The Future Of Bus Operation Facilities

Two decades ago, transit magazines explored ways to design motorcoach maintenance centers to carry out cleaning, repairs and tune-ups with the rhythmic regularity of actual bus service. Those publications were prophetic of what is now being practiced through a careful collaboration between the Yankee Line luxury motorcoach company and The Galante Architecture Studio (TGAS).

In 2003, Pennsylvania architect Michael T. Lee wrote for METRO about what he deemed important for such a facility: “no neighbors to lodge complaints about traffic, noise and congestion… Where can you find such a site? No, don’t start looking. It probably doesn’t exist, not even in Kansas.”

Now it does – in Massachusetts, where Randolph’s spacious environs are accommodating Yankee Line’s new 60,000-square-foot headquarters. It is being developed with a threefold purpose: to be remote enough not to cause vehicular traffic buildup or noise, spacious enough to accommodate full upkeep services for an 80-strong bus fleet, and sustainable enough to maximize energy efficiency in both the coaches and the facility itself.

TGAS has been designing that way since its 1997 founding, well before LEED Certified buildings became the norm, which landed the firm multiple contracts for the LEED Gold-conscious Harvard University. Since then, founding principal Ted Galante and others have become fully LEED Accredited to reflect market mandates: building codes now require some form of sustainability, which TGAS was well prepared for.

Yankee Line’s new facility is no exception, kudos to the magic TGAS worked into Harvard’s 70,000-square-foot Fleet Management Services (FMS) shop. Yankee Line was sold on how FMS was providing 24-hour, four-season service for the university’s shuttle vans, snowplows and police vehicles. What was really impressive was FMS’s ability to clean, repair and dispatch all those shuttles that transported students and faculty all over campus, synchronizing the rhythm of their upkeep with that of their users.

Advanced vehicle maintenance systems made this possible. “FMS was designed to house an axle lift built into the foundation and recessed into the slab of the building,” said TGAS principal Yar Laakso. Thoughtful heating and HVAC systems, ample natural light, and carefully designed vehicle yard space helped further.

Yankee Line enlisted TGAS to apply a similar approach to the new headquarters, to keep its own shuttles ship-shape for its long-term contract with agencies like the MBTA (which operates Boston’s ailing subway system), supplying shuttle buses when trains go out of service. “The new building will house two platform lifts and two axle lifts capable of servicing the entire Yankee Line fleet, as well as the MBTA fleet,” said Laakso. “It also contains a large two-story tire carousel, large bus-part storage areas, and many different pieces of equipment and tools for maintaining the fleet.”

For fueling, cleaning and maintenance, the motorcoaches will be lifted by a built-in mechanism for 54-foot-long articulating vehicles (twice the length of a normal bus, they hinge at the midpoint). With two separate wash bays with two automatic rollover washing systems, four deep-maintenance bays, and a fifth double-deep bay for articulating coaches, Yankee Line will fuel, wash, and repair multiple vehicles simultaneously like never before.

Galante worked closely with Don Dunham of Yankee Line to think through every aspect of this facility. “Locating a building to safely accommodate large vehicles, pedestrians, personal cars, and delivery vans has to be done with a lot of care and forethought,” said Galante. “These are not your everyday facilities, and a specialist is required to plan one.”

Galante and Dunham planned theirs to reflect Yankee Line’s brand of luxury, efficiency and safety. The headquarters will typify TGAS’ industrial ingenuity and architectural aesthetics as a dignified tune-up and departure point, a comfortable place to work in fields of skylight sun, and a distinguished landscape presence. It will visually promote Yankee Line’s service efficiency and luxurious comfort with an expressive cantilever and a glass-brick light monitor.

“The front of the building is intended to be an inviting, welcoming gesture of identity for Yankee Line,” said Galante. “The large-scale cantilever expresses the movement that resonates with a motorcoach line. The smaller-scale entrance elements welcome visitors to mix with bus traffic, but in a clear, safe way.” A wood-grille treatment will create this effect in the lobby leading to a third-floor 100-person training room.

Galante’s years of experience enable him and Dunham to speak the same language and approach a problem in similar ways: finding the safest, most cost-effective solution without compromising on function. In planning the facility, they didn’t neglect the fundamental elements motorcoach media had articulated as essential to facility design. Designated areas and apparatuses for general maintenance, fare removal, engine fueling, exterior washing, interior cleaning, storage, and tire repair were all meticulously studied in early design phases.

They also prepared the facility for the peak of winter with advanced snow-melting systems at each overhead door and radiant-heated floors in all maintenance areas. This, coupled with expansive skylights, will allow for 24-hour rain-or-shine service. Other features will include dedicated drivers’ locker rooms and employees’ light-filled full-dispatch conference and cafeteria spaces, aptly conveying Yankee Line’s commitment to keeping their coaches in the safest, cleanest conditions before sending them on the road again.

When completed toward the end of 2025, the new headquarters will advance motorcoach maintenance beyond yesterday’s visions. TGAS’ ability to create the latest shop for those humongous vehicles that can be cumbersome but fulfill important human transit needs is unparalleled. It is shaping the future of motorcoach maintenance and safety in a way that gives its fleet in-house readiness for action, with an architectural design as expressive and recognizable on the cityscape (or in the countryside) as the coaches are for their riders.

It is also preparing Yankee Line for what’s down the road: an electrified future. When the grid evolves and presents more requirements for electric motorcoaches, Yankee Line will be there. As already in place at Harvard’s FMS, infrastructure for larger electric chargers is creating a plug-and-play situation for Yankee Line. After all, most governmental agencies are talking about complete electrification by 2040 – just fifteen years away.

Careful planning by Yankee Line and sharp design by The Galante Architecture Studio has set both firms up for the long haul. “This is how smart companies advance,” said Galante. “In the tumultuous world of motorcoach services, if a company isn’t planning and designing new facilities now, they’ll be left behind in the very near future.”

 

Source:

Lee, Michael T., “Tips for Design and Layout of a First-Class Bus Maintenance Facility,” METRO For Transit & Motorcoach Business, April 1, 2003, https://www.metro-magazine.com/10009061/tips-for-design-and-layout-of-a-first-class-bus-maintenance-facility