Late Friday afternoon, Transit Fleet Maintenance’s Director Derek Hanson contacted us with great news: they’ve finally tracked down the problem with the retro-fit air conditioning. This very serious problem will likely affect all of the retro-fit units (not the 7000s), so it’s great that they’ve got to the bottom of it now. It appears that the contract installer failed to allow for the voltage shift associated with the bus-length wiring harness it takes to power these units. The outcome? Melted and fused wiring and banks of blown fuses in the back of the buses. It’s no wonder we can’t get cooling happening. Dare I say it? Is this what we expect when we contract out the work to people who don’t know buses?

 Kudos to the skilled HETs who investigated and tracked down this problem. Now the work begins to retro -fit the retro-fit And that’s the bad news. A team of HETs has been put on OT this weekend to open the backs of these buses and find the faulty ones. Those that have damaged wiring will have the AC units shut down.

 You may get one of these buses. It will not have air conditioning in it. It will be like the buses we drove way back in the 90s. Make sure you have plenty of water with you. Get out of your bus and walk around – keep your blood moving. Use a neck cooler if you have one. And if all else fails, you feel the symptoms of heat exhaustion, stop and take a break, let control know. Ask for a relief or a change-over. Just be sure your Sisters & Brothers in Fleet Maintenance are on it and working to get it fixed properly. Thanks again to the great folks over in Transit fleet – you do great work!