Pace 2014 budget

[Busjack]

Despite what I thought from the meeting agendas. Moving Forward said that budget hearings are going on as scheduled and everything is fine. There is a budget posted on pacebus.com, so I'll have to give it a look to see if anything stands out.

[artthouwill]

I thought I read that the 2014 budget calls for only 43 new "fixed route" tramsit buses. Of course these are not the CNG buses. If this is true, then one could infer that the oldest Orions from NW will be the buses getting replaced by the new Axess buses. Perhaps some will be expresses for the expanded 600/606 service, but NW seems to be the destination for the newest buses to come.

[Busjack]

I thought I read that the 2014 budget calls for only 43 new "fixed route" tramsit buses. Of course these are not the CNG buses. If this is true, then one could infer that the oldest Orions from NW will be the buses getting replaced by the new Axess buses. Perhaps some will be expresses for the expanded 600/606 service, but NW seems to be the destination for the newest buses to come.

43 is what this budget says.

However, Pace budgets are never clear, in that the 2012 budget indicated 156 buses, only 69 that were delivered in 2013, and the 2013 budget had 91 buses, now presumably the CNGs.

The total 5 year plan is 135 buses, but it isn't clear whether that is in excess of the approximately 178 buses indicated in previous budgets.

The other capital thing to note is that the CNG upgrade for South Garage is scheduled for 2014, but the Northwest Garage replacement isn't scheduled until 2015-2016.

Most of the I-90 infrastructure capital expenses are budgeted for 2016 and beyond.

[Busjack]

.... NW seems to be the destination for the newest buses to come.

On ART (coincidence?) the budget says in connection with Milwaukee Ave. being the first:

ART routes will use a branded and dedicated subfleet of 40 foot low-floor vehicles. Vehicles will have a modern design and will receive maintenance priority.

[trainman8119]

On ART (coincidence?) the budget says in connection with Milwaukee Ave. being the first:

ART routes will use a branded and dedicated subfleet of 40 foot low-floor vehicles. Vehicles will have a modern design and will receive maintenance priority.

I wonder if they'll stick to that or do the BS that the CTA has done with the 14. There seems to be every bus 103rd has except wrapped BRT buses (including 40 footers from time to time). More 4300s than anything else. It looks like anything BUT a BRT route. Still think the whole concept is a big waste of time and money...IMO, just make it an express route, if you want signal priority fine (although that really screws up traffic, but then nobody seems to care about that) and be done with it.

[mkohut]

I wonder if they'll stick to that or do the BS that the CTA has done with the 14. There seems to be every bus 103rd has except wrapped BRT buses (including 40 footers from time to time). More 4300s than anything else. It looks like anything BUT a BRT route. Still think the whole concept is a big waste of time and money...IMO, just make it an express route, if you want signal priority fine (although that really screws up traffic, but then nobody seems to care about that) and be done with it.

You bring up a excellent point with the signal priority.You have it a busy intersection from all sides of traffic.That can very easily turn the traffic to a parking lot.Even worse if there is a signal malfunction.

[Busjack]

I wonder if they'll stick to that or do the BS that the CTA has done with the 14. There seems to be every bus 103rd has except wrapped BRT buses (including 40 footers from time to time). More 4300s than anything else. It looks like anything BUT a BRT route. Still think the whole concept is a big waste of time and money...IMO, just make it an express route, if you want signal priority fine (although that really screws up traffic, but then nobody seems to care about that) and be done with it.

In that we don't know what the bus order eventually will be, it is hard to tell. However, at least with wraps, Pace has been more than willing to do that with 755/855 (although they said that the State Police made them do it) and 895.

Niles has about a 7 year old plan for this. The main features seem to be a "station" at major cross streets and some streetscape and storefront redevelopment. Then the Niles Free Bus is supposed to pick up some of the local slack; there is solicitation #411773 to restructure it.

My main questions would be whether a "dedicated fleet" would deprive the garage of needed flexibility in assigning spares, and how they deal with 272 being partially interlined with 270 (completely on Saturday).

The signal priority (as explained by Pace) is only if the bus is running behind, and, as the budget points out, has already been instituted in Harvey. There probably still is the question on how the bus deals with traffic congestion in Niles, especially on Saturday.