What's Left for Pace's Orion VI's 6000s?

[Busjack]

10 hours ago, rotjohns said:

With the 17500s out, more 6162s or late 6200s are on the move or retired, likely headed to West.  The Orions are definitely leaving if there are officially only 35 left.

I was cruising around River Forest and Forest Park looking for bus signs (most, but not all have been converted to the NW style) but ran into a whole lot of Orion VIs with signs that did not work. On the other hand, it looked like there was a whole mess of Orion Vis in the yard southwest of the West garage, which I presume are OOS.

Speaking of signs, RIP Argo. The one I saw was 307 63-Archer.

[rotjohns]

39 minutes ago, Busjack said:

I was cruising around River Forest and Forest Park looking for bus signs (most, but not all have been converted to the NW style) but ran into a whole lot of Orion VIs with signs that did not work. On the other hand, it looked like there was a whole mess of Orion Vis in the yard southwest of the West garage, which I presume are OOS.

Speaking of signs, RIP Argo. The one I saw was 307 63-Archer.

That's typical in that garage to see buses parked on the side, I used to pass by West garage daily in my commute on Lake street from Forest Park to Elmhurst when I used to live in the area.  If any were black striped, then it was officially a goner. 

[Busjack]

54 minutes ago, rotjohns said:

That's typical in that garage to see buses parked on the side, I used to pass by West garage daily in my commute on Lake street from Forest Park to Elmhurst when I used to live in the area.  If any were black striped, then it was officially a goner. 

Too far away from Lake St. for me to tell. Also, having gone by South Lot 2 in Markham, they don't black stripe them any more, but use the White X of Death, similar to what CTA does.

I still can't figure out why Pace is holding onto maybe 200 pieces of junk while not advertising it for disposition (estimate based on that driveby and the inventories Andre got).

[BusHunter]

12 hours ago, rotjohns said:

I'm guessing that they were working on the Eldos over the weekend and didn't want too many of them out.

With the 17500s out, more 6162s or late 6200s are on the move or retired, likely headed to West.  The Orions are definitely leaving if there are officially only 35 left.

yes definitely West will lose the Orions it has now. The question is what will replace the 10 Orions at NW? Are the pulse buses enough? NW won't get NABI's, so it would have to get Eldo's. (eldorko's or Axess')

Then we have the issue of what the other 35 South CNG's will replace. Will it be South #6162's? West NABI's? North #6600's?

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Are the pulse buses enough? NW won't get NABI's, so it would have to get Eldo's. (eldorko's or Axess')

Should already have been, and there is of course the question of whether Pace will ever order the 53 small buses and move the EZ Riders.

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Then we have the issue of what the other 35 South CNG's will replace. Will it be South #6162's? West NABI's? North #6600's?

Once the Orion VIs are gone, most likely the 2003 NABIs at South (as you indicated). Most of those at W are gone (and W undoubtedly gets back the 2005s), and it doesn't appear that the 2003 NABIs at N and NS are in that bad of shape, and certainly don't have the mileage the S ones do.

Again, my betting from the unexecuted 2017 budget is that N gets new 35' buses. Maybe 19600s (decode that number).

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

Should already have been, and there is of course the question of whether Pace will ever order the 53 small buses and move the EZ Riders.

Once the Orion VIs are gone, most likely the 2003 NABIs at South (as you indicated). Most of those at W are gone (and W undoubtedly gets back the 2005s), and it doesn't appear that the 2003 NABIs at N and NS are in that bad of shape, and certainly don't have the mileage the S ones do.

Again, my betting from the unexecuted 2017 budget is that N gets new 35' buses. Maybe 19600s (decode that number).

Now the question remains did the Pulse buses retire from the bus total of 22 to make 10 or is 10 what they had before the Pulse buses arrived at NW on 4/24. 

[Busjack]

18 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Now the question remains did the Pulse buses retire from the bus total of 22 to make 10 or is 10 what they had before the Pulse buses arrived at NW on 4/24. 

