4000-series DE60LF - Updates - Rehabs

[Busjack]

16 hours ago, Elkmn said:

i was thinking about how there are so many routes without bendy buses that should have bendy buses, but would bendy buses on the 3,4, 66 and 79 work better if there were "bus bubbles/bulbs" so buses wouldn't have to pull up to the curb? I know they do that with bus stops on streets with protected bike lanes like belmont.

 

3 hours ago, Sam92 said:

They'd have to slow down the schedules to make them work and CTA doesn't wanna do that for artics to only be used on 1-2 routes out of a garage

Discussed in various places (no reason to scatter this). but in particular for 4300s, they were put on 79 when the Dan Ryan rebuild was completed, but didn't last there long. I don't know if it was for the reason @Sam92 said, but the questions I raised before were with bump outs, the bus would block the street, and what about the back door.

[Elkmn]

8 hours ago, Sam92 said:

They'd have to slow down the schedules to make them work and CTA doesn't wanna do that for artics to only be used on 1-2 routes out of a garage

However though, chicago garage has quite a few routes that might benefit from articulated routes

20 Madison

53

(maybe) 54

66

72

74

In response to buses blocking the street, most buses dont stop for longer then a minute, and a lot of routes I mentioned are on wide (4-lane) roads and drivers can pass the buses. The back door situation is also pretty easy, just add an extra bubble for people exiting through the back door. Even if only one or two routes use articulated buses out of chicago garage, it's still worth it, given how the 66 gets more use than some 'l' lines. 

 

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, Elkmn said:

However though, chicago garage has quite a few routes that might benefit from articulated routes

 

Again, C had artics and got rid of them. Maybe you can find out why.

[garmon757]

Topic moved to the official 4000s topic due to topic duplication.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4108 is all set to return to service again, expect to see it back in service in the next couple of days.

[renardo870]

2 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

4108 is all set to return to service again, expect to see it back in service in the next couple of days.

I wonder if it's going back to NP or 103rd.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4 minutes ago, renardo870 said:

I wonder if it's going back to NP or 103rd.

It was assigned to 103rd before it went out of service. More than likely it’s going back to 103rd.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4108 is now back in service but doesn’t a working tracker. Still assigned to 103rd

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4109 has since returned to service.

4067 is in the boneyard, but that bus is rusted up. 4202 is under repairs and that will make a return soon, but the question remains: Will 4202 go to North Park or Kedzie? 4162, which recently returned from South Shops, went to Kedzie. 4104 seems to be in the boneyard, they fixed that bus and it was working for 2 months and now it died again.

4188 is at South Fence and 4193 sits next to 4061 in the shops. 4188 is missing a farebox and Ventra reader, but has a new shield installed.

[Master58]

8 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

4109 has since returned to service.

4067 is in the boneyard, but that bus is rusted up. 4202 is under repairs and that will make a return soon, but the question remains: Will 4202 go to North Park or Kedzie? 4162, which recently returned from South Shops, went to Kedzie. 4104 seems to be in the boneyard, they fixed that bus and it was working for 2 months and now it died again.

4188 is at South Fence and 4193 sits next to 4061 in the shops. 4188 is missing a farebox and Ventra reader, but has a new shield installed.

I wonder if the rest of artics are coming back .

[renardo870]

How many artics are OOS, LTH or Retired? I see 103rd lost some for 40 footers and Kedzie gained some. Will some of them return to service in the future?

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

21 minutes ago, renardo870 said:

How many artics are OOS, LTH or Retired? I see 103rd lost some for 40 footers and Kedzie gained some. Will some of them return to service in the future?

4167 was retired in 2015, 4119 was involved in a crash in 2018, 4082 was involved in a crash in 2020, 4132 was permanently retired from service in 2020, 4096, 4185, 4080, and 4118 were permanently retired from service in 2021, 4195 was involved in a crash in 2021.

4152 was permanently retired from service in 2022. The 6 units bolded are in the boneyard.

4161, 4164, 4174, 4062, 4114, 4075, 4183, and 4188 have not operated since 2022, but status of them is unknown.

4190 has been retired permanently in 2022 due to frame damage and collapsing pieces. 

4189, 4151, 4193, 4187, 4020, 4181, 4172, 4002, 4178, 4191, 4105, 4141, 4192, 4051, and 4061 have last operated in 2023 but their statuses is unknown.

4121 is permanently retired due to a badly rusted frame. 4112 was involved in an accident and the status of 4112 is unknown.

4202 has last operated in February 2023 but is currently under repairs and will be back in service this month.

4149, 4155, 4026, 4033, 4014, 4025, 4063, 4196, 4169, and 4064 have last operated between January and June 2023, and their status is unknown.

4071 and 4086 are at South shops, last operated in July. 4029 and 4135 status is unknown.

4110 broke down on August 2 and has been towed to the boneyard, currently awaiting possible repairs.

4160 was OOS since August 3 and that bus is nowhere to be found.

4047 was OOS since August 6, nowhere to be found.

4067 has been OOS since August 6, and 4067 is currently in the boneyard with a lot of rust.

4198, 4123, 4176, 4159, 4109, 4055, 4059, 4194, 4102, 4203, 4039, 4175, and 4043 were in service at the end of August.

4036 is currently at the south fence (it is not uncommon for this bus to consistently show up at South Shops).

4010 and 4186 are at South Shops in the same line where 1791, 1955, and 1927 are at along with different broken buses.

70 DE60LF Buses have not operated between 9/3-9/10.

[renardo870]

3 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

70 DE60LF Buses have not operated between 9/3-9/10.

WOW!! That like a third of the DE60LF fleet!

[jajuan]

On 9/10/2024 at 7:01 PM, renardo870 said:

WOW!! That like a third of the DE60LF fleet!

