New Eldorados?

[BusHunter]

16 hours ago, Pace831 said:

I went by South Holland on Friday but didn't see anything that hasn't been reported already.

This morning 6743 was at Chandler, but I couldn't see what else because the gate was closed.

Wow that's 43 buses at least. Probably they want to take out the #6600's but where does #6743 go? It's has to be either west or north but I think north is getting the #6262's.

[Busjack]

7 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Wow that's 43 buses at least. Probably they want to take out the #6600's but where does #6743 go? It's has to be either west or north but I think north is getting the #6262's.

No evidence of that either, although @garmon757 found evidence of one going to W to support @rotjohns view.

Only evidence of anything is the 2017 budget saying 76 35' and 40' buses.

[BusHunter]

Well the #6700's are not replacing the eldorkos!! What do you think? The #6600's are the next oldest and the #6162's are getting down to nothing.

Besides after ns gets it buses everything will be newer buses at all garages except west and north.

[garmon757]

#17554-56 have begun operation. 

[garmon757]

#17557-60 have begun operation. 

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, garmon757 said:

#17557-60 have begun operation. 

11 more to go

 

[garmon757]

21 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

11 more to go

 

Yes indeed by the end of the year. 

[Busjack]

7 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

Yes indeed by the end of the year. 

The way WebWatch and @Pace831's observations look, I would say no more than a couple of weeks. A couple of days could be possible.

[garmon757]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

The way WebWatch and @Pace831's observations look, I would say no more than a couple of weeks. A couple of days could be possible.

As long it's before the end of this year, I'll be happy. 

[Pace831]

11:25 this morning, 6743 and 6746 were going east on I-80 at Kedzie. Presumably moving from Chandler to South Holland.

[garmon757]

#17561-64 have begun operation. 

[Busjack]

9 hours ago, garmon757 said:

#17561-64 have begun operation. 

17566 on 355

[artthouwill]

Could River be in line for any newbies?

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

Could River be in line for any newbies?

It got some for 606 and 616, which are now all 40 ft. routes, so no need for more. But 6700 to 6702 still haven't shown.

[rotjohns]

#17568-#17570 are now operating (no sign of #17567 on Webwatch yet).  Is this it for the #17500s?  I'm assuming that not all of them or #15500s are out today because there's still a number of Nabis still running at South right now on Webwatch (but only 1 6600 is out and that's 6641).  

[Busjack]

25 minutes ago, rotjohns said:

 Is this it for the #17500s?

17571 (based on order of 91, consisting of 15500-15520 and 71 175xxs, and no XXX13s).

Must be some holes, as there are still NABIs on S routes.

Also, in that the express buses are on 877/888 at this hour, my bet is  still that they are not going elsewhere.

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, rotjohns said:

#17568-#17570 are now operating (no sign of #17567 on Webwatch yet).  Is this it for the #17500s?  I'm assuming that not all of them or #15500s are out today because there's still a number of Nabis still running at South right now on Webwatch (but only 1 6600 is out and that's 6641).  

Yeah Rotjohns but you need to see if all cngs are in service. Maybe some are out for warranty work. If the total nabis equal the sum of cngs then the nabis should be gone. 

[rotjohns]

16 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah Rotjohns but you need to see if all cngs are in service. Maybe some are out for warranty work. If the total nabis equal the sum of cngs then the nabis should be gone. 

I'm sure some of them were not, thus the reason South still has Nabis.  That's likely going to be the case for the foreseeable future.  I'm sure South took a long look at the worst ones and retired those (which I'm sure will come into play when the next bus sale bid comes out).  Of the remaining ones they had, the overflow were sent back to West and they'll keep the rest.  We may see a couple more buses moved in the coming days, but South is likely done moving buses after that.  I would think that as more 6700s show up at NS, any Nabis left up there will go to West to replace the last Orions and the worst Nabis left in their fleet.  

[Busjack]

52 minutes ago, rotjohns said:

Of the remaining ones they had, the overflow were sent back to West and they'll keep the rest.  We may see a couple more buses moved in the coming days, but South is likely done moving buses after that.

I don't think that's the case. Pace said that S was becoming all CNG and while I doubted it with respect to the express buses (still have to see), I did the math earlier and 91 CNGs are more than enough to cover p.m. rush plus a spare ratio of at least 15%. So, those buses are either going to another division or to the South-2 junk lot.

On NS, there hasn't been any movement on that front this week.

[BusHunter]

i would think the #6700's would have to go to West because something is going to replace the #6600's. The West nabi's would have to go to north. Unless they shock us all and actually give north the #6700's. NS does not need buses in the #6740's, so where else can they go? It's between West and North. Seems like the block is too big to say 5 here 10 there. Maybe in time the whole #6700 block will end up at one division because so far these transfers seem a bit sporadic.

[garmon757]

14 hours ago, BusHunter said:

i would think the #6700's would have to go to West because something is going to replace the #6600's. The West nabi's would have to go to north. Unless they shock us all and actually give north the #6700's. NS does not need buses in the #6740's, so where else can they go? It's between West and North. Seems like the block is too big to say 5 here 10 there. Maybe in time the whole #6700 block will end up at one division because so far these transfers seem a bit sporadic.

Having #6700s at West is like having Christmas every "damn" day (Samuel Jackson voice) 

West is already in a overload scenario thanks to South and North Shore throwing their NABIs away like it's a bus strip club. It just keeps coming and coming until both garages are satisfied with new buses.  

