Trimess

Saturday, April 23, 2011

New low floor heads down highway

11 comments:

Erik H. said...

I wonder if that bus is owned by RAZ Transportation. I too saw it on Highway 217 (northbound), and yesterday I saw it on Highway 99W northbound @ Gaarde/McDonald. Judging from the vehicle number it would appear it's owned by a large company (RAZ is part of CUSA which is a large charter bus company).

RAZ has a history of running transit style buses for its shuttles (Intel, Nike, Lewis & Clark College) and has owned Blue Bird transit buses and GMC RTSes in the past...

Al M said...

Ya Erik but I'm pretty sure those were Trimet people in the bus!

Max said...

Yeah, but what's the likelihood that TriMet is getting a new bus. haha.

Al M said...

Hey Max, going to DAvid Sale memorial?

Ross Wrede said...

I spotted a white low floor twice on the same day on Thursday (I believe) First going westbound on Scholls Ferry at Nimbus. Later I spotted it on Murray near TV Hwy. It was all white with RAZ CUSA in very small letters on the bottom side. Same driver, definitely NOT TriMet.

The Nike Campus is the hive for chartered buses. Tons of them always around there.

Max said...

Nope - dying easter eggs with the boy.

BTW: Talk about a tough crowd for the comedian.

Steve Fung said...

I saw a PCC header on that low floor 2 weeks ago.

Erik H. said...

PCC??? I thought PCC ran their own buses! I know PCC has purchased new buses recently but I didn't think they were contracted out; and I've never seen a non-TriMet D40LF downtown but I see the PCC buses make their PSU stop a few blocks away from my work.

As for TriMet...I believe that when TriMet gets new buses, the overall paint scheme (but not lettering/logos) is applied by New Flyer, there wouldn't be a vehicle number on the vehicle. I don't recall there ever being an instance of TriMet releasing a vehicle into service that wasn't fully prepped, lettered and such (I've heard of railroads doing it, even a railroad that released locomotives in primer; but it isn't so important to a freight shipper what color the locomotive is, whereas a passenger at a bus stop likes to know what bus is theirs - just on Friday, I saw in Tigard two 45 buses side-by-side; but only one of them was a TriMet 45 bus.)

Steve Fung said...

Erik,What I should have said is that I saw that particular bus running up Pacific Hwy.It appeared it is used to run students from Yamhill(Newberg?) up to PCC and the Signage had PCC on the top header.

Jason Barbour said...

Last I knew, PCC buses all said "Portland Community College" on them. It's true that they run their own buses (I would know, I was involved with helping their system get an additional funding source a couple years ago), and have extra drivers for operating special events. According to their schedule page (http://www.pcc.edu/resources/parking/shuttle/), they don't have any scheduled service to Newberg.

If it was on 99W, it could've been Yamhill Co. Transit, which runs up to Tigard TC (http://www.yctransitarea.org/).

Erik H. said...

YCTA doesn't own any D40LFs, and they don't have any routes that take Highway 217.

I know - I see the YCTA buses (usually I see two of them - one inbound and one outbound) each morning as I wait for my 94X. Besides the usual assortment of cutaways and small Eldorado National minibus products, they also operate at least one Eldorado National Axess which is essentially comparable to a New Flyer D40LF or Gillig Low-Floor - 40 foot, heavy-duty transit bus, mostly low-floor. But its route ends at the Tigard Transit Center - meaning that one of its buses wouldn't be on Highway 217.

I am curious if it had "PCC" on the headsign...because I've never seen a PCC D40LF either, but they have gotten some new buses. When I saw the front of the bus last Thursday, the headsign was dark.