Metropolis Transit Breaks Silence About Stalled 87 Extension

Metropolis, BR. September 22nd, 2014

The 87 Bus is long overdue for a southern extension.

Whatever happen to the 87 bus to Morrisville? Metropolis Transit finally breaks the silence on the extension that went south figurative before it actually travel south. The 87 line currently runs only as far as Greta Way & Ballerman Bl making a very short but very annoying trip. The southern terminal of the 87 is in the middle of Ballerman Bl where buses must stop and park where there are park cars only feet away. The extension to Morrisville would bring the bus futher down the under served area of Ballerman Bl and end all buses at Morrisville Trolley Depot where passenger can either hop on trolley or walk home.

Budget Fixes lead to delay of 87 extension. 

The 87 extension was approved back in April but no sign of it has yet to risen. Not even new sign poles or anything. Metropolis Transit blames the delay on budget fixes and bus restructuring. The amout of buses it would need mean either longer buses would have to be use or borrow more buses from other line. There also the fact that most of the older elevated subway cars are falling apart and being held together with duct tape and spit. Metropolis Transit has spent over $3 Million to keep the trains in service until a replacement fleet of subway cars come. The 87 extension will happen by 2015, Metropolis Transit has stated. The first extension of the 87 since it was put into service in 1986.

New Buses Come In While Old Ones Get Rebuilt, Route Names Change As Well.

Metropolis, BR. September 21th, 2014

Over 25 brand new New Flyer Xcelsior Buses are in service for Metropolis Transit

Metropolis Transit recently spoke to legislation about restructuring the bus system as new buses come in and begin to replace the old N.A.B.I. & Orion buses that were not rebuilt. Over 25 brand new buses have been put into service out of Ran Mourie Depot in Bay of Silence. They are mainly seen on the 36 line with spotty trips on the 58 & 28N lines. The new buses use clean diesel engines that are powerful enough to get the buses up and down the hills of West Metropolis and take it up the climb to Lover's Lookout. Drivers of the 36 bus prefer these buses mainly to traverse the Lover's Lookout incline but also because of the change look on Waves Avenue.

The first Xcelsior articulated bus arrives. 

Along with the 26 Xcelsior buses in service, the first of 90 articulated Xcelsior buses arrived on the morning of September 20th to Ran Mourie Depot for evaluation. The new "artics" feature the same new things seen on the smaller counterpart like, backup camera, added security features, air soft suspension for easy traversing hills, and the signature padded strawberry seats. These also have the same powerful engine to go up and down hills with ease. The first bus will be tested before entering service but expect to see it on a line near you soon.

Some existing Bus Routes will soon see a name change. 

As with the changes to the size of the fleet. Starting October 6th 2014, letter prefixes will be dropped from certain lines to reduce confusion. Originally, lines with letter at the end of a number were express line but over the years, budget and perminiate route changes made some Number/Letter lines to become local. So in order to reduce the confusing all express lines are getting the suffix "X" while local number/letter lines will either drop the letter or the number completely.

Routes Affected: 
18L Now Becomes The 18X
19A Now Becomes The 19
28N Now Becomes The 28
28X Remains
32F Now Becomes The 32X
36C Now Becomes The 36 (Interfair Branch)
52G Now Becomes The G
63Q  Now Becomes The 63X
67A Now Becomes The L
74A Now Becomes The 74X

Sandy's Revenge: The 26 Bumped to Limited Service Status During Repairs

Boga Island, BR. Sept 8th 2014.

A divot in the sand cause the tracks to shift and was never fixed.  

It's been almost two long years since the devastating Hurricane Sandy stuck Metropolis. The monster storm surge flooded Boga Island completely and ate away at the beautiful beaches it has. The 26 elevated line happens to circles this island and it's the only physical link back to Metropolis. There is no road, and the ferry service only runs between 6 AM and 9 PM prompting 24 hour service on the line. It also soon going to be extended to Downtown relieving the 65 of crowding but that's still way off. Right now the line is plagued with speed restrictions, heavy decay of the rails, signals that magically shift when they're not suppose to and recently a train derailed near Little Wave Lake due to bad track. Metropolis Transit is stepping in with a "Brighter Orange" Fix that will fix the hurricane ridden tracks as well improve the ATC on the line.

Barley any beach left. The winter of 2013 took it's toll over here rather than Sandy.

The 26's concrete trackbeds sit on nothing but beach sand and with the recent winters of 2013 and Hurricane Sandy in the past eroding the beach, the beds are slowly losing ground around it. During the summer of 2014, the beach was off limits on this side to bathers since there was only 5 feet of beach at high tide from the tracks. The fix-up will specifically extend the beaches to enjoyable lengths while fixing and rearranging the trackbed around it. This results in hourly service during the Non-Rush Hours. Because of this, ferry service will run 24 hours a day until end of the fix up at the 19th of September. Metropolis El tickets will be honored on the Ferry until the 21st of September.