By Brendan Boyle, Director Sales – Mobile, IDIS Americas Event recording has long provided transit agencies with critical evidence for investigating safety incidents, customer complaints, and liability claims. Today, its role is expanding. Video is becoming a more connected operational resource, giving agencies faster access to evidence while providing greater context to support safety, security, and day-to-day decision-making. For transit agencies, however, innovation must be balanced with longevity. Vehicles and surveillance systems represent significant investments, and technology needs to remain reliable throughout long service lives while providing a practical path to future capabilities. IDIS has approximately 5,500 second-generation mobile DVRs still operating throughout North America. Many have been in service for years, and some agencies have even moved equipment from retiring buses into replacement vehicles. That longevity demonstrates an important consideration for transit agencies: the value of a recording platform isn’t only what it can do today, but how well it can continue supporting the fleet over time. That same principle applies to backwards compatibility. As agencies introduce new vehicles, cameras, recorders, and software, they shouldn’t necessarily have to replace functioning equipment throughout the fleet at once. Maintaining compatibility between generations of technology allows agencies to modernize incrementally, protect existing investments, and minimize disruption to established workflows and training. Cloud connectivity is accelerating that evolution. Rather than relying exclusively on locally managed back-end infrastructure, agencies can use cloud-hosted environments to remotely access and manage event video while continuing to record reliably onboard the vehicle. This hybrid approach combines the dependability of local recording with the accessibility and scalability of cloud-connected management. Importantly, cloud connectivity doesn’t mean continuously uploading every minute of video from every vehicle. Instead, agencies can determine what information needs to be transferred and retained based on their operational requirements. This can make important event video available more quickly without changing the fundamental reliability of onboard recording. Video also becomes significantly more useful when combined with operational data. GPS, vehicle information, and other metadata can provide context around an event, while integration with dispatch, CAD/AVL, and other transit systems can help agencies bring relevant information into the environments their teams already use. For an investigator, that means getting beyond simply finding a video clip. The goal is to understand what happened, where it happened, and what was occurring around the vehicle at the time. As connectivity increases, cybersecurity must remain a fundamental part of system design. Transit agencies should evaluate how video and data are protected throughout the system, including secure communications, system architecture, software and firmware management, and the ongoing cybersecurity practices of their technology partners. Separately, agencies need appropriate access controls so authorized personnel can quickly obtain the information required for their roles while maintaining accountability over sensitive, recorded video. Looking ahead, the convergence of AI, video, cloud connectivity, and vehicle data will further expand what agencies can do with recorded video. AI-powered analytics can help teams search large volumes of footage more efficiently and turn existing cameras into sources of operational intelligence. For example, video analytics can support functions such as passenger counting and help agencies better understand ridership and vehicle utilization. That information can contribute to operational planning while allowing agencies to gain additional value from surveillance infrastructure already deployed for safety and security. New approaches to vehicle visibility can also help address risks in real time. IDIS Surround360 provides operators with a bird’s-eye view around the bus, helping increase awareness of blind spots, pedestrians, cyclists, and activity immediately surrounding the vehicle. Ultimately, the future of transit event recording isn’t about generating more video. Agencies already have enormous amounts of it. The opportunity is to use that video more intelligently. A modern platform should help agencies preserve critical evidence, investigate incidents faster, connect video with operational information, and introduce new capabilities without prematurely replacing existing investments. As transit technology continues to evolve, that combination of reliability, accessibility, and intelligence will be essential to protecting both an agency’s passengers and its future. Seeing Security Smarter.

Since taking new ownership in 2019 with nine drivers, one office employee, and one mechanic, Michigan-based charter and tour company, National Trails, has seen tremendous growth. In the last three years alone, the company has more than tripled the number of employees, doubled its school bus fleet and increased its motorcoach fleet size by 15. “During this period of rapid growth, we have been incredibly reliant on our software,” said Austin Arksey, owner of National Trails. “If we didn’t have software like busHive, we would not have been able to scale as easily and as efficiently as we have.” According to Arksey, when he purchased National Trails in 2019, charters were managed via handwritten or typewritten messages being physically handed to drivers. One of the first initiatives the company undertook was digitizing these many processes, and that meant migrating the manual charter-booking into busHive. busHive provides cloud-based software to streamline workflows and recordkeeping across the entire charter process – from the initial quote to confirmations, contracts, generating driver itineraries, billing, and invoicing. National Trails uses the software to manage its sales, billing, and payroll – with reporting that shows revenue per vehicle, profit/loss analysis, and other important benchmarking tools. “As we are continuing to add additional fleet, busHive has been very instrumental in giving us the keys to have visibility to being able to see our trips on a daily, weekly, monthly, even annual basis as well,” Arksey said. “It has been very helpful to have solid software in place as we continue to grow.” However, rapid scalability often comes with its own set of challenges as National Trails well knows. With the accelerated addition of employees, Arksey said that ensuring new hires are fully trained and brought up to speed on how the company functions and operates has been one of the biggest challenges thus far. “As we’ve been hiring people, some of the things that we look at are people’s adaptability, are they quick learners, especially when it comes to working with software and technology,” Arksey said. “We are not looking at people that can solve and handle the challenges that we have just today, that can help us solve the challenges we have tomorrow and beyond.” Arksey said that busHive has been instrumental in helping National Trails keep track of driver credentials and expiring licenses. The driver management tool has also enabled the company to maintain certifications without having any lapse in downtime for drivers. With the influx of new coaches and new business, preventive maintenance (PM) is always a primary concern. With more buses in the fleet, National Trails has continued to prioritize preventative maintenance on all its equipment. All work orders are loaded into busHive, allowing the company to ensure that PM orders process correctly and that inventory is properly maintained. “With the busHive software, we transitioned our techs from doing work orders on paper to doing them on tablets so we could reduce the amount of time that it took for those work orders to get into our system and have quicker visibility to be able to make decisions on equipment,” Arksey said. “Our downtime was reduced, and we were able to better manage, monitor and maintain our preventative maintenance schedules.” Arksey said he and his team feel extremely comfortable utilizing the busHive charter system as National Trails continues to grow, citing the great support network which the company provides. “The busHive team has been great,” Arksey said. “In the many years we have been working with busHive we have not faced any outages. Anytime we have suggestions their team is always receptive to changes and interested in learning about new ideas. It has been a great partnership and experience.”

