Millennium Demos Arrive

The first two RTS buses from Millennium Transit Services LLC have arrived on NJ Transit property, which are the demo buses for an order of 289 that will replace the 1989 3000- and 3500-series Flxibles, at present the oldest buses in the NJT fleet.

According to longtime NJT observer Jim Skelton, the transit demo carries the number 4101, and the suburban demo is 4201. These buses have now been added to our roster. No word as to where these buses will fit into the current NJT numbering plan. My guess is that they'll start the transits from 2801 and the suburbans from 3801.

Millennium Transit LLC acquired the assets and intellectual property of Nova Bus, last manufacturer of the venerable RTS bus design pioneered by General Motors in the 1970's, in 2003.

Site Updates: We rarely tweak our Roster pages since they're so static, but I found a small glitch in the 1982-1984 6100-series MCI pages: buses 6398 and 6399 were grouped into a larger bunch of buses that were originally owned by the Port Authority. The two buses were originally assigned to Coachways in southern New Jersey and were never owned by PA NY/NJ (as were 6502-6561), so the buses did not have PA prefixes on their numbers; that's now been fixed. (6398 met a premature end, while 6399 was eventually absorbed into the Academy Lines fleet.) We've also added the serials completing the 53-bus order of MCI D4500's numbered 9001-9053.

More Roster Catchup

Time for a bathroom break....

• 8558 and 8559 (no lavatories) to NJT from Trans-Bridge Lines
  
• 8451 (lavatory) to Trans-Bridge Lines from Carefree Bus Lines
  
• 8703 (lavatory) to Trans-Bridge Lines from Nate's Transportation

Thanx to Charlie for the dope... saw 8559 in NJT paint on the NJ Turnpike the other day and frankly did a double take

Playing Roster Catchup

Thanks as ever to eagle-eyed bus guys like Jim Bowman, Murray Kramer and Charlie Bailey, we now bring you in our Roster the latest information on the 20 buses NJT leased from MCI, all the Neoplans from 2004 and the red hot news about the delivery of the first of the new group of MCI D4500's which are going to be numbered from 9001-9053.

WE'RE BACK

The New Jersey Transit Bus Fan page is back after quite some absence. Your humble webmaster needed some fresh air after fifteen years of sucking diesel fumes. But I'm back, digital camera at the ready, and we'll be back snapping those NJT buses again.

What's changed since we've taken our hiatus?

• The 3000's are hanging on by a thread. Bus 3000 is now NJT's oldest bus (though some subcontractors still have some MC-9's hanging around) and it's soon to be headed to the scrapper. NJT will soon be purchasing a new brace of RTS suburban buses from the company that's taken over from Nova Bus, which I believe is called Milennium Transit.
  
• The new MCI cruisers have been a big hit, so much so that NJT has leased 20 older 102DL3 units from MCI and has ordered another 68 new buses. The leased cruisers, numbered 7101-7120, have gone into service as of last Saturday. I myself saw 7120 this morning running the 559. Trevor Logan sent me some snaps of one of the lease units which I'll share with you in a day or so.
  
• NJT has taken delivery of all the Neoplan artics. We will have serials soon as I can get them from Charlie Bailey or someone.
  
• NJT has rehabbed some of the 1000 and 2500 series Nova Buses with updated destination signs and a new paint job similar to that of the MCI cruisers, with the arcing tri-color that has replaced the angled tri-stripe as NJT's logo.

We're thrilled to have the opportunity to devote some time to this enterprise again and we hope to be able to bring you what you, the NJT bus maven, truly crave!