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Minicoaches Might Be Suitable for Some Scheduled Services

 
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Dieseljim
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Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 548
Location: Perry, NY

PostPosted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:33 pm    Post subject: Minicoaches Might Be Suitable for Some Scheduled Services Reply with quote

I am not sure if any of you have seen photos of the latest minicoaches available on the market to charter, tour and shuttle operations. Some of these coaches have the same comfort standards as the full size Prevost or MCI coach, including restroom in the rear in some cases. I think that this makes some of these buses ideal for relatively short haul intercity trips were the traffic on a particular schedule may not warrant a full size bus. These buses come on Freightliner, Navistar International, Ford, and other chassis and all are diesel powered. They can be equipped with destination signs just like the full size coaches often are. I see a possibility of using such buses on some routes as a way of maintaining services to rural areas without any other public transportation and at less expense than a fullsize bus may entail. This is a possible way of keeping a service for which there is need, but the traffic level doesn't warrant a full size bus in operation. D&F Transit and Niagara Scenic used them on the run between Buffalo,Lockport, and Rochester when it was operated as a through route after taking it over from Greyhound in the 1980s. An added attraction to the minicoach is the flexibility it gives the operator to make a vehicle assignment appropriate to the traffic level on a particular route. Or starting a new route could be done with a restroom-equipped minicoach, which is more likely to attract new riders than using a school bus on such aroute as Buffalo-Jamestown (D&F Transit was notorious for doing this on second sections), or Olean-Rochester as Blue Bird sometimes did after overbooking its coaches ,including those that were supposed to be line run coaches, as in the case of a pair of GMC SDH4502s purchased with NYDOT funds for use on line runs.
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