Total # of Disney buses?

[Simba's Mom]

I was asked how many buses there are in all at WDW, and since I didn't know, thought I'd ask here. So, in a typical day (is there a typical WDW day?), how many buses are in operation? Anyone know?

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

By the end of this month, we will have approximatly 265 guest busses in our fleet. Fleet breakdown is as follows:

2701-2744: 1980-1987 GMC RTS busses, bought new.
2745-2780: 1979-1981 GMC RTS busses, bought used in 1998, and rebuilt by Midwest Bus Corp.

4701-4814: 1988-1994 TMC RTS busses, bought new.

4815-4832: 2000 Nova LFS low floor busses, leased.
4833-3861: 2001 Nova LFS low floor busses, leased.
4862-4885: 2002 Nova LFS low floor busses, leased. In the process of joining our fleet this month.

Some facts about our system:

On an average day, about 200 busses may be in operation at any given moment. The rest of them are either back in maintenance facilities, or out of service for the day.

Each bus travels an average of 275 miles per day. Some of our older busses have reached over 2 million miles.

Our 40 foot RTS busses have a seating capacity of 45, and can hold a total of 72 passengers safely.

Most of our RTS busses are powered byturbocharged Detroit Diesel 6v92TA engines with an Allison v730 (27xx) or v731(47xx+) transmission.

In an effort to reduce emissions, we have been installing new cleaner burning engines in our busses. The Detroit Diesel series 50 engine is a turobocharged 4cyl engine, and has better fuel economy, and does not emit exhaust smoke like an aging 6v92 might. You can tell a 6v92 bus from a S50 bus, as the S50 engine tends to purr, while the 6v92 whines.

Our Nova LFS busses are powered by a Detroit Diesel series 40 engine mated to an Allison B500 world transmission.

Our Nova LFS busses have a full low floor for the span of the bus. They have a seating capacity of 35, and can hold a total capacity of approx 70. Our LFS busses have perimiter seating for the lower deck. This was chosen to maximize available space, and only gave up 2 seats to do so.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Wow, thanks! He'll love all this information.

And of course, now he has more:
Do the bus drivers pretty much drive the same routes all the time?
Are there favored routes-maybe they're the ones that have the best scenery or something, that drivers all want?
And are there unpopular routes-maybe a lot of traffic, or you go way out back or something?
Thanks.

 

[sue Z]

Thanks Tyler for that info just passing it on to my dad!!!

Hope to see you in March!!

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Originally posted by Simba's Mom
Wow, thanks! He'll love all this information.

And of course, now he has more:
Do the bus drivers pretty much drive the same routes all the time?
Are there favored routes-maybe they're the ones that have the best scenery or something, that drivers all want?
And are there unpopular routes-maybe a lot of traffic, or you go way out back or something?
Thanks.

We have a flexible dispatching system... which pretty much means that you'll typically get a different route each time you come back to the hub. Each driver has thier own favorites... some like the multi-stop runs, others like the single stop runs.

Dispatchers really don't have a lot of flexibility when it comes to favoring drivers... they have a list of dispatches, and they typically assign them as the busses come in. Some times, if the dispatcher is really nice, they'll give the first bus the second dispatch, and the second bus the first dispatch... if that's what the drivers prefer. An example... currently, I have laryngitis, and have no voice... so the dispatcher gave me all one-stop runs tonight... so that I didn't have to call out the stops.

 

[JudithM]

Tyler, thanks for the interesting bus trivia!