More Bus Moves

[See Tea Eh]

The NABI swap that occurred in 2007 or 2008 or so between North Park and Kedzie was due to poor maintenance on the NP buses. At the time, North Park had a poor maintenance program going on, while Kedzie was keeping buses in good shape.

The end result of that was the North Park maintenance manager being fired and the Kedzie guy being promoted (I can't remember if the bus swap happened before or after the staffing moves).

[TripleTransit1]

Is Chicago Garage short on bus because saw 1227 and 6604 on #20 and 1400 on #65 this morning on bustracker.

Possibly loaners.

[garmon757]

6407 stop requested bell has upgraded to the one similar to the NF's bell.

[wordguy]

The NABI swap that occurred in 2007 or 2008 or so between North Park and Kedzie was due to poor maintenance on the NP buses. At the time, North Park had a poor maintenance program going on, while Kedzie was keeping buses in good shape.

The end result of that was the North Park maintenance manager being fired and the Kedzie guy being promoted (I can't remember if the bus swap happened before or after the staffing moves).

Thanks for the info, See. Gotta admit, maintenance issues never occurred to me as a factor.

You seem to have a lot of insight regarding CTA operations. So what do you think was the purpose of the most recent artic swaps?

[sw4400]

Saw another random New Flyer driving north on Lincoln in the section no longer covered by service about 9p last night(north of Irving Park Rd). Makes me yearn for #11 to be connected fully again from Howard/McCormick to North/Clark or Clinton Blue Line, wherever they want to terminate it at.

[wordguy]

Saw another random New Flyer driving north on Lincoln in the section no longer covered by service about 9p last night(north of Irving Park Rd). Makes me yearn for #11 to be connected fully again from Howard/McCormick to North/Clark or Clinton Blue Line, wherever they want to terminate it at.

A sentiment shared by many former riders of the #11, I'm sure.

Claypool & Company handled their appeals to save the service in a way that could only be described as ham-fisted. It seems as if they had made the decision to bobtail the #11 as part of the de-crowding plan, and that was that.

[garmon757]

A sentiment shared by many former riders of the #11, I'm sure.

Claypool & Company handled their appeals to save the service in a way that could only be described as ham-fisted. It seems as if they had made the decision to bobtail the #11 as part of the de-crowding plan, and that was that.

He don't give a (expletive) mate! When I found out that that route was going to be throttled, I was about to lose my freaking mind. So pretty much, screw him and his pathetic posse.

[sw4400]

What's the #1 rule when riding the CTA?

You gotta be a cool cat!

[sw4400]

The NABI swap that occurred in 2007 or 2008 or so between North Park and Kedzie was due to poor maintenance on the NP buses. At the time, North Park had a poor maintenance program going on, while Kedzie was keeping buses in good shape.

You could've had the best A+ maintenance program in 2007-2008 at NP and K, but that would not have amounted to a hill of beans with regards to the NABI's as you couldn't keep them in good shape for the life of them(which wasn't very long).

[Busjack]

What's the #1 rule when riding the CTA?

You gotta be a cool cat!

I'd rather have a hot dog.

[TripleTransit1]

I'd rather have a hot dog.

That's funny.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

I was outside of the O'Hare station waiting for someone I know to get off the Blue Line so I could help her get to her flight. This is the first time I've been to the area post crash, but what I thought was interesting were the lines for the Ventra machines. Each machine had at least five people waiting to use it. Good thing the person I was helping was going from the train to the plane, not the other way around.

On a side note, while driving to the airport garage, I spotted an out of service train leaving the airport. I'm assuming it's a train that's not needed after rush hour.

[artthouwill]

I saw bus 4002 WB on Harrison at Ashland. I thought it was a bus deadheading back to Kedzie since the Ike was a parking lot, but it was a 7 Harrison in revenue service

[jajuan]

I saw bus 4002 WB on Harrison at Ashland. I thought it was a bus deadheading back to Kedzie since the Ike was a parking lot, but it was a 7 Harrison in revenue service

There are some days you might see one artic out on the 7 during PM rush service. When it is one, you may spot it in that general area EB between 4:30 and 5 PM and again WB probably an hour later.

[BusHunter]

#1316's on the #65 today.

[garmon757]

#1316's on the #65 today.

Wow.......

[jajuan]

#1316's on the #65 today.

Could be a loan given the 1300s numbered lower are still up here at NP.

[See Tea Eh]

Thanks for the info, See. Gotta admit, maintenance issues never occurred to me as a factor.

