October 2011 Observations

[btconet]

One of Howard Transit's Gilligs is now also wearing the Wells Fargo wrap, spotted on the Brown Route at Owen Brown yesterday.

[RideOn5905]

I saw the weirdest thing today while going to the doctor (for a checkup) with my mom and sister:

We were at the intersection of Germantown Road and Crystal Rock Drive, and I saw 5804 turning onto Crystal Rock (as if heading to Germantown Transit Center)... ON THE 75. Naturally, I was skeptical of this; I thought it was a mistyped 55 bus, but just a couple minutes later, I saw not one, not two, but three buses on the 55 to Germantown; 5811 and 5814 on top of each other (not literally, of course) and then 5834 (in the Wells Fargo wrap, no less) about a minute behind them. So this means that 5804 was indeed on the 75, since the thought of there being 4 buses so close together on a route that only has 15-minute frequency is ridiculous. But you know what's even more ridiculous? Seeing a 40-foot bus on a route that does just fine with 30-footers and cutaways and usually leaves GTC empty. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that was Gaithersburg doing an emergency fill-in for a broken-down Nicholson bus.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

I saw the weirdest thing today while going to the doctor (for a checkup) with my mom and sister:

We were at the intersection of Germantown Road and Crystal Rock Drive, and I saw 5804 turning onto Crystal Rock (as if heading to Germantown Transit Center)... ON THE 75. Naturally, I was skeptical of this; I thought it was a mistyped 55 bus, but just a couple minutes later, I saw not one, not two, but three buses on the 55 to Germantown; 5811 and 5814 on top of each other (not literally, of course) and then 5834 (in the Wells Fargo wrap, no less) about a minute behind them. So this means that 5804 was indeed on the 75, since the thought of there being 4 buses so close together on a route that only has 15-minute frequency is ridiculous. But you know what's even more ridiculous? Seeing a 40-foot bus on a route that does just fine with 30-footers and cutaways and usually leaves GTC empty. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that was Gaithersburg doing an emergency fill-in for a broken-down Nicholson bus.

hmm...5804 was the bus I saw on the 49 on sunday, could the 49 be a cutaway route on the weekends and 5804 is temporarily at Nicholson? it could happen, remember that one time I saw 5901 on the 44

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

just saw 5743 on the 76 about 5 minutes ago!

also, looking at the test.rideonbus.com website, it looks like 5744 is on the 55 right now
also, 5818 on the 75, and speaking of the 75, the site still maps that route all the way to Urbana lol

[WMATAGMOAGH]

There is a note on the RO site posted 10/6 that says some of the schedule changes that took effect this Sunday were due to routes moving from one garage to another. 

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

saw 5758 deadheading north on georgia ave near seminary rd. i think this is the lone clean diesel bus from this order

[rideonrulez]

Saw Ride On Gillig Advantage Hybrid 115357 tonight on the 26 on Halpine Rd.


And for the questions about Ride On, yes they did a pick that went into effect on Sunday that included alot of route swaps between garages. Sightings will be very interesting....

[RideOn5905]

5741 on the 61. I, for one, am baffled at their decision to put 40-footers on the 75.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

aw man, looks like they're now going to overlap the Phantom's numbers starting at 5360. Speaking of which, are any of the '97s still in service? like 5400-5409?

[WMATAGMOAGH]

5741 on the 61. I, for one, am baffled at their decision to put 40-footers on the 75.

IIRC, once upon a time, the 75 operated out of Gaithersburg (though the route that operated then had some pretty significant differences when compared to the route that operates today).

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

I was just at Shady Grove Station (east side), I could have sworn I saw a 40-ft Gillig Advantage in the new scheme crossing over that bridge that's over the tunnel of the station entrance...
wow I didn't think Gaithersburg would get that much of Silver Spring's Advantages that it would go up to the '09s

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

looks like my eyes weren't deceiving me...I saw 5749 on the 54 about an hour ago. around the same time, i saw an Orion VII on the 79, so it looks like Gaithersburg took over that route as well

also, 5835 is wrapped in Wells Fargo. so that's another one besides 5829, I wonder if there are any others (besides some of the Gillig hybrids, forgot the numbers though)

[RideOn5905]

looks like my eyes weren't deceiving me...I saw 5749 on the 54 about an hour ago. around the same time, i saw an Orion VII on the 79, so it looks like Gaithersburg took over that route as well

also, 5835 is wrapped in Wells Fargo. so that's another one besides 5829, I wonder if there are any others (besides some of the Gillig hybrids, forgot the numbers though)

5834 is wrapped; I mentioned it earlier this week. Oh, and 5750 is the cutoff for the Gilligs; I saw it online on the 26 today. Speaking of that new feature, I'm assuming that it only works on a few buses for the time being; I was browsing the 55 and I only saw 4 or 5 buses online when I know that it normally operates double that amount.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

looks like my eyes weren't deceiving me...I saw 5749 on the 54 about an hour ago. around the same time, i saw an Orion VII on the 79, so it looks like Gaithersburg took over that route as well

also, 5835 is wrapped in Wells Fargo. so that's another one besides 5829, I wonder if there are any others (besides some of the Gillig hybrids, forgot the numbers though)

5834 is wrapped; I mentioned it earlier this week. Oh, and 5750 is the cutoff for the Gilligs; I saw it online on the 26 today. Speaking of that new feature, I'm assuming that it only works on a few buses for the time being; I was browsing the 55 and I only saw 4 or 5 buses online when I know that it normally operates double that amount.

yeah their "nextbus" site is in a testing state, it only shows about 25% of the actual buses running, maybe even less (or more?). plus the map is a pain to navigate around, sometimes it will automatically take you to the starting point, which is highly annoying. but hopefully it will develop soon into a more professional way.

I'm glad Ride On is having so many changes now, it's been REALLY boring for the past 2 years (with the exception of Gilligs going back and forth to Gaithersburg, but it's nothing too big)

[ir0cq09]

While riding the J5 to silver spring spotted 2 5300 series(rehabbed) sitting inside Montgomery.....Maybe some 5300 are coming to Montgomery???