HERE IS WHAT'S GOING ON.

[wmata employee]

Just came in from a meeting here is the news guys all flexible buses will be or should be phase out by summer of 2009 .Northern is getting 20 (blue and silver hybrid express buses) the 9700's from that garage will be retired per Mr.Catoe. All metro bus divsions will recieved new buses .

Arlington Bus Garage will close on Friday March 27 when the last block comes off the street, on saturday all Arlington div. metro operators will work overtime on Saturday March 28th to move equipment assigned to West Ox Garage. They will open full service on March 30th(monday) a number of routes will me moved to other divisions .

West OX will do some runs that arlington had in the area but be more focus on the northern fairfax area we are very please of the new site its a very big site when operators toured the area on tuesday they were very please of the opearators lounge,showers and new parking lot areas. There will be another tour on next week when all metro staff will be on site,5O New buses will be deliverd to this garage.


***** THERE ARE NO RESPONSE TO WHAT THE FIRST LETTER BLOCK WILL BE.**********************

[Tristan]

You say "All Flxible buses will be phased out by summer of 2009" but only address the 20 at Northern division, so I'm a bit confused.

[OrionFlyer]

Are these blue/silver Hybrid buses going to be the same style as the Metro Extra buses or the Local buses? Metro Extra having a slanted style; Local having a curved style.

[wmata employee]

at this time sir Northern will be getting 20 new buses the 9700's at that garage will be retired. All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

You say "All Flxible buses will be phased out by summer of 2009" but only address the 20 at Northern division, so I'm a bit confused.

[rideonrulez]

All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

Wow this hobby is starting to suck....

I guess all good things must come to an end.

[WMAveteran]

All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

Wow this hobby is starting to suck....

I guess all good things must come to an end.

On the contrary, this is a great opportunity for you because you always wanted to buy a Flex so now is your chance.  There will be a lot of them on the market.

[Tristan]

I think I'll start collecting state quarters again.

[Scrabbleship]

All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

Wow this hobby is starting to suck....

I guess all good things must come to an end.

I think the 4000/4100's are going a little soon. They're still in good shape and I think that unless WMATA wants to deal with a bus shortage it makes little point to dump them. Isn't the incoming order the replacement for the 9300/9400/9600's?

It'd be wise to have held onto the remaining Flxibles until the next order of hybrids comes in, but if WMATA wants to be short buses on some dumb Catoe directive, so be it 

[rideonrulez]

All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

Wow this hobby is starting to suck....

I guess all good things must come to an end.

I think the 4000/4100's are going a little soon. They're still in good shape and I think that unless WMATA wants to deal with a bus shortage it makes little point to dump them. Isn't the incoming order the replacement for the 9300/9400/9600's?

It'd be wise to have held onto the remaining Flxibles until the next order of hybrids comes in, but if WMATA wants to be short buses on some dumb Catoe directive, so be it 

If they are cutting as much bus service that is proposed, they can retire the rest of the Flx's this summer with the New Flyer Hybrids coming in.

[ir0cq09]

All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

Wow this hobby is starting to suck....

I guess all good things must come to an end.

I think the 4000/4100's are going a little soon. They're still in good shape and I think that unless WMATA wants to deal with a bus shortage it makes little point to dump them. Isn't the incoming order the replacement for the 9300/9400/9600's?

It'd be wise to have held onto the remaining Flxibles until the next order of hybrids comes in, but if WMATA wants to be short buses on some dumb Catoe directive, so be it 

If they are cutting as much bus service that is proposed, they can retire the rest of the Flx's this summer with the New Flyer Hybrids coming in.

WoW i gotta get a ride Ive only rode one Flx in my short life  and that was 9782 on the S2 it was a great first experience that L-10/Voith Combo is Amazing on Wmata's Flx D's..I love the rattling when we would come to a stop light..lol

[OrionFlyer]

There are getting rid of the 4000/4100's? Why? They're in excellent shape. I think they have a few years left.

[Perry]

At this point it's probably becoming cost prohibitive to keep working with 15 year old buses.  With the onslaught of new vehicles, plus the proposed service cuts, it's just not worth it.  As much as we bus fans love these buses, we don't know what's going on with upkeeping them. They may look ok on the outside, but once they get to the garage, who knows what the level of TLC they need.

Plus, parts are probably becoming few and far between. 

We should just let them rust in peace and make nice with the new equipment.

[wmata employee]

All 97,98,40,4100 buses will be retired.

Wow this hobby is starting to suck....

I guess all good things must come to an end.

I think the 4000/4100's are going a little soon. They're still in good shape and I think that unless WMATA wants to deal with a bus shortage it makes little point to dump them. Isn't the incoming order the replacement for the 9300/9400/9600's?

It'd be wise to have held onto the remaining Flxibles until the next order of hybrids comes in, but if WMATA wants to be short buses on some dumb Catoe directive, so be it 

Well thats what we said in the meeting  but the fleet director said that metro will recieve 550 new hybrid buses threw  2009-2013 .But we are hoping that they will store the 4001-4104 bash at Carmen lot just wait and see.

[wmata employee]

There are no parts for flexible buses at all so if a bus gets in a accident they are scraped

At this point it's probably becoming cost prohibitive to keep working with 15 year old buses.  With the onslaught of new vehicles, plus the proposed service cuts, it's just not worth it.  As much as we bus fans love these buses, we don't know what's going on with upkeeping them. They may look ok on the outside, but once they get to the garage, who knows what the level of TLC they need.

Plus, parts are probably becoming few and far between. 

We should just let them rust in peace and make nice with the new equipment.

[OrionFlyer]

At this point it's probably becoming cost prohibitive to keep working with 15 year old buses.  With the onslaught of new vehicles, plus the proposed service cuts, it's just not worth it.  As much as we bus fans love these buses, we don't know what's going on with upkeeping them. They may look ok on the outside, but once they get to the garage, who knows what the level of TLC they need.

Plus, parts are probably becoming few and far between. 

We should just let them rust in peace and make nice with the new equipment.

Yeah. I guess its time to move on.

So which buses is Royal getting now? I remember wmata employee saying that Royal was going to get all the 97s and 98s.