More Bus Moves

[Master58]

4052 , 4060 and 4092 were on the J14 this evening.   

[Chammon Moore]

16 hours ago, Master58 said:

4052 , 4060 and 4092 were on the J14 this evening.   

I hope Kedzie get something in return 

[Policeman]

1789 was on the 79 today

[Policeman]

1039 was also on the 8.

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

2 hours ago, Policeman said:

1039 was also on the 8.

loans from shops

[renardo870]

SB 146 at Addison Lake Shore Drive 6838 and 4169.

[Shannoncvpi]

On 7/7/2021 at 4:08 PM, Chammon Moore said:

I hope Kedzie get something in return 

3 also got 1701 I saw it on the 15 this morning

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 hours ago, renardo870 said:

SB 146 at Addison Lake Shore Drive 6838 and 4169.

I can't think of the last time I saw a 6400 on an LSD route. I think maybe on the 2 back when 77th still had some. But it's at North Park? On the 146 at that? Wow

[NovaHater]

Man if NP needs equipment come get the 30 or so Artics from 77th

[Policeman]

Most likely they won't get them

[Sam92]

47 minutes ago, NovaHater said:

Man if NP needs equipment come get the 30 or so Artics from 77th

I think covid forced cta to find a way to make artics work on some locals and take off a bus or two. 146/147 and 151 are the only routes that need them. Those extra 30 artics you’re talking are What supplied the pre pandemic AM rush service on 135/136 at 3-4 min frequency then pulled in give or take a few 135’s that interlined with 151 and that’s not needed so better to keep them at Chicago or 77th who already had ridership that was competitive with some NP routes and maintained that ridership while the 30 artics sent north would be wasted on routes that are still ghost towns and I don’t really see Financial district returning to it’s full strength especially if this new delta variant becomes an issue 

[jajuan]

On 7/8/2021 at 4:59 PM, renardo870 said:

SB 146 at Addison Lake Shore Drive 6838 and 4169.

 

19 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I can't think of the last time I saw a 6400 on an LSD route. I think maybe on the 2 back when 77th still had some. But it's at North Park? On the 146 at that? Wow

North Park has been using this bus since at least the week before last. It's been used primarily during the rush periods from what I've seen, given a lot of the observations have mostly been on NP's rush only LSD express routes and some of the rush only short trip runs of the daily LSD routes.

16 hours ago, Sam92 said:

I think covid forced cta to find a way to make artics work on some locals and take off a bus or two. 146/147 and 151 are the only routes that need them. Those extra 30 artics you’re talking are What supplied the pre pandemic AM rush service on 135/136 at 3-4 min frequency then pulled in give or take a few 135’s that interlined with 151 and that’s not needed so better to keep them at Chicago or 77th who already had ridership that was competitive with some NP routes and maintained that ridership while the 30 artics sent north would be wasted on routes that are still ghost towns and I don’t really see Financial district returning to it’s full strength especially if this new delta variant becomes an issue 

Yeah it's quite true that this pandemic has forced CTA bus operations brass to rethink keeping artics stacked only at 103rd, Kedzie and NP only for a half of them to sit unused at the garage a good chunk of the time during daily operations and sitting waiting to hopefully be one of those lucky enough to go out on one or two trips in one of the rush periods only to pull back in afterward if that trip isn't interlined with another route that uses artics. If you're going to have just over 300 artics in your bus fleet it makes since to still have roughly 60 artics split evenly between 77th and Chicago. It makes zero since to let those two once again completely rid themselves of artics when they each have at least a couple of routes that rival the numbers of the heavy load routes at 103rd, Kedzie and North Park. And it is definitely possible that this delta variant of COVID-19 can become a bigger issue than it already is because even though it's primarily affecting non-vaccinated people, it still keeps the virus in play, which in turn increases the likelihood it has a chance to mutate into even further variants. Those potential future variants can end up being ones that the current vaccines may not work against. But the artic issue has been around long before the pandemic. As I've said before many times, CTA's artic issue wasn't so much a shortage problem as others have argued as much as it was a deployment problem. When CTA had 100 artics sitting idle in the garages even during rush hour, that's not an artic shortage. That's bosses at CTA bosses being dumb and not allocating and deploying its artics all that efficiently. But this recent pandemic has changed that mindset for now, given CTA did not fall back on past practices and stack the artics only at 1, K and P after the city reopened shortly before the summer pick. They looked at 7 and C and said you both have to keep at least some artics in play. 

[Sam92]

3 hours ago, jajuan said:

 

North Park has been using this bus since at least the week before last. It's been used primarily during the rush periods from what I've seen, given a lot of the observations have mostly been on NP's rush only LSD express routes and some of the rush only short trip runs of the daily LSD routes.

