POV Bus Night Drive: 2001 Gillig Phantom

[@calebschnur6265]

Reminds me of my neighboring agency's 2000 Gillig Phantoms. They also have the ISM/Allison. Sweet bus. Shuttle-UM has a nice fleet. Great video as always!

[@MRP.Germany]

Thanks man for doing the drive in the Phantom!!! I trained on 7501 and that one back in 2005. Brings back memories seeing you drive like the Orange night route. I’m sure it’s named something different now. I can’t believe that 13 to 15 years later, these buses are still in service....SMH. Great buses however I always thought the brakes were touchy. I’ll take the low floor Gillig over the Phantom any day. Keep the vids coming so I can take a walk down memory lane through your current experience!!!

[@eugew23]

I'm very glad to hear that! These Phantoms went through some real abuse, having seen rough days in Baltimore during contract service for UM Baltimore for five years or so. I remember 7601's engine nearly caught on fire one day there a couple years ago and the fire suppressors went off, but it survived lol. Stay tuned for more!

[@rondacus]

Takes me back to my transit days back in "92. I drove that same make and model. Good times... Goooood times. 😁

[@texasabbott]

What engines and transmissions did they have at the time?

[@gsm19911]

@@texasabbott Probably 6V92’s/ Allison HT740’s back then. But could have had Cummins as well.

[@Pa_school_bus_enthusiast]

Something I always wanted I thought I would never see

[@eugew23]

Glad you enjoy!

[@Pa_school_bus_enthusiast]

@@eugew23 you should try to get your hands on a articulated bus

[@TheCRTman]

Nice vid! I don't see stuff like this too often.

[@anthonymurphy2449]

OMG! I wish they would bring these buses back! This is GREAT! :-D

[@eugew23]

Agreed. These are some good buses.

[@texasabbott]

I wonder why this bus model was offered with the huge ISM engine in the first place. Seems like overkill.

[@eugew23]

Haa, i don't know either, but it's a lovely combo!

[@MrWolfSnack]

More likely than not in cities with a lot of routes with steep inclined roads, you need that extra power. Santa Monica had a lot of them.

[@thebronybusfan4740]

Oh shoot I didn't know you guys have Phantoms. Beast!!

[@DariusPinkston]

Love my phantoms

[@JakeLunceford]

Nice! The transit agency I work for has three 2003 Phantoms left. Ours have 600-700,000 miles on them - but we also serve a county as large as the State of Rhode Island. Last year we got rid of a set of 2000 Phantoms, those had 900,000+ miles. But unfortunately, they hardly leave the yard anymore, mainly just for training. The rest of the fleet is Gillig Low Floors.

[@eugew23]

That's pretty cool to hear. Phantoms are real workhorses!

[@superbrownsheep3777]

@@eugew23 It actually wouldn’t matter which bus your driving since they all use the same engine.

[@HRHDroopy]

I wrote a story about a phantom bus And man we can see your reflection 2:21

[@Turkelton]

Hey. I know im a bit late but do yall still operate the Gillig Lowfloors?

[@eugew23]

Shuttle-UM primarily operates Gillig Low-Floors (Advantage). These Phantoms are the last of the high floor buses in the fleet.

[@gsm19911]

How do you like the phantoms compared to the low floor Gillig’s? Which are “made better” and handle better in your opinion?

[@eugew23]

The biggest difference with our Phantoms as compared to our Low-Floors is that the Phantoms have Allison transmissions as opposed to Voith. That alone for me makes the Phantoms more pleasant to drive. I also like the seating position of the Phantoms better. Because the Phantoms are high floors, however, you can feel the weight around corners, which is where the LF's have the advantage, no pun intended.

[@eugew23]

Also, I think the Phantoms were built better!

[@superbrownsheep3777]

@@eugew23 So we’re all in agreeance. Allison transmissions provide a higher RPM making the buses accelerate faster than the Voith transmissions?

[@superbrownsheep3777]

But then begs the question: would you rather drive a bus that has better acceleration or a bus that has slow acceleration but saves more fuel?

[@gsm19911]

@@superbrownsheep3777 My local transit agency had Voiths from 2007 on. They promised the word. As they aged, the were problematic. Allison was what we had since automatics were a thing in transit buses. So we went back to them this model year.

[@neoplandude2932]

What routes do these Phantoms typically run on?

[@eugew23]

From 2001-2015, they ran local university routes and occasional charters. From 2015-2019, they were subcontractor buses for University of Maryland, Baltimore. Now, they've returned to UMD College Park local duty.

[@neoplandude2932]

@@eugew23 Ah, okay. I'm not too familiar with how Shuttle-UM works in general. So is everything in the 100 series a local route, or are some of the higher routes (141 for example) expresses, and therefore not eligible to get Phantoms? I've been keen on finding these for years now, unfortunately luck wasn't on my side in Baltimore, hopefully it will be in College Park.

[@eugew23]

@@neoplandude2932 As far as I know, 100 series routes are the majority of routes. We have two commuter express routes, 141 and 142, but I don't know how the numbering system works lol. When we in Baltimore, the routes were 700 numbers.