More Bus Moves

[jajuan]

Seems funny NP would be short buses. They only sent out the 20 Novas and have gained about 30 artics recently. The only thing I can figure is maybe their short 40 footers, but I don't see why they can't send artics down the #49 or #50. Didn't seem to stop Kedzie when they did the #50.

Maybe but they pretty much reserve their artics for the express routes, the 22, the 151 and what runs they operate on 152 and now most recently the 56. I haven't seen what they do on the 92 yet so I can't say what buses they do on that. At any rate, Kedzie sent an occasional artic on the 50 only very rarely so that's not really an adequate comparison. Plus with the ramped on service on the expresses out of North Park a sizeable number of artics is already out on the street to think very many are available outside those and the local routes they already operate on. Not to mention all those extra artics doesn't necessarily mean there's always the manpower on hand at a given time to have them spread out everywhere.

[BusHunter]

Maybe but they pretty much reserve their artics for the express routes, the 22, the 151 and what runs they operate on 152 and now most recently the 56. I haven't seen what they do on the 92 yet so I can't say what buses they do on that. At any rate, Kedzie sent an occasional artic on the 50 only very rarely so that's not really an adequate comparison. Plus with the ramped on service on the expresses out of North Park a sizeable number of artics is already out on the street to think very many are available outside those and the local routes they already operate on. Not to mention all those extra artics doesn't necessarily mean there's always the manpower on hand at a given time to have them spread out everywhere.

The #56 is just school runs (so it's not like there out there more than an 1/2 hour each way. ) Kedzie used to run alot of NABI's on the #52, #50, #82, #12, #126, #7 back in the day. (Kevin even has some pictures on here) For some reason they seem to be the only garage that runs artics away from the Lake and downtown that are not school runs. I wonder what's the big deal about running some artics down Western. (I mean this is a future BRT corridor) Back in my school days they used to run #7100's down Western as Lane Tech school runs. I remember once they had a fatality at Berwyn terminal regarding an artic. Maybe that spooked them off Western, I didn't really see them after that.

[jajuan]

The #56 is just school runs (so it's not like there out there more than an 1/2 hour each way. ) Kedzie used to run alot of NABI's on the #52, #50, #82, #12, #126, #7 back in the day. (Kevin even has some pictures on here) For some reason they seem to be the only garage that runs artics away from the Lake and downtown that are not school runs. I wonder what's the big deal about running some artics down Western. (I mean this is a future BRT corridor) Back in my school days they used to run #7100's down Western as Lane Tech school runs. I remember once they had a fatality at Berwyn terminal regarding an artic. Maybe that spooked them off Western, I didn't really see them after that.

And at that time there were 226 artics compared to only 208 up to this past December. Again not an adequate comparison. And it wasn't always really a heavy number of artics on those routes even when Kedzie ran artics on them more regularly. You just happened to see a number of artics in operation on a more regular basis. I should know as I lived not far from Kedzie garage at that time. Yeah Kevin has pictures of artics on some of those routes, but the artics in question were one of maybe a few artics on that route on a given day out of the total number of buses that covered the route on that day. And it's not written in stone that Western (or Ashland for that matter) will get BRT in place. And even if it did that's not an automatic go for artics to take over. The extra artics are supposed to be for relieving crowds on heavier routes in general for already existing service, not to specifically start up BRT services that right now are still in the realm of fantasy. And what difference does it make if there are no artics on Western at present, as long as there is a bus running period.

[pete6125]

4051 is operating on route 146 and 1537 is operating on route 155.

[RJL6000]

4051 is operating on route 146 and 1537 is operating on route 155.

4051 has already been officially transferred to North Park about a week and a half ago. As for 1537, it is likely a loan: North Park is a little short on operable 40-footers (as BusHunter suggested).

[jajuan]

Just how short is NP on 40 footers? I spotted 1477 in my neighborhood on the 93. That one is a recent transfer from Chicago to 103rd.

