One stormy day in June in Pinellas County, FL, PSTA bus driver Don Dillon drove by a large palm tree burning after a lightning strike next to a home and immediately pulled over to report the fire to his dispatch. He then ran and knocked on the door, hopped the fence and banged on the back windows.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) uses the word reincarnated to describe out of service operators who have returned in no better shape than when they left to do business under a new identity.
For about a week I had been hearing a high-pitched whistling noise coming from an S-60 engine. I inspected it and drove it personally, but was still unable to locate the source. With a little more probing, I eventually diagnosed the disturbing noise as coming from the air intake system on the engine.
Sofia is a city of around 1.2 million people, situated towards the western end of a country of 7.4 million. Bulgaria became part of the Soviet Bloc in 1946 until it gained independence in 1991. The country and its neighbor Romania were the last two countries to join the European Union in January 2007.
This could easily be the best of times and the worst of times. Change is in the air and so is the way Americans think about public transportation. Transit ridership is up and the demand remains high. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reports more than 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first quarter of 2009.
It has been almost three years since Bus and Coach International (BCI) debuted the Falcon 45 at the UMA Expo in New Orleans. Now with close to 120 units in the United States accruing more than 5,000,000 fleet miles much of the skepticism surrounding the introduction of this new full-sized motorcoach has ebbed.
Years ago when part-time driver Gene Mitchell was the crew chief for Purdue University Bus Department, he coined the saying, Anyone can get a bus anywhere, but no one can buy the kind of service that comes from someone who truly cares.
Gray Line Washington D.C., a division of the Martz Group, is out with its new tour program, A Taste of D.C. Martz says the product offers extra value in a new format that enables Gray Line customers to see more of the nation’s capitol more cost effectively.
ntercity Transit, Olympia, WA, serves a population of 150,000 within 97 square miles in the Puget Sound region. In early 2001 Intercity Transit faced the loss of 40 percent of its revenue due to the elimination of the State of Washington Motor Vehicle Excise Tax. Following a difficult 40 percent reduction in service and staff, the board rededicated itself to a six-year strategic plan to finance and restore its services, and strengthen the role of Intercity Transit in the community. Voters approved doubling the local sales tax for public transportation in 2002. Service restoration began in early 2003 with new services focused on establishing high-frequency corridors and more direct access.
If an operator were asked to list the most important safety factors in a bus and motorcoach operation, what comes to mind as the five most important points?
Chances are slim to none that dispatch made that list. Many passenger transportation companies do not realize the dispatcher often is the forgotten ingredient in the safety soup.