Keep in mind that @Pace831 spotted 6700s in the 6740s while North Shore has a capacity of approximately 40-50 buses. So it's critical to see how many 6700s are going to be in total. Also, will there be 6800s? Who knows. 

[Busjack]

3 hours ago, garmon757 said:

.

West is already in a overload scenario thanks to South and North Shore throwing their NABIs away like it's a bus strip club. It just keeps coming and coming until both garages are satisfied with new buses.  

Keep in mind that @Pace831 spotted 6700s in the 6740s while North Shore has a capacity of approximately 40-50 buses. So it's critical to see how many 6700s are going to be in total. Also, will there be 6800s? Who knows. 

• It just seems like West is the new destination for buses to die. It's like sending Orion VIs to SW; they didn't last long.
• North Shore has a capacity of about 50, but I don't see a need for about 38 40 ft. buses there. I'm waiting for the effect of BOS, but also the 2016 budget saying that small buses will displace 30 footers. If that's the case, the NABIs still at NS get replaced by 30 ft buses, and with a surplus of 30 foot buses, some of NW and SW's Axess buses go to W.
• Add to the "who knows?" that the 2017 budget said 35 and 40 ft. buses.

[garmon757]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

• It just seems like West is the new destination for buses to die. It's like sending Orion VIs to SW; they didn't last long.
• North Shore has a capacity of about 50, but I don't see a need for about 38 40 ft. buses there. I'm waiting for the effect of BOS, but also the 2016 budget saying that small buses will displace 30 footers. If that's the case, the NABIs still at NS get replaced by 30 ft buses, and with a surplus of 30 foot buses, some of NW and SW's Axess buses go to W.
• Add to the "who knows?" that the 2017 budget said 35 and 40 ft. buses.

Well, we can't leave North Garage in the woods. Another critical garage that is most likely going to determine the outcome of new bus assignments and fleets. I'm guessing next year. It wouldn't make any sense for Southwest giving West their 6500s. What I don't understand is why Northwest and North Shore have the other 6500s (6559-74) instead of Southwest? If North Shore is going to be dominated with smaller buses, then what was the point having some 6700s assigned to that garage? If anything, why not have North dominated with new smaller buses? As far as BOS goes, yes it is going to make an impact but I see little or no impact at West. West is going to continue to do their regular operation which is putting old buses to their graves. Makes me wonder about the Orion VI's not being dead.

[BusHunter]

6 hours ago, garmon757 said:

Having #6700s at West is like having Christmas every "damn" day (Samuel Jackson voice) 

West is already in a overload scenario thanks to South and North Shore throwing their NABIs away like it's a bus strip club. It just keeps coming and coming until both garages are satisfied with new buses.  

Keep in mind that @Pace831 spotted 6700s in the 6740s while North Shore has a capacity of approximately 40-50 buses. So it's critical to see how many 6700s are going to be in total. Also, will there be 6800s? Who knows. 

Yeah well South is having Christmas now "every damn day" LOL!! Now not only do they have the newest buses, they have the newest technology, and the biggest fleet of Axess buses, (I believe) but it might wind up hurting them because there is no bailout plan if the buses should get alot of mechanical issues in the future once they break in. Probably they should have at least did two cng garages, this way they have something to swap should the buses need a rest.

West is going to have to be the new south, only trouble is you don't have any heavy maintenance at West.

I thought Busjack said the magic number was 76 for #6700's, as that's what was in the budget. They could try Eldorko's at North with a few Axess. North has to have a few light routes. Every dog gets his day and I think North's day is coming soon. It's not fair to them to be the junkyard of Pace.

[Busjack]

53 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

What I don't understand is why Northwest and North Shore have the other 6500s (6559-74) instead of Southwest?

There's still the issue of how many buses a garage needs. By the time SW got 6558, it was running all Axess (except for the 30 footers), so it didn't need more buses. Although the inventory said 6573-4 to SW, it didn't need them, and people were yelling "why are there still Orions at NW?" There aren't now.

56 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

If North Shore is going to be dominated with smaller buses, then what was the point having some 6700s assigned to that garage?

I didn't say dominated, but I did say that instead of sending say 25 more 6700s to NS as your posts implied, most of the remaining NABIs could be knocked out by 30 ft. buses. Some NABIs have gone to W, but most have not yet.

 

59 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

If anything, why not have North dominated with new smaller buses?

If you mean 30 ft buses, for some reason Pace has never assigned any there to Waukegan local routes. That gets back to whether Pace meant anything in the 2017 budget that it is getting 35 ft buses.

 

1 hour ago, garmon757 said:

As far as BOS goes, yes it is going to make an impact but I see little or no impact at West.

I didn't imply that it did. My point was that it would affect the bus allocation at NS. West is basically going to run about 125-140 40 foot buses of whatever type is available.

17 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I thought Busjack said the magic number was 76 for #6700's,

That's what the budget said, but, again, that's 35 and 40 ft.buses, according to the budget.

18 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Every dog gets his day and I think North's day is coming soon.

North got out of sync because it had the 20 Gillig 35 ft. buses and then the 30 NABI (1999) buses.What was the fly in the ointment was while the 1999 NABIs were replaced as a result of acquiring 6323-6376, all those buses went to W; S and N got replacements from W.