Fuel

[trainman8119]

I know that the Pace owned garages have their own fuel pumps and get their diesel at wholesale, or at least, discount rates. However, what about the contract carriers ?? On my way home from work last night, I was driving down Thorndale and at the Citgo station at Thorndale and Wood Dale roads in Wood Dale, I saw about 8 buses at the diesel pumps at this station. The quick glance at the numbers put these buses at Keeshin (2300 Orion's). They have quite a fleet at their O'Hare garage, in addition to Pace buses, and I would find it interesting that they would be fueling all of their buses at a regular station without some sort of discount...especially in today's economy.

Did they run out of their own fuel ???

Might this be ultimately be costing Pace more money...or would Keeshin be footing the cost ???

[Busjack]

I thought I had read somewhere that Pace provides fuel to its contract carriers, but could not pin it down. I have seen paratransit vehicles fueling at the most expensive gas stations around (although, after Katrina, they aren't, any more), but that doesn't necessarily mean that the paratransit operators are paying the cash pump price.

Anyway, it wouldn't be Keeshin O'Hare anymore, since they went out of business when they lost their lease due to O'Hare expansion. Pace website says Academy Coach Lines for the 326, 600, 606, 616 contract, and Cook County School Bus for 696 and 699, both of which run 2300s (although 696 and 699 also seem to have a lot of ex-Highland Park 2077-2084 buses, which are just as old as the 2070s that formerly ran on those routes).