New Express Routes Coming Soon.

[BusHunter]

4 hours ago, Pace831 said:

The 2nd bus isn't showing, but the tracker times seem to be working so it must actually be out there. (6388 is the bus showing on the map)

It's probably going to be something close to #6388. What was the bus I mentioned was on the #386 in the new eldorado's thread? (Damn I'm going to have to look now) I swear it was something different. Maybe another #6380. I need to glance at the roster but it sounds like maybe the first few #6380's from River went south. They would need something for a standby in case of bus failure, so maybe there's 3.

Kudos on the good job you do, I'm just too busy to track this in detail and you've given us the opportunity to catch up on what we've missed. It's things like this that make me love this forum.

[jajuan]

6 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Confirming what we thought, 6388 is on 856. I checked the midday run earlier today but it was a "ghost bus". In a half hour or so we'll see what else (if anything) appears.

You beat me to the punch on confirming the hypothesis that 856 would be out of SW. I got the confirmation off the schedule for 856.

[BusHunter]

16 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

It's probably going to be something close to #6388. What was the bus I mentioned was on the #386 in the new eldorado's thread? (Damn I'm going to have to look now) I swear it was something different. Maybe another #6380. I need to glance at the roster but it sounds like maybe the first few #6380's from River went south. They would need something for a standby in case of bus failure, so maybe there's 3.

Kudos on the good job you do, I'm just too busy to track this in detail and you've given us the opportunity to catch up on what we've missed. It's things like this that make me love this forum.

Hmm... A search turned up the info in the pace bus moves thread. It's the same bus #6388.

[Pace831]

12 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

It's probably going to be something close to #6388. What was the bus I mentioned was on the #386 in the new eldorado's thread? (Damn I'm going to have to look now) I swear it was something different.

I agree that the other bus is probably another highway Eldorado, but would it be too ridiculous to suggest the possibility that SW sent a 30' bus to Heritage in exchange for 2764? I say this because 2764 still has a BoS wrap, and I didn't see it on Webwatch earlier today. However, I didn't see any other buses that weren't at H before, and it seems unlikely to have a smaller bus for one of the two rush hour trips.

21 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

They would need something for a standby in case of bus failure, so maybe there's 3.

They could still use a regular bus, they just wouldn't be able to run it on the shoulder if it isn't wrapped.

21 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Kudos on the good job you do, I'm just too busy to track this in detail and you've given us the opportunity to catch up on what we've missed. It's things like this that make me love this forum.

Thanks! I'll be posting an update from Chandler tomorrow.

[BusHunter]

Yeah you do good work at Chandler too!! I tried to update the roster with a few new changes and noticed something someone mentioned, maybe it was you, (Pace831) that #2816 had left SW for MV. Now the MV buses stop at #2812, there is no #2813, so would it be a leap to assume those buses got pushed out of SW to make room for #6386's??? Check it out #2814-16 for #6386-88.

What really needs to happen is to just push out the whole lot of #6386-91 from River give it to SW and let them run a couple as a trial on #895. it has some decent ridership from what I've seen at Rosemont, perhaps they could lure a few more on board with a snazzy bus. Couldn't run it on the Tri state shoulder though, they need to get #895 on the shoulder. I saw today coming from work the Tri state was just crawling at Irving Pk and what was crawling with it, an #895. They could probably double the ridership if they could speed up #895.

[Pace831]

19 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I tried to update the roster with a few new changes and noticed something someone mentioned, maybe it was you, (Pace831) that #2816 had left SW for MV.

Busjack found 2816, but it was at Fox valley (FV), not MV. If Pace were so concerned with keeping numerical blocks intact, though, they wouldn't have sent away a bus in the middle of the 2814-2825 block.

23 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

would it be a leap to assume those buses got pushed out of SW to make room for #6386's??? Check it out #2814-16 for #6386-88.

Your guess is as good as mine, since I suggested that SW may have traded with H. In this case though, I'm not sure R needs any more 30' buses, unless some of the 35' buses are in turn sent somewhere else. This is getting really speculative, though.

