December 2010 Observations

[Annex4421]

Honestly you would think that they would paint the D40LFRs, DE40LFs, DE40LFRs since they are not going in for rehab for a while.  The Orion VIIs are due for rehab a year or two after the Neos are rehabbed and you would think they would wait till then to repaint them, and not what it looks like now.

WhyMATA *smh*

There's probably some kind of schedule as to which buses are being repainted and when, not so much by build year. There was 6212-6217 6167 and 6168 that were repainted to express and local schemes.

6168 is in the old scheme

[79MetroExtraMD]

New style bus stop signs are appearing now. I've gotten pics of a few along H Street.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Rode the X9 this morning as well as the 7Y. X9 was kinda a good ride, just H Street and Benning Road are too congested. A few observations I've noted while riding.

X9
-The X9 hasn't been programmed into the system yet so no bus had a properly working headsign (ala S9 when it first came out)
-The scheduling system only registered a few trips of the X9 which are being tracked on NextBus but not all of them would take
-Minnesota Avenue only has the westbound X9 stop up, but the eastbound stop is at the same location as the U8 toward Capitol Heights but did not have a new stop sign up
-We seemed to be behind a couple of X2s all the way down H Street and the one lane eastbound makes it difficult to maneuver around the construction
-The running times seem to be okay but need to be better tuned for the construction along H Street
-There was someone on the bus from Metro who was passing out schedules and helping out people to inform them about the route

7Y
-The 7Y hasn't been programmed either. Only seen a paper sign in the dash
-The stop at Pentagon is at the old 13A,B stop along with the 16F. So alot of people who were used to them being at the upper part of the station might be surprised to know these two are at the tail end of the upper level. I did spot a couple people who were unaware of the changes waiting for a bus heading into DC

Overall observations:
-I did see alot of buses that had improper headsigns or had the wrong runs loaded into the system that didn't reflect the changes
(of oddity was the X9 FRANKLIN FARM X9 MCLEAN GARDENS X1 LAFAYETTE SQUARE)
-The 16Fs coming into DC still sign as PENTAGON which might confuse folks

As for the first day, I would have to rate is a mid-C. There is still alot of work to be done to transition into the new pick and alot of work needs to be done to have the proper signage on the buses as well as the bus stop signs.

[DCAreaTransitFan]

On friday i saw 2535 on local scheme at the pentagon was on the 7A route

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

oh...not to mention, there was no sign at Rockville Station indicating that the T2 bus stop moved to the east side of the station. SMH...

...and I rode 4258 on the L8, got a pic that i'll post tonight

[OrionFlyer]

I was in Greenbelt area earlier today to check out the new G Routes. I like the  routes.  A lot of people were confused about the routes. All the headsigns on the G's were working correctly.  The thing I like is that the G12 and the G13, 14, or 16 leave a couple minutes apart, but get to the final destination at the same time. Also, "C2 GREENBELT STATION" and "R12 GREENBELT STATION" haven't been programmed yet.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Glad to hear the T2 moved to the East Side at Rockville.  I've always thought it would be faster leaving the station for sure, as well as arriving since it seems most drivers opted not to use the "back door" to the station driveway because of the lights on 355.

[rideonrulez]

I was in Greenbelt last night and experienced what OrionFlyer experienced when it comes to the signs. Also saw 5442 on the B30 at Greenbelt Station. On the way home I saw 5435 on the K6 at Hillandale and an unidentified artic at Colesville  on the Z2 going towards Olney.

[79MetroExtraMD]

I was in Greenbelt last night and experienced what OrionFlyer experienced when it comes to the signs. Also saw 5442 on the B30 at Greenbelt Station. On the way home I saw 5435 on the K6 at Hillandale and an unidentified artic at Colesville  on the Z2 going towards Olney.

Granted with all the changes they had, most of the work would have been done over a week in getting all the systems together for Monday morning, but apparently not all went as should have been. Also, a number of stops still dont have the correct stop Ids or are using the internal 5 digit stop numbers and not the regional IDs or certain patterns aren't programmed with that stop ID (i.e C2 eastbound from Wheaton).

[Transport]

Overall observations:
-I did see alot of buses that had improper headsigns or had the wrong runs loaded into the system that didn't reflect the changes
(of oddity was the X9 FRANKLIN FARM X9 MCLEAN GARDENS X1 LAFAYETTE SQUARE)
-The 16Fs coming into DC still sign as PENTAGON which might confuse folks

X9 FRANKLIN FARM???  Hmmmm... a DC/MD route with a former VA 5F and 20F destination out near Chantilly.  I wish I could have seen that!

[Annex4421]

Ummm I rode bout the 7Y and X9 and I heard R&D Voices

PS anyone who rides 2527 the Clever Device is experiencing "Screwed Up" tactics the Lady now sounds like a drunk drag queen.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

2305 has the "warning: the bus is turning" announcement (was this the only bus to have it or do others have it too?)

Ummm I rode bout the 7Y and X9 and I heard R&D Voices

PS anyone who rides 2527 the Clever Device is experiencing "Screwed Up" tactics the Lady now sounds like a drunk drag queen.

what's R&D?

could it be that 2527 is testing a new voice or what?

[Annex4421]

2305 has the "warning: the bus is turning" announcement (was this the only bus to have it or do others have it too?)

Ummm I rode bout the 7Y and X9 and I heard R&D Voices

PS anyone who rides 2527 the Clever Device is experiencing "Screwed Up" tactics the Lady now sounds like a drunk drag queen.

what's R&D?

could it be that 2527 is testing a new voice or what?

2308 2302 also has the "warning: the bus is turning" announcement. and R&D is Route & Destination and nope its was the same old normal voice, then while I was riding the voice started to sound weird it sounds the battery is about to die or something.

[79MetroExtraMD]

2305 has the "warning: the bus is turning" announcement (was this the only bus to have it or do others have it too?)

Ummm I rode bout the 7Y and X9 and I heard R&D Voices

PS anyone who rides 2527 the Clever Device is experiencing "Screwed Up" tactics the Lady now sounds like a drunk drag queen.

what's R&D?

could it be that 2527 is testing a new voice or what?

2303 has it as well.

[rideonrulez]

2305 has the "warning: the bus is turning" announcement (was this the only bus to have it or do others have it too?)

2301-2310 are the pilot buses. I hope it goes no further then that....