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New Eldorados?


artthouwill

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I was looking through the Pace 2009 budget. 37 30' buses and 128 Paratransit vehicles were included in the 2009 budget. I would imagine the ones we are seeing arriving at present are part of the 37.

It is not clear from the Pace home page if the stimulus money is buying an additional 58 30' buses or the 21 difference over the 2009 budget (paratransit similarly is up to 190 new vehicles - additional or an extra 62 over the 2009 budget?)

This would explain why they have apparently arrived so soon after the stimulus money was received and also are not marked as stimulus vehicles!

Now that you mention it, three have just shown up, and out of range compared to prior fleet numbers.

post-14-12512159610988_thumb.jpgpost-14-12512159916447_thumb.jpgpost-14-12512164634252_thumb.jpg

I wonder what's up, since that order was not announced. I was thinking the possibility of false positives, but three of them at once is a bit too much. Sort of like 2703 being seen in Aurora before that order was announced. Pace said that the stimulus orders couldn't be finalized until last week and the buses not on the street for a while, so are these stimulus buses, or from some side deal (such as for Naperville or Wheaton)?

Of course, one can't get a full picture of Joliet, because 504, 507 and 508 are usually unavailable.

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I was looking through the Pace 2009 budget. 37 30' buses and 128 Paratransit vehicles were included in the 2009 budget. I would imagine the ones we are seeing arriving at present are part of the 37.

It is not clear from the Pace home page if the stimulus money is buying an additional 58 30' buses or the 21 difference over the 2009 budget (paratransit similarly is up to 190 new vehicles - additional or an extra 62 over the 2009 budget?)

This would explain why they have apparently arrived so soon after the stimulus money was received and also are not marked as stimulus vehicles!

There was also the May Finance Committee report that they reprogrammed capital money to buying 16 OTRs. Also not sure how that figures in, as one might think that a hybrid OTR would be in the $600K range, while an ElDo is in the $300K area.

Also, in the paratransit area, I have seen fleet numbers in the 5300s, while before the highest number (in the small paratransit series) was in the 5120s, which concurs with your sightings (or at least indicates that Pace has received over 170 so far this year). Pace is selling off 108, which comprise most, but not all, of those with yellow stripes.

Hence, there is no way of really telling (at least from public sources at the moment).

Another ElDo sighting on 834:

post-14-12519943716628_thumb.jpg

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Reading the May finance notes it looks like it is up to 58(37+21) for the 30' (2742-2799) and up to 190(128+62) for the paratransit vehicles and then reprogramming for up to 16 OTR.

From the 2008 budget there was 80 paratransit vehicles and 48 community vehicles which did start arriving in the second half of last year. I estimated this would take the short paratransit series (5000-5127) from 5128 to 5256 (the earliest I have seen is 5131 and the latest 5251 in this series). I have not seen anything that indicates they have taken the long paratransit series (5500-5891) further. I also have seen vehicles numbered above 5256 (this year) and if they just run the 190 on this would take it from 5257 to 5458.

But as you say we will have to see!

There was also the May Finance Committee report that they reprogrammed capital money to buying 16 OTRs. Also not sure how that figures in, as one might think that a hybrid OTR would be in the $600K range, while an ElDo is in the $300K area.

Also, in the paratransit area, I have seen fleet numbers in the 5300s, while before the highest number (in the small paratransit series) was in the 5120s, which concurs with your sightings (or at least indicates that Pace has received over 170 so far this year). Pace is selling off 108, which comprise most, but not all, of those with yellow stripes.

Hence, there is no way of really telling (at least from public sources at the moment).

Another ElDo sighting on 834:

post-14-12519943716628_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I took an unexpected trip to South Holland Pace today (got lost looking for a grocery store...lol) and boy oh boy did I see a lot. Maybe I'm more excited than the die hard bus fans on here, I don't know. Anyway, in regards to this thread, there are 2758-2765 Eldos at least, waiting to be put on the road. There were more than that, but I didn't get a chance to see all the numbers. BTW, I saw 6673 there also, didn't know that bus was already moved there from Joliet so I'd there's only a handful of Joliet Nabis to go.

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I took an unexpected trip to South Holland Pace today (got lost looking for a grocery store...lol) and boy oh boy did I see a lot. Maybe I'm more excited than the die hard bus fans on here, I don't know. Anyway, in regards to this thread, there are 2758-2765 Eldos at least, waiting to be put on the road. There were more than that, but I didn't get a chance to see all the numbers. BTW, I saw 6673 there also, didn't know that bus was already moved there from Joliet so I'd there's only a handful of Joliet Nabis to go.

Both NABIS(6672&6673)inside South Holland are headed to the West garage in Melrose Park. :)

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Wonder why? West shouldn't need any more buses.

To reiterate, when the 2003 NABIs arrived, W sent 8 Orion VIs to NW (6029-6036), and S sent all of its 29 Orion VIs (6116-6144) to NW. There was no apparent need to do either.

It hasn't happened yet, and I'm not assuring that it does, but there is precedent for it again happening.

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It looks like both #6114 & #6115 appear to have been moved to NW; I didn't understand why west got those buses from SW anyway, they seemed so out of place. 6115 is on route 209 today and 6114 is on route 208 according to Webwatch. So NS and NW probably will get some Orions from West, maybe more once all the Joliet Nabis head West.

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...So NS and NW probably will get some Orions from West, maybe more once all the Joliet Nabis head West.

NS probably won't get any Orion VIs, because it never had any and doesn't need any more big buses.

Also, I'm surprised WebWatch is back up, as it was dead most of the week, but at the moment it is working again.

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It looks like both #6114 & #6115 appear to have been moved to NW; I didn't understand why west got those buses from SW anyway, they seemed so out of place. 6115 is on route 209 today and 6114 is on route 208 according to Webwatch. So NS and NW probably will get some Orions from West, maybe more once all the Joliet Nabis head West.

6115 is on the 208 and 6114 is on the 270 today.

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Well look at Webwatch today. Eldo 2758 is on the 834 today. That tells me that 2755-2757 must be out there also. I really hate that Webwatch can't show all the route in Joliet so we could see a clear picture. I give it less than a week, the rest of the 35 foot Nabis will be either West or South.

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That's 6173, which has been there for several years now. The first time those of us who don't work for Pace have seen it from the front. A driver from South said that it hit a truck on I-94 when the bus driver fell asleep at the wheel.

References: Buses that u wont see on the road; fell asleep.

Here is a closer shot of 6173,but the shelter blocks any good view of the interior.

post-451-12547076873276_thumb.jpg

post-451-12547077288462_thumb.jpg

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Sounds like Busjack's prediction may be dead on about some Orion IV's heading from West to NW. Don't be surprised if you see 6038-6041 at least heading up there in the next week or so.

Ohh No!!! Are you telling me that all the Orion VI's are leaving West soon, so it means that sooner that Northwest is going to be 100% of Orion VIs just like CTA Archer garage was 100% garage until the 500s Optimas came in?

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