More Bus Moves

[jajuan]

Well, the 1930's at least still have regular seats in the back. These guys aren't used to the seats being all through out the bus (over heard from some riders complaining) lol. And mileage wise I think 103rd's artic fleet has more mileage as 6 and J14 are longer than NP's artic routes as well as longer service hours (6 runs till 1:30 am). NP just has more routes to run them on but the routes 103rd uses their artics on probably give more wear and tear. And on another note I wonder how 77th's gonna keep their artics charged seeing as 79th runs artics 24/7 and using nearly all its artics there in the peak (except days where 77th does shuttles).

Yeah 6 and J14 are longer routes, but NP artics are doing more circuits up and down the Drive than those at 103rd, 103rd gave up at least half of its 4000s when it got 4300s, and NP's artics tend to get used on more routes than those at 103rd. So all of those factors point to NP having the higher mileage 4000s. a little more than half of what it had it gave up to Chicago and 77th (which came from NP's originally assigned allotment it had since 2008) for the 67 clean diesels. So as I said, the riders on 79th are now currently riding on some of the highest mileage artics in the fleet.

[See Tea Eh]

Yeah 6 and J14 are longer routes, but NP artics are doing more circuits up and down the Drive than those at 103rd, 103rd gave up at least half of its 4000s when it got 4300s, and NP's artics tend to get used on more routes than those at 103rd. So all of those factors point to NP having the higher mileage 4000s. a little more than half of what it had it gave up to Chicago and 77th (which came from NP's originally assigned allotment it had since 2008) for the 67 clean diesels. So as I said, the riders on 79th are now currently riding on some of the highest mileage artics in the fleet.

NP has more routes that use artics. NP also has more artics (don't people on this board whine so much about how many artics North Park has?). The mileage probably balances out.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

...& drunks puking up all over the floor.

A horror story of sorts for emetophobes. Fortunately the L cars I've been on have been clean in that respect.

[jajuan]

NP has more routes that use artics. NP also has more artics (don't people on this board whine so much about how many artics North Park has?). The mileage probably balances out.

Yeah more artics that aren't and haven't been just sitting around unused (with the exception of all those heavy snow weekends of this past winter), especially when it comes to the fleet numbers that got swapped out which as I pointed out NP had been assigned since their delivery in 2008 and used quite heavily, so I doubt it on the balancing out unless we're talking about the entire artic fleet as a whole instead of specific fleet numbers. But thanks for the input. And when you got a situation like 77th having more than just the #79 that warrant a heavier artic use but only has enough to handle the high ridership on that one route because NP is running artics half empty on routes that now have their higher ridership more even spread out thanks to somewhat politically implemented DeCrowd Plan, then yeah North Park is indeed artic heavy. I don't apologize for thinking NP was fine with its artic count being maybe 90 to 100 instead of the current approximate 120 to get a more even distribution in the current assignments before CTA even thinks of increasing the current artic total beyond the current approximate 300 to maybe 305, if we account for the 4300 assigned to 103rd that got totaled by that dump truck last winter as it was pulling into the garage and other artics that either had to be retired or placed on long term hold.

[See Tea Eh]

Yeah more artics that aren't and haven't been just sitting around unused (with the exception of all those heavy snow weekends of this past winter), especially when it comes to the fleet numbers that got swapped out which as I pointed out NP had been assigned since their delivery in 2008 and used quite heavily, so I doubt it on the balancing out unless we're talking about the entire artic fleet as a whole instead of specific fleet numbers. But thanks for the input. And when you got a situation like 77th having more than just the #79 that warrant a heavier artic use but only has enough to handle the high ridership on that one route because NP is running artics half empty on routes that now have their higher ridership more even spread out thanks to somewhat politically implemented DeCrowd Plan, then yeah North Park is indeed artic heavy. I don't apologize for thinking NP was fine with its artic count being maybe 90 to 100 instead of the current approximate 120 to get a more even distribution in the current assignments before CTA even thinks of increasing the current artic total beyond the current approximate 300 to maybe 305, if we account for the 4300 assigned to 103rd that got totaled by that dump truck last winter as it was pulling into the garage and other artics that either had to be retired or placed on long term hold.

