The New Low Floor Busses

The New Low Floor Busses

TransFort wanted to replace some of the existing busses with new busses, the monies were ok’d and the order put in. We were told the new busses would be Gillig low floor busses. Low Floors are kind of a new idea in transit busses. Some of the drivers had driven busses with the low floor design so the fact that the new busses were low floors was met with mixed feelings. Me, on the other hand knew nothing of the low floors, heck, I was just excited to be rid of the RTS’s.

One of the new low-floor busses at The Square.

When the low floors started to arrive, all the drivers wanted to try them. I have to admit I was no different. In little clumps, the drivers were cleared on the new busses. There were five drivers in my group, so when the “class” was over, we took one out to play with. First impressions were very positive, they handled, braked and accelerated really well, at least the one we drove. As time passes we all get more familiar with these new low floors, in all honesty, I don’t like them much. I could list my own complaints about them but that’s not the point of this writing, let’s just say I don’t look forward to driving them. Right now, being as it is winter, my biggest complaint is my feet are always cold. I keep asking myself “Why couldn’t the powers that be buy two low floors (if they really wanted to try them out) and four regular busses, instead of six low floors. That’s probably why I’ll never be in management.

Unit #16

While driving Route 7 one day, I happened to notice an old Transfort bus in the parking lot of the Aspen Leaf condos on Monroe with its motor cover open. It looked like unit 19 but that unit had been taken out of service about a month earlier. When I passed it again later, I realized it wasn’t unit 19 but, in fact, was unit 16. When I inquired of the other drivers at the square, no one could shed any light on this mystery bus. The next time I passed unit 16, it was going along the side of the road being towed by a pick-up. Back at the barn I inquired about unit 16 and was told that it was auctioned off about eight years ago. I have no idea what it was being used for but I found it interesting that it was still plying the streets of Fort Collins.

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