22 School Transportation News Magazine September 2011
Routes Around the World: Managua, Nicaragua The back story behind the prominent role played by retired American school buses in Central America
By Anson Stewart School buses from the Unit-
ed States abound in Managua, Nicaragua’s sprawling capital. Central America’s second largest city is home to nearly two mil- lion people and 800 local buses. Tese local buses operate along 34 routes in the city and together handle a daily average of 855,000
boardings. Twenty-five coopera- tives are assigned to operate the different lines, and each coopera- tive’s fleet is generally comprised of one type of bus. Te Cooperativa Unitario,
for
example, uses green Type C con- ventional buses on Route 110, while cooperatives allied with the govern-
ing Sandinista party have received new Russian Kavz buses acquired by the national government. Also on the streets are buses manufac- tured by Mexico’s Dina S.A. and Japan’s Isuzu, as well as hundreds of Toyota Hiace microbuses used for commuter service between Mana- gua and outlying towns.
One day, returning from the U.S. Em-
bassy to replace a passport (stolen by a thief who wanted it for his new iden- tity), I rode on a bus that was trying to maintain its old identity. Unlike the majority of former school buses operat- ing in Managua, bus No. 35 in the fleet of Cooperativa Transportes Unidos had not been repainted since its days in the United States. It had received the obliga- tory modifications, including a vertical tailpipe extension and a pneumatically operated rear-exit door, but underneath a coat of grime, it was still painted school bus
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School District Bus #44.” According
Frank
yellow and labeled “Neshaminy to
Lambert, Ne-
shaminy School District’s director of transportation services, the bus was sold this bus back to the dealer in the early 2000’s. As a former Pennsylvania student, I was amused that this former Pennsylva- nia school bus was transporting me down the John Paul II Highway in Nicaragua. While most students in Managua ei-
ther walk or ride regular public buses to school, some of the private schools do have their own buses and microbuses. Te city’s transport regulatory agency, IRTRAMMA, recently issued a set of specifications for painting and identify- ing such transporte escolar. I caught a glimpse of a poster outlining these spec- ifications as I was waiting to meet with the general director of IRTRAMMA, Francisco Alvarado. An automotive engineer by training, Al-
varado provided some great insights into the past and future of Nicaragua’s buses amarillos (yellow buses). Te first ones arrived as part of the international relief
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