Beginning in September, the third depot to receive the brand new order of fully battery-electric New Flyer XE40 CHARGE NG's received their first unit, that being Kingsbridge Bus Depot in upper Manhattan with 4986. These mark Kingsbridge Depot’s first ever original order of standard length Xcelsior buses, and standard length buses from New Flyer in general. Prior to this, operators were trained to operate these Xcelsiors with the electric articulated XE60 CHARGE Xcelsiors that had already been bought for Manhattan's Michael J. Quill Depot back in 2019. 2 units (4952 and 4957) were transferred for an extended period of time to run under Kingsbridge Depot to allow operators to gradually become used to Xcelsior type buses once again, with Kingsbridge's last fleet being the 2012-2013 XD60's that were all eventually transferred out of the depot in 2019. Since the debut of 4986 periodically operating on routes during rush hours, the arrival of 4996 to Kingsbridge has also allowed for a second unit to be placed in service as supplemental fleet for rush hour service, as well as another zero emissions bus added to a Bronx division bus depots fleet. 4995, which was delivered to Grand Avenue initially, was promptly transferred to Kingsbridge shortly after, and is so far the third unit to enter service in Kingsbridge's very small fleet of 2024 XE40 NG's. Since the arrival of these buses, one 2019 XE60 was removed from Kingsbridge's roster (4957), and returned to MJQ depots roster. 4952 remains under Kingsbridge but does not see the same kind of service the new 2024 XE40 NG's see, due to being there for training purposes strictly. Even with all three units in service, these are still exceptionally uncommon to find especially given the limited amount of runs they're allowed to make during their rush hour dispatches, due to not being a large fleet. #mtabus
0:00 - 4986 going OOS from the Bx13 (9/16)
2:18 - 4996 on the Bx3 (11/8)
23:36 - 4995's last trip on the Bx3 (11/8)
Video Clips Taken: September, 16th/November, 8th, 2024.
Enjoy!