More Bus Moves

[pudgym29]

On 4/4/2016 at 0:33 PM, dann said:

Now it's official...

[image snipped to save bandwidth - which posters of massive PNGs seem to dismiss] [/quote]

My camera is in the shop [having its LCD screen replaced], but I wound up on 1033 late night on #77 Belmont one night, and it had the "F" sticker in its windshield.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2016 by pudgym29

[jajuan]

8 hours ago, BusHunter said:

He's been calling the psychic friends network? Really he may not be that far off the mark, if you figure 176 buses at 103rd from 1034 what do you get? 1210. That being said, does that mean FG won't get anymore NF's? Possibly, but I think it does give more support that FG will then get the #8200's. That leaves 60-80 #6400's depending on the #8325 option. A little extra retiring for new equipment and they could be down to 30 or less #6400's at FG in 2017. Only thing is I don't think the south side is going to let the north side take all the newer #1000's. Somewhere someone will probably share with them. According then to his math and mine then this would be the end result

(1) 1034-1210

(7) 1211-1382

(6) 1383-1556

(K) 1557-1741

(P) 1742-1876

(C) 1877-2029

I hate to say it but all the transfers so far seem to reflect that.

You look to have NP kind of short there. Yeah they have a lot of artics, but I think their 40 foot count tends to be higher than what you have by about 15-20 buses at least if memory serves.

[BusHunter]

53 minutes ago, jajuan said:

You look to have NP kind of short there. Yeah they have a lot of artics, but I think their 40 foot count tends to be higher than what you have by about 15-20 buses at least if memory serves.

Just going by what I have on the current roster, my counts were like 3 or 4 buses off, I ended up with 2033. So somewhere my counts are off 4 buses. All this transferring has me losing count. i checked the south side garages last week, so probably the overflow is on the north side. But this is just an approximation anyway. I still have some holdouts that I don't know where they are like #1152, that would change that.

Now you know how CTA always transfers around the picks. How will they ever keep the buses consistent if they continue to do that?

[jajuan]

On 4/9/2016 at 0:06 AM, sw4400 said:

I saw that during the SARS epidemic and it scared me a little..... either the Operator is

• Recovering/Dealing with a highly contagious illness, in which case shouldn't he be out until he recovers so he doesn't spread whatever he has?(those masks are only so protective)
• A germophobe..... not a good line of business to be in working with the public with this, however.... you're touching steering wheels, computer and farbox terminals, bus controls.... all of which have come in contact with numerous other people throughout the course of the day. I wonder how Howie Mandel gets through shows like Deal or No Deal and America's Got Talent with this??? I had a customer who was like this..... wouldn't hand me the money.... set it on the counter and told me to do the same with his change. Bagged his order himself and went out of his way to avoid people as he made his way to the exit.... it's a sad condition....

From what I hear Howie has gotten better with his condition. He does fist bumps in lieu of handshakes, and he doesn't people he's met for the first time to hug him uninvited. If you see him hug anyone, he either initiates the hug himself or he's already used to that person.

[jajuan]

11 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Just going by what I have on the current roster, my counts were like 3 or 4 buses off, I ended up with 2033. So somewhere my counts are off 4 buses. All this transferring has me losing count. i checked the south side garages last week, so probably the overflow is on the north side. But this is just an approximation anyway. I still have some holdouts that I don't know where they are like #1152, that would change that.

Now you know how CTA always transfers around the picks. How will they ever keep the buses consistent if they continue to do that?

All these transfers have all of us losing count and struggling to keep up with what's going on at the garages.

[BusHunter]

15 hours ago, jajuan said:

You look to have NP kind of short there. Yeah they have a lot of artics, but I think their 40 foot count tends to be higher than what you have by about 15-20 buses at least if memory serves.

Now I get what you mean't.  Doh!! on my part!!  Yeah i had originally put the garages in south to north lowest to highest order. I looked at np sitting with 1876-2029 and figured that can't be right, so I switched them with Chicago, but I failed to switch the fleet counts so Chicago has NP's count and NP has Chicago's count!! Looks like I got more editing to do!!  

OK

(P) #1742 - #1894

(C) #1895 - #2029

Sounds better.

