Poor Fleet Management

[trainman8119]

I was sitting outside of Union Station as the Taste of Chicago was breaking up, between 8:30 and 9:10 this evening. It amazed me that the CTA did not have any NABI's running on the 126 or 151. In the time I was out there, I saw two 5500 series Flxibles on the 126 packed from end to end. All of the 151's that came by were RTS buses with the exception of 1 New Flyer (5800 series). Although the 151's were in the process of turning around to head back north and were empty on arrival at Union, I am sure that once they got to Washington and Michigan, they probably looked like those 126's that were going west on Adams.

I don't understand it. I question the real need to run the artics on some of the city local routes during the midday (such as 156, 7, 126....most of the buses are 1/2 empty during non rush times)...but when there is a legit reason to run those type of buses, they are nowhere to be found. This would definitely be a time when a 1 1/2 bus would be more beneficial than a simple 1 bus.

[Busjack]

I noticed something similar during the 2005 Auto Show. All the 127s to McCormick Place were so packed that the front stairway was full of people and more could not get on. The usual Chicago Avenue equipment (5400s) was used. One could not get on the bus at the Washington-State subway station, and I eventually walked to Michigan Avenue and got a King Drive bus about 20 minutes later.

I wrote to CTA customer service, and asked that since it appeared that sufficient articulated buses had been delivered, why weren't some assigned?

The response, from Terry Levin, Vice President for Customer Service, was that only about half had been received (even though I saw 7705 pass by on the #6), they were being equitably distributed among the neighborhoods (like that has any relevance to this problem), and the supervisor would be asked to monitor the route (after reading Ask Carole, that is apparently the stock answer).

In this situation, CTA may think that the passengers are already stuck, because they paid the fare when getting on the L, and they, like I, eventually will find some way to McCormick Place.

In the above instance, there might have been the excuse that other equipment was not available at the garage, but that certainly isn't the case with 126 and 151, which could have been supplied out of Kedzie and North Park.

Maybe the inference from sw's post will come true--next year it will be Optimas. The garage and street supervisors don't seem to have more sense.

[rmadisonwi]

While I agree that North Park ought to send more of its artics out on evenings and weekends, the situation seems to be that those buses are absolute junk, with a good portion of the fleet out of service at any time (I've heard it could be up to 25%). It's possible that the garages need to use the weekends to catch up on maintenance just to get them running for the weekday rush periods, when those buses are definitely needed.

Another factor is that the NP articulated buses are generally found on the Lake Shore expresses on weekdays (based on your post's timestamp, I'm guessing that you're referring to Friday night). There aren't enough working artics to put them on the 151 in addition to those other routes. Therefore, unless a block on one of the express routes turns into a 151 for the evening, you're not likely to see them on the 151 at night.

[Busjack]

There doesn't seem any reason why an express bus that ended its run at 7 p.m. couldn't be assigned to the extra Taste service after that, or one that ended its peak run about that time switched with at 151 (could have been done at Sheridan at Foster or Montrose). Is there any regular route after about 7 p.m. that is so crowded as to justify an articulated bus?

Also, the Tribune had the article last year saying that CTA had withheld a considerable about of money (wasn't it about $15 million) from NABI to cover warranty work and also had performance bonds. It should have been completed by now. We also have to remember that bus manufacturers are basically only assemblers now; all NABI provided from Hungary was the body and a few associated items. Engines, brakes, interiors, etc. are all American to meet the 60% Buy America Act requirement, and probably no different than in any other CTA bus of the same era. If that's the excuse, CTA should just use the retainage or ask the bond company to fix them, and be done with it.

As my previous post indicates, it appears more to be clueless supervision and customer service.

[Busjack]

Let's also remember that the CTA Press Release said:

As Taste activities wind down each evening, extra buses will await customers for trips out of the downtown area at the following locations: ...

#126 Jackson buses can be boarded at regular stops westbound on Adams starting at State.

#151 Sheridan buses can be boarded at regular stops northbound on State starting at Adams. (empahsis added)

They were not normal runs. Like the Auto Show situation, something had to be assigned from the depot, but apparently not the right "tool for the job" (as Frank says).