Well it's not like as many artics were really needed after the completion of the Red Line's Dan Ryan leg rebuild. Since then, a max of two thirds of the artics were placed on the street at any given time even with accounting for the rush periods. 

[Busjack]

10 minutes ago, jajuan said:

Well it's not like as many artics were really needed after the completion of the Red Line's Dan Ryan leg rebuild. Since then, a max of two thirds of the artics were placed on the street at any given time even with accounting for the rush periods. 

That's correct, also that attempts to put the NF artics on 66 and 79 apparently didn't work. Hence, I question the electric bus transition plan that the next purchase should be 208 articulated buses. Clearly, CTA can't use that many artics.

Consider the possible mess if CTA had, as part of the 450 Nova Bus contract, gone ahead with the 150 articulated bus procurement.

[jajuan]

On 9/12/2024 at 12:08 PM, Busjack said:

That's correct, also that attempts to put the NF artics on 66 and 79 apparently didn't work. Hence, I question the electric bus transition plan that the next purchase should be 208 articulated buses. Clearly, CTA can't use that many artics.

Consider the possible mess if CTA had, as part of the 450 Nova Bus contract, gone ahead with the 150 articulated bus procurement.

It would be a chaotic mess. Having more than 200 artics just doesn't seem to work for Chicago. San Francisco's MUNI also has roughly 300 artics (200 hybrids + 90 trolleybuses) despite being a much smaller bus route network than CTA's. But San Francisco can justify it because that city has such a high population density within the boundaries of its compact size on the peninsula it's located. Plus it has an artic street design that works hand in hand with the MUNI system's use of three door artics in conjunction with it having an all door boarding policy and accompanying fare payment infrastructure at each door.

Seattle's high artic count comes about through King County Metro and its nearby sister agencies operating a highly coordinated bus network across the Puget Sound region with a relatively large number of high capacity routes including Metro's Rapid bus lines and the Sound Transit system which operates an extensive express bus system on the region's freeways and whose routes and buses are facilitated by Metro and the other agencies of the region. 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

During the weekends, it's 100% DE60LF or D60LFR buses on the 146 and 147 in the morning up until about 11AM. By 6PM on a Saturday or Sunday, it appears to be at least 60% D40LF's or Novas on those routes combined, and a lot of articulated buses are no longer in service. I have no idea why there are a lot of D40LF and Nova buses placed out during the afternoon to replace the articulated buses, but that seems like North Park likes to use 40 footer buses in the afternoon to replace the 60 footers from time to time.

[jajuan]

44 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

During the weekends, it's 100% DE60LF or D60LFR buses on the 146 and 147 in the morning up until about 11AM. By 6PM on a Saturday or Sunday, it appears to be at least 60% D40LF's or Novas on those routes combined, and a lot of articulated buses are no longer in service. I have no idea why there are a lot of D40LF and Nova buses placed out during the afternoon to replace the articulated buses, but that seems like North Park likes to use 40 footer buses in the afternoon to replace the 60 footers from time to time.

Well so far NP only has a literal handful of Novas still. So a lot of times that estimate is 60% D40s. But NP does seem to give more of its artics a rest on weekend afternoons and evenings in recent weeks than it used to. There are some Saturdays though where the 147 is still visibly largely artics through most of the day while the 146 has a high number of 40 footers. On the south side, 103rd has also transitioned once again from weekends being entirely artics on the 6 and J14 to sending 40 footers out more. You see it a bit more often with the 6 though. Based on the reported fleet numbers, 103rd and K seemed to be the garages seeing artics go OOS more often. Though a number of them have been down for weeks and months, it seems like the gains at K were in part a replacement to what dropped out of service.

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

#4196 is back in service and has appeared at Forest Glen. been OOS since 5/4/24

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4196 is now active in service back at NP tracking

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4133 and 4170 are south fence

4034 is at south shops

4174 has been spotted in the boneyard in the same spot 4067 was at last month

4045 has hit the boneyard after another breakdown. 4045 is not uncommon to see down at south shops or the boneyard.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4135 4168 4206 haven’t been seen in over a month and not known if at SS or not

4110 hasn’t been fixed at all (yet)

4169 4170 and 4133 are awaiting SS repairs

4150 4165 4146 4134 4137 and 4148 haven’t been seen since mid october

.

for kedzie

4086 4087 4074 are still at SS awaiting their repairs

4162 4085 4023 4056 and 4127 haven’t been active since mid October at the latest.

 

4186 and 4034 are still at SS

4024 4030 4028 4048 and 4029 have been OOS for over a week.

4202 hasn’t tracked yet but might be in service. North park keeps on running buses with broken trackers and broken run boxes and takes forever to fix them. I seen 4340 run box not been working since probably sometime in 2023 (example). 
 

also surprisingly 4067 is back in service as of 10/24

Edited October 29 by Erin Mishkin Jr.
4067 is back

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

#4150 is back in service, spotted earlier on belmont heading east

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

4008, 4137, and 4138 are all in the boneyard. 4175, 4146, and 4136 are at SS.

79th Street Fence has the following DE60LF's: 4163, 4047, 4181, 4188 (No Ventra/FB), 4169, 4160, 4149, 4033 (No Ventra), 4105 (No Ventra), 4089, 4035, 4151, and 4102.

Is 4193 expected to be returning to service? I saw it was awaiting overhaul in March but it has not been in service. It sits next to 4061. 4119 is visible from 79th street.

4186 and 4034 is back in service.

4086 and 4087 were at SS area but have since disappeared, maybe in the boneyard.

 

Also, last week 4164 has returned to service at North Park. This bus still has its old farebox and has 2022-era destination displays centered in the middle.