7900-series Nova LFS - Updates

[BusHunter]

No changes in the 3rd yard just #6581 and #6877 showed up. I think #6811 is gone it's still there with it's bike rack removed.

[transit kid 12]

If I'm not mistaken, the original order of new Nova buses was 300, with an option for an extra 150. CTA added 125 of these bringing the total to 425. 

However, there are 484 old buses to replace. With the novas and the two Xcelsiors, that still leaves 57 buses unreplaced. Isn't this significant? Is is too late for for CTA to add the last 25 novas to their order? Or do they just not need these extra buses?

 

P.S. I will miss those buses. They're my favorites.

[Busjack]

10 hours ago, transit kid 12 said:

However, there are 484 old buses to replace.

Again, it was 100 4300s plus 450 7900s to replace 45 Optimas plus the 6400s.

The other outstanding question is that 27 electric buses are supposed to replace 6400s.

Do a search on the forums.

[BusHunter]

12 hours ago, transit kid 12 said:

If I'm not mistaken, the original order of new Nova buses was 300, with an option for an extra 150. CTA added 125 of these bringing the total to 425. 

However, there are 484 old buses to replace. With the novas and the two Xcelsiors, that still leaves 57 buses unreplaced. Isn't this significant? Is is too late for for CTA to add the last 25 novas to their order? Or do they just not need these extra buses?

 

P.S. I will miss those buses. They're my favorites.

It's in the budget that they intend to not replace those 57 buses with this #7900 order. (although I think they said it was 65 buses) The #7900 contract option was slashed back to 125 buses from 150, I believe because they needed the extra money for the 27 electrics and could not commit financially to 150. Now that's it's a new year and a new budget upcoming for 2017, there is still the possibility of ordering the 25 buses. When they receive the electrics combined with the last 25 #7900's, they will be able to retire all #6400's. They are slated to get the electrics by 2018, so the last of the #6400's would only hang around for a year at max.

[BusHunter]

Hmmm.... Only 1 #8200 has come out this morning, #8200 and now it has pulled in, so there are none. Is it warranty repair day? Or some light maintenance? We can always hope they change the seats. While they have them all at the garage maybe they can put some "F" stickers on them.

[sw4400]

2 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

It's in the budget that they intend to not replace those 57 buses with this #7900 order. (although I think they said it was 65 buses) The #7900 contract option was slashed back to 125 buses from 150, I believe because they needed the extra money for the 27 electrics and could not commit financially to 150. Now that's it's a new year and a new budget upcoming for 2017, there is still the possibility of ordering the 25 buses. When they receive the electrics combined with the last 25 #7900's, they will be able to retire all #6400's. They are slated to get the electrics by 2018, so the last of the #6400's would only hang around for a year at max.

If they are slated to get the all-electric buses by 2018, they better start getting a procurement order ready to put out.... bids don't come like yahoo mail does.... it takes time for bus manufacturers to go over all the info about the order requested before they can determine cost of putting together the buses and submit a bid.

As far as the remaining 30 or so Novas, they could probably just disappear before 2018(it's a small enough number that the loss will be negligible).

[sw4400]

3 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Hmmm.... Only 1 #8200 has come out this morning, #8200 and now it has pulled in, so there are none. Is it warranty repair day? Or some light maintenance? We can always hope they change the seats. While they have them all at the garage maybe they can put some "F" stickers on them.

Hopefully CTA didn't see my earlier post and decide "Hey, that's an awesome idea!!!"

Otherwise I screwed FG...... sorry!!!  

 

[BusHunter]

2 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

If they are slated to get the all-electric buses by 2018, they better start getting a procurement order ready to put out.... bids don't come like yahoo mail does.... it takes time for bus manufacturers to go over all the info about the order requested before they can determine cost of putting together the buses and submit a bid.

As far as the remaining 30 or so Novas, they could probably just disappear before 2018(it's a small enough number that the loss will be negligible).

They probably will get a procurement order by the fall or winter. It will probably take at least a year to build them, so they'll be alright as long as it gets done within the next 12-18 months. There's still alot of time.

With all the new south side editions and new routes, they will be needing more buses in the future, so they'll probably need the 30 buses rather than dissolve them, but it is still a possibility cause the new #8200's should shrink the FG fleet a little due to the newness versus the antiquity of what they currently have. By what the budget anticipates, it sounds like they will be eliminating at least 20 buses. (If you figure 125 #8200's, 40 #1000's and 65 #6400's)

[garmon757]

54 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Hmmm.... Only 1 #8200 has come out this morning, #8200 and now it has pulled in, so there are none. Is it warranty repair day? Or some light maintenance? We can always hope they change the seats. While they have them all at the garage maybe they can put some "F" stickers on them.

I saw #8204 on #77 this morning taking over the rest of the route because #6882 broke down. 

[jajuan]

18 hours ago, Sam92 said:

North Park has some artics 77th could trade some Flyers for ☕☕

Nice try, but we know 77th isn't going to keep any artics for very long given its track record in that regard.

58 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

If they are slated to get the all-electric buses by 2018, they better start getting a procurement order ready to put out.... bids don't come like yahoo mail does.... it takes time for bus manufacturers to go over all the info about the order requested before they can determine cost of putting together the buses and submit a bid.

