NEW OCTA Bravo! Route 553 Southbound: Anaheim to Santa Ana (Full Ride)

On October 10, 2022, OCTA officially debuted its newest route in the Bravo! family, the 553 which runs along Main St between the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) and the intersection of Main St & MacArthur Blvd in Santa Ana near the Hutton Centre. This route was announced in a board agenda that was released sometime in 2020 when OCTA announced orders for new buses, including one for 10 New Flyer battery electric buses. It replaces the 53X, which ran until March 2020 when it was suspended as result of the pandemic and OCTA switching to a Sunday schedule on all days during that time; this new route will serve the same stops that the 53X did but it’ll now be its own route instead of sharing runs with regular route 53. This route current operates using a fleet of 2008 New Flyer C40LFR buses in the Bravo! livery and these units were actually transferred from Santa Ana base to Garden Grove base, making it the first Bravo! route operated by the latter base. Eventually, the plan is to have 553 be operated almost entirely by electric buses once OCTA receives more XE40s, with 5 of them planned to be painted in the Bravo! livery.
I managed to catch the 553 in both directions on its first day of operation, just as I previously did with the 123 when it launched in early 2020, and record the full route using my GoPro camera. This video is the southbound ride along, with the northbound video premiering tomorrow and stay tuned for that one as well!
Recorded: 10/10/2022
Vehicle: 2008 New Flyer C40LFR
Unit: #7582
Base: Garden Grove (previously based at Santa Ana until October 2022)
Engine: Cummins Westport ISL-G NZ
Transmission: Allison B400R6

[@isaacro9006]

Nice I rode that route yesterday

[@Mike1064ab]

Sometimes the regular 53 uses the bravo buses which is very confusing. They do that on other routes especially on the weekends when bravo doesn’t run.

[@felderfernand7198]

Today I saw a xn40 bravo on the 53

[@iversonbradford4128]

A new Bravo bus

[@socalrainbowuniverse2006]

Nice, Is the OCTA C40LFR gonna be staying for good?

[@Transit-Fox]

Nope! Eventually it’ll get replaced with electric buses

[@bryan-ej8mn]

@@Transit-Fox No, they’ll get replaced with the newer CNG Gilligs.

[@bryan-ej8mn]

Not really, once OCTA gets more of their newer CNG Gilligs that’s when more C40LFRs will retire from what i believe.

[@aaronmiller5012]

So it’s goodbye to that bus? Is this the only BRAVO route that’s going to be electric? hopefully the other BRAVO routes will stay with the XN’s, CLF40, etc.

[@bryan-ej8mn]

@@aaronmiller5012 it’s everywhere not just Bravo.

[@Transit-Fox]

the "bravo 553" sounds different!

[@thetransitspotter]

I almost got to ride on it lol

[@aaronmiller5012]

So when that gets replaced with their electric bus, what’s going to happen, sold, scrapped, or assigned to another BRAVO or local route?

[@ocbusfan]

It’ll likely be sent back to Santa Ana base, although they could keep them as a backup unit in case anything happens to the electric buses

[@aaronmiller5012]

@@ocbusfan i agree!!! Again it reminds me of what happened to that electric bus in Connecticut. It caught fire and had to place diesel buses to finish the job. Just in case if that were to happen here in California , they’ll have a backup ready. I just hope other public transit companies that have electric buses are ready for that action just in case if a fire or any other issue occurs.