Well, last Monday, the first of 38 New Flyer diesel-electric hybrid buses for ABQ RIDE has arrived. These are not ABQ RIDE's first overall diesel-electric hybrid buses; ABQ RIDE already operates 76 New Flyer hybrids (18 New Flyer DE60LF articulated buses delivered in 2004 and 2006, and 58 New Flyer DE40LFR buses delivered in late 2007/early 2008.
The 38 new buses for 2009 includes 32 40-foot New Flyer hybrid buses and six 60-foot New Flyer articulated hybrid buses. Some of the 40-foot buses will be used to replace the 32-foot Thomas/Dennis SLF232 CNG buses built in 2001, which are the least reliable buses in the ABQ RIDE fleet.
The rest of them should be delivered from March through May, so I will post pictures soon.
I'm excited because it looks like the new tram for TriMet is nearly complete... It goes to the mall about 2 miles from my house and terminates downtown Portland...
It'll be a longer trip (like 5 minutes lol), but far more convieniant (as there will be more seats, more bike holders, and less bus transfers).
The one that goes to Milwaukie (I'm inbetween the Clackamas and Milwaukie transit centers) won't be done till 2016 though... Unless they see a huge grant dropped in their lap again (the other line wasn't supposed to be done till 2012)
Well, I just got an update about the new buses for ABQ RIDE, and have learned that the bus that has been delivered so far is a New Flyer DE40LFR. The number of the bus is 950, and is the test bus for the upcoming deliveries. I don't know what differences these new buses will have in terms of specifications vs. the 58 700-series New Flyer DE40LFRs delivered in late 2007/early 2008, however, I assume there will be minor differences. The next batch of buses should be delivered in the beginning of March, with deliveries continuing up to late May. There will be a total of 32 of these buses, some of which will replace the Thomas/Dennis SLF232 CNG buses built in 2001.
Also, the first of the six new articulated New Flyer DE60LF buses for the Rapid Ride should be in by early May.
Well, here is a photo of one of ABQ RIDE's new 900-series New Flyer DE40LFR buses. It isn't a very good photo since I took it with my camera phone. It doesn't appear to be any different from the 700-series New Flyer DE40LFRs delivered in late 2007/early 2008.
The new 60-foot articulated buses won't be here until May though.
Just checked out the "modified" Siemens "S70" Light Rail car that seats 172 riders vs the previous 166... I can now tell you why lol... They scrunched all of the seats together to give you 0 leg room (literally, my knees hit the wall in the seats that face the wall, or collide with other riders on the seats that face people).
The only "comfortable" seats are the 8 in the front of the train (since it's two joined together that's 8 in the front, 8 in the rear).
The new line is only slated for one train every 30 minutes (vs 15 of the other lines) and only slated to go till 7:00pm (vs 2am for the other lines).
It was schedualed for longer, but with the utter failing of the southern line they cut back the frequency for that startup until ridership can be established..
I see tons of car commercials advertising 24 MPG on the highway for all these new models.
I do not think this is a very good mileage for a new car. Matter of fact my 1997 Oldsmobile is getting 29 MPG on the highway.
Now they are also advertising $4,500 government money for the trade in of your old clunker. Hey that's great. But I understand that as soon as you turn in your car and take possession of the new car that they put something in the old car and run it causing it to blow up the engine or something. I can understand that too.
But they have you sign a contract as well saying that if the government forgets to give them the $4,500 you have to take your new car back and give it up. Now remember they just blew up your old car. That sucks.
![[Linked Image from trimet.org]](http://trimet.org/images/max/newmaxexterior.jpg)
