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New Eldorados?


artthouwill

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  • 2 weeks later...

The November minutes throw more confusion on this fire, indicating that deliveries of the 69 are to be completed either at the end of April or mid May of 2013 (compared to the prior "62 before Christmas").

It confirms what we later knew that this enables transferring 2005 NABIs to South. Then she says that the last 15 are to be one-door express buses, apparently most to go to South to replace the leased OTRs. However, as I noted last night, there is a requisition that the contractor provide OTRs.

Yeah that is a dicey point, and adding fuel to that fire is a Pace spokeswoman telling the Tribune, for an article that the paper did about the new Eldorados, that the 15 'express' style Eldos in the order will in fact be used on the 755 and 855 routes, backing up what you found in the Pace minutes on the issue.

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Yeah that is a dicey point, and adding fuel to that fire is a Pace spokeswoman telling the Tribune, for an article that the paper did about the new Eldorados, that the 15 'express' style Eldos in the order will in fact be used on the 755 and 855 routes, backing up what you found in the Pace minutes on the issue.

Link. The ambiguity is that it says " But 15 "express-style" vehicles will travel on Pace routes that operate on the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) and the Tri-State Tollway (I-294), Pace said." Apparently not enough for both.

Also, this is the first time it was indicated that they were fiberglass buses. Someone will have to thump one.

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Link. The ambiguity is that it says " But 15 "express-style" vehicles will travel on Pace routes that operate on the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) and the Tri-State Tollway (I-294), Pace said." Apparently not enough for both.

Also, this is the first time it was indicated that they were fiberglass buses. Someone will have to thump one.

Ah gotcha. Missed the 294 point. So either the reporter missed something or the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing at Pace in regards to this particular item.

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What # are we up to in 30' ElDo's

The order for 30' Eldos has been completed some time ago. The delivered #s are 2600-2612/2614-2712/2714-2812/2814-2825. Buses 2826-2829 (assigned to Pace Fox Valley Division) are 32', and are different from the 30-footers.

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I was surprised to see #6345 (still out there)on the #330 today. Noticed a couple others #6333, #6334, #6339. It looks like most buses #6323 - #6339 are accounted for.

Funny. I've never seen 6323 or 6324. Are we sure this series doesn't start at 6325? From 6325, the only ones I haven't seen yet are 6332, 6333,6335 and 6336, and Busjack mentioned 6340 being on Webwatch today.

The way it seemingly will line up, assuming the series starts at 6325, West will get 54 buses (up to 6379) and the "Express" buses starting at 6380 through 6394 will go to Joliet Heritage.

Interesting that there were 53 Blue Livery NABIs at West (6268 - 6321, excluding 6313), yet West also lost a few 623x buses as well. It will also be interesting to see when Pace will exercise another option for these Eldos since it is near time to retire the 6000 series Orion buses.

UPDATE: 6270 is on Webwatch on Rt 353

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Funny. I've never seen 6323 or 6324. Are we sure this series doesn't start at 6325? From 6325, the only ones I haven't seen yet are 6332, 6333,6335 and 6336, and Busjack mentioned 6340 being on Webwatch today.

MVTArider had a reference to a picture of 6323 at BusCon.

Some of the others you mentioned were on Webwatch, but I don't have a time to make an extensive inventory.

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MVTArider had a reference to a picture of 6323 at BusCon.

Some of the others you mentioned were on Webwatch, but I don't have a time to make an extensive inventory.

I saw that picture, but I've never seen it anywhere in revenue service, nor have I ever spotted it on Webwatch. Perhaps that was only a prototype and the series actually starts at 6325.

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I saw that picture, but I've never seen it anywhere in revenue service, nor have I ever spotted it on Webwatch. Perhaps that was only a prototype and the series actually starts at 6325.

I really doubt it, in that they had bus #2010, which definitely was at least a demonstrator.

But given stuff like buses 6156-6161 were delivered at least a year after 6162, anything is possible.

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I agree that the flush windows like on 2010 would have been a nice touch over what the 6323s have now. It does seem like Pace and CTA seem to like to stick with features that make their versions of a bus model look outdated compared to the same models of other TAs used during the same time.

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I agree that the flush windows like on 2010 would have been a nice touch over what the 6323s have now. It does seem like Pace and CTA seem to like to stick with features that make their versions of a bus model look outdated compared to the same models of other TAs used during the same time.

In that these are not the flush windows of the type that were on the Flx Metros and RTSs, but just a plexiglass overhang on the standard rounded corner window frames, I now think that it is an affectation.

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A driver I know at West says they have 6325 through 6349. Also, he says there was a memo put out that the ElDorado Axxess buses were not to be used on Saturdays.

That restriction might have been the result of a combination of factors: First, the buses need to be worked in - and for many of the Pace fixed routes, the only time that the new buses get an adequate workout would be weekday rush hours. Second, many of the drivers still need to be acclimated to the new bus styling (they were so used to old, squarish buses that are falling out of favor with bus manufacturers and stylists). As a result, the new ElDorados are not to be used on weekends unless there is a shortage of operable older buses. And this policy will continue until the division receives enough of the new buses to cover all base (off-peak/weekend) service plus a few spares.

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