Random Pace

[Dawnlight]

9 hours ago, BusHunter said:

I was noticing on pace #290, the bus calls out all the stops now, not just the major intersections. When did that start? The #606 for instance still just calls out the major intersections afaik. This makes me wonder if it's something special because #290 is a posted stops only route, I believe.

I'm pretty sure that routes that stop only at Posted bus stops gets the "Mr. Pace" announcer who announces all the stops as opposed to "Ms. Pace" who announces major intersections and landmarks. So those riding 356 should also get a Mr. Pace announcer.

[MetroShadow]

4 minutes ago, Dawnlight said:

I'm pretty sure that routes that stop only at Posted bus stops gets the "Mr. Pace" announcer who announces all the stops as opposed to "Ms. Pace" who announces major intersections and landmarks. So those riding 356 should also get a Mr. Pace announcer.

That is correct. It's been a practice since 250 and 270 were converted to Posted Stops. Of course there is an exception that Des Plaines Metra got the Mr Pace treatment for all routes, not just the 250.

[Dawnlight]

I think the winner for weirdest destination sign goes to CTA's #68 route. I remember on their amber Novas, it used to say "68 Northwest Hywy" and then later on got changed to "68 Northwest HWY".

[BusHunter]

2 hours ago, Dawnlight said:

I'm pretty sure that routes that stop only at Posted bus stops gets the "Mr. Pace" announcer who announces all the stops as opposed to "Ms. Pace" who announces major intersections and landmarks. So those riding 356 should also get a Mr. Pace announcer.

Ms. Pace announces the #290. You know it sounds like a different Ms. Pace, you know how if you ride the #331, the message starts out by saying the next stop will be. This don't start out like that and the woman doing the announcement sounds more friendly. Kind of like a petite woman. It's in the tone of like the brown line's woman voice but different. I was thinking that you know you hear this woman and then you hear please step away from the doors in a stern voice for the door alarm. That's sort of an attention getter, unless that is there intention. I sort of like the sound of the new Ms. Pace. It's somewhat pacifying.

[Pace831]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

you know how if you ride the #331, the message starts out by saying the next stop will be.

On the 832, there is an announcement "The next stop will be 153rd Street and West Avenue", but the rest of the stops have the standard "now approaching".

[BusHunter]

Just now, Pace831 said:

On the 832, there is an announcement "The next stop will be 153rd Street and West Avenue", but the rest of the stops have the standard "now approaching".

I think the #290 says now approaching, but I haven't heard that voice before. I'll have to see if this is on the other posted stop routes. I was on #250 not long ago and I don't believe I heard it, unless also it has to do with whether you were on an Axess or not. I was on #290's #6466, where when I was on #250 it was an Orion.

[Pace831]

2 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I think the #290 says now approaching, but I haven't heard that voice before. I'll have to see if this is on the other posted stop routes. I was on #250 not long ago and I don't believe I heard it, unless also it has to do with whether you were on an Axess or not. I was on #290's #6466, where when I was on #250 it was an Orion.

Last time I was on 250 was in August, on an Axess, and I didn't hear it. The bus model shouldn't really matter since the sound file is the same, unless they haven't updated the Orions figuring they will be gone soon enough.

[BusHunter]

1 minute ago, Pace831 said:

Last time I was on 250 was in August, on an Axess, and I didn't hear it. The bus model shouldn't really matter since the sound file is the same, unless they haven't updated the Orions figuring they will be gone soon enough.

I was on the #250 when the Yellow line just reopened and the #290 I was on just this past saturday.

[Dawnlight]

Mr Pace's announcement system is kinda dumb imo. You only get one display of the next stop (though Ms. Pace had this too) and compared to Ms. Pace, his voice is much softer. Though if people who ride CTA are annoyed by how loud Mr. CTA is, that may not be a problem.

[jajuan]

One thing I'm surprised I didn't see discussed is Pace having raised fares as of January 1. Cash fares are now $2 full fare and $1 reduced. If you're using Ventra though, fares are still $1.75 and $0.85 for full and reduced fares respectively.

[Busjack]

8 minutes ago, jajuan said:

One thing I'm surprised I didn't see discussed is Pace having raised fares as of January 1. Cash fares are now $2 full fare and $1 reduced. If you're using Ventra though, fares are still $1.75 and $0.85 for full and reduced fares respectively.

Hasn't been news since early Oct., when the proposed budget came out.

[jajuan]

Just now, Busjack said:

Hasn't been news since early Oct., when the proposed budget came out.

That's probably why I didn't realize cash fares on Pace were increasing until I was glancing the website not too long ago and saw among their top news that the fares had increased this past Friday.

[Pace831]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

One thing I'm surprised I didn't see discussed is Pace having raised fares as of January 1. Cash fares are now $2 full fare and $1 reduced. If you're using Ventra though, fares are still $1.75 and $0.85 for full and reduced fares respectively.

This shouldn't be a big deal for most riders. This is the incentive for those who still don't have a Ventra card to get one, which is the whole point of the increase. The biggest complaints are probably from people in collar counties saying they don't live near a Ventra machine, but they can have a card mailed to them. Besides many people already pay $2 full/$1 reduced because they don't have change.

[jajuan]

10 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

This shouldn't be a big deal for most riders. This is the incentive for those who still don't have a Ventra card to get one, which is the whole point of the increase. The biggest complaints are probably from people in collar counties saying they don't live near a Ventra machine, but they can have a card mailed to them. Besides many people already pay $2 full/$1 reduced because they don't have change.

