Transport wonks and kids under six years old, do I have news for you!
MARTA just announced that it will be adding 18 articulated buses to its fleet in 2016! A bit of background from the ol’ FB…
New Flyer brought one of their XN60 Xcelsior CNG articulated buses to Atlanta so MARTA could take them for test runs on various routes to check for turning, etc. and make sure they fit into our station bus loops. The final decision on which routes and stations will receive the 18 new buses will be announced at a later date. The buses will begin arriving in early 2016 and will be put into service later next year.
I wonder if you’ll be able to rent them out for children’s birthday parties.
When did those type of buses leave the MARTA fleet? It must have been at least 6-7 yrs ago?
It was actually more like 20 years ago. They didn’t seem to hold up well and were removed from service after a few years.
Off topic, but for the transit / engineering nerds, Georgia State has uploaded tons of old MARTA blueprints and other documents to their digital archives.
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2015/07/16/behold-martas-archives-now-online
This nifty invention should be standard on a limo. Witnessed a loooong-ass Lincoln attempt a right turn downtown yesterday. The two lanes of traffic going the other direction had to maneuver out of their lanes to accommodate a 500-yard turn radius! This spectacle stopped traffic and disrupted flow in three directions. I eye-rolled so hard…
Because “bendy” buses worked so well in London . . . Cyclists should be especially concerned.
On the plus side, these are harder for super villains / Decepticons / etc. to pick up and throw. And during those inevitable fights, The Hulk et al. typically step / fall / throw things that land juuuuuust right between the two buses.
You are assuming that the buses aren’t Decepticons to begin with. My take — they ARE Decepticons. The kind that can combine to make one massive, invincible robot warrior. Just because they haven’t transformed yet doesn’t mean it’s not true.
I thought the Decepticons are the big, evil construction equipment working on all those multifamily projects?
OMG, that too! They’re here for the solar panels.
Which bus routes are so full of people that they need larger buses? Almost every time I use the bus, it is at most 25% full. I, for one, would rather have more frequent buses.
+1 I have tried to take the bus many times over the years. Most of the time, the service has been too infrequent for me to make the necessary connections to get to my destination. Sometimes it has almost seemed that the schedules were designed to frustrate, e.g. buses leaving 5 minutes before the MARTA train would arrive. There is no question that more frequent buses would have increased my bus use. Because the train usually came every 10 minutes during rush hour (15 minutes during the recession), I used it frequently.
That was my thought exactly! It seems Marta is going in the wrong direction – why not shorter, more frequent buses that can perhaps do more routes, or connect to existing ones more efficiently? That is what will increase ridership. More bus drivers will be needed, but does employment not boost the economy?
I would also love more frequent buses. But they took away the bus stop closest to my house, so I’m not sure I’d ride it more even with more buses. I really want MARTA to be awesome, but it has a ways to go.
Good point about bus stops. The one that used to be near our house is gone too. Yes, smaller more frequent buses at more bus stops would be needed for me to use MARTA’s bus service.
To be fair to MARTA, bus service is less convenient and reliable than train service (or car) in many cities. I used the subway in NYC multiple times a day, daily, but only occasionally figured out the bus service. It was easier to just walk across town if no train did the route. Los Angeles’s bus service used to be pitiful. Never figured out Boston’s either while the trolley/train worked great. The only city with a bus service that I like is Chicago. I hear that Seattle’s bus service is decent but I haven’t tried it.
I want to see that monster at 5:30PM cross the CSX tracks at McDonough while making a hard left.
The old ones were regularly on the #15 route down Candler. Back in the day before the route was changed they crossed at Candler St by the old Dairy Queen.
I can think of several routes MARTA might use these on including including:
* 15 – Candler Road
* 39 – Buford HIghway
* 71 Cascade Road
* 83 Campbellton Road
* 95 – Metropolitan Parkway
*121 Memorial Drive
These are usually some of the most crowded routes in the system. I suspect some new Clayton Routes might also be on tap for them since the former C-TRAN 503 was also quite busy.