Retiring "Worst of the Worst"

[Busjack]

In connection with my prior remark that no bus necessarily replaces a particular old bus, the Tribune article listed on the home page, while repeating what those of us following CTA President's Reports have known for about 5 months about the maintenance workflow, also said:

In addition to combining maintenance tasks into assembly line fashion, the CTA has introduced a "worst bus identification" system.

"It helps us to identify the worst of the worst buses that are costing us the most to operate so we can remove these buses from service first as new buses are delivered and save money," Swanson said.

That seems to correspond to what the street observers have said here.

Also, with regard to that article, I suppose that trainman would challenge the statistics, since Chicago has mostly new buses, but they may represent something if it also includes the remaining 5400s.

[trainman8119]

In connection with my prior remark that no bus necessarily replaces a particular old bus, the Tribune article listed on the home page, while repeating what those of us following CTA President's Reports have known for about 5 months about the maintenance workflow, also said:

That seems to correspond to what the street observers have said here.

Also, with regard to that article, I suppose that trainman would challenge the statistics, since Chicago has mostly new buses, but they may represent something if it also includes the remaining 5400s.

I am not sure why I would challenge the stats themselves, regarding Chicago Garage. My beef with statements made in the article, that is that they try to take a small sample and apply it to other parts of the system where, currently, what they are doing has no impact. If you take a garage with new equipment that is less prone to have major problems, yeah, you can say it is a wonderful system. Also, the kit and assembly line system seems to apply to PM's and not major repairs. So, if you have buses with major problems, you are going to have to put them on a hoist or take them down for longer periods. Buses should not be down for days doing oil changes and radio checks...if they were, yeah they should have fired some people. I will also stand on the opinion that newer stuff is less prone to have major breakdowns and by implementing these systems doesn't necessarily mean that when the dam breaks the same mechanical problems and missed assignemnts won't happen again. What will be interesting to see is how some of this stuff works at a garage like 74th with all older stuff, and, is that section of town at risk for some serious service shortages should this stuff start falling apart.

[geneking7320]

When I read the article I thought that intuitively one would retire the worse buses first and the CTA was already doing that. :blink:

[Busjack]

When I read the article I thought that intuitively one would retire the worse buses first and the CTA was already doing that.

I mentioned this in rebuttal to those who claimed that buses were retired in numerical order or by some other system. The wrath of Hades will fall on me again.