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6400-series Nova LFS - Updates & Retirements


sw4400

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Looks like a report is out that bus 6735 was involved in a crash today on the West Side. Wasn't much of a story since only a few people, including the bus driver, was injured, but that bus got rear-ended. Wonder if that bus will be fixed or retired?

http://abc7chicago.com/news/2-injured-in-cta-bus-crash/417467/

Seems like some bus gets rear ended about every other week. The lack of video indicates this wasn't much.

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With the help of my binoculars, #6476 #6487 #6597 #6655 #6693 #6709 and #6749 are on the list of retirement.

Alright!! Go Garmon!!

I got to see #6883 yesterday on the #78 and that bus has no working bells on the whole bus and is missing seat partitions and the seats are almost as bad as 77th's. Doesn't anyone care about these old buses?

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Nope. They don't care at all.

FG does, I've watched the buses sent there get better and better but there is still a few that's iffy. At least I haven't seen a bus with all glazed (broke down) seat inserts like #6439 was. That bus was particularly nasty and you're supposed to sit on that!! They probably never changed the inserts in the 13 years it's been driving around which is really amazing when you think about it.

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FG does, I've watched the buses sent there get better and better but there is still a few that's iffy. At least I haven't seen a bus with all glazed (broke down) seat inserts like #6439 was. That bus was particularly nasty and you're supposed to sit on that!! They probably never changed the inserts in the 13 years it's been driving around which is really amazing when you think about it.

Seeing as those in charge of assigning buses to garages are still stuck in this craziness of stocking FG with the oldest model in the fleet for the time being, FG has no choice but to care.

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That seems kind of a low figure for 2 years.

As past experience indicates, they'll advertise again, if they need to.

What hits me as more surprising is that they are finally getting off the schneid on scrapping Novas, which they haven't so far.

Also in an oddity (which maybe Kevin can explain) the link works in my post, but not when you quoted it.

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Speaking of scrap, there is a solicitation for scrapping 220 buses. Cracking it open, it is for up to 200 6400 series Nova Buses, for up to 24 months.

So....

  • 200 Novas
  • Miscellaneous wrecked/damaged buses(what comes to mind.... 1305^, 1468^, 1482^, 4071, 4333, 4323, 4327, 5900-5902) for a total of ten(10) buses.
  • 10 New Flyer DE40LF(800-Series)*

Since this won't take place until 2015, this would be my interpretation of the contract... I'm not going to register to see the solicitation unless I was intending to bid on the contract.

*=Presuming this is part of the contract for scrap here.

^=These New Flyer D40LF's should be getting rehabs like the others, but they seem to be forgotten... perhaps they will not be rehabbed, just scrapped.

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So....

  • 200 Novas
  • Miscellaneous wrecked/damaged buses(what comes to mind.... 4071, 4333, 4323, 4327, 5900-5902)
  • 10 New Flyer DE40LF(800-Series)*

Since this won't take place until 2015, this would be my interpretation of the contract... I'm not going to register to see the solicitation unless I was intending to bid on the contract.

*=Presuming this is the other twenty(20) buses on contract for scrap here.

No 200 Novas and 20 500's

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No 200 Novas and 20 500's

Well minus the D40LF's mentioned(which I have doubts about seeing road service again, especially 1482), when will the others mentioned(especially the long overdue 5900-5902) be scrapped? I would look for the 800's to be retired at some point in 2015... IMO.

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As past experience indicates, they'll advertise again, if they need to.

What hits me as more surprising is that they are finally getting off the schneid on scrapping Novas, which they haven't so far.

Also in an oddity (which maybe Kevin can explain) the link works in my post, but not when you quoted it.

Probably the devil is in the details as it states up to 2 years which could be anywhere from 12/30/14 until 2 years. One way we could gauge it by date is to look at the contract solicitation of the #2200/#2400 scrap contracts and what they stated and what happened.

So legally then once this solicitation goes out CTA is bound to retire those buses by 2 years. So nothing better happen to Novabus. :huh: Really they could retire 100 now and another 100 by next year so I think the contract is a year ahead but maybe CTA is just being cautious. They could always draw up another contract.

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Actually it is the opposite. All of the specifications are "up to" so while CTA is presumably legally obligated to sell something, that's it.

The contractor is legally obligated to take up to 220 buses within the 2 years and pay the bid amount per weight (the bid amount being plus or minus some index for scrap steel). If the contractor receives 220 buses or two years pass, the contractor can say that the price is no longer good, and then CTA has to go out to bid again (or use the auction site, or whatever).

...

So legally then once this solicitation goes out CTA is bound to retire those buses by 2 years.....

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I don't know who is riding these #6880's out at 74th, but they must be kin to Bruce Lee. You know #6881 has replaced partitions as well as #6883. You know what they did to #6881. Some wise acre deciding they were going to replace it with a painted over old wood finished partition at the back door. Well now it's wearing off the brown shows through and it looks really nasty. I don't know why they just don't replace it with a old retired nova's. #6883 has what looks like sheetmetal partitions and partitions missing. Boy they really did a number on these buses.

Someone needs to also take a look at #6503. The seats look terrible and when you sit in the back the seats smell of sweat. It's got to be about the worst fg bus I've seen.

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So how long will the 6400's be around? My guess is probably for another 3-4 more yrs.

Maybe 3 years for the better ones with amber signs, but as noted above, CTA is soliciting bids to scrap up to 200 in 2 years, and if they go faster, can rebid. If CTA exercises the option in 2015, I don't see the deliveries of the 8200s being much later than in 2017.

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