Disney Transport Bus Roster

[rphillips14]

I never thought I carede about the buses but now my interest is peaked...thanks for the info Len

[Amy]

A small correction to the Disney bus roster:

2010 Novas are 5001-5010, hence 2010 Gilligs are 5011-5022. For some reason fleet number 5000 appears to have been skipped.

Otherwise, great job on the roster! If anyone has got photos of the oddballs (Nova 4953 or Designline 4984) I would be grateful if you could share! Thanks.

I'll try to keep an eye out over the next few days!

[Len90]

There are pictures floating around somewhere of the designline but that one has since been taken out. Rumor has it that the bus burnt up and Disney will not order any. I've been constantly on the look for Gillig 4953 but it seems to be playing hide and seek with me. I know there are pictures and videos that can be found of 4953.
Thanks for bringing that up, but fleet number 5000 was not skipped. I am almost certain that I have pictures of 5000-10 though. I'll definitely look into this tonight.

[dstrawn9889]

hmmm... maybe your account is some how linked to that trash that keeps loading in the board

[Len90]

hmmm... maybe your account is some how linked to that trash that keeps loading in the board

Something happened as there were posts between all of my posts. I've since removed all other posts...

[mctravelsvc]

Hey Len90 - this photo just surfaced on Facebook. The way this bus is painted, I didn't think it belonged to the fleet but then I looked at the bus number.

http://twitpic.com/8nclfm

There was a better photo showing the number posted by: Kathy-Horizon Winfield-Sheely

[Len90]

Hey Len90 - this photo just surfaced on Facebook. The way this bus is painted, I didn't think it belonged to the fleet but then I looked at the bus number.

http://twitpic.com/8nclfm

There was a better photo showing the number posted by: Kathy-Horizon Winfield-Sheely

Ahh don't know how I missed that until this evening. That bus I believe is number 5070-12 and Novabus LFS Artic. This is the first articulated bus Disney is testing out. It is a Nova demonstrator and NOT owned by Disney. The bus is 62 feet long and can "hold" 112 people. It is/was tested on the higher occupancy routes to see if articulated buses could be the solution for overcrowding. Secondly, the buses could help out with transporting large numbers of guests if the monorail was to go down. Hopefully there will be some news on how the test went in the coming future. I know I will try and find some stuff out when I am down in June including an updated list with the 2012 Gilig

[Amy]

Hey Len90 - this photo just surfaced on Facebook. The way this bus is painted, I didn't think it belonged to the fleet but then I looked at the bus number.

http://twitpic.com/8nclfm

There was a better photo showing the number posted by: Kathy-Horizon Winfield-Sheely

Ahh don't know how I missed that until this evening. That bus I believe is number 5070-12 and Novabus LFS Artic. This is the first articulated bus Disney is testing out. It is a Nova demonstrator and NOT owned by Disney. The bus is 62 feet long and can "hold" 112 people. It is/was tested on the higher occupancy routes to see if articulated buses could be the solution for overcrowding. Secondly, the buses could help out with transporting large numbers of guests if the monorail was to go down. Hopefully there will be some news on how the test went in the coming future. I know I will try and find some stuff out when I am down in June including an updated list with the 2012 Gilig

Neat! They used the articulated buses at DLP when I was there. It was the first time I had been on one and it was definitely a different experience

[Len90]

New updates following my 2012 vacation....

Nothing much that surprised me except the RTS was still running A LOT! I think I finally figured out what the letter "C" would mean on an older RTS after starting to see them pop up last year. From my experience the C buses had their MIM system removed. There were buses as old as 4726C running which is a 1988. The oldest I got to travel on was 4781C which did have the brown seats.

As for the 2012 Gillig low floor buses the numbers I had found out about last year seemed to be quite accurate. The newest bus I saw running was 5106-12. Seems like Disney is currently running around 350 buses in total. Updates were made to the original post to reflect what I have seen. Fellow subsonic members please do keep an eye out when in Disney to help keep this up to date and accurate.

[Amy]

New updates following my 2012 vacation....

Nothing much that surprised me except the RTS was still running A LOT! I think I finally figured out what the letter "C" would mean on an older RTS after starting to see them pop up last year. From my experience the C buses had their MIM system removed. There were buses as old as 4726C running which is a 1988. The oldest I got to travel on was 4781C which did have the brown seats.