I'm not sure I got my point across that well, so let me restate it.

NP has a lot of service that uses artics. NP has a lot of artics. 103rd has less service that uses artics. 103rd has fewer artics.

I don't have the exact numbers offhand, but if, hypothetically, North Park has a peak service requirement for 80 artics and has 100 in the fleet, and 103rd has a peak requirement for 20 artics and has 25 in the fleet, both sets of buses will get used more or less the same. In general, the spare ratios are similar at various garages, which keeps the overall utilization of the fleet balanced assuming two garages with comparably aged fleets.

Now, whether each garage has been performing maintenance to the same standard is another question, and one I can't answer. But in terms of overall utilization, the 2008-2009 DE60LFs probably all have comparable mileage.

[jajuan]

I'm not sure I got my point across that well, so let me restate it.

NP has a lot of service that uses artics. NP has a lot of artics. 103rd has less service that uses artics. 103rd has fewer artics.

I don't have the exact numbers offhand, but if, hypothetically, North Park has a peak service requirement for 80 artics and has 100 in the fleet, and 103rd has a peak requirement for 20 artics and has 25 in the fleet, both sets of buses will get used more or less the same. In general, the spare ratios are similar at various garages, which keeps the overall utilization of the fleet balanced assuming two garages with comparably aged fleets.

Now, whether each garage has been performing maintenance to the same standard is another question, and one I can't answer. But in terms of overall utilization, the 2008-2009 DE60LFs probably all have comparable mileage.

You got your point across so please don't patronize me, especially when I didn't make the case for 103rd but instead was speaking of 77th, pretty much for the reasons you made about 103rd. I just happened to disagree with your assessment from the first time you made your point. And if you notice I actually said North Park will be fine with 90 to 100 artics, so in a way when you reiterated your point you made my case that North Park is artic heavy with a current count of roughly 120. So that's 20 artics that maybe 77th, not 103rd, can put to use on some of its runs on the 3, 4 and 8 at the very least.

[sw4400]

I'm not sure I got my point across that well, so let me restate it.

NP has a lot of service that uses artics. NP has a lot of artics. 103rd has less service that uses artics. 103rd has fewer artics.

I don't have the exact numbers offhand, but if, hypothetically, North Park has a peak service requirement for 80 artics and has 100 in the fleet, and 103rd has a peak requirement for 20 artics and has 25 in the fleet, both sets of buses will get used more or less the same. In general, the spare ratios are similar at various garages, which keeps the overall utilization of the fleet balanced assuming two garages with comparably aged fleets.

Now, whether each garage has been performing maintenance to the same standard is another question, and one I can't answer. But in terms of overall utilization, the 2008-2009 DE60LFs probably all have comparable mileage.

Well, if you want to show exactly what routes use artics that North Park is assigned*, then here you go...

*=denotes shared route with another garage

Assigned to North Park

Assigned to North Park/shared with another garage

• x98 Avon Express
• 22 Clark
• 50 Damen
• 56 Milwaukee
• 135 Clarendon/LaSalle Express
• 136 Sheridan/LaSalle Express
• 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express
• 147 Outer Drive Express
• 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express
• 151 Sheridan
• 152 Addison
• 154 Wrigley Field Express

So that's 12 routes that use artics all the time/part of the time. I'm not sure of how many routes at 77th use artics, but I don't think it's anywhere near 12. The ones that stick out to me as possible routes that may use them would be...

• 8 Halsted
• 79 79th
• 87 87th

I don't really see any other route needing artics. Maybe a few of the other single digit routes, perhaps(jajuan just mentioned the 3 and 4 in his post above)? I would think North Park needs 100+ artics because of the routes they service and they also need spares in the event a few are out of commission for a day or so for mechanical issues(CTA Maintenance gets them running again, but they're only human).