You seem to have a lot of insight regarding CTA operations. So what do you think was the purpose of the most recent artic swaps?

I'm a couple years removed from the day-to-day operations, so I haven't paid attention to all the subsequent moves, but I do know that hybrids are best in local service (street running, frequent stops), and their benefits decrease significantly if you're running longer distances at higher speeds. So, from that perspective, it makes sense to keep the diesels where they'll be on Lake Shore Drive a lot, and focus the hybrids on routes with lots of stops. So therefore, putting more diesels on the 146/147 and hybrids on the 79 (and probably 3 or 4 or wherever 77th lets them wind up) allows yo to take advantage of the hybrids benefits.

Of course, I'll also point out that bus allocation is dependent on who's in charge at any given day. Different sets of management have different priorities, and sometimes even politics plays a part (though I doubt it in this specific case; I know of at least one artic shuffle a few years ago that was purely political and not based on service requirements).

CTA tends to bounce back and forth between wanting to keep common equipment types at garages for maintenance simplicity, and wanting to spread out the types to keep ages balanced between the garages (and all of the other variables that come into play).

I learned a while ago not to get too worried about the moves that happen. It keeps the bus fans on their toes.

(And to be perfectly honest, I normally don't read this thread. Occasionally, I'll click on it just to clear it from my "unread threads" list, and that's how I got sucked into this conversation this time.)

[BusHunter]

Hard to say exactly what CTA's motivations are with the artics. You might be right that the hybrids are a better fit for 79th but why the stimulus artics. CTA has showed with the near transfer of stimulus artics to kedzie there was a motivation to get those out of np. I think also it has to do with the possibility of 77th getting the #7900's. It looks too dominating to me to have your newest artics #7900's and almost newest #1000's in the same spot robbing a few garages of valuable newer buses that they could use. Somewhere the scales need to be balanced.

[dann]

Hard to say exactly what CTA's motivations are with the artics. You might be right that the hybrids are a better fit for 79th but why the stimulus artics. CTA has showed with the near transfer of stimulus artics to kedzie there was a motivation to get those out of np. I think also it has to do with the possibility of 77th getting the #7900's. It looks too dominating to me to have your newest artics #7900's and almost newest #1000's in the same spot robbing a few garages of valuable newer buses that they could use. Somewhere the scales need to be balanced.

If the 7900s are going to 77th then it would make sense to move 77th's 1900s to FG. But I've been wrong before, lol

[Sam92]

If the 7900s are going to 77th then it would make sense to move 77th's 1900s to FG. But I've been wrong before, lol

Well true but at least wait till the 7900's come in cause as far as NFs go, those 1900's are the only younger ones they have. I think beside those, the highest number 77th has is somewhere in the 1300's

[Busjack]

Well true but at least wait till the 7900's come in cause as far as NFs go, those 1900's are the only younger ones they have. I think beside those, the highest number 77th has is somewhere in the 1300's

But if you want to get into that, 74th is mostly Novas, and, as usual, has an average age of NFs older than 77th.

[Sam92]

But if you want to get into that, 74th is mostly Novas, and, as usual, has an average age of NFs older than 77th.

So if 77th does end up getting the Newer Novas first then they may as well kept the old ones there to begin with. Now it's gonna be extra trading going on cause those flyers are going to have to move somewhere (most likely to garages with older 6400s to replace them). Not saying that 77th isn't or doesn't have a need for new 7900's but considering all these trades, 77th is in a position to where it can hold off while the FG and 74th get their oldest NOVAs retired.

[ajm522]

77th is sitting pretty right now with the current setup, they have all flyers which are reliable and every bus has a shield to protect the drivers . I don't see any reason for 77th to be getting 7900 first. It would be stupid to ship NF back and forth for all those weekends just to ship them back. I think 77th is done with Nova for the time being.

[BusHunter]

If the 7900s are going to 77th then it would make sense to move 77th's 1900s to FG. But I've been wrong before, lol

That would make sense if the consensus now is to have buses with more seats/non longitudinal. They could send those over to FG as they have a little weaker ridership, but the #77 could use the extra standing space on those if it's never going to get artics. It does make sense too to send the #7900's to 77th first as the NF transfer was related to problems there with operator safety. Maybe when they did the transfer before the thinking was that they would be getting Novas by May so the NF's could go back to FG. It's really surprising to me that they have let the oldest buses run at FG especially for the ball games because that reflects on the city. But maybe running alot of NP #1000's is trying to compensate and also you have the few #4300's, but mostly those are used on school trips.