Macon, GA's MTA-MAC Takes a GIANT Step Back....

[Flxible]

Take a look at what they just replaced their oh-so-still-young 2002 RTS fleet with.  And they have the nerve to say these look better.

http://www.mta-mac.com/newbuses.html

[WMAveteran]

Cutaways!  Unbelievable!  This predicament reminds me of a quote from THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." 

[WayneNYC]

Bummer!  The same thing happened in my parents hometown - Augusta GA.  As a child when we visited Augusta, I can remember seeing new GMC T6H-4523A (fishbowls) come to Augusta.  They later got some of the slope-backed GMC RTS 03 series too.  Then, when I visited about 4 years ago, to my horror, the fleet seemed to be all cutaways.

[Flxible]

Two cities here in VA did the same thing- Danville Transit System and Staunton Transit Service, to be specific.  DTS was running 40-foot RTSes and even had a lone Orion I (how random is that?) before they tanked them for BOCs in 1995.  STS was officially disbanded in 1989 and was running a fleet of GMC TDH-3302s at the time (Baby Fishbowls- we have two of them at the CC&T, one does occasional parades and shuttles), but later started back with cutaways.  Recently, they have started a trolley bus service Downtown...which I was actually psyched about when I last visited since it wasn't a butt-ugly BOC.

Wayne, it's sad to hear that your parents' hometown endured the same fate as Staunton and Danville.  All those wonderful GM products were replaced with crap on wheels.

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And look what else may be replaced by cutaways in Macon some day...

http://www.mta-mac.com/about.html

[Sand Box John]

I don't why you are getting all bent out of shape. This agency is down sizing their fleet to more efficiently maintain the same level of service. Driving around oversized busses that are not filled to near capacity burns far more fuel and cost more to maintain then running smaller busses that are filled to near capacity.

Over here in the sand box of the Maryland Eastern Shore Delmarva Community Transit does the same thing. They run their cutaways on the lesser patronized routes and the larger busses on their more patronized routes.

Delmarva Community Transit doesn't have enough ridership to justify the purchase of busses that the big agencies use.

[RailBus63]

30-foot versions of standard transit buses are not much less expensive than full-size buses - for example, Connecticut Transit's 2009 bid prices for 30-foot diesel Gilligs was $352,000 per bus compared to $376,000 for New Flyer 35-foot diesels and $383,000 for 40-footers.   Diesel cutaway buses typically cost between $50,000 and $75,000 each, so they make sense for smaller systems that often carry only a handful of passengers per trip and don't need all that space.

[Flxible]

@John and RailBus:  I see where you're both coming from.  However, I'm looking at it from a busfan's standpoint.  Those cutaways simply aren't as attractive as a full-size bus, and they don't ride as well.  Also, let's not forget they have hoods, which blocks a driver's safe view after they have been accustomed to a flat front end for so many years.  About 20 years ago, someone wrote our local paper about seeing 35-foot buses run around town that were not filled to capacity.  A citizen asked why Valley Metro doesn't go to smaller buses or vans, and the columnist replied that the money saved by buying smaller buses would go into more costly repairs.  And he was right.  Our fair city bought five 25' Skillcraft buses in 1988, and they were crap.  The drivers and mechanics both hated them.  They were thankfully replaced by 35-foot Gillig Phantoms in 2001.  How they made it to 13 years, I'll never know...but three of them are now in a junkyard.

[RailBus63]

I understand where you're coming from – as a bus fan, I generally don't photograph many cutaway buses and I'm a big fan of 30-foot 'shorty' versions of standard transit buses.  That said, I can understand why cutaways work for very small transit agencies.  The ride quality may be worse, but the economics are undeniable both from a capital cost and an operating cost point of view (cutaways can get double the mileage of a standard transit bus). 

Some small transit operators have converted part of their fleets to cutaway buses for their least-patronized routes while maintaining larger buses for the busier routes – hopefully that is what Macon is doing here.

[metroman177]

Fred is absolutely right it's pay me now or pay me later....those skillkrafts cost the city more than it saved, and as for the cutaways short shuttle service yes, fixed routes no. With the hood/and bike rack watch those turns.
I joke...Anything less than 35' is not a bus, it's a wannabebus, deliver truck, beard truck, or STA (student tranport apperattius). In this case of transit agencies with good ridership bigger is better, ....my two cents worth.

[SchuminWeb]

STS was officially disbanded in 1989 and was running a fleet of GMC TDH-3302s at the time (Baby Fishbowls- we have two of them at the CC&T, one does occasional parades and shuttles), but later started back with cutaways.  Recently, they have started a trolley bus service Downtown...which I was actually psyched about when I last visited since it wasn't a butt-ugly BOC.

If I understand correctly on Staunton: They are still operating the full-size trolleybuses?  Back when I still lived down that way, Staunton was running full-size trolleybuses on their "Green" route, and similarly-painted cutaways on the "Red" route.  I remember that Staunton officials referred to the cutaways as the "trolley van".

[btconet]

From the bus fan in me - cutaways suck, and seeing them invade territory once held by transits for generations is certainly a disappointment.

My rational analysis is not much different... While I may understand the short term savings benefits of converting from transits to cutaways, there are certainly costs to same.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices just how much less comfortable the ride is on a cutaway compared to a transit bus.  At the same time, while a transit bus is hardly looked upon as coolness in most circles, a cutaway is likely viewed with even more scorn from the non-transit fan populace as a downgrade from a transit bus.  With this in mind, a system that converts to cutaways is hardly putting itself in the position to improve ridership.  I find the write-up that Fred links to be odd in that it states that they expect they can increase ridership by using these "buses."  Even if that were somehow possible, they'd then have cut off their nose to spite their face in that their capacity has been constrained with the smaller vehicles.