[See Tea Eh]

You got your point across so please don't patronize me, especially when I didn't make the case for 103rd but instead was speaking of 77th, pretty much for the reasons you made about 103rd. I just happened to disagree with your assessment from the first time you made your point. And if you notice I actually said North Park will be fine with 90 to 100 artics, so in a way when you reiterated your point you made my case that North Park is artic heavy with a current count of roughly 120. So that's 20 artics that maybe 77th, not 103rd, can put to use on some of its runs on the 3, 4 and 8 at the very least.

First, I doubt you have the actual vehicle pullout schedules or peak vehicle requirements for any of the garages, so I don't know how you would be qualified to say that North Park would be fine with 100 when the CTA folks who do have that info say they need 120. Second, let's assume you're right, and NP could get away with 100 instead of 120. If that's the case, then you just made the opposite point that you were claiming. Namely, that with less service scheduled than they have buses for, NP buses would spend more time sitting around or getting lightly used, and therefore have less mileage on them than a comparable artic at another garage.

As for sw: a list of artic routes doesn't say anything about how many buses are actually needed or used, but I'm fairly well aware of the routes that see artics, either part time or full time. Thanks anyway.

[jajuan]

Well, if you want to show exactly what routes use artics that North Park is assigned*, then here you go...

*=denotes shared route with another garage

Assigned to North Park

Assigned to North Park/shared with another garage

• x98 Avon Express
• 22 Clark
• 50 Damen
• 56 Milwaukee
• 135 Clarendon/LaSalle Express
• 136 Sheridan/LaSalle Express
• 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express
• 147 Outer Drive Express
• 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express
• 151 Sheridan
• 152 Addison
• 154 Wrigley Field Express

So that's 12 routes that use artics all the time/part of the time. I'm not sure of how many routes at 77th use artics, but I don't think it's anywhere near 12. The ones that stick out to me as possible routes that may use them would be...

• 8 Halsted
• 79 79th
• 87 87th

I don't really see any other route needing artics. Maybe a few of the other single digit routes, perhaps(jajuan just mentioned the 3 and 4 in his post above)? I would think North Park needs 100+ artics because of the routes they service and they also need spares in the event a few are out of commission for a day or so for mechanical issues(CTA Maintenance gets them running again, but they're only human).

X98 got reassigned to FG a year ago and only has one lonely SB trip per weeknight, so that one can definitely be scratched off your list. The 50 and 56 only have one or two artics each sighted on the slim occasions artics from NP get seen on those two. 135 and 136, I've seen the artics on their at times half full. I won't say 135 could do with less though because of it being the only express route remaining that helps out the 146 along the Inner Drive south of Irving Park when it comes to the high number of riders from the high rises along that stretch. The 136 though looks like it do with a few more 40 footers in place of artics during the last hour of both its rush period operations. The 152 runs have always tended to mostly be school trippers that then hopped on the Drive to become one of the Lake Shore expresses that are assigned there even in the days that the count was 80 before creeping up to 100 just before DeCrowd was implemented, so 152 hasn't really changed the number of artics needed. And although CTA never officially announced it, but the 154 no longer exists due to the fact that Mr. Ricketts made a different deal to have Cubs fan parking moved to a different location from the lots of DeVry and arranged for a different operator to operate shuttle service from that new location as part of that new deal. So North Park no longer needs artics for that purpose. So as I was pointed out to See, I don't think that North Park's artic count needed to jump to 120 and that that 20 artics that NP's count increased by at the implementation of DeCrowd could be better used at 77th.

First, I doubt you have the actual vehicle pullout schedules or peak vehicle requirements for any of the garages, so I don't know how you would be qualified to say that North Park would be fine with 100 when the CTA folks who do have that info say they need 120. Second, let's assume you're right, and NP could get away with 100 instead of 120. If that's the case, then you just made the opposite point that you were claiming. Namely, that with less service scheduled than they have buses for, NP buses would spend more time sitting around or getting lightly used, and therefore have less mileage on them than a comparable artic at another garage.

