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7900-series Nova LFS - Updates


South Shop 7

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There at least one new #7900 at south shops, I saw it sitting by the front fence among other buses this morning.

It should be 7901 if CTA is getting them numerically. Being 4/29 and given Kevin's statement on his news page that the CTA expects to take regular delivery of the Nova LFS Smart Buses beginning in April and start to put them in service in May. They may have more than just one new bus on property. Inside of South Shops there might be another one(or two). These won't be seen until 5/1 at the earliest, however... and then will they be anywhere else but #65 Grand, or is that going to be their assignment until further notice out of Chicago Garage?

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Well, the #65 Grand runs pretty close to downtown. (I can't complain about being able to get to the Twisted Spoke and|or Rock Bottom Chicago on it. ;)) But, what would we scribe were it to turn up on route #132 Goose Island Express? :lol:

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According to this payment (3rd one down) looks like they paid for another bus?

http://vcsearch.transitchicago.com/vendorContractDetail.php?CONTRACT_NUM=C12FT101275135

Looks a little low, don't you think? The first two dated 1/31/14 were for $244,836/ea, which is the cost of 7900, I bet($489,672). The third payment is only $146901.60, which is a little more than half of $244,836. Personally, I wonder if all three of these payments are for 7900. They say the bus costs a $500,000, but with sales taxes and other miscellaneous costs of amenities and such, $636,573.60 could be the sticker price of 7900 alone. CTA might've held the third payment in until they had tested 7900 a bit more. Bus arrived 2/3/14 and underwent behind the scenes tests before being put on #65 Grand. The bus didn't see revenue service until April 9, 2014, as mentioned here and here, approx. 20 days after that smaller payment to Nova Bus went out.

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According to this payment (3rd one down) looks like they paid for another bus?

http://vcsearch.transitchicago.com/vendorContractDetail.php?CONTRACT_NUM=C12FT101275135

The third one down was explained before. It was the 30% second payment on the first bus when CTA inspectors released it for shipment (SP4.1, page 42).

'

There apparently have been two 50% first payments on buses (when driveable inside the factory), but no second payment on the second bus.

sw had not read the prior posts, including where I had posted the contract terms. And I don't feel like searching for them at the moment.

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It just shows that CTA can't ever get anything done in time as of lately. Is it really worth it having #7900 operating #65 five days a week for quite a month now??? Right now this (expletive) is getting beyond senseless but do Claypool cares? Absolutely not....

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It just shows that CTA can't ever get anything done in time as of lately. Is it really worth it having #7900 operating #65 five days a week for quite a month now??? Right now this (expletive) is getting beyond senseless but do Claypool cares? Absolutely not....

On the other hand, you don't know what is happening at the assembly plant. One would presume that Nova would want to be paid, if it met any of the contract benchmarks.

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Finally, something new on that front, which you found. 21 more buses made the 50% threshold some 30 days before May 6.

Where do you get 21 from this page?

C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7344 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7345 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7346 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7347 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7348 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7349 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7350 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7351 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7352 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7353 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7354 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7355 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7356 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7357 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7358 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7359 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7360 244896.00 06-MAY-14 C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7361 244896.00 06-MAY-14 1 Bus C12FT101275135 NOVA BUS LFS, A Division of Prevost Car US, Inc. 7362 244896.00 06-MAY-14

Blue=Partial Payment

I don't see 21 buses partially paid... I see 9 fully paid Novas on this list with the 10th getting partial payment. These buses retail at $500,000/ea. If I'm wrong, show me where and how you come up with 21 from the page I linked to. Invoice 7170 and 7171 are from Nova #7900. I don't know what invoice 7202 is for, as that isn't even a partial payment for one bus.

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I don't see 21 buses partially paid... I see 9 fully paid Novas on this list with the 10th getting partial payment. These buses retail at $500,000/ea. If I'm wrong, show me where and how you come up with 21 from the page I linked to. Invoice 7170 and 7171 are from Nova #7900. I don't know what invoice 7202 is for, as that isn't even a partial payment for one bus.

Invoices 7344-7362 are initial payments on 19 buses. The balance will be paid in smaller amounts (e.g. 1st payment of 50% = $245,000; 2nd payment of 30% = $147,000, etc). Invoices 7170 and 7171 are initial payments on 2 buses, invoice 7202 is a second payment on the first bus (#7900 I presume). I think that full payment is only due when the bus is in revenue service.

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Invoices 7344-7362 are initial payments on 19 buses. The balance will be paid in smaller amounts (e.g. 1st payment of 50% = $245,000; 2nd payment of 30% = $147,000, etc). Invoices 7170 and 7171 are initial payments on 2 buses, invoice 7202 is a second payment on the first bus (#7900 I presume). I think that full payment is only due when the bus is in revenue service.

You are absolutely correct.

I had posted the contract provisions before, but they might have been missed when the thread was split between the order and deliveries.

The provision to which you refer is in this post. The conclusion, which I drew before, is that another 19 buses are driveable at the factory, but have not been released for delivery (at least by April 6). The other two payment stages are in this post.

Now, maybe if sw had read those posts before posting.............

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On the other hand, you don't know what is happening at the assembly plant. One would presume that Nova would want to be paid, if it met any of the contract benchmarks.

You're right, I don't know what's going on out there but that's doesn't define how CTA manages it's payments for up to date busses and trains.
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You're right, I don't know what's going on out there but that's doesn't define how CTA manages it's payments for up to date busses and trains.

I think the larger picture Busjack is pointed out is when something doesn't go to plan, CTA management isn't always automatically or immediately at fault or that there is necessarily any fault at all. At least, that's how I understood his above comment about the machinations at the plant level to mean. And trust me, that's the moment any one of us slows down and maybe take time to cool our collective heads as well as rethink the point we made after getting that particular statement from Busjack, because as we all know he is no big fan of how CTA gets operated. Those rare moments he says don't be so quick to blame CTA management for something taking a bit longer than we expected is a signal not all moving parts are being considered.

As for the rest of your point about CTA's penchant for keeping buses and railcars around longer than the recommended standard life, another thing you also have to consider is the federal and Illinois state governments don't always have their acts together in having a current federal transportation bill and/or state capital plan in place to help fund the purchase of new buses and railcars to replace any aging ones CTA has on the roster during those moments CTA isn't borrowing against its capital funds to pay for its operations side of things.

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