Yeah it's quite true that this pandemic has forced CTA bus operations brass to rethink keeping artics stacked only at 103rd, Kedzie and NP only for a half of them to sit unused at the garage a good chunk of the time during daily operations and sitting waiting to hopefully be one of those lucky enough to go out on one or two trips in one of the rush periods only to pull back in afterward if that trip isn't interlined with another route that uses artics. If you're going to have just over 300 artics in your bus fleet it makes since to still have roughly 60 artics split evenly between 77th and Chicago. It makes zero since to let those two once again completely rid themselves of artics when they each have at least a couple of routes that rival the numbers of the heavy load routes at 103rd, Kedzie and North Park. And it is definitely possible that this delta variant of COVID-19 can become a bigger issue than it already is because even though it's primarily affecting non-vaccinated people, it still keeps the virus in play, which in turn increases the likelihood it has a chance to mutate into even further variants. Those potential future variants can end up being ones that the current vaccines may not work against. But the artic issue has been around long before the pandemic. As I've said before many times, CTA's artic issue wasn't so much a shortage problem as others have argued as much as it was a deployment problem. When CTA had 100 artics sitting idle in the garages even during rush hour, that's not an artic shortage. That's bosses at CTA bosses being dumb and not allocating and deploying its artics all that efficiently. But this recent pandemic has changed that mindset for now, given CTA did not fall back on past practices and stack the artics only at 1, K and P after the city reopened shortly before the summer pick. They looked at 7 and C and said you both have to keep at least some artics in play. 

Also being cheap played a part as well. Technically 77th and Chicago shouldn’t have lost them but cta wasn’t willing/didn’t have the money to pad the schedules enough to accommodate artics on those routes or found a way to circumvent the rule that any street should be ALL artic or non at all*. Too bad irm doesn’t have more recent training guides posted I could get an idea from there on what’s the deal 

 

*= I know cta doesn’t follow the rule to a T but as far as artic deployments researcher shows that using artics are best deployed when use allows a 2 for 3 replacement of fleet needs and mixing 40’s/60’s on the same street causes imbalances 

[BusHunter]

13 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Also being cheap played a part as well. Technically 77th and Chicago shouldn’t have lost them but cta wasn’t willing/didn’t have the money to pad the schedules enough to accommodate artics on those routes or found a way to circumvent the rule that any street should be ALL artic or non at all*. Too bad irm doesn’t have more recent training guides posted I could get an idea from there on what’s the deal 

 

*= I know cta doesn’t follow the rule to a T but as far as artic deployments researcher shows that using artics are best deployed when use allows a 2 for 3 replacement of fleet needs and mixing 40’s/60’s on the same street causes imbalances 

I was noticing myself, theres not alot of buses out here. Especially where there are artics. Was going down Cermak thinking there should be more buses than this, in the rush I only saw around 3 or 4 from Pulaski to Chinatown. There was artic bunching too. Seems like there is a staff shortage. That would explain why they are hiring so much. When school goes back they might have a real problem. 

I was never really a fan of artics at 77th. They drive the buses so hard they just suck the life out of them. Artics are bigger, more to mess up. Harder to keep on the road. The #79 was using artics at 1am for the overnights. Buses were empty. I was like damn they could be throwing out some 40 foot buses now. Artics were running day and night. Alot of them are 10 years old or greater so they are approaching the FTA service life. Even the #4300s are not so new anymore. They really need a big bus order for 40 footers and artics. I think I was reading 70 percent of the fleet is close to or past the service life. That's not good. Cant help but wonder how the electric bus dream has hurt them. They got 5 new buses since 2018 and the 25 #8325s but those were bought in '18. Going before that was 100 #4300s. You can see why the fleet is hurting. 

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

I was noticing myself, theres not alot of buses out here. Especially where there are artics. Was going down Cermak thinking there should be more buses than this, in the rush I only saw around 3 or 4 from Pulaski to Chinatown. There was artic bunching too. Seems like there is a staff shortage. That would explain why they are hiring so much. When school goes back they might have a real problem. 

I was never really a fan of artics at 77th. They drive the buses so hard they just suck the life out of them. Artics are bigger, more to mess up. Harder to keep on the road. The #79 was using artics at 1am for the overnights. Buses were empty. I was like damn they could be throwing out some 40 foot buses now. Artics were running day and night. Alot of them are 10 years old or greater so they are approaching the FTA service life. Even the #4300s are not so new anymore. They really need a big bus order for 40 footers and artics. I think I was reading 70 percent of the fleet is close to or past the service life. That's not good. Cant help but wonder how the electric bus dream has hurt them. They got 5 new buses since 2018 and the 25 #8325s but those were bought in '18. Going before that was 100 #4300s. You can see why the fleet is hurting. 

