The Flxible Era in WMATAland coming soon to an end/WMATA Flxible Tribute Topic

[WES]

When the last Metro E runs its last route run sometime in the next year or so, so will end the Flxible era in DC.  The Flxes, either in new look or Metro form have been running for WMATA since the mid seventies, over 30 years of service.  All in all, if you exclude buses WMATA inherited from the privates in the early seventies, WMATA has purchased over 1100  Flxible buses, with the next in line the Orions.  The Flxes have been the backbone of WMATA since they inherited the private bus line FDs in the early seventies.  The Flx Metros have been liked by mostly everyone in this area and loved by others (some a little too much     ). If Flxible hadn't gone out of business in 1995, WMATA might have still been buying Flxibles.

This is the post of the last Flx B, D and E rides, your best Flx pics from years past till present and any Flx stories, till the end comes.  I will share some of mine later, and don't look for any Flx new look pics from me, took up photography a couple of years after the last Flx new looks were retired.

[Perry]

Technically, when DC Transit was running buses, they had Flixbles in the 60's, some of which were transferred over to WMATA, so you're talking 40+ years of Flxible.  That's probably about as long as GM's were running in DC, maybe a little leass.  Amazing.  Not too many companies around today that will be able to boast that in the future.  I have such great memories of Flxibles and I'm so happy I was able to drive them when I was at Shuttle UM.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

The 9300s were the first new WMATA buses I have a vivid memory of riding for their entire service lives, and noticing there was something different about these buses compared to other buses that I rode when I was young when they first started arriving, since they had larger headsigns and also the speakers on the interior looked different.  Hard to believe they are going.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

I can't say I had many experiences on WMATA's Flxibles as when I started becoming a busfan, the 87-8900s and 9200s were just about to retire.
But I will never forget the first WMATA bus I ever rode, it was 4006 on the T2 from Rockville to Falls Rd and Dunster Rd (took the bus to a church), that was all before the Flxibles got the orange crush and before 4006 moved to Annex. But anyways, I enjoyed the ride, it was a fairly empty bus and it was running strong.

But Flxible in general...I mean when I used to live in Ft Lauderdale, FL, I remember a couple of times my sister wanted to take the bus with me to go to the mall, and we would always get a Flxible. Though I don't remember exactly how the ride was because I was like 5 years old at the time. But now all the Flxibles in South Florida are gone (I don't know about Miami though), and soon the WMATA ones will too, it sure hurts to see them go.

If they were such great buses, why did they go out of business?

[ChristopherF]

Before I moved to the DC area from the Tampa Bay area 20 years ago, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit line (or HARTline for short), which is based in Tampa, Florida, had a fleet that consisted of mostly Flxibles & RTSs.  All of them are now gone.  HARTline now has a fleet consisting of mostly Gilligs.

A lot has changed in the last 20 years.  There were a lot of Flxibles in the DC area (early 5000s, 8000s-8600s & 8700s-8900s) when I moved to the DC area in 1989.  WMATA used to be Flxible-dominant.  Not anymore.  Only the 9300s & early 9400s (40') & the late 9400s (35') from the 1990 model year remain.  The very last order of non-wheelchair lift buses, which were also Flxibles from that same model year (1990) are already long gone.  WMATA also has Flxibles from 1993, 1994 & 1995.  Some of the buses from 1993 are now gone.  4058 was totaled & burnt in 2007.  There aren't many buses from 1990 left as some of these buses are scrapped.