Man Americana CTA Bus

[jajuan]

.............. Once the subsidies ended, in 1983 I believe, any bus could be used in Evanston, and soon there were ETHS school trippers that were interlined with Clark and Sheridan.

Up until 2009, Evanston was strictly Nprth Park. In 2/09 FG took over some service on 201-205-206 and 97, but in 2013 FG service on 201 and 97 was eliminated as was NP service on 205 and 206 except for a couple of PM ETHS doubles that run with artics.

Maybe Andre can clarify for himself, but since the reference to artics was after the reference to assignments in 2013, I don't see where you are getting that he was talking about 1983. The 1983 reference seems more to when Evanston no longer had a distinctive fleet because there was not any reason to segregate the fare collections.

That's where I got the reference. His use of the word soon suggest he was speaking of close to 1983 and not 30 years later. The 2013 reference doesn't actually necessarily say what those artic run present day school tripper doubles on 205 and 206 are interlined with especially considering the PM rush artic runs on the 22 start with NB trips leaving Clark/Harrison after 4 PM.

[Busjack]

That's where I got the reference. His use of the word soon suggest he was speaking of close to 1983 and not 30 years later. The 2013 reference doesn't actually necessarily say what those artic run present day school tripper doubles on 205 and 206 are interlined with especially considering the PM rush artic runs on the 22 start with NB trips leaving Clark/Harrison after 4 PM.

I don't think he was making any assertion about interlining in 2013, nor that he was making an assertion about artics in 1983.

[andrethebusman]

I don't think he was making any assertion about interlining in 2013, nor that he was making an assertion about artics in 1983.

The ETHS school trippers started almost immediately after the 4000's took over Evanston service, at the time on 203 and 204 towards Howard and going into Clark service, using mostly 7400's. Artics didn't really start showing up on the school runs until early 90's when Clark started seeing artics on a regular basis.

[jajuan]

I don't think he was making any assertion about interlining in 2013, nor that he was making an assertion about artics in 1983.

The ETHS school trippers started almost immediately after the 4000's took over Evanston service, at the time on 203 and 204 towards Howard and going into Clark service, using mostly 7400's. Artics didn't really start showing up on the school runs until early 90's when Clark started seeing artics on a regular basis.

Thank you Andre. Enough said. Now care to continue with the suggestion that inferences can't be made about what was used based on timeframes spoken on Busjack? Moving along, that artic use on Clark of the 90s had to have been very brief or interlined with something else given that Clark became designated as an accessible route when NP got 4400s in the early part of the 90s and CTA had no accessible artics until late 2001 into early 2002 when it got the MAN 7300 artics second hand (as a stopgap until the 2003 start of the NABI 7500s) after the old 7100s all died left and right, forcing 135, 136 and 147 to be run mainly by the 4000s along with a few 4400s and 5800s for much of spring and summer of 2001. Speaking of 135, CTA had an odd situation going on with that route after the 7300s arrived. It had an accessible designation starting around early 2002 but NP still sent out MAN 4000s on this route regularly up until they finally left passenger service in 2004.

[andrethebusman]

Thank you Andre. Enough said. Now care to continue with the suggestion that inferences can't be made about what was used based on timeframes spoken on Busjack? Moving along, that artic use on Clark of the 90s had to have been very brief or interlined with something else given that Clark became designated as an accessible route when NP got 4400s in the early part of the 90s and CTA had no accessible artics until late 2001 into early 2002 when it got the MAN 7300 artics second hand (as a stopgap until the 2003 start of the NABI 7500s) after the old 7100s all died left and right, forcing 135, 136 and 147 to be run mainly by the 4000s along with a few 4400s and 5800s for much of spring and summer of 2001. Speaking of 135, CTA had an odd situation going on with that route after the 7300s arrived. It had an accessible designation starting around early 2002 but NP still sent out MAN 4000s on this route regularly up until they finally left passenger service in 2004.

Actually artics first showed up on 22 circa 1981, when there were only the 20 7000's. For a while after they had gone thru their "test" period when they were used on practically every route in the system, they got more-or-less steady assignments - a couple on Clark, a couple on Sheridan, a couple on Jeffery Express. Just on trippers that pulled in and out. You saw them leaving downtown about 5pm. When Clark was made accessible, North Park's artics (by then about 50 in number) were mostly on Sheridan express services.

