New Vegas CNG New Flyers Coming In

[Perry]

Bus 301  has been in since the end of November.  This will be the first of 45 C40LFR's for us.  I saw it from the back today at Simmons yard but didn't go over to it.  It looks just like the DE41LFR's we have, except it's not 41 feet and it's not a hybrid.  Hopefully these are better than the piece of junk NABI's we got in this summer.  New Jersey is in for some interesting times if they are built anywhere near like ours were.  The 1999 NABI's we have are fine, but these new things are horrible.  They are nothing but a maintenance nightmare and 20% are down at any one time. 

Of course, the 800 series New Flyer D60LF's are bad too, so we're not doing so well with our bus purchases over the past few years....

[Tritransit Area]

WOW!  That's quite too bad that those new NABIs already have such major issues.  Maybe it's the type of hybrid propulsion system they have?  Do they have the typical GM/Allison?

It's great that Las Vegas is expanding the CNG fleet, though.  Hopefully these new buses will work out.  What are they replacing?

[Perry]

Well, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with them being hybrids because the regular diesel ones are even worse.  One of them, not sure if it was hybrid or diesel had a small fire, a lot of the others have bad wiring and other defects.  I don't even know what types of engines they have.

The new CNG's are replacing the remaining 18 600 series D40LF's and some of the 1999 NABI's.  All but 5 of the D60HF's from the mid 90's have been retired as well.

[Tritransit Area]

Oh I didn't realize that some of the new NABIs were diesel as well!  Hopefully the NJT units will be in much better condition...

Otherwise, yikes!

[Perry]

Yeah we have 20 diesels (979-998) and 30 hybrids (949-978).  Three of the hybrids are in Laughlin (976-978).  They also have 3 of the 1999 NABI's, but I don't remember the numbers off hand.  They are random, not consecutive 700 series.  They have or had a Gillig running around fairly recently too (old 300 series from Las Vegas).

[djsiknik]

Hey Perry i think i saw one of your new buses on I-40 going thru Amarillo,Tx going west i told my brother the paint and he said it was going to LV. I dont really know what CAT colors are anymore because when i was in Vegas years ago they were white with a pink/purpleish big cat as the symbol. It was a New Flyer. I remember seeing a DASH Gillig in Amarillo being delivered few years ago. I-40 and I-80 are major east-west corridors with bus deliveries in both directions. I always see new Gilligs going east and New Flyers going west, to bad NABIs are built in Alabama and they probably take I-10 east or west.

[Perry]

That probably was ours.  They are gold with a blue stripe on the bottom.  The fleet numbers for the New Flyers are in the 300's.  301 is here now and there are supposed to be more ready to go, but there is a holdup due to problems with the paint coloring not being consistent. 

We're going to get rid of the Barbie colors and paint the remaining 700 series NABI's in the gold and blue.  Currently we have one, 725, in that scheme and one 60 footer 571 I think, in the gold.

We're also tossing out the cat and all references to it and rebranding it as RTC.

[Perry]

I also found out today that the new Wright Streetcars will probably be numbered in the 800's following the New Flyer D60LF's, so the first one would be 831.  It's all speculation right now but that's probably what will happen.