[sw4400]

"Just how short is NP on 40 footers? I spotted 1477 in

my neighborhood on the 93. That one is a recent

transfer from Chicago to 103rd."

Maybe North Park is getting ready to ship some buses out for the "gut" rehab that will start in the Spring.

[Busjack]

"Just how short is NP on 40 footers? I spotted 1477 in

my neighborhood on the 93. That one is a recent

transfer from Chicago to 103rd."

Maybe North Park is getting ready to ship some buses out for the "gut" rehab that will start in the Spring.

Unless that's going out of order, one would think 103rd first, if it still has 1001-

NP's are a couple of years newer.

[sw4400]

I don't know how the CTA is going to do it, but they don't get the buses in order(I always thought XX00 would be the first to arrive on CTA property, but usually it's not). They might do the rehabs out of numerical order. (e.g: Start with North Park, go to Kedzie, etc...).

[Busjack]

I don't know how the CTA is going to do it, but they don't get the buses in order(I always thought XX00 would be the first to arrive on CTA property, but usually it's not). They might do the rehabs out of numerical order. (e.g: Start with North Park, go to Kedzie, etc...).

Would make no sense. Why rehab a 3 year old bus on the North Side if a 6 year old bus (which would be the half life) is smoking up the South Side?

If I were to presume that anything CTA did made any sense (and I usually don't), it would be that the 1000 series is so fragmented among garages that something like this would not take one garage's buses out at a time. Otherwise, they could just give 103rd 1000-1180 (approximately speaking), instead of 1000s, 14-1600s and 1800s as Bus Tracker now reflects.

1003 may have beaten 1001, but definitely not 1499 or 1834.

Of course, I don't know how many spares either CTA or Pace has to cover their rebuilding projects.

[sw4400]

Would make no sense. Why rehab a 3 year old bus on the North Side if a 6 year old bus (which would be the half life) is smoking up the South Side?

If I were to presume that anything CTA did made any sense (and I usually don't), it would be that the 1000 series is so fragmented among garages that something like this would not take one garage's buses out at a time. Otherwise, they could just give 103rd 1000-1180 (approximately speaking), instead of 1000s, 14-1600s and 1800s as Bus Tracker now reflects.

1003 may have beaten 1001, but definitely not 1499 or 1834.

Of course, I don't know how many spares either CTA or Pace has to cover their rebuilding projects.

Valid points, and you hit the nail on the head... we're talking the CTA. Going back to 2001-2002, I don't remember how the TMC's got their rehabs, maybe somebody on here does, but I don't think 4400, 4401 and 4402 were the first... I think the first ones were in the 4600's or 4700's somewhere.

[BusHunter]

Valid points, and you hit the nail on the head... we're talking the CTA. Going back to 2001-2002, I don't remember how the TMC's got their rehabs, maybe somebody on here does, but I don't think 4400, 4401 and 4402 were the first... I think the first ones were in the 4600's or 4700's somewhere.

It was completely random. First bus was out of 77th, #4768 I believe, the second was #4474 out of NP. The buses all got there air conditioners installed around the same time and were rehabbed at a different time. One of the last buses in 2004 was #4858. #4400-02 were rehabbed towards the end of the rehabs.

[sw4400]

It was completely random. First bus was out of 77th, #4768 I believe, the second was #4474 out of NP. The buses all got there air conditioners installed around the same time and were rehabbed at a different time. One of the last buses in 2004 was #4858. #4400-02 were rehabbed towards the end of the rehabs.

Exactly!!! This is my thinking on the New Flyer rehabs. The oldest buses might be at 103rd, but the CTA will most likely do the rehabs randomly from various garages.

[Busjack]

Exactly!!! This is my thinking on the New Flyer rehabs. The oldest buses might be at 103rd, but the CTA will most likely do the rehabs randomly from various garages [emphasis added].

Except that the 4400s were only about 480 buses delivered over a year or so, not 1030 of a base and 4 options over a much longer period (and, as you like to point out, of two different engine types).

