After the clock struck midnight, the B bus was cruising west down Whalley Avenue past the Boulevard when riders started noticing a foul smell.
They alerted the driver, who pulled over, checked the rear of the bus, then returned to her seat to call in to CT Transit.
“Sorry people,” she then announced to the riders. “It’s going to be a little wait.”
“Told you something smelled,” one of them responded as they filed out.
Paul Bass Photo
Another B bus wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another hour. Riders got on their cellphones to make other arrangements or walked off into the night.
A second bus did arrive 36 minutes later to pick up the remaining passengers, according to state Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Nursick.
Nursick responded by email to questions about how this the DOT handles incidents like this one, which occurred as this past Saturday night turned into Sunday morning. Here’s the exchange:
This seemed like a new bus. How common are these problems? Is there a special problem with the newer buses and hydraulic leaks? Was a hydraulic leak the problem? (That’s what the driver thought.)
The disabled bus was bus 1023, a model year 2010 bus manufactured by New Flyer, that had a hydraulic fluid leak. This bus is half-way through its useful life cycle of 12 years. It is uncommon to have a hydraulic leak and we are not aware of any other New Flyer hybrid buses having a similar hydraulic leak. We do have a preventative maintenance program that looks at each bus on a regular basis. This bus was in the shop yesterday for repairs.
How does CT Transit respond in these cases? Does it bring an extra bus over sooner? (Did it in this case?)
Normally, upon a call about a breakdown of a bus, another bus is dispatched to the scene of the breakdown, so the regular operator can continue the route. The operator bringing the “good” bus would stay with the “disabled” bus to wait for the mechanics/technicians or drive the bus to the garage for repair. In this case, with a fluid leak, the operator waited for the mechanics/technicians.
This breakdown occurred very late at night ( 12:11AM at Whalley and Blake), and on a weekend. There were no operators either coming on or off duty to replace the bus. We have a very limited number of operators available to do bus swaps after 9PM, and even fewer on weekends. In this case, the replacement bus arrived in 36 minutes. It takes 5 – 10 minutes for the technicians to clean up and get the bus and service truck started, then about 20 – 25 minutes drive time from the garage to location of the breakdown.
Two technicians were dispatched from the garage with bus 343 to replace bus 1023. They also cleaned up the fluid that spilled onto the ground. The replacement bus 343 arrived at approximately 12:47AM. The next scheduled bus was around 12:57AM.
Does it (CT Transit) offer riders refunds?
We do not offer refunds, but we have several ways of mitigating the inconvenience of bus breakdowns. This includes the operator offering a transfer or ticket that extends their ability to ride the next bus and make transfers if it occurs during normal operating hours. In the case of a bus breakdown at the end of the service day, as was the case here, the operator can take them where they are going with dispatcher approval. Also, if they call our customer service line, and the complaint is deemed valid, a “day pass” can be sent to their home address.