27 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

What really needs to happen is to just push out the whole lot of #6386-91 from River give it to SW and let them run a couple as a trial on #895. it has some decent ridership from what I've seen at Rosemont, perhaps they could lure a few more on board with a snazzy bus. Couldn't run it on the Tri state shoulder though, they need to get #895 on the shoulder. I saw today coming from work the Tri state was just crawling at Irving Pk and what was crawling with it, an #895. They could probably double the ridership if they could speed up #895.

That's a good idea. They could use highway buses for some of the busier trips that run on the NW tollway to Rosemont. They'd be able to take advantage of the new flex lane on I-90 (which is why I thought 6388 was for 895). The trips that run via I-355/88, however, don't have much ridership. They should either have all buses stop at Rosemont, or have the non-Rosemont trips stop at Yorktown if the mall management wasn't opposed.

[Busjack]

6386 sitting in the garage on the 856 map.

[Pace831]

Hindsight is 20/20, but they could have left the BoS wraps on 6377-6378 and sent those to SW instead.

[Pace831]

This picture is now on the Pace homepage. A little blurry, but zoom in and you'll see it looks like 6387.

This is probably the chronic ghost bus, as nothing is showing up now for the 11 AM inbound trip.

[BusHunter]

Yeah the 3 i mentioned, I think up to #6391 will be at sw before too long. They are now oddballs at river. They may want all new buses for the i90 service if they have extra buses from up to #6509.

[Pace831]

7 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I think up to #6391 will be at sw before too long.

I disagree, because I don't think SW would keep more than 3 buses around for a service that only requires 2. 6389 was reported at S, but that one is more understandable because they now have one spare highway bus. (There are 7 877/888 runs, and now 8 buses.) As for 6390-91, my guess is they'll stay at R. Those buses aren't really different from the newest batch, so the passengers won't have a negative perception of them.

[Busjack]

24 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

As for 6390-91, my guess is they'll stay at R. Those buses aren't really different from the newest batch, so the passengers won't have a negative perception of them.

On a related note, Webwatch in the morning shows a lot of 6600s on 600 and some highway buses on 606, but maybe that gets straightened out in December.

[MetroShadow]

3 minutes ago, Busjack said:

On a related note, Webwatch in the morning shows a lot of 6600s on 600 and some highway buses on 606, but maybe that gets straightened out in December.

Depending on the time, those still might be [funky] interlines, although you are right about the December pick - those should be straightened.

[Busjack]

On 10/27/2016 at 11:03 AM, Pace831 said:

 it looks like 6387.

6387 finally shows up on WebWatch:

[Busjack]

Better goes here: Daily Herald article on how the Smart Road is supposed to work.

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

Better goes here: Daily Herald article on how the Smart Road is supposed to work.

As I thought,  Pace buses will use the shoulder,  and if necessary,  the shoulders can be a "flex" lane.

[west towns]

Seems tollway is 'flexible' when other non pace vehicles will use the lane it says may use may might  be a long time

[Busjack]

20 minutes ago, west towns said:

Need a stakeout on 1-55 and see if non wrapped buses use shoulder

You willing to do it? You can't expect others to do so, and especially to waste their time challenging a State Police directive, and also to track down essentially 2 buses.

[west towns]

If therw is only one wrapped bus at sw, Probably easier to just ride the non wrapped  bus to Toyota  park to confirm

[Busjack]

3 hours ago, west towns said:

If therw is only one wrapped bus at sw,....

Nobody said that but you.

[west towns]

Thats where the field  observations are needed to confirm

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, west towns said:

Thats where the field  observations are needed to confirm

So, when are you going to be personally in the field?

[west towns]

When i have time

[west towns]

I was stating there was one seen bos wrapped bus at sw and asking for confirmation if the others are wrapped.   it was speculation  there is just one wrapped bus.    i was looking for the facts 

[jajuan]

On 11/6/2016 at 2:58 PM, west towns said:

I was stating there was one seen bos wrapped bus at sw and asking for confirmation if the others are wrapped.   it was speculation  there is just one wrapped bus.    i was looking for the facts 

Well considering that SW Division is operating the 856 and that route is a BOS route, it's not too much of a stretch that more than one bus is wrapped to operate the route under its present schedule structure, including two peak hour trips in each direction that are 30 mins apart. So at least two buses would need to be wrapped given rush hour trips are more likely to operate on the shoulder and the State Police requires bus be wrapped as BOS to do so.