As for the 2012 Gillig low floor buses the numbers I had found out about last year seemed to be quite accurate. The newest bus I saw running was 5106-12. Seems like Disney is currently running around 350 buses in total. Updates were made to the original post to reflect what I have seen. Fellow subsonic members please do keep an eye out when in Disney to help keep this up to date and accurate.

What is a MIM system?? How many of those 350 buses do you think they run at one time? Do you think it is possible at busy times of the year and at park closing they might run all in the fleet??

[Len90]

New updates following my 2012 vacation....

Nothing much that surprised me except the RTS was still running A LOT! I think I finally figured out what the letter "C" would mean on an older RTS after starting to see them pop up last year. From my experience the C buses had their MIM system removed. There were buses as old as 4726C running which is a 1988. The oldest I got to travel on was 4781C which did have the brown seats.

As for the 2012 Gillig low floor buses the numbers I had found out about last year seemed to be quite accurate. The newest bus I saw running was 5106-12. Seems like Disney is currently running around 350 buses in total. Updates were made to the original post to reflect what I have seen. Fellow subsonic members please do keep an eye out when in Disney to help keep this up to date and accurate.

What is a MIM system?? How many of those 350 buses do you think they run at one time? Do you think it is possible at busy times of the year and at park closing they might run all in the fleet??

350 is a guesstimate as to how many total buses could be "operational". I would think a vast majority of that fleet is running at once given that Disney has 5 main destination areas (EPCOT, MK, DHS, DTD/TL, BB,AK) with each having a full set of resort destinations to fulfill along with the TTC and park to park buses. I good guess would be between 200-250. I seriously doubt every bus would run at once but I'm sure during peak times they would have a few more out on the road. MIM stands for Magic In Motion. That is what is responsible for the music, automated announcements, GPS bus tracking, etc. The visible components of the MIM are the screen by the driver and the orange LED display.

[Amy]

New updates following my 2012 vacation....

Nothing much that surprised me except the RTS was still running A LOT! I think I finally figured out what the letter "C" would mean on an older RTS after starting to see them pop up last year. From my experience the C buses had their MIM system removed. There were buses as old as 4726C running which is a 1988. The oldest I got to travel on was 4781C which did have the brown seats.

As for the 2012 Gillig low floor buses the numbers I had found out about last year seemed to be quite accurate. The newest bus I saw running was 5106-12. Seems like Disney is currently running around 350 buses in total. Updates were made to the original post to reflect what I have seen. Fellow subsonic members please do keep an eye out when in Disney to help keep this up to date and accurate.

What is a MIM system?? How many of those 350 buses do you think they run at one time? Do you think it is possible at busy times of the year and at park closing they might run all in the fleet??

350 is a guesstimate as to how many total buses could be "operational". I would think a vast majority of that fleet is running at once given that Disney has 5 main destination areas (EPCOT, MK, DHS, DTD/TL, BB,AK) with each having a full set of resort destinations to fulfill along with the TTC and park to park buses. I good guess would be between 200-250. I seriously doubt every bus would run at once but I'm sure during peak times they would have a few more out on the road. MIM stands for Magic In Motion. That is what is responsible for the music, automated announcements, GPS bus tracking, etc. The visible components of the MIM are the screen by the driver and the orange LED display.

Do they put the MIM systems from the older buses in the newer buses then?

[Soarin08]

I remember when the busses at the DTD resort (Hilton, etc.) were purple Mears busses with those cool compartments underneath where they made people stow those tank-like strollers. Ahh if only Disney could still do that with those God awful strollers! This was in 1997.

[Amy]

I remember when the busses at the DTD resort (Hilton, etc.) were purple Mears busses with those cool compartments underneath where they made people stow those tank-like strollers. Ahh if only Disney could still do that with those God awful strollers! This was in 1997.

Under the coach storage would probably add so much time to the loading and unloading process that it would never be feasible though...

[figmentaholic]

I remember when the busses at the DTD resort (Hilton, etc.) were purple Mears busses with those cool compartments underneath where they made people stow those tank-like strollers. Ahh if only Disney could still do that with those God awful strollers! This was in 1997.

Under the coach storage would probably add so much time to the loading and unloading process that it would never be feasible though...

Unfortunately you are right.. the time it would take to get the strollers in and out would just put so much extra time on every trip it would make it totally impossible.

I am hoping those articulated buses work out. Those would really help overcrowding, especially in the summer.