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Not all the Orange Line shuttle buses will be yellow
By adamg on Fri, 08/19/2022 - 2:37pm
Although the T will be paying Yankee Line of South Boston up to $37 million for a month's worth of coach buses to replace the Orange Line and some Green Line service, the company doesn't have enough of its own bright-yellow buses to meet the demand, so has been shipping in a variety of buses from across the East Coast, including this bus from North Carolina, sitting outside Wellington before a test run this afternoon.
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Comments
Drivers
I wonder if they will need more drivers to travel to the area for the month-long (fingers crossed) project? Or is the regional labor pool deep enough to handle this?
can you imagine
The absolute clusterjam that would result from a huge batch of new drivers who have never even been in Boston before, trying to maneuver those totally inappropriate hulking boats down our streets?
My god, i hope that's not the plan.
/She says, knowing that's about all you can expect from the mbta
Yes I CAN imagine...
...because those of us who ride the Blue Line just experienced a (now apparently already forgotten) month long shutdown with these same buses, and yes, many of the drivers were from elsewhere. There was even one rogue driver from New York on many of my daily trips who had no hesitation to tell us that there was no way the shutdown would end when the T told us it would. And, of course, he was right.
Wet leases
I think these are all "wet leases" meaning that the driver comes with the bus (a "dry lease" would be just the bus, but BYO driver). Especially since someone had to drive the bus here in the first place. Although probably many of the buses came with multiple drivers, since the buses will need to work more than 8 hours per day (although I assume there is some overtime). This is a lot of the cost: time and money to get the bus here and back, plus hotels and per diem for the drivers. It adds up! I wouldn't be surprised if some of these companies shuffle drivers in and out of Boston during the month (who wants to be away from home for a couple of months?) so we're paying some airfares, too.
If the T had planned ahead, they could have sourced locally. But because they waited until it was a six alarm fire, it costs way, way more.
Only 30 days
But maybe I missed something about this lasting more than one month?
I cant believe they are using
I cant believe they are using intercity buses like that, with one door for boarding and unboarding and a narrow aisle to walk to seats without standing room and room for grocery bags or strollers. It didn't even look ADA accessible, which is illegal. The state is not ready for this shutdown but they are moving forward anyway with their own start date because Baker has such antipathy for transit riders.
Norfolk, VA
Saw a bus with a "Shuttle Bus" sticker on the front with "Norfolk, VA" on its destination board rolling down Amory St in JP today, practicing the new shuttle bus route.
Just Imagine
What these coaches will look like when this is over. Yankee Bus will need the $37 million to replace all of the coaches destroyed after 30 days of shuttling the great unwashed.
Oh Cynical Me
I have to wonder if this "plan" was initially created as the plan for transport during the Olympics that Didn't Happen?
As in "we will improve the T for this" (suckers).
T-Buses vs Luxury buses
T-buses are equipped with surveillance cameras and green lights and police emergency messages. They are also shorter and able to handle wheel chairs and baby strollers and standing room only passengers. Bus drivers can also call their dispatchers and police if their are any security issues.
Luxury buses are more comfortable, taller and longer but are not equipped with surveillance cameras and the drivers are probably not sure who they contact for emergency dispatch issues. They are also not vandal proof and their seats and lavatory's will be the target of vandals. Good luck to the drivers and passengers hopefully there will be no security issues.
I would bet that they are
I would bet that they are being told how to handle an issue and who to call.
Baby carriages??
Baby carriages??
Just watched a report on a test run between Boston and Malden
40 minutes from Govt Ctr to Oak Grove today - twice the time by subway
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/orange-line-shuttle-bus-route-previ...
Shuttle Bus Spotting
I live on a shuttle bus route and have only seen one Yankee bus so far. I feel like I’ve become a shuttle bus spotter (“ooh, I haven’t seen a FlixBus before”). There are so many of them. It’s adding quite a lot of traffic to this local street.
The greatest nation in the world
Some folks are whining about how this was the greatest nation in the world. What they refuse to acknowledge is that we have been riding our own fame as we turn into a 2n world nation.
The Orange Line shutdowns just one of many failures of public transpiration in the US. The Nation's subway system, a much younger system, but equally problematic, offers evidence that s a Nation we are choosing to be 2nd world.
The US is too large to become 2nd world overnight. By increments we are becoming that
D.C. subways failure. Bronx being a 3rd world nation in medical support. Boston shutting down for moth one of the major subway lines.
Yet there are billionaires, floating on the oil money, and other nations no richer yet doing fr better in public wealth, than us.