[jajuan]

6 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Now I get what you mean't.  Doh!! on my part!!  Yeah i had originally put the garages in south to north lowest to highest order. I looked at np sitting with 1876-2029 and figured that can't be right, so I switched them with Chicago, but I failed to switch the fleet counts so Chicago has NP's count and NP has Chicago's count!! Looks like I got more editing to do!!  

OK

(P) #1742 - #1894

(C) #1895 - #2029

Sounds better.

Yes that looks closer to what number of 40 foot buses NP has and needs to handle its express and local runs that don't have as much a need or usage for articulated buses. I hadn't even noticed that you had Chicago's NF totals too high until you mentioned it.

[andrethebusman]

Full list of moves weekend of 4/8/16

 

77th to 103rd = 1097-1109,1112,1113,1116,1151,1152,1153,1189,1190,1191,1192,1202,1205,1207,1209

103rd to 77th = 1212,1213,1215,1216,1225,1231,1252

74th to 77th = 1266,1267,1268,12691270,1290,1297,1300,1301,1302,1303,1304,1306,1307,1308,1309,1310,1330,1337,1340

103rd to 74th = 1502-1521

[BusHunter]

Funny you didn't mention #701 unless you forgot it. Even more mysterious, no #700 series bus has ran since the weekend at all. Makes me wonder if any are at Kedzie still and the new garages are going through training of new equipment. They could have also moved the charger to 77th, if that's possible, but they should have at least two chargers. We'll see if that's the case when both buses show up out of different garages. Then we'll have our answer.

[Mr.cta85]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Funny you didn't mention #701 unless you forgot it. Even more mysterious, no #700 series bus has ran since the weekend at all. Makes me wonder if any are at Kedzie still and the new garages are going through training of new equipment. They could have also moved the charger to 77th, if that's possible, but they should have at least two chargers. We'll see if that's the case when both buses show up out of different garages. Then we'll have our answer.

I saw the blue bus yesterday while doing the 94, we passed each other up it was heading NB towards Ogden. That was actually my 2nd time seeing that bus within 2weeks which is a lot cause you rarely see either one of those electric buses. I also saw a throwback fishbowl bus right off sacremento and ohio. Wanted to take a pic of it so bad but I was working so ?? safety 1st.

[Busjack]

7 minutes ago, Mr.cta85 said:

I saw the blue bus yesterday while doing the 94, we passed each other up it was heading NB towards Ogden.

Was it (701) on 94, and hence assigned to 74th, or on some Kedzie route and you happened to see it?

[Mr.cta85]

44 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Was it (701) on 94, and hence assigned to 74th, or on some Kedzie route and you happened to see it?

Im at 74th now and I was working route 94 lol. I saw 701 yesterday but it was dark around the time I saw it so I can't remember what route it was working or if it was in service cause at 1st I was trying to see if it was a nova or not and time we passed eachother all I can see was the Garage code on the run box. 

[Busjack]

18 minutes ago, Mr.cta85 said:

all I can see was the Garage code on the run box. 

which was?

[Mr.cta85]

10 hours ago, Busjack said:

which was?

I was K but cant remember the number. I can assure that bus is assigned to kedzie and not 74th lol

[busfan2847]

On 4/12/2016 at 11:34 AM, BusHunter said:

Funny you didn't mention #701 unless you forgot it. Even more mysterious, no #700 series bus has ran since the weekend at all. Makes me wonder if any are at Kedzie still and the new garages are going through training of new equipment. They could have also moved the charger to 77th, if that's possible, but they should have at least two chargers. We'll see if that's the case when both buses show up out of different garages. Then we'll have our answer.

700 was on 21 Monday Evening

[BusHunter]

17 minutes ago, busfan2847 said:

700 was on 21 Monday Evening

Yeah I did see #700 briefly this week at Kedzie, one day. #701 I still haven't seen. I don't know what MR.CTA85 saw, but maybe it was either a transfer or a training exercise. I'm trying to think why would a Kedzie bus be on California at 18th? Maybe for #157, but that's Chicago now so I just don't know.

I did a few tweaks to the roster, I added #1253 to 77th, #1263 to 77th (finally saw it in service this morning), and #1299 to 77th. Maybe a few buses fell through our radar last week or they were midweek transfers. (Andre don't seem to mention them.) If #1253 left 103rd, I probably need to check on #1257 from 103rd.

edit: Yeah in yesterday morning's rush #1257 was on 79th. Wow that would put 77th at 288 buses!! Biggest fleet at any garage pushing 300.

