What in the world is SMART'S WSU hybrid bus doing Downriver?

A half-hour ago, I decided to walk over to the corner of Fort Street and Eureka Road along the Wyandotte-Southgate border for one thing: bus-fanning.

Not long after I arrived, SMART #223[[65?) was heading towards Metro Airport operating route #125. Around this time, I decided to cross Fort Street and see if there were benches to sit on on the Southgate side of the intersection, so I pressed the button to cross the street [[the button is a recent addition due to the recent reconstruction project), but the signal still displayed "don't walk", but then, something appeared that I never expected: One of SMART's hybrid buses!

So I decided to get a dozen pictures of the bus as it operated #125 in the opposite direction towards River Rouge [[even though this was during the evening peak period, I don't know why this run didn't want to go all the way to Detroit!) As it got closer, I noticed the colors on that bus indicated it was the Wayne State bus! It then crossed Eureka Road and stopped next to the Walgreens store to pick up a few people [[who were, I assume, excited to ride a hybrid bus, possibly for their very first times). This ends the story and the beginning of the on-topic portion.

I am asking a question on how SMART's WSU hybrid bus decided to operate a Wayne County route today, I noticed on another thread here that it was supposed to operate Oakland County routes and that the U-M bus was to be used for Wayne County routes [[including #125). So I am unsure how the WSU bus ended up coming down here today instead.

BTW, the bus is SMART #3006, a 2011 Gillig Low Floor with hybrid and Gillig BRT-styled-front-and-rear-ends [[if you don't know what a Gillig BRT is, you'll find them on the streets of Ann Arbor, operated by AATA) options. Here's a photo to prove the point of this:

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_W.../SMART3006.jpg

I'm pretty sure I saw a similar bus headed south on Van Dyke through Utica. This would have been within the last couple of days. It definitely said "hybrid" on the side. I had never seen one before.

Thanks for the pic. Looks pretty sharp!

Yeah, I've seen the MSU bus a couple times on the Gratiot route.

I believe that was a 2013 Hybrid. SMART recently added 3 more hybrids to the fleet and had them painted in the U of M, MSU, and WSU colors. Wayne County now has a Maize and Blue bus and a Green and Gold bus.

I know there are rail fans and boat nerds, but I never knew there were bus fans out there. Pretty cool though. I'll start paying more attention to buses now. Nice pic.

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Originally Posted by Downriviera

I know there are rail fans and boat nerds, but I never knew there were bus fans out there. Pretty cool though. I'll start paying more attention to buses now. Nice pic.

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I've seen that bus, and a blue and maize U of M looking one, on MI Ave. in Dearborn more then once. I thought the blue & maize one had something to do with U of M Dearborn. They are interesting looking.

SMART has taken two deliveries of three Gillig 40' Hybrids. Other than the two 60' Articulated Buses [[wrapped with blue sky/flowers), these are the first new buses in the fixed route fleet since the last of the current Gilligs was bought in 2003. As a way to celebrate the new buses, the first three were designed with a 'retro' paint scheme and then given three colors sets for the three major universities: UM, MSU, WSU. There was even a coats-for-the-needy event when the first three were launched where you could show support for your favorite of the three schools by placing your donated items in the corresponding bus at Oakland Mall.

The buses are not affiliated with, providing service for/to, or officially licensed/logoed for these schools. Just a marketing gimmick. The next order of three just came in, and were painted the same way, and not paired with the same color [[so now there are two different color sets at each terminal). Another tip is that there are two stationed at each of the three terminals [[Wayne, Oakland, Macomb)... so chances are you will not see all three different color schemes unless you are downtown or happen to travel around the tri-county area a lot during the day.

Try to hop on for a ride next time - they are very nice inside and super quiet!