Back in the late 1970s I visited major northeast cities to review how Urban Mass Transit Money was being spent. I visited many cities including Boston, Providence, New Haven etc. I spent quite a bit of time with the folks who ran the maintenance shops. I found and reported on the many headaches they faced including having to buy many extra spare parts for the new systems that had a high failure rate including the infamous kneeling busses and the Boston light rail vehicles.
I will always remember the LRVs. The old PCC cars were bombproof and designed by people who knew what reiliability was all about. For example, the side panels on the PCC cars had spring latches that were incredibly simple and lasted forever. All you had to do was to pull the spring loaded latches out and turn them and the panel opened up. The LRVs did not have these handles. Instead the side panels were held in place by many machine screws. After being removed and reinstalled several times they started falling out on their own.
The inside of the LRVs was also all machine screws. Much to the delight of the kiddies on their way to school, they found the LRVs were a rolling erector set which could be dismantled with a coin.
The LRV doors were very sensitive and I was shown how one needed to hold the doors together until one's destination was reached after which the LRV would not move because the doors were ajar.

Just wondering about your similar experiences?

My experience with UMTA funded equippment was with small (20-24 passenger) buses for rural public transportation. Sadly those who wrote the state purchasing specs for these buses never came out to see the operating conditions we had, with narrow, curvy, steep and long mountain roads.

Needless to say these UMTA buses were under-powered and proved to be expensive to operate. To maintain a high level of availabliity, we ended up buying separately some short block engines and automatic transmissions. They were kept on hand for quick replacement as needed. The originals were then overhauled and kept on hand for the next unit exchange.

I asked our state UMTA officials if we could replace the original motors with higher powered diesels and heavier duty transmissions but was told "Absolutely, NO!" A neighboring state used similar equipment in the mountains and had their buses so equipped. But with those engine and tranny swaps, we were able to run our buses for 3 years beyond their expected service life of 6 years.

Ed Bommer