More Bus Moves

[BusHunter]

On 5/9/2018 at 9:12 PM, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

Unless he knows about the tunnel underneath the highway.

Wasn't there an incident involving a deer on the Blue Line tracks around Cumberland a few years back?

He was looking for the train to forest park.

[Aiden Tabucic]

On 5/9/2018 at 10:04 PM, Busjack said:

I'll add to that, that while CTA has pulled some stuff, like Huberman lying about the 150 articulated buses replacing 6000s instead of the intent to pull the NABIs, later revealed by Rodriguez, CTA has been more transparent lately, including stating in the CMAQ request that the electric buses would replace 17 year old high emissions buses, so at least some of the 6400s are going to survive until then. 

By my prior arithmetic, and even assuming 8 fewer buses due to the North Shore plan being implemented in late 2018 and mid 2019, and if the full solicitation for about 40 electric  buses is exercised, CTA would still be a bit short.

When are those 40 Electrics Suppose To Come 

[Busjack]

16 minutes ago, Aiden Tabucic said:

When are those 40 Electrics Suppose To Come 

CTA closed the bidding, but hasn't issued the contract yet. Probably a year after that.

[BusHunter]

On 5/9/2018 at 10:04 PM, Busjack said:

I'll add to that, that while CTA has pulled some stuff, like Huberman lying about the 150 articulated buses replacing 6000s instead of the intent to pull the NABIs, later revealed by Rodriguez, CTA has been more transparent lately, including stating in the CMAQ request that the electric buses would replace 17 year old high emissions buses, so at least some of the 6400s are going to survive until then. 

By my prior arithmetic, and even assuming 8 fewer buses due to the North Shore plan being implemented in late 2018 and mid 2019, and if the full solicitation for about 40 electric  buses is exercised, CTA would still be a bit short.

If they could give the Glen some newer buses the spare ratio would decrease. I imagine it's higher with 18 year old buses. The electric bus procurement is going to be slow with only 5 buses initially. Maybe just maybe the 18 year old buses will not see 2019. That may be what's going on with these new 1000s showing up at the glen.  They are forcing retirement of the older buses. Been seeing more flyers on the street this week in fg territory.

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

The electric bus procurement is going to be slow with only 5 buses initially. Maybe just maybe the 18 year old buses will not see 2019.

The issue there (and I acknowledged before that CTA may have been pulling the fed's leg) is that the grant application was for 30 electric buses to replace high emissions ones. Unless that happens, CTA doesn't meet the air quality goal of the CMAQ application (and that's what AQ means).

Since the overall spare ratio of 15% for 40 foot buses is about right, it must be lower at the other garages. In that the report posted by @andrethebusman said 103 6400s while @maths22 's tracker says about 77 out during rush hour, maybe that ratio is a bit high.

[BusHunter]

48 minutes ago, Busjack said:

The issue there (and I acknowledged before that CTA may have been pulling the fed's leg) is that the grant application was for 30 electric buses to replace high emissions ones. Unless that happens, CTA doesn't meet the air quality goal of the CMAQ application (and that's what AQ means).

Since the overall spare ratio of 15% for 40 foot buses is about right, it must be lower at the other garages. In that the report posted by @andrethebusman said 103 6400s while @maths22 's tracker says about 77 out during rush hour, maybe that ratio is a bit high.

As long as the buses are on the books as cta property whether in service or at south shops it shouldn't matter but the 30 buses will be needed anyway to retire the older ones.  The new #8325's and North shore realignment will also have to be in effect though. If not cta probably can't justify 20 year old buses but they are going to have the issue of what replaces the up to 40 bus block artics at one time that will be out for rehab so it's really anyone's guess.

[Sam92]

59 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

As long as the buses are on the books as cta property whether in service or at south shops it shouldn't matter but the 30 buses will be needed anyway to retire the older ones.  The new #8325's and North shore realignment will also have to be in effect though. If not cta probably can't justify 20 year old buses but they are going to have the issue of what replaces the up to 40 bus block artics at one time that will be out for rehab so it's really anyone's guess.