[MRChiCity]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjR9TY72r1w Reminds of when the LSD express buses would get on at Belmont and I could here them from the Brier Street play-lot. It was fun to watch and listen to them really stretch to get up the ramp.

[andrethebusman]

That's where I got the reference. His use of the word soon suggest he was speaking of close to 1983 and not 30 years later. The 2013 reference doesn't actually necessarily say what those artic run present day school tripper doubles on 205 and 206 are interlined with especially considering the PM rush artic runs on the 22 start with NB trips leaving Clark/Harrison after 4 PM.

Evanston started using regular buses, mostly 7400's, in ETHS tripper service the first or second pick after Evanston lost its special status, and never stopped.

[Busjack]

BTW, take a look at what illustrates the Tribune article on Free Rides 2015.

[jajuan]

BTW, take a look at what illustrates the Tribune article on Free Rides 2015.

Ha ha. The local media really needs to update its CTA stock photos. While those old girls were my favorite CTA bus, the Tribune Company especially needs to be clued in that they haven't been on Chicago streets in a bit over 10 years now. And I say Tribune Company because Channel 9 is just as guilty of this when reporting on the CTA. They even show TMCs, and both Flxible series. It's like reliving the 90s sometimes when they show shots of CTA.

[Busjack]

... And I say Tribune Company because Channel 9 is just as guilty of this when reporting on the CTA. They even show TMCs, and both Flxible series. It's like reliving the 90s sometimes when they show shots of CTA.

But you might have missed that they were split into Tribune Publishing and Tribune Media.

However, the way the Sun-Times website looks, they have left the journalism business.

[ctrabs74]

But you might have missed that they were split into Tribune Publishing and Tribune Media.

However, the way the Sun-Times website looks, they have left the journalism business.

Funny thing is that I might still have the August 4 edition of the Tribune from when I was on my summer trip and there was a front page column heralding said split.

Even from reading the print edition on August 4, it looks like the Sun-Times left the journalism business.

[jajuan]

But you might have missed that they were split into Tribune Publishing and Tribune Media.

However, the way the Sun-Times website looks, they have left the journalism business.

No just still getting used to thinking of the two as separate business entities after all these years.

[RIPTA42]

The interesting thing is that the route the bus is shown operating on in the pic is one of MTA's limited stop routes, which if among CTA's routes would be considered express under CTA's system due to the limited stop operations as well as operating on local expressway.

The Q44A is today's Q46 - Union Turnpike (both local and limited-stop service today, but I don't know if there was a limited in the 1980s). It was renumbered in 1990.

The bus itself was just a demonstrator and was returned to MAN. It was sold to World Transportation in 1989.

[jajuan]

The Q44A is today's Q46 - Union Turnpike (both local and limited-stop service today, but I don't know if there was a limited in the 1980s). It was renumbered in 1990.

The bus itself was just a demonstrator and was returned to MAN. It was sold to World Transportation in 1989.

Yeah New York was not one of the five or so Americana cities. From what I can tell MTA had a bit of a head start on CTA in converting to a wheelchair accessible fleet and for various reasons MAN had pulled out of the States before its accessible version of the Americana could really make any headway in any American TA's outside of King County Metro serving the Seattle area. MAN doesn't build buses here anymore but it does still provide parts. So it pretty much survives in the American bus market now through the axles of all those New Flyer buses currently on the road today especially the LF and LFR models.

[Busjack]

Yeah New York was not one of the five or so Americana cities. From what I can tell MTA had a bit of a head start on CTA in converting to a wheelchair accessible fleet ...

NY MTA RTSs were accessible from the beginning (early 1980s), with lifts at the back door.

[jajuan]

NY MTA RTSs were accessible from the beginning (early 1980s), with lifts at the back door.

Exactly. Those are the buses I was thinking of when I said MTA had quite a headstart on CTA in converting over to an accessible fleet.

By the time CTA got the first of the 4400s and 5300s MTA was already a decade in on having accessible regular service transit buses. In fact as we all know it wasn't until 2004 that CTA's bus service was 100% accessible when the last of the MAN 4000s and the 4900s were retired from passenger service.

[RIPTA42]

New York's last 200 Grummans were also equipped with wheelchair lifts.

