lockmat Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Why do I see one of them broken down on the side of the road every month or two? This morning I saw two on the side of the road, but I think one was there to transfer the riders. That must really stink for the passengers, and for the amount of times I've seen them like this, I'm sure it's not their first experience.You would think they would take better care of them, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsb320 Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I remember reading on here that these buses are through a contracted service. That explains why some have out of state tags. At any rate, I agree that they don't seem to be well maintained. They're so loud and rattley on the streets of downtown. Don't ever be near one when the air brakes hiss, you could lose and eardrum. Metro seems to do a much better job at maintaining their park-n-ride buses, including frequent washing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totheskies Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Just for info...Does anyone know why The Woodlands/Conroe chose to opt out of the METRO Park and Ride system? From what I've also heard, The District (who runs W.E) is sub-standard to METRO. Also what about Sugar Land? Are there any transit agencies down there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CE_ugh Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Just for info...Does anyone know why The Woodlands/Conroe chose to opt out of the METRO Park and Ride system? From what I've also heard, The District (who runs W.E) is sub-standard to METRO. Also what about Sugar Land? Are there any transit agencies down there?The communities serviced by "The District" are outside of Harris County and there for cannot be serviced by METRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaTrain Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Just for info...Also what about Sugar Land? Are there any transit agencies down there?Yes, it's called the TREK (link: http://www.trekhouston.org/). It is substandard in its express service because it only serves Uptown and Greenway plaza. Transferring to METRO to get downtown would be time consuming as TREK doesn't go that far. HUH??! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 The communities serviced by "The District" are outside of Harris County and there for cannot be serviced by METROThe comment about places outside of Harris County not being able to be servied by METRO is not entirely true.There's a small portion of METRO that runs in Fort Bend County. Routes 33 and 98 go into Fort Bend. Here's the #33 METRO bus at a stop off of McHard Road in Fort Bend County on Google Maps.http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29....,303.47,,0,4.41Other METRO services that run outside of Harris County include the 255 and 259 which go into Montgomery County. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totheskies Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 The comment about places outside of Harris County not being able to be servied by METRO is not entirely true.There's a small portion of METRO that runs in Fort Bend County. Routes 33 and 98 go into Fort Bend. Here's the #33 METRO bus at a stop off of McHard Road in Fort Bend County on Google Maps.http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29....,303.47,,0,4.41Other METRO services that run outside of Harris County include the 255 and 259 which go into Montgomery County.Great point... and the ones in Ft. Bend are actually local routes. I'm assuming the reason why they're not in Sugar Land or The Woodlands is because the citizens of the time thought they were "too good" for METRO. Of course now after the reality of $4/gal. gas, many people have reconsidered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Why do I see one of them broken down on the side of the road every month or two? This morning I saw two on the side of the road, but I think one was there to transfer the riders. That must really stink for the passengers, and for the amount of times I've seen them like this, I'm sure it's not their first experience. You would think they would take better care of them, right? Those Van Hool coaches aren't too old, probably delivered around 2000 or 2001 and from I've seen, the use the heck out of them. One I saw the other day had a long scratch and a dent about 4 feet long on the right side. I even saw one which was using tape to hold one of the lights in on the back. Coach USA runs them. In high school, we took a field trip in one of those "Woodlands Express" buses, even though we were going from the TSU area to Katy. I've also seen the "Woodlands Express" buses out in the Lake Charles, LA area as well, likely doing those Casino runs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 It's just weird to seem them broken down on the side of the road so relativly frequently. I don't drive far enough into town to see if METRO has the same problem w/ their commuter busses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 It's just weird to seem them broken down on the side of the road so relativly frequently. I don't drive far enough into town to see if METRO has the same problem w/ their commuter busses.Metro has a pretty young commuter fleet. They have some recent MCI 45 ft hybrid arrivals that were delivered months ago. The oldest commuter buses, some 45 ft New Flyers now are like 10 years old. Their oldest buses, which were retired only a few months ago were pushing 16 years old and were really showing their age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetroMogul Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 The last of those 16 year old buses were retired in April and they were making their last runs on the 102/108. The 3700s were the last of the dual fuel former LNG coaches and the last two stroke buses in the fleet.Metro's fleet is relatively young compared to what was running 12 years ago when the oldest buses were 18 and the workhorses of the fleet were between 12 and 17 years old. Oddly enough on time performance was much better and besides the 18 year old 1600 series Grumman rebuilds (which were a public relations disaster in the early 80s) there were few breakdowns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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