I think the more surprising thing to me is that Pace hadn't already structured their fares with a Ventra incentive earlier than that. 

[Busjack]

15 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

The biggest complaints are probably from people in collar counties saying they don't live near a Ventra machine, but they can have a card mailed to them.

The real issue is that reloading points are sparse in the suburbs. I suppose one could load  online, but that has minimums. Can't just put $1.75 on an account. However, this problem first arose when Pace quit issuing transfers with cash fares.

[Pace831]

6 minutes ago, jajuan said:

I think the more surprising thing to me is that Pace hadn't already structured their fares with a Ventra incentive earlier than that. 

The first incentive was when they stopped issuing paper transfers. The reason for not doing the fare increase at that time probably had something to do with people in far suburbs lacking access to a place to add value to their card, other than online. There are still more people than we realize without internet at home, especially seniors who are an important bus-riding demographic. Out here in Joliet, most people didn't get a card until a week or two before they stopped issuing transfers. Even 6 months later, there were still a good number of people who were surprised to hear there were no more transfers, despite the outreach campaigns.

[Busjack]

11 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

Out here in Joliet

The Ventra map indicates there is a TVR in Joliet Union Station, and then various scattered currency exchanges and wireless stores. In most suburbs, you have to be near the TC. Sure not a way to promote a "universal fare card."

[Pace831]

Just now, Busjack said:

The Ventra map indicates there is a TVR in Joliet Union Station, and then various scattered currency exchanges and wireless stores. In most suburbs, you have to be near the TC. Sure not a way to promote a "universal fare card."

Also looking at that map, all CVS stores are listed as Ventra retailers. Some up to 8 miles from any Pace route and 1-3 miles from Metra stations. The only rationale I could think of was that each Metra station should have a corresponding retailer, but that seems redundant considering that downtown terminals have TVMs. I bet if you went to one of those places, there's a good chance the employees there would have no idea what a Ventra card is.

[Busjack]

17 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

I bet if you went to one of those places, there's a good chance the employees there would have no idea what a Ventra card is.

sw had a write up about his dealing with Ventra sales behind the Customer Service counter at Jewel. but the Jewels by me don't carry it.

Putting them in Ventra stations requires an intergovernmental agreement, and, as you note, most suburban Metra stations don't have TVRs, basically because Metra does not accept the card.

 

By the way, the legislature mandated a regional fare card system, including contactless cards, by Jan. 1, 2015.However, I doubt that the contemptible  General Assembly will hold the RTA in contempt.

[Kevin]

Ventra-related posts have been moved to the Ventra cards topic.

[BusHunter]

So I was on the #331 on a new 40 foot eldorado and they were doing a relief at Lake st. The operator got out of his seat and the horn starts blaring off and on, just like a car alarm would. So the relief operator pulls out his keys and turns a lock in the storage compartment area behind the operator to get it to stop. Cool, I didn't know Eldos did this. I figure it must have been a seat alarm or something. Then the bus proceeds to North ave. where all of a sudden a yellow light comes on high up on the compartment behind the driver, just like the "L" cars have, only this was yellow. I wonder what that was for? Unfortunately, I don't have the eldorado bus manual.

[jesi2282]

 

56 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

So I was on the #331 on a new 40 foot eldorado and they were doing a relief at Lake st. The operator got out of his seat and the horn starts blaring off and on, just like a car alarm would. So the relief operator pulls out his keys and turns a lock in the storage compartment area behind the operator to get it to stop. Cool, I didn't know Eldos did this. I figure it must have been a seat alarm or something. Then the bus proceeds to North ave. where all of a sudden a yellow light comes on high up on the compartment behind the driver, just like the "L" cars have, only this was yellow. I wonder what that was for? Unfortunately, I don't have the eldorado bus manual.

The only way to turn off the driver seat alarm is to sit on the seat (or place something heavy on it), eventually it would stop honking, some take longer than others, as far as I know there is no override switch.

The yellow light you saw come on is too let supervisors and undercover riders know that the operator has turned off the brake retarder, a blue light also comes on in the front of the bus just under the fleet number (this also applies to the 2600-series).

[BusHunter]

That should only come on though if the bus is in gear and no one is in the seat right? I guess the door interlock held us from driving off. If we would have been in a CTA #6400 we would have been in the next zip code cause alot of their rear door interlocks don't hold nothing. As far as the key, I swear it stopped when he turned the cylinder in the lock. Maybe this is something new to Eldorados? I'll have to take a look and see if there's a picture of this key lock cylinder or maybe just take a look myself. If he was putting something in a locker he would just pull those gray grab handles, no lock. But nothing was put in a locker I believe.

[mel bernero]

I have a friend that attended the last Pace Million Mile event and he told me that the 20 CNG ElDorado buses that Pace has at the moment may be it for a while until Pace receives money from the state to pay for more.

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, mel bernero said:

I have a friend that attended the last Pace Million Mile event and he told me that the 20 CNG ElDorado buses that Pace has at the moment may be it for a while until Pace receives money from the state to pay for more.

The purported cause and effect are not there. As I have pointed out many times before, the contract says 20 to start service, but the rest can be delivered within 700 days of notice to proceed.

I have also noted that the contract award was posted 18 months late, so June 1, 2014 became Dec. 1, 2015.

Also, it seems that the political foamers want to blame Rauner for everything. This is appropriated bond money from the Quinn administration,