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NABIs Pulled from Service


Kevin

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Doesn't necessarily mean they won't be.

I agree. If it's going to be a bustracker issue, then who cares? A bus not on bustracker is better than no bus anywhere. I'm sure the CTA can muster up about 90 4400s/5300s/5800s from the Perry Yard in order to fill the gap left by the 7500s. The fare machines can also be reinstalled from NABIs and into these buses. Wow, if this happened, it would be freakin' sweet!

Also, it's kind of awkward to see the NABIs on the retirement list on on the bus page of this site alog with the 4400s and 5300s. It's good to know that whatever NABI that was didn't structurally fail in the middle of LSD with a full load of passengers!

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Its too bad this is happening because the NABIs are good looking buses, the look of them really grew on me, its sad to see this happen. But of course Safety! is the number one concern so it was a good decision to remove these buses from service. It never hit me until today how bad the problems were on those buses. Im sure if I had driven them I wouldve experienced it for myself. Aside from the NABI bus fire on LSD not too long ago, Thank God there were no other serious accidents resulting from this. What are the chance upon completion of their inspections how many of them will be returned to service?. Also does CTA have a lawsuit pending against NABI for the defective construction of these buses. I dont think this recall will affect the Pace NABI fleet.

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I wonder if the CTA will get reimbursed for the NABI's, and what will happen to these buses now. Will they just be scrapped, or will the FTA take some and rip them apart for investigative purposes?

ABC 7 just gave me a scare... they were showing images of the DE60LF's!!! :o

Yes, the media dosent know the bus fleet. Fox 32 at 9pm just now showed the New Flyers too in their report. Thats a good way to confuse riders. Riders seeing this will believe when a NF D60 pulls up they will think this is a defective bus. The media should at least make the effort to identify the bus series so as not to confuse riders. The 10pm news is coming on right now!

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It's obvious that the NABI 60LFW's have some serious issues, but I wouldn't be so quick to absolve the CTA of all responsibility for the current condition of these buses. Remember New York's issues in the 1980's with its Grumman-Flxible 870's? Grumman took responsibility for the cracked engine frames and repaired every 870 bus on the road. A few years later, a Grumman bus burned up in Manhattan and TA president David Gunn made a big deal of pulling all of the 870's out of service, claiming they were unsafe, but it was later discovered that the fire was caused by shoddy maintenance practices.

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ABC7 just reported that NABIs have all been taken down to 103rd garage for inspection. From what the info the CTA has given, for now the NABIs are just parked for the inspection.

I would think, even with CTA's love of moving stuff around for the sake of doing so, they

will just stay put for now where they are at. The 10:00 newscasts showed buses parked all

over. Channel 9 was at North Park and 7 was showing Kedzie.

I have a few questions on all of this...

1. Right now this is just one bus...why the big panic? I know there have been issues with the

NABI's all along. Is this a ploy to get some action on the lawsuit, or is this another way to

cry for capital money....or are they really white elephant junk.

2. How much is this poor workmanship on the part of NABI and how much is poor maintenance

on the part of CTA? I guess that would come out in a trial.

3. I remember seeing some MAN's that had these kind of separations back in the day. How much

of this is simply the trials and tribulations of artics in general, and can we, in the future, expect

to see some of this with the New Flyers.

4. I wonder just how many times the bus in question was written up relating to the bend area and how often it was put back on the street. I really don't think this bus just cracked up to that degree on the way back to the garage yesterday !!!!

If it sounds like I am siding with busfan here, I guess I am. Much of the things he speaks of going on sounds a lot like some of the stuff I see on a daily basis where I am, especially with the older equipment. I wonder if this could have been forseen and acted upon in a different manner. A passenger interviewed on one of the news stations hit it right on the head.....it is always a case of react instead of act !!!

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Anyone who rides the NABI's regularly shouldn't be surprised that these things have been pulled off the road. I ride the 147 every day to and from work, and for a good long while before the 4000s arrived, I rode NABI's 99% of the time.

