I don't have much time to get into details but... As I have mentioned before whenever this topic comes to mind is that I am the General Manager for a transit system here in Lowell Massachusetts. I work for a company called First Transit. We manage transit systems throughout the country, so... yes I have LOTS of connections with some of the systems you are talking about including Conneteicut Transit in Hartford (The General manager of CT Transit is my boss, crap should I be telling you people htis!!!). I would be glad to help with the procurement of vehicles at a specific location especially if we operate that system in your state.

A great resource to see what transit agencies are in your local area go to this website/link:
http://www.apta.com/links/state_local/
Click on your state/county/region etc. and look at the different transit agencies. CALL those agencies every few months to see what if anything is going out to bid and/or ask to be put on a list when vehicles go out to bid (we want more people to bid and are always looking to add people to the list). Every year or so transit agencies replace older buses/vans with newer ones. The general life span that we use them for is 5 years or 100,000. Once they reach that life they are put on the line for replacement. Conditions vary for each vehicle so be sure to check what the conditions are. For the most part vehicles are VERY WELL taken care of as the fedral government is strict on makingsure we follow proper preventive maintenance schedules. MOST of the transit agencies bid the vehicles out to the Highest bidder.

I specificaly run the Road Runner service for the Lowell Regional Transit Authority and will be selling/bidding some out later this fall, provided the new ones come in on time. I will post when we get ready to bid them out.

If I can be any help to you please PM me here and I will provide you with my work e-mail/phone number so we can discuss further.

Raymond "want a bus" Blethen