The Breakdown Thread

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

10 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1279 said:

1655 suffered a coolant leak, there’s a nice fresh puddle of coolant at that elston bus stop coming west, also 1655 is back in service in the pull out lanes for the AM

That must be why because its engine fan was running on max speed pretty much the entire time tryna cool it down. This bus also blew out a little smoke on the sides at Kedzie but I didn’t see smoke again after that

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

8694 is being towed westbound down North Ave at that Menards in Melrose Park

[Busjack]

29 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

8694 is being towed westbound down North Ave at that Menards in Melrose Park

Probably going to Prevost Parts in Franklin Park.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1862 was being towed to NP about an hour ago after it broke down on the 36.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

Here’s what I spotted earlier today, 8791 on the tow truck going north on halsted meeting at Broadway around 5:30pm this evening.

[garmon757]

Yikes!

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

8 hours ago, garmon757 said:

Yikes!

saw that same bus on the #91 earlier and guess what……..SAME SOUND as in the video😂😂

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1628 is broken down at Austin & Roosevelt and everyone is jumping buses.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

46 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

1628 is broken down at Austin & Roosevelt and everyone is jumping buses.

Back in service 5:35pm

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

Just spotted #8338 being towed into 103rd garage.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

I spotted 4349 getting towed away from Congress Plaza with electrics and even the engine still running.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1677 broke down at Taylor/Ogden going WB. No wonder why that bus keeps on going MIA, continually breaking down.

[strictures]

I don't know what buses broke down Tuesday at the beginning of the afternoon rush, but it sure made a mess on the NB Clark runs.  When are the idiots in the control center going to wake up & realize that Clark is the most important North Side route that isn't an express run.  When i finally got off at Devon, a totally empty artic was one minute behind the massively overcrowded Flyer.

Maybe ban Flyers from Clark runs & use only the new Novas on it, along with the 4300 artics

They should've ordered a couple of Broadway runs to become Clarks! After all, Broadway uses Clark from Division to Diversey!

[Sam92]

On 12/4/2025 at 9:27 AM, strictures said:

  When are the idiots in the control center going to wake up & realize that Clark is the most important North Side route that isn't an express run.  

 

Clark has ALWAYS been a priority what are you talking about? It was one of the first locals to get artics along with 156 and 151. Don't remember if it was included in the decrowding plan but I'm pretty sure it was, early 135/136's become 4PM 22's and years of schedule adjustments so show us where CTA has been neglectful 🥴. 

TELL CDOT CUT THE BS WITH THE TRAFFIC CALMING! That's part of the issue. Maybe extend the bus lane on Dearborn to Chicago so the delays NB aren't as bad leaving downtown. If a certain mayor hadn't have pissed away the BRT money maybe we wouldn't have had to wait til "better streets for buses" to fix parts of 66 and 79 which were a target 17 years ago in that study; whatever success from that probably would have spread around vs these unnecessary bike lanes. Imagine instead of the Bike Lane on Lawrence we had a bus lane like 66. Could probably fill the void of not having the Brown/Blue connection or X80 but thank his ego 🙄

outside of the suggested short turns at Belmont you mentioned it's gonna take whatever study was posted in the System Pick topic to address that or use Ashland since it's wider. 

 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

On 12/4/2025 at 9:27 AM, strictures said:

I don't know what buses broke down Tuesday at the beginning of the afternoon rush, but it sure made a mess on the NB Clark runs.  When are the idiots in the control center going to wake up & realize that Clark is the most important North Side route that isn't an express run.  When i finally got off at Devon, a totally empty artic was one minute behind the massively overcrowded Flyer.

Maybe ban Flyers from Clark runs & use only the new Novas on it, along with the 4300 artics

They should've ordered a couple of Broadway runs to become Clarks! After all, Broadway uses Clark from Division to Diversey!

4201 was one that was stopped at the start of the line but it made a 148 run on time

4360 is questionable because it does not have a good GPS.

8757 never made a trip departing Harrison at 3:42 and instead was put on the 134.

[strictures]

3 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Clark has ALWAYS been a priority what are you talking about? It was one of the first locals to get artics along with 156 and 151. Don't remember if it was included in the decrowding plan but I'm pretty sure it was, early 135/136's become 4PM 22's and years of schedule adjustments so show us where CTA has been neglectful . 

 

 

Clark is not a priority.  If it was, why hasn't it been added to the ten minute plan?  I often sit at home watching Bustracker on my computer for over 45 minutes for a bus!

[Sam92]

4 hours ago, strictures said:

Clark is not a priority.  If it was, why hasn't it been added to the ten minute plan?  I often sit at home watching Bustracker on my computer for over 45 minutes for a bus!

FBN doesn't determine if a route is priority. That initial roll out is to establish a basic grid of frequent routes that help crosstown travel and fill in gaps that rail doesn't fill so there's no correlation. Again if spending 2009 til now trying various ways didn't work the smart thing to do would be address the actual issue which is traffic which is an CDOT NOT CTA issue. 🙄

[YoungBusLover]

5 hours ago, strictures said:

Clark is not a priority.  If it was, why hasn't it been added to the ten minute plan?  I often sit at home watching Bustracker on my computer for over 45 minutes for a bus!

I'll just chime in and say the 22 is a priority route. The thing is during the rush periods there is a lot chaos going from on Ida B Wells to just before Foster Ave. The runs are out there but if the traffic gets in the way along with other hazards then you'll have bottlenecks all over the place that will lead to bus bunching. Which is something the Control Center has been cracking down on as of late. Even as it stands right now the street is still jacked up even at 10:30 PM. You can add 20 - 25 buses on a street but if the coordination from all parties (Bus Operators, Supervision, Control Center and most importantly the PUBLIC) aren't in sync you will see a show of a circus out there. 

[Sam92]

9 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

I'll just chime in and say the 22 is a priority route. The thing is during the rush periods there is a lot chaos going from on Ida B Wells to just before Foster Ave. The runs are out there but if the traffic gets in the way along with other hazards then you'll have bottlenecks all over the place that will lead to bus bunching. Which is something the Control Center has been cracking down on as of late. Even as it stands right now the street is still jacked up even at 10:30 PM. You can add 20 - 25 buses on a street but if the coordination from all parties (Bus Operators, Supervision, Control Center and most importantly the PUBLIC) aren't in sync you will see a show of a circus out there. 

That's kinda why I keep saying the Ashland reroute might do SOMETHING since buses have room to pass, could give control center a little more to work with too with the faster traffic on Ashland 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4144 broke down at the Foster exit ramp on LSD and was about to be picked up by a tow truck right after I took this picture.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4047 was broke down at 67th/Jeffrey at 6:15 pm

[strictures]

On 12/6/2025 at 8:21 AM, Sam92 said:

That's kinda why I keep saying the Ashland reroute might do SOMETHING since buses have room to pass, could give control center a little more to work with too with the faster traffic on Ashland 

Except the runs are not out there, 45+ minute waits prove that!

[Busjack]

15 hours ago, strictures said:

Except the runs are not out there, 45+ minute waits prove that!

Are you actually on the curb, or relying on the virtual world of CTA's admittedly inaccurate predictors? As you earlier said, you don't know if anything broke down, and this is THE BREAKDOWN THREAD.