As for sw: a list of artic routes doesn't say anything about how many buses are actually needed or used, but I'm fairly well aware of the routes that see artics, either part time or full time. Thanks anyway.

I don't think I did make the case that NP artics have a lot less mileage just because I made the argument that it could get by with 100 artics instead of 120 due to two routes in particular having a number of them closer to half empty during the later half of those two routes' rush hour lengths of time in service since the fact of the matter is those artics still got placed on the road and therefore still collected the mileage. So we can bump your hypothetical counterargument on that point unless in fact you want to make the ridiculous argument that the only buses North Park has available for downtown service are articulated buses. One thing I'll point out to your counterargument is that NP did have 145 and 148 in conjunction with Kedzie before DeCrowd was instituted and both of those did use a lot of artics (including those that North Park traded off to Chicago and 77th for all the clean diesels and had pretty much since the days they got placed in service) compared to what 40 foot buses got used which still would account for mileage collected. And just because I don't work for CTA does not mean I don't observe a sizeable number of artics in service on those two routes and others running half empty, which would suggest a higher ratio of 40 foot buses could probably be used in addition to artics at those particular times you got artics struggling to make it to half capacity filled, so I'll ignore that "you lay people don't understand all CTA's operations" crack since it rings rather arrogant even if you didn't intend it to be. So yeah thanks anyway.

[sw4400]

X98 got reassigned to FG a year ago and only has one lonely SB trip per weeknight, so that one can definitely be scratched off your list. The 50 and 56 only have one or two artics each sighted on the slim occasions artics from NP get seen on those two. 135 and 136, I've seen the artics on their at times half full. I won't say 135 could do with less though because of it being the only express route remaining that helps out the 146 along the Inner Drive south of Irving Park when it comes to the high number of riders from the high rises along that stretch. The 136 though looks like it do with a few more 40 footers in place of artics during the last hour of both its rush period operations. The 152 runs have always tended to mostly be school trippers that then hopped on the Drive to become one of the Lake Shore expresses that are assigned there even in the days that the count was 80 before creeping up to 100 just before DeCrowd was implemented, so 152 hasn't really changed the number of artics needed. And although CTA never officially announced it, but the 154 no longer exists due to the fact that Mr. Ricketts made a different deal to have Cubs fan parking moved to a different location from the lots of DeVry and arranged for a different operator to operate shuttle service from that new location as part of that new deal. So North Park no longer needs artics for that purpose. So as I was pointed out to See, I don't think that North Park's artic count needed to jump to 120 and that that 20 artics that NP's count increased by at the implementation of DeCrowd could be better used at 77th.

Ok, I was going off Kevin's list under his Garages page. As far as the number of artics, maybe they have too much, maybe they have the requirement for what they use them for. I know they need "X" amount of artics for daily use with a "Y" amount of artics needed for spares(e.g: artic breaks down, etc...). What they exact need vs. amount of spares is, I don't know. Right now, the count is about 120(119 to be specific). I would figure they run about 70 of those throughout the garages that use them both full and part time, have about 30 what I would call "fresh fueled" buses so those running low can be circulated out of service to be refueled while one of the "fresh fueled" buses replaces it, and 20 are emergency spares that are used in the event of a breakdown/accident that puts a artic out of service. The next day, the buses get refueled and are shuffled so different buses are allotted to the different groups(for example: 4385 is a regular use bus today while 4058 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4352 is a emergency spare bus. Tomorrow, 4058 becomes a regular use bus, 4352 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4385 is a emergency spare bus). That's just how I think the garages system-wide set up their buses(this system is probably how they rotate their 40' stock as well).