Also, the air conditioning project was independent of the life extending rehab project.

And I see that you have gone back on your thesis that one garage would be done first.

[cta5658]

I've spotted 103rd's #1010 on the 151 doing a NP run

[jajuan]

"Just how short is NP on 40 footers? I spotted 1477 in

my neighborhood on the 93. That one is a recent

transfer from Chicago to 103rd."

Maybe North Park is getting ready to ship some buses out for the "gut" rehab that will start in the Spring.

No this has nothing to do with rehabs. Because NP has borrowed 1004, 1010, and 1537 in addition to 1477 from 103rd. in the past few days.

[sw4400]

How 'bout a little Harlem Shake on the CTA???

Harlem Shake on the Blue Line

Harlem Shake on the Bus

Harlem Shake on a 2200-Series Railcar

[Busjack]

How 'bout a little Harlem Shake on the CTA???

Also made the I-Team story, basically about it on airplanes. Said it was leftovers from the Violence on CTA story.

[Busjack]

Just on Channel 7.1, someone attacked a CTA driver with a stun gun around 5600 W. Jackson.

[artthouwill]

Just on Channel 7.1, someone attacked a CTA driver with a stun gun around 5600 W. Jackson.

Nice shot of a 95E bus in the photo.

[Busjack]

The story du jour is that an assailant on a CTA train got so tired pummeling the victim that he took a break, then started again.

And, in a bizarre twist, he was stopped wearing the same clothes as in the alert. I always thought that the police reports about "dressed in blue jeans" were usually worthless.

[sw4400]

I just saw 6751 headed NB on Lincoln near Warner. Display said "Not In Service" and it's run number began with an "F".

[Kimball401]

Wait ....

if you saw a artic on Archer..then that means Kedzie® doing what I didn't want to see (rolling the fleet everywhere) cause I'm not knocking it but wouldn't that be a tight fit @ Harlem and Pulaski© Orange line terminals?

[jajuan]

Wait ....

if you saw a artic on Archer..then that means Kedzie® doing what I didn't want to see (rolling the fleet everywhere) cause I'm not knocking it but wouldn't that be a tight fit @ Harlem and Pulaski© Orange line terminals?

Artics on Archer aren't anything new or all that unusual. In the 80's up until the about the early 90's, Archer garage used to have several express routes that ran along the Stevenson Expressway from the Dan Ryan feeder lanes that start across from the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line stop up to Pulaski or Cicero depending on the route and the time of day and operated on Archer west of those two streets. They all used MAN 7100 series artics. There also was a 62 Archer Express at that time that had almost the same routing of the local except the northbound buses stayed on State north of Polk up to Wacker Drive, terminated at Archer/Cicero instead of Harlem and was limited stops south of Roosevelt. That route also used artics. It and all the Stevenson express routes except two (routes 99 and 164, which survived as rush hour only routes until they too got eliminated under the BoozAllen cuts of 1997-1998) were eliminated July 3, 1994 after an approximate nine month grace period given to keeping those routes after the opening of the Orange Line rail route in October of 1993. Archer garage then gave up its artics since just about all its express routes were eliminated. There was also a 61 Archer/Frankin Express that operated peak direction only between Merchandise Mart and Archer/Harlem providing limited stops once outside of downtown, but it didn't use arctics because it was interlined with the local version of the 62.

[BusHunter]

Wait ....

if you saw a artic on Archer..then that means Kedzie® doing what I didn't want to see (rolling the fleet everywhere) cause I'm not knocking it but wouldn't that be a tight fit @ Harlem and Pulaski© Orange line terminals?

That's not any worse than when Kedzie ran NABI's to 35th/Archer and Kedzie orange line stations, in fact the Kedzie station is tighter than Pulaski. But I think the Western and Ashland Orange line stations hold the biggest challenge for artics. That may get addressed one day if Ashland and Western go BRT.