These buses are truly horrible. Even rare examples in "good" condition (1 in 100, i'd say), rattle so badly, they feel like they are just one small frost heave from shattering into a thousand pieces all over LSD. But most of them aren't in "good" condition. Their suspension is so stiff that every crack in the road sends a jarring shove right up your spine. Big bumps can take the breath right out of you. And then there's the odd NABI whose suspension has completely collapsed, usually at the rearmost axle. I ride a NABI with collapsed (that is, deflated air spring bags) suspension probably 1/5 of the time, and it's almost always on the rearmost axle. On one of these buses, big bumps can throw you right out of your seat such that you literally sand up. I've learned just about every bump along the rout I travel, and so lift my butt out of the seat in anticipation. The deafening thud over a big bump i sneough to make fellow commuters gasp every time.

The result? Well, before the NABI's were pulled off the road today, the superficial effect of these rough riding beasts was that interior lights and panels were almost always loose, dangling from that last suborn screw holding things together.

Apparently, and unsurprisingly, all that banging around finally caused one to fail. And I'm really surprised it's the first one to fail badly enough to cause public attention. I recall several buses with completely failed suspensions (rear axle airbags deflated) that weren't fixed for days.

7614 was one example. Back in the summer, before LSD had been repaved, I boarded this bus and found out right away that the left rear air spring bag was deflated. Obviously, the ride was punishing, but the asymmetric failure also caused the bus to twist violently at the articulation joint as one side of the rear section bounced far more severely than the other. That evening I saw the same bus, still crooked due to suspension failure, pass me by as I walked to the bus stop. The next morning, I boarded the very same bus, still broken. And the next day, I saw it pass by on Michigan avenue having been assigned to another route, still sagging and crooked, bouncing up and down on it's left rear tires like an old dump truck.

And then, just this morning, I experienced a surprising irony. I was on 4013 between Hollywood and Bryn Mawr when it broke down. 7580-something was right behind us and saved the day: I had an important meeting that I couldn't be late fore.

Here's to hoping the comfy, soft-riding Hybrid artics are reliable enough to replace the 7500s once and for all.

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All NABI buses have been immediately removed from service for safety reasons. Full details in the news story.

Thanks for breaking this story. This site was the first place I heard about this safety recall, which will affect thousands of commuters, and then the news shows finally jumped on the story. Well done....

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I don't think that was a done deal with getting the retired buses. Now my question is, if you can't get any of the buses that are already retired, would they get any "retired" buses from Pace (similiar to what they did with the Green Line Renovation?) I know it sounds ridiculous, but its a idea nonetheless (that I dreamt about).

\Which reminds me: if I dream about buses in my sleep, I need help =p

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I don't think that was a done deal with getting the retired buses. Now my question is, if you can't get any of the buses that are already retired, would they get any "retired" buses from Pace (similiar to what they did with the Green Line Renovation?) I know it sounds ridiculous, but its a idea nonetheless (that I dreamt about).

\Which reminds me: if I dream about buses in my sleep, I need help =p

Probably no to the first, yes to the second, although I have already confessed to that. :DB)

Unlike in about 2003 when Pace got the 183 NABIs and retired the 2000s in fairly decent shape, the accessible stuff in the yard looks like junk. So, unless CTA wants to pick up a few 8900s, which are not accessible, or there are a few 2100s sitting for Ravinia service, not much there.

I was thinking more in the direction of leased school buses, again, like what Pace did in 1980. Again, don't see that with the CTA.

Now what I am thinking...there was a board meeting Wednesday, and the crack "just happened" to be discovered yesterday. There could be many agendas there, including to give a little taste of doomsday in advance.

Also, is it just coincidence that the DE60LF orders were in?

I'm not saying that happened, but with CTA management not being transparent, who knows?

Also, there are too many inconsistencies in one person's postings here that he doesn't get a pass from me, but it isn't worth it anymore to pursue it. Let's start by saying that Dorval Carter was on Channel 2 last night, not some garage foreman.

I'll also refrain from commenting on those of you that are drafting pleadings or saying what the real outcome of litigation will be, other to say that, as I did before, my professional background is closer to Dorval Carter's and neither one of us is a bus driver.

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