Beach gets wave of hybrid-electric shuttles at Oceanfront

The first picture makes it appear King Neptune is there to protect the new hybrid bus..under an angry sky. The second picture..I noticed the huge windshield..I have to wonder what a replacement windshield would cost. I can already guess the price is "ouch". lol

Its the exact same Hybrid buses Portsmouth got from HRT a couple months ago for the downtown Portsmouth Olde Towne area. Same design, shape and everything...

Though I find it funny that VB does something positive and all you do is attack attack attack. From the look of things, you A) like sitting in traffic, B) Like paying almost $4 / gallon, and/or C) are too stubborn to give up your behemoth tank you call an SUV.

You say you saw one of those lumbering buses and they're always empty? Apparently you've never been on the Blvd at rush hour (Rt 20), Lynnhaven Parkway (Rt 29), Granby St (Rt 1), Chesapeake Blvd (rt 3), or Millitary Hwy (Rt 15). They can be Standing Room Only (SRO).
The HRT Fleet: HRT primary uses Gillig buses. The Phantom and Lowfloor are the mainstays. The new buses are 30 foot Gillig Lowfloor Hybrids. In addition, there are stone-aged Optima American Heritage Streetcars (commonly 'trolleys') and museum artifacts here and there (Orion Mark V, Flixible Metro).
Up and down Atlantic Ave (Rt 30), Down General Booth to the campgrounds (Rt 31), and off to Hilltop/Lynnhaven (Rt 32) is $1 a ride. They are NOT free.

I agree, that is one ugly bus. It doesn't look like an impressive piece of engineering. Mercedes Benz is selling modern, attractive hybrid buses around the world (Beijing just received several). I read they are going to extend that technology to thir US Orion bus division. I think HRT buys some Orion buses, but their website does not have a "Our Fleet" page describing what buses they operated like most municipal transit system websites.

To tell you the truth, given that I generally see those big fuel-guzzling buses lumbering along with 5 passengers on board, I've never understood why they don't come to their senses and buy something more practical, like fuel-effiencent Toyota "Coaster" medium buses which can hold up to 21 people. They would cost less than half the price (and we all respect Toyota's quality). They could buy 2 buses for every one of those empty behemoths, and then people might not have to wait an hour for a bus. Regrettably, compared to other parts of the world, our mass transit system is ineffective.

How long before Virginia Beach City Council creates an agreement with HRT to extend future light rail service from Newtown Road Station to the Oceanfront?

I think the Atlantic Avn busses are free to ride. Not sure as I avoid the oceanfront.

I saw an HRT bus today carrying one passenger and was amazed that there was someone on there. The buses will be running whether they have passengers or not. And, taking into consideration that one eruption of Mt. Pinatubo creates more greenhouse destroying gasses than man has ever produced, would it be better to have empty buses driving up and down the oceanfront or full ones where they may actually recoup some of the expenses? I think that these busses will be better used on the regular commuter routes than at the oceanfront and let the tourists have their fun.

The point was that, with the way things are today, we don't need to ride a gas gulping pollution creating, trolley for enjoyment...

No one needs to ride a trolley for "enjoyment".

No one needs to ride a roller coaster for "enjoyment".
No one needs to ride a bike for "enjoyment".
No one needs to ride a hot air balloon for "enjoyment".
No one needs to ride a horse for "enjoyment".

Many things that we don't 'need' to do. People don't 'need' to come to VB for a vacation. When they do come here, they may 'choose' to ride the trolley - for their own enjoyment.

jmo

In this day and age with what gas costs and the health of the environment (and the people) I say good that these "tourist" will not want to ride for pure enjoyment. Now maybe they will get there fat... butts... walking and shed some weight. No one needs to ride a trolley for "enjoyment". If you need to get from point A to B then you will ride whatever. Wonder why they only bought only half a fleet because when they find out that utilization drops they wouldn't have an overstock of buses wasting money. This sounds pretty smart to me. The days of "enjoyment" riding are over, now it is time for "enjoyment" walking and biking for this fat nation!!!

i looks like VB wants to be like OceanCity MD with its own "vomit comet." The old trolly's were a ride not merely transportation. A "trolly": could have been put on a hybrid frame, thus the best of both worlds. What were the bid specifications? Was the bus bought "off the shelf."

If a consumer can't afford gas for his $10,000 old Suburban and goes out and buys a $24,000 Hybrid with interest, depreciation, higher insurance premiums and property tax instead of an $1800 Chevy Beretta or what have you, where is the logic? Surely there was a city in dire need of getting rid of their bus fleet due to fiscal shortages and underuse. New and pretty public transportation like everything else public winds up trashed in no time.