[BusHunter]

No wonder we haven't seen #700, it's on the #21 right now at night. Wait a minute, it's been out since 4:20PM? That's 7 hrs!! Don't tell me I'm going to have to start looking for towers. It's going to pullin at 11:40 at Cermak/Pulaski, so that's 7 1/2 hours almost 8 if you count trips to the garage. Damn it's been running all week as run #253 same trip. That was sneaky.

[Busjack]

50 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Wait a minute, it's been out since 4:20PM? That's 7 hrs!!

The real question is if that is 87 miles, which is the reported battery range. Length of a 1-way trip is 9.5 miles, so theoretically it could make 4 round trips. One has to add the dead mileage, but subtract the short terminal. Each round trip appears to be about 2 hours on the schedule (not counting recovery time). So, theoretically it could be done.

 

Update: Corrected, as I forgot it went to N. Riverside.

[BusHunter]

Yeah but that's really tight. Your giving 5 miles to the garage and back. What if there was a street blockage? A detour might just be enough to run out of juice. This is an actual shift bus here not a tripper. That hasn't been done before afaik. You never know maybe they are plugging in the bus somewhere or they found a way to extend the range. I might have to check this out.

Metro magazine claims the range is 120 miles so maybe then that makes sense. I guess then the gloves are off and this bus is to the stage of what it's designed to do. Frankly I wouldn't worry about towers. Extended range buses then can theoretically stay out for 16 hours. Why have it out as a nightcar? If they had enough of them they could switch them out and run them for days.

[Busjack]

7 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Your giving 5 miles to the garage and back.

I didn't deduct the short terminal at Pulaski from the last trip, either. That's 4 miles off. It was an estimate.

7 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Metro magazine claims the range is 120 miles so maybe then that makes sense.

The 87 miles was based on the Altoona report (admittedly not the exact same bus) and representations in the CMAQ application.

The 2015 budget said that the buses were used 110 miles a day, which then was in tripper service. Since the word "buses" was used, I assume 55 miles each. with a midday recharge. So, maybe they are trying to see their range.

The other thing you aren't figuring is that if they are not moving in traffic, they are not idling, and thus are not using electricity for propulsion, and have the benefit of regenerative braking. They were undoubtedly consuming electricity at a higher rate on the unproductive deadhead on the Eisenhower Expressway.

[BusHunter]

The only bad thing about using batteries in things like cell phones is that as the battery ages it loses the ability to hold a charge as well. I wonder if the same holds true for electric bus batteries?  

[Busjack]

13 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

The only bad thing about using batteries in things like cell phones is that as the battery ages it loses the ability to hold a charge as well. I wonder if the same holds true for electric bus batteries?  

There is a report on a study of that (electric cars, though) here.

Given reports that series hybrid buses were taken out of service due to the cost of overhauling the electric motors, I would be more concerned about that.

[BusHunter]

11 minutes ago, Busjack said:

There is a report on a study of that (electric cars, though) here.

Given reports that series hybrid buses were taken out of service due to the cost of overhauling the electric motors, I would be more concerned about that.

I only say that because like with this Cermak run, #700 is ran to it's limit. 5 years from now they may run out of juice doing the same run. My experience with cell phone batteries are you are lucky if you get 5 years. The link says temperature plays a factor also. The airlines are highly concerned carrying batteries in great numbers on a flight due to their flammability. Funny they don't seem to mention an explosive risk. Asphalt roads in the heart of summer can rise to 120-140 degrees. The cars batteries are only a foot or so above that.

[Busjack]

29 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I only say that because like with this Cermak run, #700 is ran to it's limit. 5 years from now they may run out of juice doing the same run.

The same run shouldn't make any difference. The only thing that counts are temperature (86 degrees in that article). It has been indicated with regard to some batteries that it may also depend on how deeply discharged they are, which may be related to the length of the run, but I don't know if that applies to the lithium ion batteries. Anyway, CTA doesn't find out unless it tests it.

[ajm522]

I guess we should all just prepare for more moves tomorrow/weekend. Hopefully wont be too crazy.