Back when FG had TMC's in the early 2000's, I remember going west on Irving Park on #4713(I usually saw upper #4600's, #4700's both low and high numbers and middle to upper #4800's on FG routes then). The bus wasn't running very well(it had an audible alert tone and a light on the panel). After picking up a passenger just past Cicero, the bus died. The driver got it restarted and the alert tone went away, but came back with the light near Harlem. The bus continued on west to Cumberland, and when I was heading back east, I picked up the same operator on a different TMC(#4567). I asked her about the bus and she said it finally gave out and they gave her a spare. I never seen a #4500 on a FG route at the time, just the series numbers I mentioned above.

[garmon757]

So, I was seeing how long my bus was coming and look what I've spotted!!!

[Sam92]

Ok, I was going off Kevin's list under his Garages page. As far as the number of artics, maybe they have too much, maybe they have the requirement for what they use them for. I know they need "X" amount of artics for daily use with a "Y" amount of artics needed for spares(e.g: artic breaks down, etc...). What they exact need vs. amount of spares is, I don't know. Right now, the count is about 120(119 to be specific). I would figure they run about 70 of those throughout the garages that use them both full and part time, have about 30 what I would call "fresh fueled" buses so those running low can be circulated out of service to be refueled while one of the "fresh fueled" buses replaces it, and 20 are emergency spares that are used in the event of a breakdown/accident that puts a artic out of service. The next day, the buses get refueled and are shuffled so different buses are allotted to the different groups(for example: 4385 is a regular use bus today while 4058 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4352 is a emergency spare bus. Tomorrow, 4058 becomes a regular use bus, 4352 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4385 is a emergency spare bus). That's just how I think the garages system-wide set up their buses(this system is probably how they rotate their 40' stock as well).

Back when FG had TMC's in the early 2000's, I remember going west on Irving Park on #4713(I usually saw upper #4600's, #4700's both low and high numbers and middle to upper #4800's on FG routes then). The bus wasn't running very well(it had an audible alert tone and a light on the panel). After picking up a passenger just past Cicero, the bus died. The driver got it restarted and the alert tone went away, but came back with the light near Harlem. The bus continued on west to Cumberland, and when I was heading back east, I picked up the same operator on a different TMC(#4567). I asked her about the bus and she said it finally gave out and they gave her a spare. I never seen a #4500 on a FG route at the time, just the series numbers I mentioned above.

I wonder if 77th is going to tweak its artic deployment at some point for #79. They run artics 24/7 out here on this route but now that we have hybrids (which have to be plugged in at some point) I wonder how they are going to work that out cause doesn't charging a bus take a longer amount of time?

[sw4400]

So, I was seeing how long my bus was coming and look what I've spotted!!!

Looks like CTA listened about artics needed for #77.

[Busjack]

I wonder if 77th is going to tweak its artic deployment at some point for #79. They run artics 24/7 out here on this route but now that we have hybrids (which have to be plugged in at some point) I wonder how they are going to work that out cause doesn't charging a bus take a longer amount of time?

We went through that before. They are not battery buses, they are artics. The outlets at North Park is to keep them charged up when they are stored outside. 77th is all inside.

[garmon757]

Looks like CTA listened about artics needed for #77.

Yeah, tell me about it but I'll keep in eye on that for a few days.

[jajuan]

Ok, I was going off Kevin's list under his Garages page. As far as the number of artics, maybe they have too much, maybe they have the requirement for what they use them for. I know they need "X" amount of artics for daily use with a "Y" amount of artics needed for spares(e.g: artic breaks down, etc...). What they exact need vs. amount of spares is, I don't know. Right now, the count is about 120(119 to be specific). I would figure they run about 70 of those throughout the garages that use them both full and part time, have about 30 what I would call "fresh fueled" buses so those running low can be circulated out of service to be refueled while one of the "fresh fueled" buses replaces it, and 20 are emergency spares that are used in the event of a breakdown/accident that puts a artic out of service. The next day, the buses get refueled and are shuffled so different buses are allotted to the different groups(for example: 4385 is a regular use bus today while 4058 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4352 is a emergency spare bus. Tomorrow, 4058 becomes a regular use bus, 4352 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4385 is a emergency spare bus). That's just how I think the garages system-wide set up their buses(this system is probably how they rotate their 40' stock as well).