I thought maybe they were just putting a new kind of "wood" on the new trolley...

I agree that ridership will definitely drop. A lot of people and tourists ride the old trolleys down at the beach just to cruise the strip and look out the window at people. These new buses are just not the same and it is a shame that people in charge are missing this simple fact. I think the ridership will probably drop in half and they will be cluelessly scratching thier heads wondering why.

Just a prediction, but they will be largely empty relative to the trolleys. Why? Because many tourists ride the trolleys as part of the experience, not for transportation. The people making these decisions should spend some time down there. Not just an appearance now and then, but walk Atlantic Ave from 6 to midnight a few nights a week during the summer and take note of what you see and hear. Listen to kids and parents interact. Watch the groups of local teens loitering on the street. See which street performers get ignored even though we are paying them to be there. And watch who's riding the trolley.

jmo

Will they stay on schedule? As any regular rider of the HRT can tell you, sometimes it is not a matter of when a bus will arrive, but IF it will. We just spent a pretty penny for this high profile, eco friendly, politically correct bus, that gives us all the correct talking points, in order to shuttle tourists around the high profile resort area. With this milestone behind us, can the HRT now concentrate on improving service to the less glamourous parts of Hampton Roads? A good start would be to (1) Have the busses maintain a schedule, plus or minus a few minutes. (2) Abandon the practice of skipping stops, leaving waiting commuters to catch the next bus, (which will be along in an hour.)

I'll keep it simple and just ask for these two things. I have friends and co-workers who DEPEND on these busses to get to and from their jobs. The Glitz is Great, but HRT needs to have the meat and potatos on the table before serving up dessert.

"Interesting moment: in her remarks Mayor Oberndorf turned to CEO Townes and told him if he could get us the Norfolk Southern Right-of-Way at a reasonable price, we could start to talk light rail."

So she could care less what citizens say? She is going out on her own making more stupid decisions? It's about time this lady went away. Vote her out in November before she taxes the rest of your soul!

They make sense if theirs a business case study. Seen one?

The new hybrid buses make sense, yet for some reason there are a lot of "bashers" on this board and what do they do? They immediately attack the Mayor and City Council. Here we have a City Council that is trying to make right by going "Green" yet people still complain. Yes, I loved the old Trolley style! I grew up with it. It was unique. However it's high time to try and curb pollution in our city and these Hybrid buses are a good choice.

During those periods when ridership dictacts the operation concurrently of both the new WAVE hybrid buses and the older trolleys, don't be surprised if some passengers opt for a "ride upon the trolley" in lieu of what is really just another bus ride. To some, the trolleys are unique, having been part of the VB transit scene since at least 1980. The initial trolleys carried both bicycles and surfboards, and for a time reached into various VB neighborhoods in addition to working the Oceanfront lines, all of which were seasonal.

Do they have surf board racks? Are they air-conditioned? Just wanted to make sure that our silly little mayor is aware of the "important" aspects of these new buses.

If you watch the video, it is clearly a man on a surfboard. The still pictures do, however, not show the man on the surfboard and it does indeed look inappropriate. That said, I feel they could have had a better (not so long) rendering of a surfboard. I see these busses showing up on teenager's facebook pages with immature captions.

The real question is how much these things cost? Do they cost more than regular busses? Top notch reporting from the Pilot as usual.

I love the look of the busses. Much more modern looking both inside and out. In the video, they discuss the "figure" on the side of the bus. The figure is a surfer (1/4 of the video is the guy talking about it). Great idea for the hybrid, also. I like seeing the forethought that was put in to replacement with something that fits the Ocean Front better.

The bus is hideous looking. I would also like to know what that is on the side of the bus. Does anyone know?

I don't see it as being that ugly? What do you want, 26" rims with low profile tires? Regarding admobile, the law is that you're not allowed to drive around with the SOLE INTENTION of advertising. Duh. Run errands and they would be fine. The law was on the books before they started, even I (a non-college educated guy) knew about it. Duh. And you're not allowed to use strobe lights or LASERs in Norfolk to attract attention to your sign :-)

The big question is will the city allow advertising on the sides. That will be the best source of revenue. Be careful City Council. You just might be making a case to keep Admobile!

These hybrid buses are a no brainer. They really take advantage of the hybrid electric drive because a bus does a lot of stop and go. Buying a pure gasoline bus these days is just throwing away fuel. For some reason the marginal Prius got all the press even though GM was releasing this breakthrough technology at the same time.

That is one ugly bus. It doesn’t look like it will fit into the oceanfront very well. And, what is that phallic looking thing on the side???