The lack of ridership, coupled with the horrible northbound schedules, seem to be making Richmond the Hartford of the South. There really need to be some mid/late morning departures to DC (onward to Philly or NYC) with 2-3x daily Richmond-NYC bypassing DC. Just watch Richmond not last 2011, then come back the right way in late 2012-early 2013 a la Hartford.

There are a few valid reasons for the lack of support from Richmonders for MegaBus:

1. Most people in this city (for some reason or another) do not have bank accounts to pay for a ticket online. If they can't pay for a ticket with straight cash (like on Greyhound or the Asian competitors like New Century and APEX), they ain't buying!

2. There are a lot of Snowbirds (people that are originally from NYC, no offense to anyone from there!) living in in Richmond, and they aren't digging MegaBus. This is mainly due to the fact that MegaBus requires a transfer in D.C. to catch a bus to NYC. While Greyhound, New Century, and APEX offer one-seat express rides between Richmond-NYC....which companies do you think Richmonders are going to take? APEX and New Century (because of the cheaper-than-Greyhound fares and one-seat ride)! Once MegaBus runs a straight Richmond-NYC, I can safely expect a double-decker VanHool!

3. This same situation applies to the Hampton run as well, but in this case...it's all about placement. Instead of stopping in Hampton, MegaBus should've went all the way to Downtown Norfolk. LOTS of Norfolkers would love a better alternative to Richmond, but they aren't going to catch 2-3 HRT buses to get to Hampton and catch the MegaBus with a load of luggage.

I might take Megabus to Richmond one day, especially if a transfer isn't needed if coming from Philadelphia.  T'would be a long bus ride though.  However, a trip to Charlotte via the Carolinian seems enticing than trying to travel via the Megabus, even if the bus is cheaper.

Seeing that I rode MegaBus from Richmond-Philly (and back) on the opening day, I can safely say that there is NO transfer on the Philly-Charlotte run. It's all a 1 seat ride.

Starting December 15th, MegaBus will be going to Richmond. According to the MegaBus website options, the buses will run to Baltimore, D.C., Hampton, Raleigh/Durham, and Charlotte from Richmond.

And I can SERIOUSLY has one ticket. Damnit, I don't know where I want to go....the options are just that GOOOD!!!

Link to NBC12 News Article/Video:

http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=13514197

What about the skeletons?  TELL US ABOUT THE SKELETONS!

1. GRTC had $1 million set aside specifically for marketing. Thing is, GRTC doesn't need that money as it has no competition.
2. As y'all know, fare increases can only be allowed if City Council approves them. Turns out they had already decided to pass the fare increase when they approved of the city budget (around the same time the "strikes" were in the air). This came to light during the 06-28/2010 City Council meeting (when the fare increase was approved).
3. It also came out that GRTC had plans to sell the old facility (101 S. Davis Avenue) for around $5 million, which would be more than enough to close GRTC's deficit ($1.5 million) and allow the fares to return to the original rates. IIRC, the sales has already been finalized. Confirmation as to WHO bought the facility is pending.

Speaking of which, forgot to mention that John Lewis Jr. (CEO of GRTC Transit System) is going south to Orlando to run LYNX. He was picked out of 36 candidates to take that position. And to that, I say good riddance to him.

Link to Times-Dispatch article:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/oct/15/grtc15-ar-564236/

[(Recording available:]

Folks, after going through hell and high water this week, I decided to take Friday off to make a visit back to my hometown of Charlottesville and enjoy transit the way it should be. Here's some photos from that trip.

CTS #102 in the new CAT paintwork
(Recording available: http://cid-4c4729896a34058d.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/CTS102.mp3)(Video available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dLL0NSH9zM)


CTS #101 in the new CAT paintwork


CTS #820 in the (classic) CTS paintwork (which I know, love and will surely miss)
(Recording available: http://cid-4c4729896a34058d.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/CTS820wm.mp3)


UTS #6236


UTS #1137
(Recording available: http://cid-4c4729896a34058d.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/UTS1137ex.mp3)


UTS #4336



James River Bus Lines #157
Even though they are based in Richmond, they do make a couple of runs to the Charlottesville AmTrak station(Recordings available: http://cid-4c4729896a34058d.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/JRBL157hv.mp3 and http://cid-4c4729896a34058d.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/JRBL157local.mp3)



And yes, ALL of the Orion I's (the 10's and 80's) are still in service. However, I wasn't able to get some shots of the 80-series Orion I (time constraints limited my abilities). All UTS buses now have bike racks which can accommodate up to 3 bikes at a time.

Also, CTS (well...CAT) will NOT repaint the New Flyers or Opuses in the new paintwork. Only the Gilligs have received the new paint. However, the New Flyers won't be going anywhere anytime soon; the ridership is REALLY growing there.

$1.50 isn't a bad price, especially since they haven't raised the fare (and kept it there) for 17 years!