  One proven platform. Every propulsion. Transit’s propulsion needs have rarely had a “one size fits all” answer. Agencies land in different places for good reasons, and a manufacturer’s job is to build whichever answer they reach, on schedule, and at a price that delivers value, trust, and reliability. ENC builds all propulsions for today’s transit agencies, and prides itself on an ability to deliver quality buses on a compressed timeline. The company traces its origins to 1975 and has manufactured buses at its Riverside County facility since 2003. What matters more to a fleet planner in 2026 is the plant running today. ENC’s Jurupa Valley campus covers 227,000 square feet on 17 acres, holds ISO 9001 certification, and employs roughly 300 people with a pathway to about 500 at full production capacity. Since Rivaz Inc. took ownership in 2024, more than $50 million has been invested or committed toward facility upgrades, workforce development and upskilling, and planned expansion. ENC’s supply base spans more than 30 states. Clean diesel. Compressed natural gas (CNG). Diesel-electric hybrid. Battery-electric. Altoona-tested configurations designed to meet Buy America requirements, with final assembly and integration at ENC’s Riverside County facility, and all proven configurations of one platform. “Agencies know their systems better than we do,” said John Obert, Vice President of Transit Sales at ENC. “Our job is to build a bus that meets the needs of their duty cycle, community ridership, and operating environment.” One platform, proven drivelines The AXESS heavy-duty platform runs 33 to 40 feet. The battery-electric AXESS EVO-BE delivers 492 kWh at 33 feet, 615 kWh at 35 feet, and 738 kWh at 40 feet on a BAE Systems Gen3 electric drive with Proterra energy storage, seating 27, 35, and 43 passengers. All three lengths are Altoona-tested. Diesel, CNG, and hybrid AXESS models share the same low-floor architecture, the same non-ferritic 304-grade stainless steel structure, and the same full air ride suspension and air disc brakes. The mid-size E-Z Rider II covers 30 to 35 feet. Commonality isn’t a marketing line. It’s what holds cost, training time, and parts inventory down across a twelve-year service life. “Drive one of our buses and you’ve largely driven them all,” said Mike Crostic, Vice President of Operations at ENC. “The differences live in the driveline. A mixed ENC fleet doesn’t mean two training programs and two parts rooms.” Support follows the same logic. ENC ships most in-stock parts orders within 24 hours, direct from Riverside, with no dealer in between. Different fleets, different choices Recent awards show the range in practice, across public agencies and private operators alike. SEPTA named ENC its manufacturing partner of choice for diesel-electric hybrid buses backed by a $43 million Federal Transit Administration award under the FY25 Low and No Emission and Bus and Bus Facilities programs. Croswell VIP Motorcoach Services chose six 40-foot clean diesel AXESS buses for Ark Encounter service in Kentucky. Academy Bus placed a third consecutive order inside a year, bringing its AXESS fleet to 35. York Region Transit ordered three 32-foot clean diesel E-Z Rider II buses. Metropolis ordered thirty six 35-foot AXESS® CNG heavy-duty transit buses that will serve the Houston Airport System. Different fleets, different duty cycles, different answers. One platform, one manufacturing facility. In June, ENC joined the NEORide consortium as an approved supplier, opening a direct path to more than 40 agencies across 12 states. In August the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation named ENC an approved manufacturer on a five-year cooperative contract, a base of 49 buses with options for 50 more, open to PART, Winston-Salem Transit Authority, and Link Transit. ENC also holds a place on Washington State’s statewide transit bus contract. Readiness is the strategy Duty cycles, grades, weather, and depot power differ from Philadelphia to Winston-Salem to Williamstown. The demands on a bus don’t: it has to arrive on time, pass inspection, and enter service as efficiently and dependably as possible – just like its useful operating life over the next decade or more. “Every propulsion in our portfolio is engineered, tested, and ready to go into production,” Obert said. “When an agency makes its decision, we’re ready to build.” See the platform and meet the ENC team at APTA EXPO in Chicago, October 4-7, at booth #1006. Learn more at eldorado-ca.com.