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StarMetro

Florida

By Florida
in Tallahassee

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NewStar Unincorporated Area

NewStar

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The images look great jpl, but the StarMetro one is not quite correct. The swoosh is bigger.... and the star is a little different.

The shuttle looking buses are getting geared up for use. One will be in the Springtime festival parade and one will be at the SouthWood listening sessions (April 17, 18 and 20). They are one of the best buses I have seen. The company (ABI) went out of business. That bus gets 20 mpg.

We got those new shorter buses from Gillig coming in July.....with the BRT packages that give them a cooler look.

As for the name StarMetro. There are a lot of feelings, but things must change sometimes. While TalTran is definitely related to Tallahassee, transit can no longer live in the city limit bubble. It will be regional soon. While some might not like it, it is better than CAT. I think there are 100 of those now (County Area Transit, Chatham Area Transit, Citizen Area Transit, Countryside Area Transit, the list goes on and on......)

I hope you guys make it by the booth at Springtime Tallahassee Festival.

TJ, I am not Ron...... you got two guesses left.

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jpl02 Hamlet

jpl02

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The images look great jpl, but the StarMetro one is not quite correct. The swoosh is bigger.... and the star is a little different.

The shuttle looking buses are getting geared up for use. One will be in the Springtime festival parade and one will be at the SouthWood listening sessions (April 17, 18 and 20). They are one of the best buses I have seen. The company (ABI) went out of business. That bus gets 20 mpg.

We got those new shorter buses from Gillig coming in July.....with the BRT packages that give them a cooler look.

As for the name StarMetro. There are a lot of feelings, but things must change sometimes. While TalTran is definitely related to Tallahassee, transit can no longer live in the city limit bubble. It will be regional soon. While some might not like it, it is better than CAT. I think there are 100 of those now (County Area Transit, Chatham Area Transit, Citizen Area Transit, Countryside Area Transit, the list goes on and on......)

I hope you guys make it by the booth at Springtime Tallahassee Festival.

Thanks NewStar! I know the star and swoosh aren't perfect, but they were so hard to render in Illustrator, and I didn't want to spend all night doing it, lol :D

Shorter buses? Are these the same as the current Gilligs, or are they shorter than 35 feet? I look forward to seeing them. It was around this time last year that I first spotted the 2005 Gilligs. They are certainly good buses. I hope we continue to buy Gillig.

It comes as no surprise to me that ABI is out of business. A lot of the smaller, more obscure manufacturers come and go. I hope it won't be hard to find parts for them <_<

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DaiDreamer5 Hamlet

DaiDreamer5

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Thanks for the save TJ.

Wow, you get busy working for a week and you miss the flood flood gate opening on this forum.

Route 20 and 11 touch that area, but I think we should extend out further to meet the demand. It seems that there is great potential. I would expect to see this happen.

Sorry about the misname. :( I am happy that there will be a bus going out there. I currently take the 11 or the 20 out there and I have to walk to and from the bus stop at Alumni Village. I noticed that you guys moved the stop from the cornor of Levy and Imonia, which makes the walk further, but I am sure you had your reasons for doing it.

Thanks for the information! :yahoo:

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Florida Megalopolis

Florida

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Gosh I'm learning so much about buses here. They've always been something I've taken for granted.

20 MPG sounds good on those shuttle looking buses. I can't wait to see this BRT package that gives these buses a cool look. Excitement overcomes me and I just want to run around telling everyone!!! But I won't! :D

I will definately be at that booth. Will you be there NewStar?

JPL... I don't care what they say about the stars and swoosh, your work was awesome and very professional looking if I'm allowed to say! Very nice!

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NewStar Unincorporated Area

NewStar

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Sorry about the misname. :( I am happy that there will be a bus going out there. I currently take the 11 or the 20 out there and I have to walk to and from the bus stop at Alumni Village. I noticed that you guys moved the stop from the cornor of Levy and Imonia, which makes the walk further, but I am sure you had your reasons for doing it.

Thanks for the information! :yahoo:

Innovation Park just requested a meeting with us. Ron is on it....

Gosh I'm learning so much about buses here. They've always been something I've taken for granted.

20 MPG sounds good on those shuttle looking buses. I can't wait to see this BRT package that gives these buses a cool look. Excitement overcomes me and I just want to run around telling everyone!!! But I won't! :D

I will definately be at that booth. Will you be there NewStar?

JPL... I don't care what they say about the stars and swoosh, your work was awesome and very professional looking if I'm allowed to say! Very nice!

Can't say if I will be there. I want to enjoy the festival as well.

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TravKoolBreeze Unincorporated Area

TravKoolBreeze

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The shorter buses will be 29 feet. it is interesting, gillig develop this length because of the unions. Most large transit systems with Unions hafve pay scales based on bus sizes and, of courese, the 29 to 30 foot is the breaking point for the scale.

I'm guessing these 29' buses will also be low floor. Isn't this just removing more seats that already lack in a 35' Gillig?

While airport service not be in high demand by workers, I think it is essential for servce from downtown to the airport to happen for the growth of the system and the the city.

