Explanation of New Buses....

[MinnieMe2]

Just got back from a week at the World. On one of our bus rides, the driver explained why the new buses are being brought in. He said Disney's contract for the old buses with GM expired in 1998, and the price is now $350,000 per bus. So a committee, which this driver was part of, started a search and found a Canadian company that manufactures the new buses. Apparently, they are more cost effective, carry more passengers (albeit, fewer seats, more standing room), and are more accessible for handicapped passengers. Right now, the drivers aren't crazy about them because they have some kind of funky brake system, but it's felt that once the dust settles, the new buses will work out fine. They should have an additional 60 new buses on line by September, and will continue to run the old ones until they can't run them any more. Again, this is from someone who should know what he was talking about, not from me....

 

[ztbz]

Well its more closer to 29 more buses but they won't be online in Sept, we have 17 Online
now, the 29 are due to get here Late Sept or Early Oct, then Disney has to get them Legal to
drive in the United States and in the State of Florida (TAGS), the last batch that came in sat behind the MK for nearly two months before they were allowed to be put Online. I would look for them around Nov to Dec by Christmas at least.

 

[skeezixspud]

I noticed recently that they were running many new buses that appear to be in the same configuration as the new WDW buses. The problem as I saw it was that while there is more standing room, there don't seem to be extra handrails for standing passengers. With the kind of crowds that get packed on at WDW, it seems there would be a lot of people standing in that open middle space with nothing to hold onto but one another. Are they having extra rails put into the interior to compensate?