As far as the remaining 30 or so Novas, they could probably just disappear before 2018(it's a small enough number that the loss will be negligible).

Yeah that may be possible regarding your last statement especially if we take into account Busjack's point that the 4300s plus the 7900s were to replace the Optimas and the 6400s. And the numbers do jibe. The Optimas plus the 6400s  added to 525 buses (4 6400s had already been retired), and the 4300s plus the 7900s equals 525 buses. Well make that 523 buses given two 4300s were destroyed. 

[sw4400]

3 hours ago, garmon757 said:

I saw #8204 on #77 this morning taking over the rest of the route because #6882 broke down. 

A more and more common problem with the 1st gen. Novas nowadays....

 

[BusHunter]

There's a #8200 ghost bus on the #77 at Harlem running about 10 mi utes ahead of #6558. #8214 is also out here presently around Austin/belmont wb. Don't know if it's a pullin or not. Damn #6842 is the ghost bus follower and it's a ghost bus!!

[BusHunter]

It must be ghost bus day. #8207 is a ghost bus to cumberland following #6554. There are two Harlem pullins between them

[Busjack]

28 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

It must be ghost bus day.

Boo.

[BusHunter]

#8208 is also a ghost bus just passed at central wb pullin at harlem. Follower is #6792 also a pullin. I'm pretty sure now #8206 the other ghost is following #6695. #6554 which is going east at cicero is 24 late and is in a pack with #8207.

[BusHunter]

I don't know what's going on #8204 is a ghost following #6792. #8203 and #8200 are out here too. They all seem like ghost buses.

[Johnny 5]

Exciting news! I just saw the new #8214 running on Belmont Ave and it's in service right now! YAYY!! 

[Busjack]

54 minutes ago, Johnny 5 said:

Exciting news! I just saw the new #8214 running on Belmont Ave and it's in service right now! YAYY!! 

At least that wasn't a ghost:

8214 77: Belmont 77 -463 F (Forest Glen)

Must have been a late afternoon pullout.

[sw4400]

1 hour ago, Johnny 5 said:

Exciting news! I just saw the new #8214 running on Belmont Ave and it's in service right now! YAYY!! 

You saw the new #8214..... what was wrong with old one?  

 

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

#8208 is also a ghost bus just passed at central wb pullin at harlem. Follower is #6792 also a pullin. I'm pretty sure now #8206 the other ghost is following #6695. #6554 which is going east at cicero is 24 late and is in a pack with #8207.

Yeah #8206 was indeed #6695's follower and it was a ghost bus. #8202 was behind #8206 and it was a ghost bus. So how many ghost buses was that? I count 7 ghosts and it's not even halloween!! I was wondering why there was a half hour gap behind #6695?

Something happened with #8206 that was somewhat aggravating to the riders I'll share in the next post. I got some pictures to share with the group and it's probably best described with a picture.

[BusHunter]

Ok here some shots of #8214 and #8206

Now the story with #8206 was that it's destination was all screwed up. It was driving down the street with "CTA Program 6/19/16" on it and if you look it's run box is stuck on run #922 out of 77th. So I'm riding the bus and I figure I'll get off at Harlem. So I'm like damn there's no destination. So sometimes in that instance you can cheat and listen when the doors open to Mr CTA and he will tell you where the bus is going. So he chimes in #77 to Central and I'm like damn did he say Central and he said it again. The operator was not announcing this at all. (Think he was PT Operator) So we get to Central and I got off. A whole bunch of people stayed on because they thought they were going further west. So they all got off after I got my rear shot there. They were giving the operator dirty looks, which was kind of humorous. I didn't bother me too much cause I was bus hunting anyway. But that's what happens when there's failure to communicate and that's what was aggravating about it. So here's the shots

#8214:

#8206:

[sw4400]

57 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Ok here some shots of #8214 and #8206

Now the story with #8206 was that it's destination was all screwed up. It was driving down the street with "CTA Program 6/19/16" on it and if you look it's run box is stuck on run #922 out of 77th. So I'm riding the bus and I figure I'll get off at Harlem. So I'm like damn there's no destination. So sometimes in that instance you can cheat and listen when the doors open to Mr CTA and he will tell you where the bus is going. So he chimes in #77 to Central and I'm like damn did he say Central and he said it again. The operator was not announcing this at all. (Think he was PT Operator) So we get to Central and I got off. A whole bunch of people stayed on because they thought they were going further west. So they all got off after I got my rear shot there. They were giving the operator dirty looks, which was kind of humorous. I didn't bother me too much cause I was bus hunting anyway. But that's what happens when there's failure to communicate and that's what was aggravating about it. So here's the shots

#8214:

#8206:

@BusHunter, Vinnie Mac is impressed with your pictures so much so that he's giving you this....

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, sw4400 said:

You saw the new #8214..... what was wrong with old one?

It was either a Flxible propane or an RTA Grumman, and there was certainly something wrong with the latter.

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

with "CTA Program 6/19/16"

Nothing's changed since the 5800s, except the date.

However, from that date, it appears that tthe sign was programmed for the next pick, so unless it is reprogrammed, it will be like that until 6/19, when the program is scheduled to kick in.

[andrethebusman]

8246 at ss