icon to see more pictures of that bus.Click on the
icon to some story posted somewhere on the internet about THAT bus!
(Um, usually from my blog)October 2008 Note - Information is circa 2004
Initially, this was going to be a page full of bus pictures, but since I installed GalleryPHP on my server, the buses have their own gallery. So this page will now (hopefully) include a plethora of information about our bus fleet, with direct links to my gallery pages
Click on the icon to see more pictures of that bus.
Click on the icon to some story posted somewhere on the internet about THAT bus!
(Um, usually from my blog)
The oldest style of bus we have around at CyRide, their numbers are dwindling rapidly, but of the 6 we have left, a few actually feel like they have more power than some of our new buses.
-
Our lowest-numbered big-bus still around at CyRide. At 35 feet, it's kindof a shorty, but
we keep it up and running as one of our original buses.
-
Sold to a Chicago museum, the only thing I ever really noticed were the blue seats. And the cool digital speedometer!
-
A somewhat humerous tale... we sold this bus once and somehow managed to buy it back later.
It's the slowest one in the fleet... we usually only send it out when someone has broken one
of their buses. (A good reason to not complain about your bus too much... or you'll get stuck with it!)
) -
These buses don't cringe at hauling 70+ ISU sudents to class. The fastest, 942, sometimes called the rocket-sled, screams
when you floor the gas. I haven't raced any other buses with it... but I'll bet it could hold it's own.
Aye, well we learn the hard way. CyRide doesn't really like these buses anymore. Their bodies corrode, and they have a bunch of different mechanical problems. They come in 35 and 40-foot versions, althouogh we finally got rid of all the 40-foot-ers because they had lousy turning radiuses. The 35's get sent out at night so we can run their mileage up high enough to get rid of them. They're actually not too bad...great cornering. Somewhat good power (as long as the air conditioning is turned off!). I haven't driven them too much, so not a whole lot of comments on individual buses
) -
35-foot-ers from 1996 (we hadn't learned our lesson yet)In 1999 we thought we'd give Gillig one last chance by purchasing 4 Gillig low-floor buses. These are the types where there are no front steps. From the front door to the rear, the bus floor is level. Balcony-style seating occupies the rear of the bus after 3 steps. These things have even more problems than the rest of the gilligs, mostly with the transmission! They've been sent to Minneapolis from time to time for major mechanical upgrades (don't know if they're official recalls or just things our mechanics said they needed). We also thought they'd be good people-movers for heavy loads. Wrong there too. It's really hard to get out of a packed bus especially from the rear section. We're really trying to run these on nights and weekends to get them outta here.
We found a winner with the Orion bus company. We still have all but the first two we purchased new back in 1982, one of which is supposedly driving around Marshalltown today! The 'I' series aren't the most powerful things in our fleet, but they've held up remarkably well over the last 20 years.
- Okay, I lied.
This one was sold too, but it was one of my favorites!!
If the Orion I's were winners, the Orion V's were gold. We did our homework and dove in, buying 6 identical buses in 2000 to the tune of over $250,000 apiece. A double-wide aisle lets you cram in 80 students moderately comfortably and more in dire situations. The double rear doors help get people out of the bus very quickly. These buses are my personal favorites and (so I hear) many other drivers' as well. Plenty of power, great AC with a vent that actually POINTS at the driver, and all the comforts a brand new bus should bring.
), 965,
(966 
), 967 -
Used buses from Madison, WI. Built in 1990, we bought them in 2000.
They didn't quite have near the same features as our brand new ones, but they still move
with considerable power. The neat thing about these
were that they were the first buses we had that used electronic signs. Now, rather than getting up to
change your front and side signs, you just dial up a number and it's done for you. Nice! -
The only "Madison" bus that didn't survive the cut,
though I did get to use it for most of a semester as a permanent S.16th orange bus. - Our next New-Bus purchase was 8 more
brand spankin' new Orion V's.
Our minibuses are used primarily as alternate relief vehicles to the minivans. But we also run them on certain routes at night and on the weekend to save money because they're cheaper to operate. They were also used on our door-to-door dial-a-ride service before we out-sourced it to Heartland Senior Services. Only a couple are used on moonlight express anymore as we've gone to a mostly shuttle-based system.
- The only minibus we have that was purchased used,
this thing's long, brown, and (as of Fall '04) uninsured, so it sits in a lot on the east side of town, unused and unsold.
Our new present for 2002 was a Chevy Venture minivan. With a radio, we could now ride in style to our reliefs, and the smaller, unleaded engine was a lot cheaper on gas. Originally intended to carry passengers on dial-a-ride, they're now classified as "administrative vehicles," so there's some question as to whether or not they should be called "buses" and follow typical bus rules such as stopping at railroad crossings.
Return to Bus Stuff.