Smaller Buses Return to SEPTA’s Frontier Depot

ByDash
SEPTA Frontier MD30s
SEPTA 4600 on Route 95, despite the sign being blank. This is one of the smaller buses that currently operate out of Frontier Depot

Conshohocken, PA: After 15 years of exclusively operating forty-foot buses, SEPTA’s Frontier Depot finally houses smaller buses, meant to operate on lower ridership routes.

These buses come in the form of SEPTA’s 2016 New Flyer MD30s which prevously only operated on contracted routes 310, LUCY, and the Cornwells Heights Parking Lot Shuttles. Unlike the forty-foot buses, thes buses are not hybrid buses, which means now SEPTA has tradional diesel buses in their regular fleet yet again despite celebrating removing straight diesel buses from the fleet just two years earlier. The benefit of running smaller buses on lower ridership routes, is that they still burn less fuel than a forty-foot bus whether it’s hybrid or not.

Frontier Depot previously operated smaller buses on their low ridership routes, starting in 1997 with the introduction of twenty-seven foot Ford/Coach and Equipment buses (known locally as Ford Cutaways), and continuing into 2010, when SEPTA once again made Frontier a full forty-foot bus depot (as well as Victory Depot).

SEPTA 4526 on Route 90, a 2001 Eldorado Transmark RE-29
SEPTA 4526 on Route 90, a 2001 Eldorado Transmark RE-29 that prevously operated on route 90

Frontier Depot, which sits at 1525 Alan Wood Road in Conshohocken, PA, houses buses for routes 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 124, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 150, 201, 204, and 206. Of those routes, Route 90, 92, 94, 95, 97, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132, 133, 150, 201, 204, and 206 are lower ridership routes, and prevously operated smaller buses in the past. When larger buses were added to those routes, service was also cut drastically to compensate for the buses being able to seat more people.

With new 32 foot hybrid buses on the horizon, this could potentially mean the re-expansion of smaller buses on lower ridership routes, and thus better service overall through the system. But only time will tell. If you want to keep up with the current assignments for the bus fleet, go to Philadelphia Transit Vehicles.

I have been with Virtual Transit Center since it's conception as the "Dash Forums" back in 2008. Since then, I have been writing and doing YouTube side by side, focusing both on Transportation and Gaming. Most of my knowledge comes from SEPTA as I lived in Philadelphia for most of my life. As of 2026, I am on YouTube as DashTransit and TheDashOfficial.

I started off my online career being known as "septa_kid" go figure, a SEPTA name. When I started growing my interest in NJ Transit, I would go on being "septa/njt rider"

When I started my YouTube channel (DashTransit) it was originally called "njt5329" and the channel was just clips of buses. Mostly SEPTA and NJT. A Fujifilm Finepix was used in this era.

Starting in July 2011, the Canon SX130IS camera became the camera of the channel, bringing HD documentary-style videos much like my buddy (trainman1971) did for DVD for many years past. This is when the channel became known as "Transit Action Series" I myself would still go by septa/njt rider in other capacities.

In May 2012, the original Canon SX130IS retired, and then all videos were recorded off a mobile phone until eventually uploading proved too difficult due to hardships IRL. I would eventually abandon YouTube videos as a whole, and focus more on studying transit history. My attention would also go more towards facebook.

In 2013ish I grew interest in a game called OMSI 2, and that caused me to start posting on a new YouTube channel called "Dash5155" which was named from the first SEPTA NABI I rode on (again, go figure, SEPTA history).

Starting in 2017, I used a Canon SX200IS from Basview to reboot the "Transit Action Series" channel that otherwise was dead for years prior. The energy that I felt from once again publishing transit content made me want to go back into my passions.

On April 19th, 2019, I would purchase a Canon SX710HS camera, and do what is now known as "TrAcSe" for YouTube. The channel itself would be re-named to DashTransit and eventually all my online handles would be DashTransit.

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