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5000-series - Updates


greenstreet

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As far the #5000's on the yellow line, this week they have started running both #5155-56 and #5157-58 as two of the three consists on the Yellow line. The third this week has been #2899-2900. Before this week I have never seen both sets run together, but now they are doing just that.

Looks to me like the Yellow Line is well on its way to being run exclusively with 5000 series. BTW, when I visited Chicago about two weeks ago, I did get a chance to ride the 5000s on the Green, Red and Pink lines. While I wasn't crazy about the aisle-facing seating arrangement, I was very impressed with the acceleration of these cars. Most of my riding time was spent on the Green Line because the 63rd/Cottage Grove branch was what I rode most frequently years ago.

The "CTA L Roster" shows that six 2400 series have recently been assigned back to the Green. However, during the extensive time I was riding it, I never saw a single 4 or 6 car train of 2400s operational on this line, even during the rush hour periods. Just out curiosity (and assuming they are still on the Green), is that assignment permanent until their retirement?

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Today 5157 & 5158 made up one consist on the Yellow Line. Cars 5159 & 5160 are also running Yellow Line service. All Red, Purple, and Yellow Line cars have the combined Red,Purple, Yellow maps.

Thats quite convenient:If only some knuckleheads(MTA) could think of doing that for the 2 & 5 lines(which have a constant swapping disorder)...

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My experience was as I described above, with Howard supplying a 2 car shuttle, but, in any event, so long as there is coupling at Linden, Howard is not able to send out a shuttle to eventually be coupled to a southbound Express that isn't compatible with the equipment at Linden.

Today I waited at Howard for the 2:45p.m departure going to the Loop on the Purple Line. After the NB 4 var consist for Linden departed, I waited to see what consist out of Howard yard would be the next to head north. To my surprise, a six car consist of 2400s came out and became the next Linden train. I took this train to Linden then reversed my trip downtown. All subsequent followers had six car consists originating at Howard. Yet there were about 4 6 car consists laid up at Linden yard ready to go.

A few quick notes. The Central, Noyes, and Foster stations appear to be able to accomodate 8 car trains if repairs were made to the closed off sections of those platforms. To get back on topic, there were absolutely no 5000s that I could see anywhere in Howard yard.

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Thats quite convenient:If only some knuckleheads(MTA) could think of doing that for the 2 & 5 lines(which have a constant swapping disorder)...

In fairness, your strip maps account for the 2 and 5 lines (except in manhattan). I would assume the design for combining the two would be prohibitively expensive (not to mention confusing).

which is why I would vouch for FINDs in all NTT equipment.

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Do the 5K cars have track brakes? If so I don't think I been on a train where the operator has used them.

I think so. I once was on a Green Line 5000 Series train arriving into Pulaski a bit fast. When the braking continued towards the end of the platform, I heard the normal sounds of the AC motors slowing the train down, but suddenly I heard a grinding/scraping noise underneath the train, and I could feel the train slowing down faster than normal. It also seemed like I couldn't hear the AC motors anymore while this was happening. I'm thinking that was the result of track brakes. Also I did an image search of the 5000 Series cab, and there's a red "mushroom" button that has been associated with the track brakes in past CTA cars.

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Thanks. For the second time, it was for a reason other than posters here thought.

But what is unnerving is:

CTA officials said incomplete welds were found in 240 of the 250 rail cars delivered to Chicago and in operation on the Green, Pink and Red lines.

Eight of the 10 cars that did not have the assembly flaws were prototypes that Bombardier sent to the CTA for testing before the transit agency gave approval to start the production line two years ago, officials said.

That is notwithstanding that Brian Steele says everything is safe and overengineered. If this started with car 13, someone should have caught it by now.

We now know why CTA was concerned about this.

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With the Government shutdown indefinitely right now [..], how will this affect the following orders for the CTA?

  • The remaining 5000's to be delivered
  • The yet-to-be built but to be debuted soon Nova LFS Series II
  • The yet-to-be given to a manufacturer 7000-Series railcars that will start to arrive in 2016

There are Government grants and funds tied into these orders to some extent... even if it's Illinois funding, I'm sure they get their funding from Washington.

Edited by Kevin
Political comments removed.
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With the Government shutdown indefinitely right now [..], how will this affect the following orders for the CTA?

  • The remaining 5000's to be delivered
  • The yet-to-be built but to be debuted soon Nova LFS Series II
  • The yet-to-be given to a manufacturer 7000-Series railcars that will start to arrive in 2016

There are Government grants and funds tied into these orders to some extent... even if it's Illinois funding, I'm sure they get their funding from Washington.

Most of the state money comes from Illinois Jobs Now bonds, and has nothing to do with the federal government. A bit of the 5000s contract was federal money, but the overwhelming amount was CTA bond money secured by the sales tax receipts anticipation fund.

There were some reports of defense contractors furloughing employees, but they have direct contracts with the federal government. The two contracts mentioned above are only with CTA. Usually they call for payment on delivery or the like, so there shouldn't be a slowdown. The only issue would be if it gets down to a "we don't have money" clause in the contracts, which I don't think would become operative, because it is mostly CTA bond money.

And at the moment, there isn't any 7000 series contract. The contract opportunities page has the bid opening date extended to 12/18/2013. It probably will be extended past that, and, even not, there isn't a contract until staff reviews the bids, the board authorizes a contract, and a notice to proceed is issued.

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Well looks like we are back to Pink line/Green line #5000 series shuffling. If you've seen the rail roster you'll see what I mean. I wonder what's wrong with the #5000 series now? :rolleyes:

In what way? And does anyone know if the welding was completed?

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Well looks like we are back to Pink line/Green line #5000 series shuffling. If you've seen the rail roster you'll see what I mean. I wonder what's wrong with the #5000 series now? :rolleyes:

I briefly scanned the Pink Line & Green Line rosters. It doesn't look as if anything's been withdrawn from service. The equipment is just being shuffled. Why? I have no idea.

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