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714 College of DuPage


Busjack

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In regards to 714, if they are not generating enough ridership, I'm curious to know what is their criteria as to the number of people paying to truly say ridership is sufficient. Because like I said before, if it's simply COD students, there's enough interest to keep the route. But once Christmas break rolls around, you'll be lucky to see even 50 people on the route for an entire day.

The last time Pace made any public pronouncement about service standards was about in 2000 when it held hearings then. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was a combination of fare box recovery (with the overall recovery ratio being about 40%, the minimum was something like 20%) and productivity (riders per platform hour). Similar numbers were included in the slides for the North Shore Restructuring, indicating that 210 and 212 weren't doing so well.

The only tangible result of the first announcement was that to avoid cuts, Highland Park was required to make up the difference between the actual fare box recovery and the standard imposed.

At the time of the 714 hearings, Pace said that 714 was averaging 298 riders a day, but that did not meet performance standards. I thought it was stated somewhere that it needed 600. That seems supported by this article, which indicates that the required recovery ratio was 18% and the route was only recovering 9%. (That also reinforces my prior observation that recovery ratio counts.)

Your observations indicate that my surmise that it could be cut back to perhaps a rush hour service has some merit, but there is no public indication (at least at the moment) that Pace is looking at less than an all or nothing plan.

I mentioned the expressway routes only because Pace still recognizes that it has to meet its recovery ratio, as indicated at least in the Tollway proposal.

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The October minutes are up, which indicate that they put off a decision on 714 at least until November, to give DuPage County a chance to come up with the money.

It also reiterates Pace's support for SB941 as it then existed, although they acknowledge it would hurt the suburban system, and CTA and Metra are understandably opposed to it. One director did acknowledge "Other efficiencies have to be identified on a continuing basis to hold costs down," but it seems that the Pace board is resisting the existing RTA recommendations (i.e. the one about hours wasn't formally on the agenda and hadn't been researched).

And surprisingly, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said he was "...concerned about a regional transportation system that seems to pit one service board against another to fight for dollars and service issues. While it might be the most efficient way to go about these things, [he] said that the continued growth in the region and the increasing importance of connectivity between Midwestern cities make it hard to imagine that this is a sustainable system." At least one person has come to his senses, but apparently not any of the service boards.

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The October minutes are up, which indicate that they put off a decision on 714 at least until November, to give DuPage County a chance to come up with the money.

It also reiterates Pace's support for SB941 as it then existed, although they acknowledge it would hurt the suburban system, and CTA and Metra are understandably opposed to it. One director did acknowledge "Other efficiencies have to be identified on a continuing basis to hold costs down," but it seems that the Pace board is resisting the existing RTA recommendations (i.e. the one about hours wasn't formally on the agenda and hadn't been researched).

And surprisingly, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said he was "...concerned about a regional transportation system that seems to pit one service board against another to fight for dollars and service issues. While it might be the most efficient way to go about these things, [he] said that the continued growth in the region and the increasing importance of connectivity between Midwestern cities make it hard to imagine that this is a sustainable system." At least one person has come to his senses, but apparently not any of the service boards.

The CAB head said the one thing that a lot of us have been saying at least since Doomsday 2007. It's just annoying that after two years the service boards still don't get it. Other metro areas get it, but we're still stuck with this convoluted inefficient mess.

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The October minutes are up, which indicate that they put off a decision on 714 at least until November, to give DuPage County a chance to come up with the money.

It also reiterates Pace's support for SB941 as it then existed, although they acknowledge it would hurt the suburban system, and CTA and Metra are understandably opposed to it. One director did acknowledge "Other efficiencies have to be identified on a continuing basis to hold costs down," but it seems that the Pace board is resisting the existing RTA recommendations (i.e. the one about hours wasn't formally on the agenda and hadn't been researched).

And surprisingly, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said he was "...concerned about a regional transportation system that seems to pit one service board against another to fight for dollars and service issues. While it might be the most efficient way to go about these things, [he] said that the continued growth in the region and the increasing importance of connectivity between Midwestern cities make it hard to imagine that this is a sustainable system." At least one person has come to his senses, but apparently not any of the service boards.

Looks like Dupage County is holding it up now. Naperville and Wheaton have ok'd to keep it running. I think it'll stay, maybe cut service down slighty.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey I was at COD yesterday and to my surprise bus 2766 was running route 714. I noticed some differences mainly on the back of the bus. The digital route number is on the top right corner of the bus as opposed to the others as well as the stop lights are different. Anyway, since 714 runs out of Fox Valley, did they get new buses starting at 2766?

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Hey I was at COD yesterday and to my surprise bus 2766 was running route 714. I noticed some differences mainly on the back of the bus. The digital route number is on the top right corner of the bus as opposed to the others as well as the stop lights are different. Anyway, since 714 runs out of Fox Valley, did they get new buses starting at 2766?

Since 2766 was pictured in Moving Forward as the last of the buses to go to Joliet, but the last 2 NABIs didn't leave there, and a couple of Fox Valley buses have shown up elsewhere, I guess it is just the normal shuffling. Thanks for the observation.

Moving Forward 100909.pdf

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

So both buses are out of Fox Valley. Wonder when the next batch of Eldos come in this year if they will end up there and they move their current ones somewhere else like they did with the 6600s.

There wouldn't be much point to the former. The latter was justified by "grants for smaller buses" and the like.

The only bus movements I would foresee (of course after digesting the buses freed up by the service cuts) is where an Orion I or Nova Classic can't be replaced by a 30 foot bus. Some indications that that won't be a big problem was given by RailwayModeler, in that for instance, 210 now seems to be exclusively ElDos in the morning.

All I think this move denotes is that Joliet didn't need 25 buses, despite what was previously represented by Pace. A couple of Aurora ones got shifted around, but that apparently isn't news.

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  • 5 months later...

Hey I was at COD yesterday and to my surprise bus 2766 was running route 714. I noticed some differences mainly on the back of the bus. The digital route number is on the top right corner of the bus as opposed to the others as well as the stop lights are different. ...

Basically, I don't believe anything that starts with wiki lately, but the Canadian Public Transportation Board's Pace page indicates that 2766 was displayed at BusCon 2009. For any of you attendees, is it possible that Eldorado National displayed something there that included some componentry Pace did not want?

They also indicate that 2767 was at the Ontario Transportation Expo, and that 2010 was the first of its kind.

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