Back when FG had TMC's in the early 2000's, I remember going west on Irving Park on #4713(I usually saw upper #4600's, #4700's both low and high numbers and middle to upper #4800's on FG routes then). The bus wasn't running very well(it had an audible alert tone and a light on the panel). After picking up a passenger just past Cicero, the bus died. The driver got it restarted and the alert tone went away, but came back with the light near Harlem. The bus continued on west to Cumberland, and when I was heading back east, I picked up the same operator on a different TMC(#4567). I asked her about the bus and she said it finally gave out and they gave her a spare. I never seen a #4500 on a FG route at the time, just the series numbers I mentioned above.

Yeah what was left out of those fleet numbers of TMCs were part of went to Kedzie along with FG's 5300s at the time of the trade for all of Kedzie's 6000s, though Kedzie would get some 6000s again from 77th, a few from FG and later that 40 it got from 74th (as a way to increase 74th's NF count) along the way before the 6000s finally got retired in 2010.

So, I was seeing how long my bus was coming and look what I've spotted!!!

I wonder if that was in part to do with the earlier Cubs game that I think was set for 1:20 earlier in the afternoon if I remember the game advertisement given on the front of Wrigley Field correctly from when I passed it this morning and saw some fans out buying game tickets while on the #22 earlier this morning a few minutes before 11 AM.

I wonder if 77th is going to tweak its artic deployment at some point for #79. They run artics 24/7 out here on this route but now that we have hybrids (which have to be plugged in at some point) I wonder how they are going to work that out cause doesn't charging a bus take a longer amount of time?

I have noticed that once 77th started to get hybrids, a handful of 1000s once again started to get assigned to 79th again for reasons outside of the previous school run reasons that they had been reduced to when the 4300s were there.

[sw4400]

I wonder if that was in part to do with the earlier Cubs game that I think was set for 1:20 earlier in the afternoon if I remember the game advertisement given on the front of Wrigley Field correctly from when I passed it this morning and saw some fans out buying game tickets while on the #22 earlier this morning a few minutes before 11 AM.

There was no Cubs game today.

[BusHunter]

So, I was seeing how long my bus was coming and look what I've spotted!!!

Damn I wonder if the bus really showed up. Ironically I was further west on the #77 at 9:00 around Cicero and I didn't see any artics.

[See Tea Eh]

jajuan, all I'm saying is you have no basis for your original claim that North Park's artics get higher mileage than other artics. They may use more of them, simply because they have more of them. But when you average it out on a per-day basis, any individual bus isn't necessarily going to get more mileage than any other bus of the same age. Whether they're running half-full on a 136 or crushed to the doors on a 147 or 156, or comfortably loaded on a 6 or a 14 or whatever, the mileage is going to balance out.

Each garage, for the same fleet type, tends to have the same spare ratio, so no garage is going to necessarily run them harder than any other garage. And given the very peak-heavy nature of a lot of North Park's service, a lot of those buses are only running a few hours a day, and many don't leave the garage at all on weekends. So, those buses at North Park get plenty of opportunity to "rest" (really, for the mechanics to do mileage-based inspections and servicing and running repairs and what have you), but on a per-vehicle basis, it's really not any different than any other garage.

[BusHunter]

I don't know about that. NP has so many artics and they run them on the #151 and #22 on the weekends alot. #151's even on the weekday. If anything's resting at np it's the 40 footers. On sundays for instance all that the 40 footers run are the #155, #36, #97, #50, #49B, #11 and that is what; 50 buses. 65 percent of those are feeders and not even main service routes.

