Cambria County (PA) Transit Authority Unit IDs

Urban Division

Portables (mainly Supervisor and Above Units)

• Portable 1 - Believed to be Executive Director
• Portable 2 - Dispatcher Use (see Note 2)
• Portable 3 - Believed to be Buildings & Grounds
• Portable 4 - Mechanics/Garage
• Portable 5 - Operations Supervisor [Formerly Dispatch Supervisor but took over Portable 9's jobs]
• Portable 6 - Dispatcher Use (see Note 2)
• Portable 7 - Director, Safety, Security, & Risk Management (Director of Ops)
• Portable 8 - Operations Manager
• Portable 9 - Retired Roads Supervisor
• Portable 10 - Believed to CamTran+ (Rural) Operations Manager [only heard during Halloween Parade 2008] (see Note 1) (see Note 3).
• Portable 127 - Maintenance Director (Mechanics/Garage (Portable 4))
• Portable 128 - Purchasing/Maintenance Manager (Bus Cleaners & Transit Center Maintenance)

• • Note 1: Portable numbers are mainly used on Urban. Also the Cambria County Area Agency on Aging has a Portable 10 and shares Rural's channels, so normally Portable 10 on Rural channels is theirs not CamTran's.

• • Note 2: Dispatcher Use is when a Dispatcher goes on the road (each has their own number) to do road detour work or some special assignment (normally special events like parades).

• • Note 3: Portable 10 is kinda of a weird unit, because it was only heard during the Halloween Parade '08 and no identifying information was heard. It's been almost a year now with the Halloween Parade '09 coming up very soon. Due to P10 helping out during the Halloween Parade that points to a non-maintenance/operations person. Everyone in operations is covered except the Executive Director and the CamTran+ Op Man. It's somewhat a 50/50 and hopefully this Halloween Parade, they will be out once again.

Chain of Command (Highest to Lowest)

• Executive Director (not yet sure if has Portable number though believed to be Portable 1)
• Portable 7
• Portable 8 & 10 (10 usually never is in Johnstown)
• Portable 5
• Portable 2 & 6

Route/Road Detour Work

• Portable 5 - Main Route Detour Worker
• Portable 2 & 6 - Second choices if not needed for Dispatch (usually on weekends that have special events when P5 doesn't normally work or weekday when P5 is on vacation or busy).
• Portable 8 - Third Choice for Route Detour Work (Rare)
• Portable 7 - May be 4th choice but never actually heard doing Detour Work

Other (non-Portable) Units

• Dispatch - Dispatcher in Moxham Garage
• Bus Stop Stop - Person working in Bus Stop Shop at Transit Center on Main St
• Inclined Plane - Person working the Inclined Plane on Edgehill Dr
• Front Desk - Customer Desk at Moxham Garage (sells bus passes and gives bus information on phone)

Vehicles

• 124 & 125 - Renaissance Trolleys used for Downtown Shuttle
• 2xx - Buses (rarely used except for bus replacements when nothing else is avaible)
• 5xx - Buses
• 6xx - Buses (Read Note 4)
• 7xx - Buses (Newer buses with Security Cameras)
• 8xx - Buses (Newest buses with Security Cameras)
• Axx - Cambria County Area Agency on Aging Buses
• Cxx - Rural Division buses except C7 (See Note 5)
• C7 - Mechanics/Portable 4 Vehicle
• C11 - Rural Division Ford Van that's part Rural but also used by Urban for driver reliefs, picking up passed up passengers, and more. Never seems to leave the Johnstown area.
• T88 - Service Truck (Portable 4)
• T89 - Maintenance Pick-up Truck

• • Note 4: 601 was the only known 6xx series bus. It was mainly used on the Windber 21 bus route, but this bus seems to have disappeared and has not been heard of on the radio for 10 months, so it's safe to assume it's most likely gone.

• • Note 5: Normally Cxx buses are used on Rural channels but some buses stay in Johnstown (ADA) so use Urban and others (Route 30 normally) use it when in Johnstown to talk to Johnstown Dispatch or Johnstown Drivers.

Common Abbreviations

• Barn - Moxham Garage/Office
• Bus Stop (Shop) - Store located in the Transit Center that sells food and passes, plus contains one of the lost and founds.
• Down - Late, i.e. 5 minutes down
• Helper - Can either be a shuttle bus when a detour is in effect or just a bus that's covering part of a run for another driver
• Reporter - Driver (normally new person though when doing "reverse seniority" can be an older (not age-wise) driver) that waits at the Moxham Office and responds when need for covering a run, doing a helper, and more
• Run - Single trip, i.e. 8:30AM Route #15
• TC - Short for Transit Center, located on Main St in Downtown Johnstown
• WC - Wheelchair

Rural Division

The Low-Down on Rural

• • Note: Radio usage is extremely low on Rural channels and most traffic is Area Agency on Aging. No Portable or special units have ever been heard on Rural channels. It's basically a bus to bus or bus to dispatch type of radio usage, nothing special like Urban. Though some fire departments are said to have Rural programmed in to their radios, no evacuations or anything like what is on Urban has ever been heard on Rural. Rural also has no where near the employees of Urban. Also the radio coverage is horrible at times, so landlines need to be used instead further lowering the activity.

Vehicles

• Axx - Cambria County Area Agency on Aging Buses
• CXX - Rural Division buses except C7 (See Note 5)

• • Note 5 - Rural buses usually stay on Rural for when they are not in Johnstown which most are not. Though some buses like the Route 30 Ebensburg/Johnstown use Ch. 3 when in Rural area but Urban in Urban area so that Urban buses can tell the 30 when they have passengers or vice-versa, and besides Rural channels work lousy in Johnstown due to how far away the repeaters are, Nanty-Glo and Carrolltown. Also, Johnstown ADA routes use Urban.

Cambria County Area Agency on Aging

Units

• Portable 10 - Care Management Supervisor (basically the person the buses call for when they are worried when someone doesn't answer the door) (See Note 6) (See Note 7)

• • Note 6: Even though Portable 10 is the person who is called when drivers are worried when someone doesn't answer the door for a meal delivery or to go somewhere, sometimes, drivers just contact Ebensburg Base/Dispatchers instead. Why sometimes using P10 and sometimes Dispatchers is not yet clear. Though it is assumed that if the driver thinks the person is home just not answering the door, Dispatch can handle it, yet if possibly mail is stacked up & other things point to bad, P10 is contacted.

• • Note 7: Now it may seem confusing why an agency would start with the number 10 instead of starting with 1. It is believed, since Aging knew CamTran was using Portable 1-9 at the time they needed a number (unknown when this actually was), they knew 10 was unused. It seems though this logic has disappeared since CamTran now seems to have gotten their own Portable 10. Yet it seems Aging didn't care to move up to Portable 11, which actually could come in use soon, for another Dispatcher Use.

Why Aging Was Added To This Page

Even though it's obvious that the Cambria County Area Agency on Aging is a completely different agency than CamTran/CamTran+, it's included on this page for the following reasons:

• 1: Aging shares the same channels with CamTran+ (Rural) (so if you listen to Rural you hear Aging no matter if you don't want to)

• 2: CamTran mechanics do Aging's mechanical work

• 3: Aging and CamTran+ share a building in Ebensburg

• 4: Finally with their use of the "Portable" type for supervisors, it can confuse who's unit(s) you are listening to, especially if you don't hear them call an A or C bus. A being Aging and C for CamTran+.

Inclined Plane

Units

• Incline 1 - Believed to be Operator
• Incline 2 - Believed to be 2nd Operator