While not mt choice,  at least 100 new Novas are coming next year and I assume CTA will eventually exercise all of the options bringing up the number to 600.  I believe 4000 -4207 are retirement age now, but we know CTA will try to squeeze another 3 to 5 years out of them.  We know 4300 - 4399 are 6 years old.   The question is how many artics should they order?  Before the pandemic,  people said CTA had a surplus of artics.

[Chammon Moore]

103rd got 1251 it’s on the 95

[BusHunter]

4 hours ago, artthouwill said:

While not mt choice,  at least 100 new Novas are coming next year and I assume CTA will eventually exercise all of the options bringing up the number to 600.  I believe 4000 -4207 are retirement age now, but we know CTA will try to squeeze another 3 to 5 years out of them.  We know 4300 - 4399 are 6 years old.   The question is how many artics should they order?  Before the pandemic,  people said CTA had a surplus of artics.

Yeah as much as I hate to say it. Chicago will be a nova town. Even though there are no longer limitations on people on the bus, the artics continue rolling on these routes that typically are 40 foot. I dont know why that is. Is it staffing or what. All industries are short. We are short where I work. I dont know how long the artics can handle all the extra use. On the flipside the 7900s got to be doing better at 77th with some much needed time off. Things may get better when 40 foot novas show up brand new but that doesnt solve the issue of what about the worn out 60 foot buses? 

[YoungBusLover]

33 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah as much as I hate to say it. Chicago will be a nova town. Even though there are no longer limitations on people on the bus, the artics continue rolling on these routes that typically are 40 foot. I dont know why that is. Is it staffing or what. All industries are short. We are short where I work. I dont know how long the artics can handle all the extra use. On the flipside the 7900s got to be doing better at 77th with some much needed time off. Things may get better when 40 foot novas show up brand new but that doesnt solve the issue of what about the worn out 60 foot buses? 

Alot of the #7900s we have are in relatively decent shape most have surpassed 200,000 miles this year, I personally can't stand operating them knowing how fragile they are on the rough streets of the south side. Another thing that bothers me about the #7900s is the rear exhaust constantly overheating. I dont if anyone has noticed but the rear roof panels on some of them are just coated in smog and residue. The #4000s we have left are doing much better now since we recieved a slight increase in 40 footers but they are showing they're age more and more as the weeks go by. 

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

1924 and 1926 have so called a F on em (someone just cut half of the P off) to make it look like a F 

[ChicagoNova]

8 hours ago, artthouwill said:

While not mt choice,  at least 100 new Novas are coming next year and I assume CTA will eventually exercise all of the options bringing up the number to 600.  I believe 4000 -4207 are retirement age now, but we know CTA will try to squeeze another 3 to 5 years out of them.  We know 4300 - 4399 are 6 years old.   The question is how many artics should they order?  Before the pandemic,  people said CTA had a surplus of artics.

4300-4399 are almost 9 years old.

[BusHunter]

9 minutes ago, ChicagoNova said:

4300-4399 are almost 9 years old.

That's scary considering Nova will not deliver that fast maybe 150 a year. NF could have done double that. I think another bus order will have to happen before all these novas are here maybe for artics. 

200,000 miles mentioned above sounds high for a 7 year old bus but I remember a nova having 400k that was around 12 years old at the glen, so it seems better than average. The Pandemic has probably helped it in that regard. 

[Shannoncvpi]

10 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

That's scary considering Nova will not deliver that fast maybe 150 a year. NF could have done double that. I think another bus order will have to happen before all these novas are here maybe for artics. 

200,000 miles mentioned above sounds high for a 7 year old bus but I remember a nova having 400k that was around 12 years old at the glen, so it seems better than average. The Pandemic has probably helped it in that regard. 

Yea it proably has but its some noavs that 6400 nova that rocking 500k 600k+ 

[YoungBusLover]

58 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

That's scary considering Nova will not deliver that fast maybe 150 a year. NF could have done double that. I think another bus order will have to happen before all these novas are here maybe for artics. 

200,000 miles mentioned above sounds high for a 7 year old bus but I remember a nova having 400k that was around 12 years old at the glen, so it seems better than average. The Pandemic has probably helped it in that regard. 

Yeah it is high for the #7900s, most are in decent shape but as I've said before they're fragile, the max mileage I've seen so far is at about 215,000 miles on a couple I've operated this past week. Nonetheless they're the Workhorse after hours.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1026 has also moved. To 103rd

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

1 hour ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

1026 has also moved. To 103rd

bout time 1026 makes a move (i wish it was FG) but hopefully soon wit 1027