[See Tea Eh]

I would figure they run about 70 of those throughout the garages that use them both full and part time, have about 30 what I would call "fresh fueled" buses so those running low can be circulated out of service to be refueled while one of the "fresh fueled" buses replaces it, and 20 are emergency spares that are used in the event of a breakdown/accident that puts a artic out of service. The next day, the buses get refueled and are shuffled so different buses are allotted to the different groups(for example: 4385 is a regular use bus today while 4058 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4352 is a emergency spare bus. Tomorrow, 4058 becomes a regular use bus, 4352 is a "fresh fuel" bus and 4385 is a emergency spare bus). That's just how I think the garages system-wide set up their buses(this system is probably how they rotate their 40' stock as well).

In normal circumstances, you don't need "fresh fueled" buses on standby to rotate out buses for fuel needs, except for the night runs. A bus that's fully fueled when it leaves the yard should be able to make it through the entire service day without refueling. The artics can certainly do 18-20 hours on one tank of fuel (which is enough for a bus to pull out for the AM rush, and pull in at midnight). A 40-footer could make it past the 24-hour mark in normal local service, though it's not advisable to schedule it as such.

Buses get refueled overnight, and during the midday between peaks (for buses that came in after the AM rush), so unless something goes wrong (or you're doing some kind of alternative power test, such as the electric buses or whatever) you shouldn't have to worry about a transit bus's range in regular service.

The normal setup is to have a certain spare ratio, which will vary by fleet type. The spares aren't just for breakdowns on the road. Buses generally have a maintenance program that requires them to come in for inspection after so many miles (just like folks should take their cars in for an oil change every so often, for a tune up, rotate tires, etc.). Sometimes, there will be vendor warranty work that needs to be done (and buses get cycled through), or a bit more intense maintenance that requires the bus to be on hold for a day or more. This routine maintenance can vary, but could be 10% of the fleet at any given time.

Sometimes that can be moved to off-peak hours, but there's only so much capacity in the shop, so some of it has to be done during the peak.

Then, yes, you do have to account for unplanned mechanical breakdowns and such. Not just breakdowns that occur on the road, though, but often other issues that keep a bus off the road for an extended period of time. Sometimes, that hold is due to parts availability. Sometimes, it can be for simple shop capacity. There are many reasons that could cause a broken bus to stay broken for a while.

When it comes down to actual service on any given day, the peak of the peak might leave you with single-digits of spare buses, if that. It can also be the case that a garage simply doesn't have enough buses to make scheduled service, and work gets held in. That's not an issue specific to CTA either, it's something that most systems deal with to some extent or another.

While it's nice, in theory, to rotate buses between in-service and reserve, the reality is that most buses that don't go out during the rush hour are because they can't go out, for one reason or another, and not because they're sitting around waiting for another bus to develop a flat tire on the road. There is a much larger spare rate during the off-peak (middays, nights, weekends), and buses do get rotated through tripper and full-day work to keep the mileage balanced.

[See Tea Eh]

I don't know about that. NP has so many artics and they run them on the #151 and #22 on the weekends alot. #151's even on the weekday. If anything's resting at np it's the 40 footers. On sundays for instance all that the 40 footers run are the #155, #36, #97, #50, #49B, #11 and that is what; 50 buses. 65 percent of those are feeders and not even main service routes.

There are a lot fewer 22s, 151s, 146s, 147s, etc. on weekends than on weekdays (not to mention no 135s, 136s, 148s, etc. at all), so yes, many artics do get a rest on weekends.

[garmon757]

Damn I wonder if the bus really showed up. Ironically I was further west on the #77 at 9:00 around Cicero and I didn't see any artics.

Hey!!! You could've came by and say hi!!! LOL I'm kidding I'm guessing #4398 came about 9:20pm. I couldn't check because I had to take my kids mom halfway home.

[Sam92]

Hey!!! You could've came by and say hi!!! LOL I'm kidding I'm guessing #4398 came about 9:20pm. I couldn't check because I had to take my kids mom halfway home.

4398? Wow I wonder If they may have snuck in some NP runs on #77 with this recent and (complicated) trade.

[garmon757]

4398? Wow I wonder If they may have snuck in some NP runs on #77 with this recent and (complicated) trade.

The problem is that I couldn't determine whether or not it was a North Park run.