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jpl02 Hamlet

jpl02

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Thanks again TJ :D !

TravKoolBreeze, I'm sure the shorty Gilligs will be low-floor, it wouldn't make much since to have all these low-floors already and then suddenly buy Phantoms. From an efficiency standpoint, it makes sense to diversify the fleet, and that includes buying smaller buses. They have lower operating costs for routes that have lower ridership. It makes no sense for a big old RTS to go run on a route like 20, where it has very few riders.

IndyGo in Indianpolis has tons of 29ft low-floor Gilligs. They look kinda stubby but cute nonetheless :)

NewStar, will StarMetro be investing in hybrid buses in the future? I'd like to see use of hybrid engines, after all, Gillig does offer them as an option. I don't know how much total costs would be offset (cost of fuel vs. more $$$ for engine, maintenance costs, etc) but I'm sure you could provide insight into that.

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TravKoolBreeze Unincorporated Area

TravKoolBreeze

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I'm sure the shorty Gilligs will be low-floor, it wouldn't make much since to have all these low-floors already and then suddenly buy Phantoms. From an efficiency standpoint, it makes sense to diversify the fleet, and that includes buying smaller buses. They have lower operating costs for routes that have lower ridership. It makes no sense for a big old RTS to go run on a route like 20, where it has very few riders.

IndyGo in Indianpolis has tons of 29ft low-floor Gilligs. They look kinda stubby but cute nonetheless :)

I can understand diversify the fleet and wanting shorter buses. However, from a seating standpoint, i would prefer any highfloor to a low floor or a hybrid high/low bus. I was just wondering why not buying a few more high floors shorter buses for seating purposes.

Ya, I have a bias againt low-floors ;)

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jpl02 Hamlet

jpl02

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Yes! I've been seeing these around. Like murphy... I wish I was still a bus riding kid. Those are so nice. I remember the days when we rode the BlueBirds! The big thing of our day were the flat faced busses like 673, 671.

Like this, TJ?

677a.jpg

Yes, I'm a bus photographer. Call me crazy :P

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jpl02 Hamlet

jpl02

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Tonight, I seen something cool.......my first sighting of the "Night Nole". It stopped on Tennessee and Dewey and quite a few pepole got off and walked straight to the clubs.

The buses themselves are the ones with the FSU livery, but they have something on the side saying "Night Nole". I thought this was super cool and hope more people will use it! Not only am I saying that as an advocate for mass transit, but a) it gets drunks off the road, and b) on Saturday nights, hopefully, Virginia Street won't turn into Tallahassee's next parking lot, as I live on Virginia Street right smack behind the clubs! :P

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poonther Town

poonther

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Hey that night Nole thing sounds like a great idea for all the reasons you mentioned jpl02.

When I was in Santa Barbara (no pix) they use an electric trolley to run up and down their downtown. It was very nice and quiet and only cost a quarter to ride one-way. SB metro is about the size of Tally Metro and they have a college UCSB too. However SB downtown is very alive w/shops and restaurants and people along w/a mix of offices. It was very much a destination place much like they want/wanted/dreamed (however you see it :) ) Gaines to be.

jpl02 when I was in L.A. I noticed the unified school district there used these very cool 1950's retro school buses w/a more rounded back to them. Any idea what type of bus they were?

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jpl02 Hamlet

jpl02

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jpl02 when I was in L.A. I noticed the unified school district there used these very cool 1950's retro school buses w/a more rounded back to them. Any idea what type of bus they were?

I sure do. Those are Crown Coach buses. They were a company based out of LA that built buses mostly for the West Coast. They kept the same bus design until they went out of business in 1991, so some of those buses that look retro might indeed be 1980ish models! Some California school districts still run Crowns from the 1950s, since they are built like a tank! You should see the number of miles on those Crowns......over 500,000 and going strong.

Another retro bus manufacturer is Gillig. They too made school buses for the West Coast. They stopped making school buses in mid 1980s due to the falling market share, and now they make entirely transit and commercial buses which are sold all around the world.......StarMetro has bought Gillig transit buses since 2001!

Now here's some picture goodness....

19.jpg

Crown Coach

20.jpg

1977 Gillig

Crown Coach is not to be confused with Crown by Carpenter. Those are two different companies. Carpenter built school buses as well, but went under in 2000. Toward the end of the company's life, their products were of low quality.

Now that you're bored with my lecture, back to our regularly scheduled program.... :P

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poonther Town

poonther

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Yep jpl02 that Crown Coach is the bus I saw all over LA, much more than the standard new type of buses. They are so cool to me. Makes me wanna grab my metal lunch box and glass lined thermos and hop on for a ride.

All hail jpl02 King of the Buses!!!

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csmurphy8885 Burg

csmurphy8885

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nearly scary... but really neat. It would be rad to paint those bussess all wild like and use them for small circles within areas (FT, Gaines, Campuses, and DT, in general) a quarter is nothing! It could be an easy way to move people amongst stores and parking, without them driving traffic into the destination... or am I rambling fool

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