I'm glad they are still running service till 2:30.  I'd rather have less frequent service than service that ends significantly earlier.   Congrats on your new seat!

I wouldn't think it was bad either, but the thing is, the fare options needed to be expanded. The new fares make these GoCards practically useless. Instead of getting 10 rides on a $10 GoCard (which you got at $1.25), you now only get about 6 rides; these being without transfers. If you have to use the same GoCard to pay for the now 25-cent transfer (which a lot of folks do around here), you lose even more rides.

My organization has already made several suggestions to the GRTC on how to improve the fare structure. The only thing they really need to do is expand the pass program to all instead of making it only exclusive to VCU and U of Richmond students.

I know that it's been A WHILE since I've kept everyone up to date on things, but since my intial post to this thread:

1) The fare increase was passed by a vote of 7-1-1 by City Council at the June 28th meeting. The current fares (as of 09-19/2010) can be seen at
http://www.ridegrtc.com/RideGRTC.aspx?pg=Fares-And-Rates

2) The proposed service cuts were scaled back. Instead of service terminating at 10pm (as proposed), night and weekend service will be reduced instead. Routes 6, 32, and 37 will not be affected as the ridership is too heavy on those routes to warrant a reduction. All other routes will run every 40-60 minutes on nights and weekends. Service will still run until 2:30am.

3) After some "skeletons" have come out over the summer, Richmond City Council is planning to form a Study and Task Force to audit the activities of the GRTC. This will be voted on by the City Council on Monday's (09-27/2010) formal meeting.

4) For those who may and may not know, the Richmond Transit Riders Union has emerged here in Richmond. And yes, I AM a member of that union. If the task force is passed by city council, the RTRU will have a seat in the task force. And you can take one good guess at who will be filling that seat......

That's all for now folks, I will (try to) keep you guys posted on things.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!! My beloved colors that I grew up on! Where are they?! I don't see em' on that bus! Three decades of service and they want to change my colors?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Wait, it's CAT now!?!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I want my CTS back!! Give it back!! NOW!




NOTE: I knew about the CAT thing; that was bound to happen. When the "RTA" talks happened in 2007, they did hint at a name change.

Great looking Gillig, and although I like how the paint job does nicely reflect Charlottesville, I WANT MY OLD COLORS ON THAT BUS!!! PUT EM' BACK!!

I don't think that this was Metro's worst year. Trust me, things could've gotten a lot worse than what was posted in the first post.

Yes, there were some outright stupid decisions made by Metro (especially with the purchase of the LFA's), but at least they didn't have to resort to layoffs of drivers and mechanics. If that had happened, things would get SO much worse than what happened over the past year.

As an outsider, I'm going to take wild guesses at this.....here's my answers....


1. I know Dupont Circle is one of them. I guess the second would be Farrugut?

2. I think that one of them suffered from delays in it's construction, the other due to flooding.

3. It was the first rail car involved in a train accident.

4. Colonial Burgandy, Cheasepeake Sand, Potomac Blue

5. ?

6. Not much of a train-head....I'll say Forest Glen?

7. Catoe?

8. Blue?

9. Northern, Landover, Montgomery, West Ox, Bladensburg, and Four Mile Run.

10. Landover

11. I think that was the last MAN artic built for U.S. transit properties.....

12. The N11 line

13. Unsure.....the 72....

14. J8?

15. The J3?

Tritransit and Metroliner,

Thanks for the kind words.  Metroliner, are you also not a DC area resident?  I know Tritransit isn't, and truthfully, I wasn't directing this post to the occasional visitors.  I wrote because I honestly don't know where I'll next be living permanently and should I wind up in the DC Area, I want my voice to be heard.  That was my primary motivation for writing.

Metroliner, I'm perfectly OK with people disagreeing with me about whether the distance based fares or bus fares are "fair" or not.  In fact, I often find mysef disrespectfully agreeing with most of the members here about those sorts of issues, it probably won't be the last time either this time around.  That said, is anyone else voicing their opinion to the people who need to hear it most?  I'd be all for a pass, if a fair one could be established.  But just repeating over and over that other systems have passes and WMATA doesn't isn't a solution in my mind.  Also, as a clarification, the fare increases are in lieu of service cuts, but I think some trimming on the bus side especially is needed.

Actually Oren, I live 200 miles south.....in Richmond, VA. I'm an occasional visitor, usually around once or twice a year (if I can).

I'm actually not that stirred over the pass issue. My thing is, the fare structure does need a review and some decent changes. And thanks for the clarification on the issue, I did not know that the fare increase option was nothing more than just an option. I thought it was going to happen with the service cuts (like what GRTC's proposing). Looks like I kinda got things mingled up, eh?

The Gillig Low Floor hybrids should be on their way around this point. They're supposed to come in around this time, as the moves are being made.