The only thing I concluded in the Inventory topic was that with 6510-6521 (11 buses, no 6513), and 6566-6572 (7 buses), not then put in service, but theoretically now are, that was enough to cover what Orion VIs on that inventory as assigned to NW.

However, junk doesn't seem to drop as quickly as I think, and there still seems to be the question whether 6510 and 6511 are still on I-55 routes.

[rotjohns]

On 5/17/2017 at 0:15 PM, Busjack said:

Should already have been, and there is of course the question of whether Pace will ever order the 53 small buses and move the EZ Riders.

Once the Orion VIs are gone, most likely the 2003 NABIs at South (as you indicated). Most of those at W are gone (and W undoubtedly gets back the 2005s), and it doesn't appear that the 2003 NABIs at N and NS are in that bad of shape, and certainly don't have the mileage the S ones do.

Again, my betting from the unexecuted 2017 budget is that N gets new 35' buses. Maybe 19600s (decode that number).

Looking at Webwatch this morning, there are a slew of 2003 40 foot Nabis from South that are not out and about during the am rush.  That tells me that they are prepping to either move them to West (perhaps some go to North or North Shore) or retire them.  I could potentially see this happening this week, although most of the Orion are still out there at West right now.  Several 6600s are out there at South as well.  

Since route 348 can't have CNGs due to height of the buses vs the underpasses out there, what are they gonna do if the 6600s move and/or retire?  Would some 30-foot El Dorados have to go to South, possibly from Naperville or Fox Valley?    

[Busjack]

15 minutes ago, rotjohns said:

Since route 348 can't have CNGs due to height of the buses vs the underpasses out there, what are they gonna do if the 6600s move and/or retire?  Would some 30-foot El Dorados have to go to South, possibly from Naperville or Fox Valley?

You misconstrued this one. They rerouted 348 about a year ago because of the overpass clearance issue. Reference here.

The main thing I noticed on WebWatch is the high number of 2005 NABIs. There must be some effort to run them into the ground before transferring them, or maybe the 2003 ones are in worse shape than we thought.

[rotjohns]

7 minutes ago, Busjack said:

You misconstrued this one. They rerouted 348 about a year ago because of the overpass clearance issue. Reference here.

The main thing I noticed on WebWatch is the high number of 2005 NABIs. There must be some effort to run them into the ground before transferring them, or maybe the 2003 ones are in worse shape than we thought.

I completely forgot about that (link no longer works).  So unlikely any El Dorados head South, for now.  

I did notice a lot of 2005 NABIs out.  South does have a habit of not doing a lot of upkeep of their buses so it wouldn't surprise me that the 2003 Nabis are in really bad shape.  Maybe the Orions might have to stick around if that's the case. 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, rotjohns said:

I completely forgot about that (link no longer works).  So unlikely any El Dorados head South, for now.  

I did notice a lot of 2005 NABIs out.  South does have a habit of not doing a lot of upkeep of their buses so it wouldn't surprise me that the 2003 Nabis are in really bad shape.  Maybe the Orions might have to stick around if that's the case. 

The way 6158-6160 looked when I saw them last week (at least the signs), I wouldn't bet on it.

The other thing I noticed on WebWatch is that there are a few 6600s on 352, even though a driver posted in the days of the 2423s that 35 foot buses are not supposed to be assigned there.

[rotjohns]

6 hours ago, Busjack said:

The way 6158-6160 looked when I saw them last week (at least the signs), I wouldn't bet on it.

The other thing I noticed on WebWatch is that there are a few 6600s on 352, even though a driver posted in the days of the 2423s that 35 foot buses are not supposed to be assigned there.

That is strange, there are 2 6600s out there on 352 now in the PM rush.  And the 348 has 2 40-footers out there now when this morning there were 2 6600s. 

[ethan2226]

Do the Orion VI buses at NW have Wi-Fi?

