Hampton Roads Transit celebrates 10 years of service.

[MetroLinerXLZ]

As some may have noticed, Hampton Roads Transit has been in service since 1999 when Tidewater Regional Transit and PenTran merged. It has officially been 10 years since that merger.

It's really grown and expanded over the years. I'm actually happy to have seen light rail come to Norfolk (The Tide, which is actually the first light rail system in the state). I might not like that the fleet is almost 100 percent Gillig now, but they still provide efficient service.

An overview of what has happened in the past 10 years is available at gohrt.com.

[WES]

Isn't that the case for most of southern VA, Richmond east.  GRTC is almost all Gillig save for a few MCIs and that Blueturd, Petersburg is leaning Gillig and Tidewater. 

[MetroLinerXLZ]

Isn't that the case for most of southern VA, Richmond east.  GRTC is almost all Gillig save for a few MCIs and that Blueturd, Petersburg is leaning Gillig and Tidewater. 

True indeed. That's the majority of the fleet make-up in the Tidewater VA area. Keep in mind that Richmond (or everything east of the Rockett's Landing area) is also included in this area.

You do have exceptions though. Williamsburg Area Transport (in Williamsburg) consists of New Flyer D35LFs, Orion VII CNGs (w/ John Deere 6081/Voith powertrains) a couple of Metros, a Gillig Phantom, and a Blueturd Q-Bus. Take note that this is after the Colonial Willamsburg shuttle merged with WAT two years ago.

And GRTC has 3 Blueturd Xcel 102s (1201-1203). They actually sound and ride pretty nice. They do need a good tune-up though....

Petersburg is already all-Gillig. The Metros left when that town when the Gillig Low Floors came in back in 2007.