Ride On News

[RailBus63]

The interim construction period will be a royal pain in the rear, but the new terminal looks like it will be a tremendous improvement when it is finally completed.

[Scrabbleship]

Well, notices on the two year headache transit center were put up in and around the Silver Spring station when I noticed two "Service Change" notices on the stop at the corner of Second & Colesville where the 1/2/3/11/18/J's/S's stop. Don't tell me that's being shut too, if it is it's just a waste.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Well, notices on the two year headache transit center were put up in and around the Silver Spring station when I noticed two "Service Change" notices on the stop at the corner of Second & Colesville where the 1/2/3/11/18/J's/S's stop. Don't tell me that's being shut too, if it is it's just a waste.

I think somewhere in this thread it was stated that it will be.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Well, notices on the two year headache transit center were put up in and around the Silver Spring station when I noticed two "Service Change" notices on the stop at the corner of Second & Colesville where the 1/2/3/11/18/J's/S's stop. Don't tell me that's being shut too, if it is it's just a waste.

I think somewhere in this thread it was stated that it will be.

That stop won't really be necessary since the interim stop for the lines will be on Wayne and Bonifant. Also, there will be alot of traffic in the area so I think its best to close that stop for the time being. When the new terminal is built, that stop won't exist anyway.

There is one little thing I wonder. Where will the 929 and 995 buses stop to serve the station going southbound on Colesville?

[rideonrulez]

Well with all these changes on 9/28/08 will be equipment/route swaps too.

Silver Spring will send:
(7) 1999 Gillig Phantoms to Nicholson
(4) 2007 International Champion Diesels to Nicholson

Nicholson will send:
(11) 2007 Chevy Champion Gasoline vehicles to Silver Spring

The 22 & 25 will be fully operated by Silver Spring Division and the 23, 30 & T2 (weekends) will be fully operated by Nicholson.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Well with all these changes on 9/28/08 will be equipment/route swaps too.

Silver Spring will send:
(7) 1999 Gillig Phantoms to Nicholson
(4) 2007 International Champion Diesels to Nicholson

Nicholson will send:
(11) 2007 Chevy Champion Gasoline vehicles to Silver Spring

The 22 & 25 will be fully operated by Silver Spring Division and the 23, 30 & T2 (weekends) will be fully operated by Nicholson.

That is going to be interesting. I'd like to see a cutaway on the T2 line. That'll really blow people's minds. Are the 29 footers due in soon?

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Well with all these changes on 9/28/08 will be equipment/route swaps too.

Silver Spring will send:
(7) 1999 Gillig Phantoms to Nicholson
(4) 2007 International Champion Diesels to Nicholson

Nicholson will send:
(11) 2007 Chevy Champion Gasoline vehicles to Silver Spring

The 22 & 25 will be fully operated by Silver Spring Division and the 23, 30 & T2 (weekends) will be fully operated by Nicholson.

That is going to be interesting. I'd like to see a cutaway on the T2 line. That'll really blow people's minds. Are the 29 footers due in soon?

I've seen a cutaway on the T2, though I wish the circumstances weren't what they were:  it was the day limited service was provided so operators could attend Conrad Johnson's funeral and First Transit subbed on many routes they don't normally operate.

Are the Gilligs going to Nicholson going to be used primarily for the 23, 30, and T2?  IIRC, the T2 is a 3 bus operation assuming it isn't interlined.  The 23 is only 2 buses off peak and I would imagine would be 3 at the peak without interlining, the 30 is 2 or 3 at most again with no interlining, so it seems that the 7 35 footers would be enough to cover those three routes at the times they have traditionally had full sized buses.

I thought Takoma Park only wanted the gasoline vehicles on the 25 due to noise concerns.  Will Silver Spring operate the Chevys on the 25 or is the 25 going to see full size buses now?

[Perry]

You need to account for spares too.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

You need to account for spares too.

Well, obviously Chris knows how it will work but here is more speculation (all circumstances assume no interlining and don't take into account the fact that runs can only be so long and drivers need lunch breaks):

The 23 needs 2 buses off peak, it would need 3 to do a 20 minute peak service.  The 23 already uses cutaways middays.

The 30 needs 2 buses off peak, it would need 3 to do a 20 minute peak service.  AFAIK, the 30 still uses full buses only during the peak of the peak.

The T2 seems to be a 3 bus operation on weekends when it matters for this discussion.

Saturday would need 5 35 footers to make pullout for these routes if they were to be Gillig only.  Sunday would only need 3.  A cutaway could handle the 23 fine on the weekend based on my experiences.  I think they could try mandating that T2 service be operated with only Gilligs and they would be fine in terms of making pullout and having a spare ratio.

I'm not so sure that the same holds true for weekdays at this point, but if Nicholson still has some Orion Is, those could represent spares and might cause things to work out.

Like I said, this is all purely speculation on my part. 

[rideonrulez]

I'd like to see a cutaway on the T2 line. That'll really blow people's minds. Are the 29 footers due in soon?

Your wish is granted. There is a few trips on the T2 that is scheduled with a cutaway. The 29 footers should be in by January 09 last I checked.

Are the Gilligs going to Nicholson going to be used primarily for the 23, 30, and T2?

23 all day weekdays only, 30 peak hours weekdays only and T2 only on weekends. But don't be surprised if they show up outside of what I mentioned because personally, I'd rather drive a REAL bus!

Will Silver Spring operate the Chevys on the 25 or is the 25 going to see full size buses now?

The Chevy cutaways will be on the 21, 22 & 25 exclusively.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Chris, how will interlining work with the interim bus operations?

[rideonrulez]

Chris, how will interlining work with the interim bus operations?

I guess you missed this from an earlier post.....

When the IOS starts, you will see less interlining then we do today in Silver Spring. Reason being is that now we have some routes on one side of the street (Example A:1,2,5,12,13,17) and some others routes (Example B: 14,15,16,19,20) on the other side. So what i tried to do for example was if you come in as a 5 (A side) you will leave out on any route that serves on the A side and vice versa. So that way they know which side to pull in on except as noted on there runsheets. Now they will switch sides quite a bit during peak hours because the heavy routes for example are pulling in (B side) at AM rush are weak pulling out in the AM BUT the (A side) is heavy pulling out in the AM. The situation is opposite in the PM obviously.

This is easier to explain in person then typing, sorry if you don't understand 

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

Well this will be interesting, not only with the cutaways on the T2 but also seeing some Gilligs on Nicholson routes in Germantown.

Also, Silver Spring already has some new cutaways? which ones are they?

[79MetroExtraMD]

I did see a few of them at Lyttonsville today. Some 5290s or so. I think one was 5297. I can't really recall the actual numbers too well.

[LandoverDivision]

I've seen how Silver Spring was during the SSTC Construction. Let me tell you. It is HELL. Traffic jams are even worse now. They have to hurry up with that transit center or people will start slapping the transit guys like lil girls.