[MRChiCity]

Look at whats in the photo that WGN has of the CTA free school bus rides http://wgntv.com/2015/08/13/cta-offering-free-rides-on-1st-school-day/ 

[artthouwill]

50 minutes ago, MRChiCity said:

Look at whats in the photo that WGN has of the CTA free school bus rides http://wgntv.com/2015/08/13/cta-offering-free-rides-on-1st-school-day/ 

In journalism, that is a file photo, which is a graphic that can be used/re-used when a particular subject matter keeps coming up.  In the case of CTA, they just use one of a CTA bus.  The Redeye uses one of a 2400 series train all the time.  Basically this gives the viewer something other than just a talking head to look at.  There are no Tom Skilling types in journalism that share a love passion for transit.

[jajuan]

3 hours ago, MRChiCity said:

Look at whats in the photo that WGN has of the CTA free school bus rides http://wgntv.com/2015/08/13/cta-offering-free-rides-on-1st-school-day/ 

 

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

In journalism, that is a file photo, which is a graphic that can be used/re-used when a particular subject matter keeps coming up.  In the case of CTA, they just use one of a CTA bus.  The Redeye uses one of a 2400 series train all the time.  Basically this gives the viewer something other than just a talking head to look at.  There are no Tom Skilling types in journalism that share a love passion for transit.

Art is right. The local WGN/Truibune news media is notorious for showing stock images of old CTA equipment that in some cases has long been retired. I've lost count of the number of times that I've seen WGN show an image of an Americana serving either the 145 or 146 at the time of the image rolling down the Inner Drive similar to the photo in the linked article. The differences are on TV, they often show images earlier than this photo from before the use of bike racks on buses and when the Americana's destination signs still worked..

[kermitmex81]

The maple grove transit bus is from minneapolis. 

[jajuan]

8 hours ago, kermitmex81 said:

The maple grove transit bus is from minneapolis. 

Yes, and as I recall Maple Grove Transit is one of the suburban bus services for Minneapolis and St Paul, similar to but not necessarily the same as how Pace is the suburban bus service for the Chicago region. That's from the standpoint that Maple Grove Transit, like the other suburban Minneapolis bus services, exists because the municipalities in its service area opted out of being part of Metro Transit's network, while Pace is by Illinois law the suburban bus division of the Regional Transportation Authority in northeast Illinois and therefore the sole suburban transit bus service for the Chicago region. 

[MRChiCity]

Speaking of MAN Americans I remember them being used on the North Lake Shore Drive Express routes in addition the MAN artics. Speaking of MAN ARTICS am I the only one that thinks that the ones from Seattle left in Seattle colors were ugly? In addition to the MAN's I remember TMC's being used on the Lake Shore Drive routes., even in the early 90's when my family lived in Lakeview. How often were MAN's and TMC's used on the Lake Shore drive routes, and how come the bus stop at Belmont and the Drive was moved from the begetting of the southbound on ramp to where it is now? Thanks 

[MetroShadow]

1 hour ago, MRChiCity said:

Speaking of MAN Americans I remember them being used on the North Lake Shore Drive Express routes in addition the MAN artics. Speaking of MAN ARTICS am I the only one that thinks that the ones from Seattle left in Seattle colors were ugly? In addition to the MAN's I remember TMC's being used on the Lake Shore Drive routes., even in the early 90's when my family lived in Lakeview. How often were MAN's and TMC's used on the Lake Shore drive routes, and how come the bus stop at Belmont and the Drive was moved from the begetting of the southbound on ramp to where it is now? Thanks 

Those routes came out of North Park (or Kedzie depending on the pick/trip/block) in the 90's, and the TMC's and MAN's were the primary sources there; and since the artics were on their last legs by the late 90's...you didn't have much of a choice.

As for the near/far side stops at Belmont/LSD, it's partially a safety issue (going across a lane of traffic to the on-ramp), minimum spacing required for the buses, and a better spot for boarding. I remember when the stops were moved, and even as a teenager it made sense (of course, you wre subjected to sitting in a bunch of light cycles if you had one of THOSE drivers).

[MRChiCity]

When did the Lake Shore express routes become accessible? Because I would see TMC's being used on the LSD express routes before I suspect they became accessible.