Old is new again on the B61. (Photo courtesy of Lost City’s Brooks of Sheffield)
Back in May, New York City Transit revealed a practical plan to restore a nostalgic aspect of bus riding to the city’s fleet. Pull cords, they announced, were coming back in style. Gone would be the hard-to-find and expensive-to-repair magnetic “Stop Requested” buttons. Instead, my youth would return to the buses.
According to the MTA, this move was a cost-saving measure pure and simple. The yellow strip-and-button system costs $1056 per bus while a bell cord costs $293 and is easier to repair. Technology, it seems, is not without its high price tag.
In May, approximately 270 buses had been retrofitted with pull cords, and that number is up to around 500 by now. Over the weekend, Brooks of Sheffield, the proprietor of the Lost City blog, found himself on a B61 with the new pull cords and snapped a few pictures. With the familiar sign urging passengers to “pull cord to signal for stop,” Brooks enjoyed the experience:
I liked it. It was possible to call for a stop anywhere you stood or sat. You didn’t have to go searching and reaching for those buttons and magnetic strips. And my son thought it was infinitely more fun. My friend, though, thought they were stupid, and an invitation for vandalism. I don’t know. Though cords looks pretty damn tough.
I have to wonder: If it the technology wasn’t broken in the first place, why did Transit, in the early 1990s, spend so much money to upgrade something that just worked and wasn’t expensive to install or repair?
8 comments
Ah, this brings me back to my Penn State days, riding the CATA buses, leaning over twenty drunk kids trying to pull the f’in yellow cord. Good times.
Are the strips between the windows removed or just turned off.
There are still buttons on the poles available for riders to hang onto, so you don’t have to reach over anything. They’ve been operating on the Q30/31 line since at least August of 2008.
Those buttons are a savior for both standees and for the seated.
Wait a minute. Have any buses been retrofitted with pull cords? From what I’ve seen, buses that originally had the push tape (which, incidentally, I don’t think has any particular connection to magnetism, despite what Brooks claims) still have the push tape. The newest buses are coming with pull cords; older ones still have tapes. (The photo is clearly of one of the newer buses – the older ones don’t have hinged windows.)
Similarly, nothing was “upgraded” in the 1990’s. Through the 70’s, buses came with pull cords, and retained their pull cords until they were retired. Starting in the 80’s, buses came with tapes. The last of the old pull-cord buses was retired in the 90’s.
Unless I’m missing something, there haven’t been any retrofits or upgrades – just changes in specs for new buses.
Which explains why on these buses there is an ugly grey plastic shield in between windows covering where the tape used to be. Manufacturer probably figured, “Pull cords are old tech…”
I love this. I haven’t experienced it yet, but the pull cord is one of those things I didn’t really realize I missed until it came back. Actually, I was on the B26 the other day and, not a frequent bus rider, I was kind of annoyed at having to look like a fool goggling around because I didn’t know where the heck the push tape was 🙂
I am laughing at that poor sleeping dude who got captured in the picture!