Welp as far as artic rehabs with a spare ratio of 45% I doubt rehabs will highly impact how many are left on the road. 103rd/ kedzie both have 83 and probably put out around 60 for their peaks,  NP keeps 130-140 while about 90 go out for the peak

[BusHunter]

26 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

Welp as far as artic rehabs with a spare ratio of 45% I doubt rehabs will highly impact how many are left on the road. 103rd/ kedzie both have 83 and probably put out around 60 for their peaks,  NP keeps 130-140 while about 90 go out for the peak

Yeah but will they still need that spare ratio because it will be tapped into for the artic rehabs. If the buses need rehabs then they must not be mechanically ready as a whole on a daily basis. You need that 23 bus ratio at 103rd, you won't have that with 30 or 40 out. I am thinking in relation to the 1000s rehab so maybe up to 25 will go out. There is only so much room at Cummins diesel. 103rd from what I hear has a lot of mechanical issues with the artics. It will definitely go first. 

Now they will be better on spares when most are rehabbed because they should be running better than they are.

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah but will they still need that spare ratio because it will be tapped into for the artic rehabs. If the buses need rehabs then they must not be mechanically ready as a whole on a daily basis

As @Sam92 indicated there are more than enough spare artics to cover rehabs (as the report also said). The report said that there was something like a 42% artic spare ratio, which comes out  to 128 spare artics. A normal 15% spare ratio for the 178 artics needed  to cover rush  hour  results in a total need for 205 artics. As I originally said, CTA has 100 more artics than it needs,  easily covering  rehabs.

[jajuan]

In addition to @Busjack and @Sam92 pointing out that the artic rehabs will be well covered by there being a surplus of 100, the North Shore realignment, more specifically the elimination of 54A and 205, won't be too much of an impact on the 6400s having more numbers retired given that only 8 less CTA buses will be on the street as a result and also taking into consideration that FG is running both those routes with more than just 6400s. 

[Busjack]

14 hours ago, jajuan said:

also taking into consideration that FG is running both those routes with more than just 6400s. 

In that sense, 8 buses are 8 buses. As illustrated by all 6400s eventually ending up at FG, but more graphically by all the moves as Pace got the 6521s and 6700s. the TA is going to get rid of what it gets rid of. It doesn't matter if a 1000 or 8200s is on 205, dropping 54A and 205 still gets rid of the need for 8 buses, and it won't be 1000s or 8200s.

The rub is is that while the May Pace Board Meeting video indicates that Phase 1 (205/208/213) is most likely to occur in August 2018 (to take care of whatever changes are needed for ETHS), Phase 2 isn't scheduled yet, except some time in 2019.

[BusHunter]

On 5/9/2018 at 9:12 PM, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

Unless he knows about the tunnel underneath the highway.

Wasn't there an incident involving a deer on the Blue Line tracks around Cumberland a few years back?

They usually have one incident a year. A deer usually steps on the 3rd rail. I've never heard of a striking fatality. Probably in fear the deer would step on the 3rd rail before it was struck.

[BusHunter]

16 minutes ago, Busjack said:

In that sense, 8 buses are 8 buses. As illustrated by all 6400s eventually ending up at FG, but more graphically by all the moves as Pace got the 6521s and 6700s. the TA is going to get rid of what it gets rid of. It doesn't matter if a 1000 or 8200s is on 205, dropping 54A and 205 still gets rid of the need for 8 buses, and it won't be 1000s or 8200s.

The rub is is that while the May Pace Board Meeting video indicates that Phase 1 (205/208/213) is most likely to occur in August 2018 (to take care of whatever changes are needed for ETHS), Phase 2 isn't scheduled yet, except some time in 2019.

Plus 8 buses have spares so it might be 10 or 11 buses. The fleet usually increases on the north side for the summer pick. You would think that would be unnecessary considering there is no school runs. 

[jajuan]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

In that sense, 8 buses are 8 buses. As illustrated by all 6400s eventually ending up at FG, but more graphically by all the moves as Pace got the 6521s and 6700s. the TA is going to get rid of what it gets rid of. It doesn't matter if a 1000 or 8200s is on 205, dropping 54A and 205 still gets rid of the need for 8 buses, and it won't be 1000s or 8200s.

The rub is is that while the May Pace Board Meeting video indicates that Phase 1 (205/208/213) is most likely to occur in August 2018 (to take care of whatever changes are needed for ETHS), Phase 2 isn't scheduled yet, except some time in 2019.

That being the other part of why I say it won't have much impact on the 6400s in that we know a significant number of them will be around into next year. Irreparable age related breakdowns will be more of an impact at this rate.

[sw4400]

5 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Plus 8 buses have spares so it might be 10 or 11 buses. The fleet usually increases on the north side for the summer pick. You would think that would be unnecessary considering there is no school runs. 

