A model of the three-door articulated buses soon to arrive on New York City streets. (Click to enlarge)
Throughout debate over the MTA rescue plan, upstate Senators refused to budge on their anti-payroll tax stance. These state representatives did not want to raise taxes for what seemed to be a very New York City-centric purpose. Transit proponents argued that the entire state would benefit from a healthy MTA, and today’s news out of Plattsburgh, NY, a small city on Lake Champlain approximately 30 minutes from Canada, shows why.
New York City Transit has just put in an order with Nova Bus for 90 articulated buses featuring a low-floor system and three doors. Nova Bus, a Quebec-based subsidiary of Volvo, has recently opened a plant in Plattsburgh, and that plant will produce these 90 buses.
These new buses promise to be state-of-the-art vehicles. They are set to be 62 feet long and will featuring motion-controlled rear doors. According to Mobilizing the Region, this order for more buses comes after a successful trial in the Bronx, and the 90 new vehicles will deployed along the city’s latest bus-rapid transit routes. Delivery is set to begin during the first half of 2010.
As reports from up north show, the MTA is more than just the economic driver behind New York City’s success. Nova will employ 172 New Yorkers in Plattsburgh, and by keeping this equipment order in state, the MTA is spreading it tentacles well beyond its service area.
10 comments
I totally saw one of these a couple of months ago on.. second avenue! (and 23rd street). It was all white and very cool looking.
The problem is that while these busses can carry far more people than the older models, they still only let people board at the front door. For longer routes, with more widely distributed boarding by passengers, that’s fine. For crosstown busses, the articulated busses are a mess at best, with so many people boarding at some stops (especially Lexington, CPW, and Broadway) that the busses have to linger to let everyone on, slowing the movement of the busses.
Read the post again…it’s going to be used on BRT routes such as the Bx12 (and whatever others they decide to implement). People will be able to use all three doors to board.
Nice catch/reminder!
But what happened to the MTA abandoning articulated buses and going with double-deckers?
Wasn’t that a failed experience due to trees being in the way? At least on the Manhattan route.
They had to prune it, but otherwise I thought it was reported that it went smoothly…
The MTA actually gets most of its equipment from plants in New York State. Many trains and subway cars are made in various upstate locales.
Kawasaki’s final assembly plant in Yonkers (not upstate and yes I know that most of the work is done elsewhere), Alstom in Hornell, Bombardier’s plant in Plattsburgh and Super Steel in Schenectady.
The main things not being built in NY state are the locomotives for MNRR and LIRR, which are made in Erie, PA and Brookville, PA.
I caught a sight of the bus on the Bx12 BRT route in Pelham Bay Park, photo on flickr.
[…] along the Bx12, is being called the bus of the future by New York City Transit. First announced last June, these articulated buses feature three doors, low floors and clean engine technology. Better still, […]
[…] $14,000 lower per bus than Nova had originally proposed. This latest order comes on the heels of a 90-bus trial from 2010, and the MTA says the results of the pilot were “very […]