[Busjack]

11 hours ago, ethan2226 said:

Do the Orion VI buses at NW have Wi-Fi?

Was WiFi around in 2001?

More than likely, only the Axess and MCI buses have Wifi.

And what difference does it make if they will be sitting in the South 2 yard in a couple of weeks?

[qwantae]

On 5/22/2017 at 5:51 PM, rotjohns said:

That is strange, there are 2 6600s out there on 352 now in the PM rush.  And the 348 has 2 40-footers out there now when this morning there were 2 6600s. 

That route is too rough for an 35-foot during the day, especially Peak Hours, busiest Pace route in the whole system.  

[busfan2847]

Only 6031, 6091, 6143 and 6145 out this morning RH from NW according to webwatch. These 4 as well as 6117 and 6129 were the only ones out in early July.

West had 6044, 6048, 6053, 6069, 6103, 6123, 6125, 6130, 6156, 6157, 6159 out.

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

Only 6031, 6091, 6143 and 6145 out this morning RH from NW according to webwatch. These 4 as well as 6117 and 6129 were the only ones out in early July.

West had 6044, 6048, 6053, 6069, 6103, 6123, 6125, 6130, 6156, 6157, 6159 out.

I rode 6132 today on the 301.  It's air conditioning  works  very wrll.

[busfan2847]

22 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

Only 6031, 6091, 6143 and 6145 out this morning RH from NW according to webwatch. These 4 as well as 6117 and 6129 were the only ones out in early July.

West had 6044, 6048, 6053, 6069, 6103, 6123, 6125, 6130, 6156, 6157, 6159 out.

In the afternoon RH the following additional Orions were out

6129 at NW; 6058, 6067, 6116, 6132, 6158 at W

[rotjohns]

As of this morning's rush hour, only 6145 and 6031 are out at NW per Webwatch.  

[ethan2226]

Are the Orions at NW (6031, 6143, and 6145) prohibited to the Route #606 Rosemont - Schaumburg Limited?

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, ethan2226 said:

Are the Orions at NW (6031, 6143, and 6145) prohibited to the Route #606 Rosemont - Schaumburg Limited?

I don't think there is any. "prohibition," but with 3 out of  approx. 104 (plus or minus some moves reported today), plus 606 being such a priority that R got some 6700s  to replace 35 ft buses, why would Pace do it? Being some fanguy is not a sufficient  reason.

The better question is why those 3 buses are still around.

[rotjohns]

On 8/21/2017 at 3:07 PM, artthouwill said:

I rode 6132 today on the 301.  It's air conditioning  works  very wrll.

As of right now, only the following Orions are at West currently running:  6041, 6058, 6067, 6099, 6103, 6125, 6132, 6156-6158.  And the majority of these buses are on lighter routes so that's a telling sign also.  Remember when route 301 (and the previous 747) were loaded with Orions back in the day?  None are there at this moment.  No sign of 6159-6161 as of now either.  Rush hour could change things.

[artthouwill]

46 minutes ago, rotjohns said:

As of right now, only the following Orions are at West currently running:  6041, 6058, 6067, 6099, 6103, 6125, 6132, 6156-6158.  And the majority of these buses are on lighter routes so that's a telling sign also.  Remember when route 301 (and the previous 747) were loaded with Orions back in the day?  None are there at this moment.  No sign of 6159-6161 as of now either.  Rush hour could change things.

Yesterday  I saw Orions on 301 and 322.  We will see if today starts a trend or is just an abnormality. 

[rotjohns]

It's rush hour and at this point, there are no Orions showing up at NW on Webwatch on any it's routes.  Sounds like R.I.P. at NW.

[qwantae]

Some of Orions are still at West routes all day.  As of Today around almost 12 noon, 6058 on 301, 6044 on 314, 6125, 6041 and 6103 on 318, 6132 on 302, 6157 on 307, 6160 on 319, 6123 and 6053 on 322, 6103 on 313, 6069 on 308, 6158 and 6161 on 330.  It's all I have.