Well, you have to remember there is a lot of summer activity on the north side though(Cubs baseball, beachgoers, Air & Water Show, other misc. events).

[jajuan]

This a short clip of my ride this morning on NF #1541 on the X49. What made me record was that I noticed the bus was shifting gears in that odd way that used to happen from time to time with the MAN Americanas. Hopefully you guys are able to hear it clearly enough above the rattle of the railing inside the bus as it hit some bumps along that stretch between Madison and Chicago Avenue that I recorded. The previous time I encounted it on a New Flyer was a couple years ago in 1867 on the X9 a couple months before Ashland became all Nova due to TSP. This morning was the first time I ran into it with an ISM powered NF.

 

[Busjack]

Question is whether CTA also has surveillance video of the suspect in the act. (Sun-Times)

[Busjack]

Only use your CTA computer for official business (Tribune).

[YoungBusLover]

On 5/16/2018 at 8:25 PM, jajuan said:

This a short clip of my ride this morning on NF #1541 on the X49. What made me record was that I noticed the bus was shifting gears in that odd way that used to happen from time to time with the MAN Americanas. Hopefully you guys are able to hear it clearly enough above the rattle of the railing inside the bus as it hit some bumps along that stretch between Madison and Chicago Avenue that I recorded. The previous time I encounted it on a New Flyer was a couple years ago in 1867 on the X9 a couple months before Ashland became all Nova due to TSP. This morning was the first time I ran into it with an ISM powered NF.

 

Sounds like #1016 from FG, they sounds exactly like that and sound out of whack to me.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lD3oNX7eI&t=190s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOUQAKW1uaE&t=138s

[jajuan]

6 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

Sounds like #1016 from FG, they sounds exactly like that and sound out of whack to me.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lD3oNX7eI&t=190s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOUQAKW1uaE&t=138s

Yeah I remember seeing those videos. I don't think some of the folks who commented though realize that that gearshift pattern doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with the bus since that pattern is somewhat similar to what all of the predecessors to the 1000s, the 5800s had. At the least it simply makes that one and 1541 different than the rest. Some of us already this popping up a lot in the MAN 4000s, and some of those would be like that for a few years as opposed to days or a few months in the 1000s. This also popped up at times in the 4400s, 6000s and 6400s. A matter of fact, I heard it in 6835 on Saturday afternoon while riding on the #84. 

[YoungBusLover]

10 hours ago, jajuan said:

Yeah I remember seeing those videos. I don't think some of the folks who commented though realize that that gearshift pattern doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with the bus since that pattern is somewhat similar to what all of the predecessors to the 1000s, the 5800s had. At the least it simply makes that one and 1541 different than the rest. Some of us already this popping up a lot in the MAN 4000s, and some of those would be like that for a few years as opposed to days or a few months in the 1000s. This also popped up at times in the 4400s, 6000s and 6400s. A matter of fact, I heard it in 6835 on Saturday afternoon while riding on the #84. 

Yeah that's true, I over reacted while making my comments on the video because I was positive that there was a transmission change because of the way the shift patterns were so I automatically thought of a voith transmission. I mostly remember several blocks of #6200's from 74th back in 2007 had several buses running different shift patterns and till this very day #6282 will always be my favorite Metro mainly because of its long first gear. That bus would whistle so loud at times, ahh the memories. 

[Aiden Tabucic]

I know this doesn’t fit in but where do you guys think flyers 1000-1002 went they are not appearing on tracker it always starts with 1003

[YoungBusLover]

15 hours ago, Aiden Tabucic said:

I know this doesn’t fit in but where do you guys think flyers 1000-1002 went they are not appearing on tracker it always starts with 1003

Sometimes buses will go out of service for days and weeks at a time and receive maintenance such as cleaning,mechanical,exterior,interior and etc. Nothing major to worry about.

[Aiden Tabucic]

10 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

Sometimes buses will go out of service for days and weeks at a time and receive maintenance such as cleaning,mechanical,exterior,interior and etc. Nothing major to worry about.

Good point I wasn’t even thinking that Thanks ?

[busfan2847]

On 5/28/2018 at 8:18 PM, Aiden Tabucic said:

I know this doesn’t fit in but where do you guys think flyers 1000-1002 went they are not appearing on tracker it always starts with 1003

1001 was on 85A and 1002 on 205 this morning