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New Eldorados?


artthouwill

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4 hours ago, chicagocubs6323 said:

South Division?  Pace might have ordered more CNG El Dorados for the PULSE Halsted line.  Separate from the new 30ft bus order.

 

4 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

20501 is on the 349, 20504 is on the 352, 20502 is on the 395 as shown in the picture above, 20503 and 20505 are also on the 395. Is there a 20500 in this fleet?

This is an interesting development.   I thought PULSE DEMPSTER was next up to be implemented.   My question is how many CNG Eldorado Axxess buses have they ordered?  Will they stay st South or will they shift to Wheeling once that opens?  It may not be related but it may signal the remaining New Flyers will go to W.  

Someone mentioned that 30 fixed route 49 ft buses were in the 2020 budget.  Has that gone up for bid?  Are these new Axxess buses part if or will be that order?  Is this something undisclosed previously?

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1 hour ago, Tcmetro said:

From RTAMS:

Pace executed a change order to procure an additional 6 CNG buses using federal funds, those buses are expected to be delivered by July 2020. 

http://www.rtams.org/rtams/pmoProject.jsp?id=96

I thought the original order was for 91 CNG buses of which 20 were 2015s and 71 were 2017s. The way the link reads, it says the order was for 102 buses with Pace now adding 6 for a total of 108 nuses.  Until today,  zer could only account for 91, so should we expect another 17 total?  I guess they will go South for now, but I think some will make their way to Wheeling. 

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40 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I thought the original order was for 91 CNG buses of which 20 were 2015s and 71 were 2017s. The way the link reads, it says the order was for 102 buses with Pace now adding 6 for a total of 108 nuses.  Until today,  zer could only account for 91, so should we expect another 17 total?  I guess they will go South for now, but I think some will make their way to Wheeling. 

There are 11 18500s, so there should only be 6 20500s.

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12 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

These eventually will be Pulse buses.   The question is where they will be for Pulse,  Dempster,  Halsted,  or 95th?

Yeah I see that now. The other buses dont have the highway windows. They said they can order a maximum of 250 buses under this contract. So it sounds like Eldorado will be the exclusive provider of cng. At least for now. Dont know if wheeling needs more than 140 buses. I dont think they do. 

So if they go to Dempster pulse or really to supplement Milwaukee Pulse right now, I wonder if possibly hikers or mechanics could fuel the buses up at wheeling and store them in des plaines if that's not too nuts of an idea. Could always store them in wheeling but someone is going to have to do pullouts from wheeling. 

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On 9/22/2020 at 5:30 PM, John7 said:

They don't have those LED screens like 6510-21. If they don't have rear doors then these are probably like 6377-91 & 6485-6509 for routes 877/888.

But then why dont they have a pace logo? Maybe they are slated to get highway wraps but there is no flex lane slated south of 95th on I-294. So bus cant be on shoulder then. 

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2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

But then why dont they have a pace logo? Maybe they are slated to get highway wraps but there is no flex lane slated south of 95th on I-294. So bus cant be on shoulder then. 

Only way we can know is to check the interior. if they have chargers and large TV screens on the interior like 6510-21 then they're pulse buses. If they have chargers, no rear doors and vinyl seats like 6377-91 they're for routes 877/888 when they operate again. 

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On 10/21/2020 at 7:18 PM, John7 said:

They are pulse buses. However I doubt 6 buses is enough for the halsted pulse service. 

20201021_191454.jpg

Interesting find. Then to me it looks like these will be the first buses to run out of Pace Northwest as Pulse #250 when it becomes CNG. Probably only at South because it is the only CNG equipped garage so far. Could 18 buses run Pulse #250 and #270? Maybe but not in the rush.

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1 minute ago, chicagocubs6323 said:

I doubt it.  I'd say have 20-25 to be on the safe side.  Buses break down unless they're willing to use regular El Dorados for Pulse service in case of a shortage due to mechanical issues.

The actually total was 18 buses so getting closer. A couple of sub buses probably would work until the order gets filled for more.

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17 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

El Dorados are just such ugly buses, and these ones return with that nasty purple lighting. Imagine having to sit under that for 60-120 mins of your day, however many days a week.

I agree the Eldorados are ugly, but these, along with the other Pulse buses and the Suburbans are better looking than the the red of the Axxess fleet.  The oldest if the 6323s just made 7 years old, so we are stuck with them for awhile.  Whether the next order is CNG or clean diesel, here's hoping for New Flyers or even Gillugs.

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6 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I agree the Eldorados are ugly, but these, along with the other Pulse buses and the Suburbans are better looking than the the red of the Axxess fleet.  The oldest if the 6323s just made 7 years old, so we are stuck with them for awhile.  Whether the next order is CNG or clean diesel, here's hoping for New Flyers or even Gillugs.

That's fair. Its the frameless windows making all the difference. Nothing will rectify that purple lighting though. Maybe its me being dramatic, but I'd almost consider taking a local bus over a Pulse bus just because of that.

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2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

That's fair. Its the frameless windows making all the difference. Nothing will rectify that purple lighting though. Maybe its me being dramatic, but I'd almost consider taking a local bus over a Pulse bus just because of that.

Wow.  Do you like Prince?   How would you distinguish the Pulse buses from the others?

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On 11/28/2020 at 6:20 PM, NewFlyerMCI said:

El Dorados are just such ugly buses, and these ones return with that nasty purple lighting. Imagine having to sit under that for 60-120 mins of your day, however many days a week.

They may be ugly but they operate better than the NF's. Haven't seen any eldo's catch fire unlike the new flyers that cta owns. 

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15 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Wow.  Do you like Prince?   How would you distinguish the Pulse buses from the others?

I don't listen to his music, but yes, I did enjoy Prince's personality and flair ?. I assume the buses would be wrapped + that special headsign, and in the right lightning conditions (or absent of them), I presume I'd be able to see the lighting from outside the bus.

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8 hours ago, John7 said:

They may be ugly but they operate better than the NF's. Haven't seen any eldo's catch fire unlike the new flyers that cta owns. 

I'd need the numbers, but I'd argue once you adjust for fleet size, they run about the same. And if we're specifically talking about spontaneously catching fire (got a link btw?) I think its more likely to happen with CTA anyway, since they have over 1000 NFs (and that's just shoeboxes, not counting artics). Pace has ~671 Eldos, which are not beat as much as CTA's NF, so statistically, ofc CTA's NF are more likely to run into issues. They also sound better, but that's a matter of personal preference.

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