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Best and worst Garages.


MRChiCity

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"The maintenance at 77th is horrible. The buses that come out of their look like they have never had any attention."

I agree. Busjack, didn't you say 77th has a new bus washer?

"...but i remember the #6800's looked real good until they went to 77th. I was actually surprised how good they did look at around 3-5 years and they were pretty clean too."

Roger-that.

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77th is just a little more rough with their busses, some busses have only 1 to 2 hours of non service (transition from late care into rush hour bus and vice versa). With their busses constantly being out I'm sure doesn't help including the roads on 77th routes are not the best kept roads.

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Well I still think North Park is the golden child garage of the CTA, seeing that lately it gets the newest and best equipment. The 3800s and 9600s were mainstays there. When the garage had crap equipment, mostly it was due to that equipment having the most seats. It has the newest and last deliveries of the 4000s and the 4333s. It also serves the most affluent of neighborhoods along the north lakefront and the Gold Coast.

Except NP has a bunch of the 4150s with those crappy side seats. I hate, positively hate those seats. Then those have that weird stanchion on the artic turntable, that's difficult to hold on to, because for some insane reason, it doesn't go to the floor.

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Sounds like they could have made a St. Trinian's sequel at Res!

There were several British comedies made about that fictional girl's school where they were all out of control monsters.

I LOVED the St Trinian's movies!! My dad and I would watch them on Channel 11 late night.

Never heard or experienced any such stories. The worst high schools I ever had to deal with were Westinghouse (K) and ETHS (NP). As for Taft, I did operate #68 NW Hwy school trippers that would load up starting on Bryn Mawr and Sayre ave via Avondale, Nagle, NW Hwy to Jeff Pk. Taft students I dont recall any incidents on any of my trips. They were a bit loud, but then what high school wasant??? :) Probably one of the most interesting moments was on the #80 Irv Park picking up Lake View HS. I remember one time seeing two female students making out in the back of the bus! ;)

The seat incident was in the 1981/1982 time frame and the sexual assault was relayed by a co-worker at the Milwaukee/Gale McDonald's in 1982/83.

Working at McDonald's, I used to hate, hate, hate it when the #68 would unload at Gale street. However, I would love, love, love it when the #85 would come along and scoop up the kids from the #68. Mind you, I was only a few months out of Taft myself. Still, didn't care for the 68/85 crowd.

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Well I still think North Park is the golden child garage of the CTA, seeing that lately it gets the newest and best equipment. The 3800s and 9600s were mainstays there. When the garage had crap equipment, mostly it was due to that equipment having the most seats. It has the newest and last deliveries of the 4000s and the 4333s. It also serves the most affluent of neighborhoods along the north lakefront and the Gold Coast.

I would put Kedzie number 2 because it also serves some of that NP territory that it inherited from the old Limits garage. It also has a lot of downtown routes that serve tourists so it has a lot of good equipment and is also the showcase garage for experimental equipment like the 800s, 900s, and 700s.

I would put Chicago Ave 3rd. It has grown since the Wicker Park area has regentrified, thus routes along that corridor have seen significant ridership increases as well as increased affluency. It has the latest delivery of the 1000s, and I'm sure it is possible to get some 7900s if CTA decides to give that series to 4 garages. I think its the odd one out if CTA only delivers them to 3 garages.

I would put 103rd in the 4th position only because of the artics, though that garage has been given increased routing downtown.

Numbr 5 is Forest Glen, despite the fact that currently it is running all Nivas, But I fully expect FG to get some new 7900s, after 74th receives them. Historically, this garage has had very good equipment. Until inheriting other garages' Novas, its Novas were in pristine condition

77th, despite what some people may think, is number 6. As I have shown on other posts, 77th usually loses the new equipment it gets. The 4333s are the latest example. It lost them to NP for its 41xx buses only to lose artics altogether. Until recently it had the oldest Novas. 77th also lost some its downtown work to 103rd.

I think nearly everyone agress that 74th is the stepchild garage, even from the days that this garage was at 69th street. It along with FG had to suffer through all 6000 Flx buses until they just crapped out totally (and FG) Flxs outlasted 74ths utnitl thery were all retired. It still has a very large number of Novas

North Park does seem like it rates when it comes to artics, but they are needed heavily there so they have the same argument 77th has with needing new equipment, but still they don't usually get new buses, 103rd tends to get them first. The #4150's to NP was a shocker but those seats are crappy, they are hard on your a$$ and I feel like my legs or rear end goes numb when I sit on them for too long. :huh: 74th's not doing that bad, they at least got a press conference with the #7900's. :P Plus they have #1700's and #1900's and their #6400 exteriors are better than some of FG's. So if I was rating on equipment, I'd say 103rd, 77th and Kedzie and NP are the front runners. And C, 74 and FG take up the rear of the field. But FG leads on maintenance but all garages are good except 77th.

All garages have rogue operators, but there's this one at Fg I don't like. He doesn't let you sit behind him and tells you to go away. He'll race to the next time point and when he gets there he stops for about 4 minutes. He always seems crabby and will mouth off to people, some guy he made look like an a$$ said that's what he was. He also will crab at you for going out the front door. I don't know what his issue is but he is always like that. I hate it when I see him pull up.

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Just to chime in here, I like Kedzie Garage the most since it has the 4300s and 4000s. I also like it because it's the garage I usually drive by on my Eisenhower Avoidance Route. :P

The only problem with that is Kedzie only has one 4300 left, #4326. NP snatched up all the rest besides that one (and 4327 which is sitting down in the South Shops/77th garage lots with some heavy front end damage from an earlier year crash that we have few details on) in the last pick change after they already grabbed all the clean diesel 4300s Kedzie had back in the early spring when spring pick started. :lol::P

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The only problem with that is Kedzie only has one 4300 left, #4326. NP snatched up all the rest besides that one (and 4327 which is sitting down in the South Shops/77th garage lots with some heavy front end damage from an earlier year crash that we have few details on) in the last pick change after they already grabbed all the clean diesel 4300s Kedzie had back in the early spring when spring pick started. :lol::P

Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for the update. I remember 4327's accident on here, but I didn't know that the pick changed the bus assignments.

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Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for the update. I remember 4327's accident on here, but I didn't know that the pick changed the bus assignments.

Yeah the 4300s are now currently broken down primarily between NP and 103rd now outside of 4326 being a lone wolf at Kedzie. The 21 lowest ones, 4300-4320, are at 103rd and the rest are at NP minus 4323 wrecked in its first weeks of service, 4326 as stated still assigned to Kedzie, 4327 also damaged in an accident, and 4333 which as most of us know was the NP 4300 destroyed in the bus fire on Lake Shore Drive last month.

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