7900-series Nova LFS - Updates

[garmon757]

4 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Or on the Ohio turnpike today. The question is what is #8250 doing? If the March dated glass installations are any indication, it may be being built as we speak, but might take two months to get to a completed phase if building the whole lot of 50 again. Depends on the company schedule also, but with the last 25 buses in the wind, so to speak, completing the order quickly is probably in the companies best interest. (They'll probably get those anyway)

And don't be surpised if I see #8250 and higher next week! 

[Busjack]

35 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

And don't be surpised if I see #8250 and higher next week! 

The question. implied by BH, is whether they are part of this production run, or it is back to Philly.

[jajuan]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Hmm... No #8200's out from the glen. What are they worried about, the pride parade? I guess they'll be no dirty dancing on the newest buses or whatever else.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/new-yorks-finest?utm_term=.kaXXzppN3#.hmQXaJJD9

Oh wait, someone got brave, #8201 is on the #77!!

 

Also 8206 and 8228 out on the #78 at this moment, and 8219 out on the #85. They're probably worried more about drunk attendees who are heading home from the bars after being out at the parade trashing the buses than they are dirty dancing. Dirty dancing you don't have to clean up after contrary to its name. 

[garmon757]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

The question. implied by BH, is whether they are part of this production run, or it is back to Philly.

I wish I can answer that but I don't know. 

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, jajuan said:

Also 8206 and 8228 out on the #78 at this moment, and 8219 out on the #85. They're probably worried more about drunk attendees who are heading home from the bars after being out at the parade trashing the buses than they are dirty dancing. Dirty dancing you don't have to clean up after contrary to its name. 

I saw #8205 with a #77 sign motoring past Addison and Cicero NB. I was like wth??? Those damn ghost buses!!! 

[Busjack]

15 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I saw #8205 with a #77 sign motoring past Addison and Cicero NB. I was like wth??? Those damn ghost buses!!! 

Melissa McCarthy is supposed to take care of that. Harold Ramis can't.

[BusHunter]

5 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Melissa McCarthy is supposed to take care of that. Harold Ramis can't.

They must have been running extras on the #77 or something. If you go back to the CTA pride parade link they state Belmont/Red line gets so crowded, the police ask them to close it periodically. Yet no artics for Belmont. You know the #77 has to be the busiest route to never run an artic, but I believe the Queen Mary ran it generations ago.

Even when Kedzie ran morning extras they always ran #1600's. I don't believe they ever ran the #4000's.

[Busjack]

26 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

but I believe the Queen Mary ran it generations ago.

Mostly Diversey west of Logan Square.

[andrethebusman]

Actually in the era the Supertwin was running, Diversey ran from Western to Neva. Related question - did Marmons ever run on Diversey? Should have by timeline, but have never seen a single photo!

[BusHunter]

Well I finally found #8209 tucked into the 3rd yard with #6733, #6834, #6576, #6452, #6776, (#6725, I think) along with a few other surprises. (stay tuned, if Youtube ever uploads the clip) I walked the whole FG and I didn't see any #8230 or even #8224, that bus I only saw the one time when I took it's picture. It's like gone now. I thought possibly it was doing some sort of equipment check up by the wooden fence but that was #8223. Here's a shot of #8209 you can just make it out if you pan it up.

[BusHunter]

8 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

Actually in the era the Supertwin was running, Diversey ran from Western to Neva. Related question - did Marmons ever run on Diversey? Should have by timeline, but have never seen a single photo!

I could have swore at IRM or somewhere I was reading it ran on both the #77 and #76.

[BusHunter]

Since Youtube is in the twilight zone tonight and I just discovered I can put a short clip on here for download here goes my story, so I'm walking over to the 3rd yard at FG and I hear this blaring alarm. The closer I got the more I realized it was coming from the garage. I was like wth, did I breach security or something?  It would be my luck they installed a bushunter alarm!!  But no upon closer inspection I discovered the FG maintenance building had the fire alarm tripped. Don't ask me how you do that in an area that has jets of water in it. Maybe an AC unit overheated on a #8200 as it tries and tries and still is warm. So I recorded a few seconds of the alarm. You could hear it as far away as Central faintly. I bet the neighbors around there loved it. The fire dept didn't seem in a hurry as I was over there a good 20 minutes. All the maintenance crews were evacuated and sitting on Armstrong. Looked like 3 mechanics or servicers (they were wearing mechanics uniforms) and a maintenance supervisor it looked like with an Orange hardhat. There were two others but I couldn't figure out who they were. They had a bus pulled in front of the lines for the wash rack so no one would wash a bus. Don't know what they did when the pullins started coming in like gangbusters.  So not your typical day at the glen!!

forest glen fire alarm.mp4

[BusHunter]

Did the #8240's come into SS?

