Cambria County (PA) Transit Authority Unit IDs

Urban Division

How the Portable Numbering System seems to work

From the way the units fall in the portable number system, it looks like Portable 1-4 must have been the original units, because they go from highest power to lowest, from Director, Dispatcher, Maintenance, to Mechanics. This may be back when the authority first opened.

It seems that more people were added, going from highest to lowest command again, starting with Dispatch Supervisor to Dispatcher, then all operations, being Director, Manager, Supervisor, then Rural Op Man.

This theory can't be 100% confirmed, but it lines up perfectly versus any other theory every tried. One other theory was it went by last names in order or jobs in order, but these were busted almost immediately.

Portables (mainly Supervisor and Above Units)

• Portable 1 - Former Executive Director/General Manager [Speculation]

• Portable 2 - Dispatcher Use (see Note 2) [Verified] - Seems most likely to be the new Dispatch Supervisor and also usually when P5 is unavailable, is the Roads Supervisor, so might be Backup RS, though sometimes works along with P5. [Speculation]

• Portable 3 - Buildings & Grounds [75% Verified]

• Portable 4 - Mechanics/Garage [Verified]

• Portable 5 - Operations Supervisor [Formerly Dispatch Supervisor but took over Portable 9's jobs] [Verified]

• Portable 6 - Dispatcher Use (see Note 2) [Verified]

• Portable 7 - Director, Safety, Security, & Risk Management (Director of Ops) [Verified]

• Portable 8 - Operations Manager [Verified]

• Portable 9 - Retired Road Supervisor [Verified]/Operations Supervisor [Speculation]

• Portable 10 - Current Executive Director, but has to be heard to confirm [only heard during Halloween Parade 2008, not heard again Halloween Parade '09] (see Note 1) (see Note 3). [Speculation]
• Portable 11 - Possible NEW number for Dispatcher Use [Speculation]

• Portable 126 - Possibly Former Maintenance Director (Never Heard) [Speculation]

• Portable 127 - Maintenance Director (Mechanics/Garage (Portable 4)) (See Note 4) [Verified]

• Portable 128 - Maintenance Supervisor (Bus Cleaners & Transit Center Maintenance) (See Note 4) [75% Verified]

• Not Yet Heard - Purchasing/Maintenance Manager [Speculation]

• • 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. 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 during the Halloween Parade '09, they were not heard again.

• • Note 4: Portable 127 & 128 seem to sometimes be working in the Urban division but seem to work at the Inclined Plane other days. It's almost like a coin-flip as to where they will work at times.

Chain of Command (Highest to Lowest)

• Executive Director (not yet sure if has Portable number though believed to be Portable 1/10)
• Portable 7
• Portable 8 & Rural Op Man (never heard in J-Town, also not sure if has P-number)
• 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, though sometimes P2 (arriving 6AM-2PM) works along with P5 (arriving normal 8:30AM-4:30PM) the same day, now that a third dispatcher has been hired).
• Portable 8 - Third Choice for Route Detour Work (Rare)
• Portable 7 - May be 4th choice but never actually heard doing Detour Work

Who's Who In Command

• Executive Director - Seems to never be on the radio and main job seems to be in charge of all directors from Operations all the way to IT, Marketing & Planning (who don't use radios either).

• Director of Operations/Safety/Security/Risk Management - Seems to be the guy who is always contacted of bus injuries and accidents involving buses. Seems also do training sometimes but radio use is very limited.

• Manager of Operations - Seems to rarely be on the radio but at tad more than the Director. Seems to be the driver's boss and handles road detour work when the Sup of Ops is busy and cannot do it, if one of the Dispatchers aren't assigned to it.

• Supervisor of Operations - Seems to be the main operations guy that Driver/Dispatchers go to when they need a supervisor. Is the main roads detour person. Also handles a lot of training, picking up passed-up passengers, & checking areas for buses running late then taking them to bus/where they need to go. May be in charge of Dispatchers, as it's not clear if a new Dispatch Supervisor was selected from the now 3 current Dispatchers.

• Dispatcher/Supervisor - This is kind of a weird title because they normally dispatch but at any time can become supervisors using their assigned portable numbers and can do anything from training to simple route detour work. The Road Detour Work being the most popular usage. Normally go to Sup of Ops with any thing of importance but seem to make more decisions when acting as a Portable (maybe temp in charge if P5 is not there) vs Dispatcher where everything seems to go through Sup of Ops. Dispatchers seem always ask a higher up before making a decision unless no one is available.

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)

• Transit Center - Maintenance worker down at Transit Center. (Finally got a working radio to use)

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 (See Note 5)
• 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 C6/C7 (See Note 6)
• C6 - Mechanics/Portable 4 Vehicle
• C7 - Mechanics/Portable 4 Chevy Blazer
• C11 - Rural Division Ford Van that's part of Rural but also used by Urban for driver reliefs, picking up passed up passengers, and more. Never seems to leave the Johnstown area.
• T87 - Portable 4 Vehicle - Rarely Heard
• T88 - Service Truck (Portable 4)
• T89 - Maintenance Pick-up Truck
• T93 - Unknown Truck

• • Note 5: 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 6: 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 7)

• • Note 7 - 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 Ch. 1 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.

Vehicles

• Axx - Buses/Cars
• A54 - Car
• A57 - Ford Focus

Units

• Portable 10 - Basically the person the buses call for when they are worried when someone doesn't answer the door. (See Note 8) (See Note 9)

• • Note 8: 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 9: 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: Because of 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+.

• 5: Finally, they just are not big enough of an agency to create a completely seperate page just for them.

Inclined Plane

Units

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