[garmon757]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Did the #8240's come into SS?

I'll check on that after I finish visiting my family.

[garmon757]

Oh man, you in it for a real treat @BusHunter!!! #8240 #8241 #8242 #8243 #8244 #8247 #8248 #8250 #8251 and #8252 have arrived!!!! Also, bonus shots of the actual engine without the mesh and #8252's decals on the left!!!!

 

[BusHunter]

So that makes 19 buses at SS. You still didn't predict #8245 arriving from NY though. (It's probably at SS you just missed it, should have brought the drone!! ) So is all hell going to break loose at FG now or what?

i guess you caught the big scoop with the arrival of the #8250's. I honestly thought they wouldn't arrive yet. So like wth, what everyone has said is totally not happening per schedule. They shouldn't be getting these until somewhere around the end of the year. How will they be done in Spring 2017, when 100 will be here at least by as soon as 6 weeks, in service by 9. Don't tell me the last 25 are going to take 9 months to deliver right?

[dann]

On June 4, 2016 at 11:56 PM, BusHunter said:

Yeah but they say priority seating on them. As ridiculous as it sounds these buses are finished, the seats are flush, there is no gap to put an insert only to remove and replace.

 

 

Just rode 8214 on #56 this morning and I need to mention that there actually is an insert in the seats. It's just that the insert is textured plastic so you wouldn't slide around when the bus makes a sudden move or stop. And the seats are no less comfortable (or uncomfortable) than in a New Flyer or old Nova. And the a/c was working just fine, even though the bus was quite crowded. 

[garmon757]

11 hours ago, BusHunter said:

So that makes 19 buses at SS. You still didn't predict #8245 arriving from NY though. (It's probably at SS you just missed it, should have brought the drone!! ) So is all hell going to break loose at FG now or what?

i guess you caught the big scoop with the arrival of the #8250's. I honestly thought they wouldn't arrive yet. So like wth, what everyone has said is totally not happening per schedule. They shouldn't be getting these until somewhere around the end of the year. How will they be done in Spring 2017, when 100 will be here at least by as soon as 6 weeks, in service by 9. Don't tell me the last 25 are going to take 9 months to deliver right?

All hell breaking loose eh? Hell, it's been broken loose!!!  I would love to see all of them delivered by September! Things are looking bright and at least they're right on cue with these deliveries. Now I wonder what's next after Forest Glen is complete? 

[Busjack]

4 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

Now I wonder what's next after Forest Glen is complete? 

The electric buses.

[BusHunter]

32 minutes ago, garmon757 said:

All hell breaking loose eh? Hell, it's been broken loose!!!  I would love to see all of them delivered by September! Things are looking bright and at least they're right on cue with these deliveries. Now I wonder what's next after Forest Glen is complete? 

Forest Glen is not going to be complete for awhile unless they have 200 buses to send it. But they'll probably send them a few more NF's when they get the electrics which is at least 2018.

[sw4400]

We're only getting 27 electric buses when this order is procured(this was originally a Articulated bus order CTA had sitting out there that was modified). Because the order is so small, all 27 may be assigned to one garage. My candidate choices would be Kedzie and 77th, as they both have one all-electric bus assigned, and have no doubt had most or all staff trained on them as well as the mechanics. Makes the most sense, then they could just do a light power move of buses to another garage(like Forest Glen) to make room for the 27 new buses.

As far as candidates for the order, only three come to mind:

• New Flyer(they've already supplied us with 2 all-electric XE40 buses, but at 1.1 million/bus, that's a hefty price tag)
• Nova Bus(they do have a LFE, cost is uncertain but it's probably in the 1 to 1.5 million range)
• Proterra(they did have a 40' demo bus at CTA HQ recently. This is a dark horse in this bid process.... question is how much will it cost to make one all-electric bus from this company? Are they the "GM" of the bus industry(affordable buses for many TA's) or the "Mercedes" of the bus industry(more expensive buses for TA's to procure)

[Busjack]

10 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

...this was originally a Articulated bus order CTA had sitting out there that was modified...

No it wasn't. If it were, CTA could have diverted the $1.1 million cost of a hybrid articulated bus into the estimated $830 K for an electric bus without asking for $330  K in CMAQ money. Easy math: $500K (cost of a Nova) + $330K=$830K.

The articulated bus portion of the "up to 450 buses" solicitation was never awarded. I bet you also expect that the last of the 4900 series articulated buses are about to be delivered.

The only thing you said that made sense was the last clause.

As BH has pointed out, the only open question is whether CTA will exercise the remaining option in the Nova contract for 25 buses.

[BusHunter]

8 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

We're only getting 27 electric buses when this order is procured(this was originally a Articulated bus order CTA had sitting out there that was modified). Because the order is so small, all 27 may be assigned to one garage. My candidate choices would be Kedzie and 77th, as they both have one all-electric bus assigned, and have no doubt had most or all staff trained on them as well as the mechanics. Makes the most sense, then they could just do a light power move of buses to another garage(like Forest Glen) to make room for the 27 new buses.

As far as candidates for the order, only three come to mind:

• New Flyer(they've already supplied us with 2 all-electric XE40 buses, but at 1.1 million/bus, that's a hefty price tag)
• Nova Bus(they do have a LFE, cost is uncertain but it's probably in the 1 to 1.5 million range)
• Proterra(they did have a 40' demo bus at CTA HQ recently. This is a dark horse in this bid process.... question is how much will it cost to make one all-electric bus from this company? Are they the "GM" of the bus industry(affordable buses for many TA's) or the "Mercedes" of the bus industry(more expensive buses for TA's to procure)

Really it probably wouldn't matter so much where the buses are stationed as long as they have a charger. It might not be too bad of an idea though to do as you suggest and run the electrics out of a couple garages. Maybe kedzie for the west side, 77th for the south and maybe Np for the north. This way they would have more buses to fall back on per garage in case of maintenance. I think a extended range bus is going to play into this order and they can just abolish the towers and run the buses wherever they please although they would probably still just be on a couple routes.

Back to the #7900's topic, I see #8229 is out on the #77 and #8230 is finally out on the #92. Probably this week the rest of last weeks delivery will appear at the glen and iff they are lucky a few of this weeks buses too. (probably won't go past #8246 though)

[garmon757]

49 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Forest Glen is not going to be complete for awhile unless they have 200 buses to send it. But they'll probably send them a few more NF's when they get the electrics which is at least 2018.

I'm having a feeling that something odd is going to happen at Forest Glen. More Novas???

15 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Back to the #7900's topic, I see #8229 is out on the #77 and #8230 is finally out on the #92. Probably this week the rest of last weeks delivery will appear at the glen and iff they are lucky a few of this weeks buses too. (probably won't go past #8246 though)

I would hold my breath if I were you (about not going past #8246) because the buses I've mentioned yesterday all have their license plates installed. They can begin service any day now.

[jajuan]

49 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

We're only getting 27 electric buses when this order is procured(this was originally a Articulated bus order CTA had sitting out there that was modified). Because the order is so small, all 27 may be assigned to one garage. My candidate choices would be Kedzie and 77th, as they both have one all-electric bus assigned, and have no doubt had most or all staff trained on them as well as the mechanics. Makes the most sense, then they could just do a light power move of buses to another garage(like Forest Glen) to make room for the 27 new buses.

As far as candidates for the order, only three come to mind:

• New Flyer(they've already supplied us with 2 all-electric XE40 buses, but at 1.1 million/bus, that's a hefty price tag)
• Nova Bus(they do have a LFE, cost is uncertain but it's probably in the 1 to 1.5 million range)
• Proterra(they did have a 40' demo bus at CTA HQ recently. This is a dark horse in this bid process.... question is how much will it cost to make one all-electric bus from this company? Are they the "GM" of the bus industry(affordable buses for many TA's) or the "Mercedes" of the bus industry(more expensive buses for TA's to procure)

 

40 minutes ago, Busjack said:

No it wasn't. If it were, CTA could have diverted the $1.1 million cost of a hybrid articulated bus into the estimated $830 K for an electric bus without asking for $330  K in CMAQ money. Easy math: $500K (cost of a Nova) + $330K=$830K.

The articulated bus portion of the "up to 450 buses" solicitation was never awarded. I bet you also expect that the last of the 4900 series articulated buses are about to be delivered.

The only thing you said that made sense was the last clause.

As BH has pointed out, the only open question is whether CTA will exercise the remaining option in the Nova contract for 25 buses.

Correct. The money wasn't from a redirected order for artics. It was redirected money from CTA changing its mind on looking into modifying the D60LFRs to DE60LFRs. I remember that from Busjack giving CTA management rare praise for doing something smart.