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Pace Bus Moves


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1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

I guess the 2003 NABIs have nearly all faded into the sunset.  How long will the 2005s last?  Pace is going to need more buses sooner than  later

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These moves basically depend on where the highway buses go,* which seems to be R.

As mentioned before, there is a solicitation out there for 164 30 foot buses and 78 40 foot buses, so most of them will depend on that.I'm also assuming that the 6730s will go back to N mid August.

 

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*A lot more 18500s were out yesterday, mostly on 352.

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Speaking of the highway Eldos:

6380 has recently made the move from S to R. It is on the 606 now. As more of S's highway Eldos make their way from S to R, expect the three remaining 6560s (6561, 6562 and 6563) to make the move from R to W.

And Pace could renegotiate the Wheaton/Winfield contract in the coming years. If another MV Transportation unit or even a Pace division assumes the operation of routes 709, 711 and 715, then that might free up 2727-2735 for reassignment to N. But nothing has been confirmed yet for that instance.

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36 minutes ago, RJL6000 said:

And Pace could renegotiate the Wheaton/Winfield contract in the coming years. If another MV Transportation unit or even a Pace division assumes the operation of routes 709, 711 and 715, then that might free up 2727-2735 for reassignment to N. But nothing has been confirmed yet for that instance.

Those contracts have a 5 year life so Pace can't just "renegotiate then," although it has the right to restructure the service, like it did in south DuPage. Anyway, since Pace has had the policy  since about 2010 that Pace buses are to be operated on fixed routes, any new contractor isn't going to be providing any buses.

 

On this subject, the Contract Awards page says:

417938 Transportation Service RFP Fixed Route Bus Service on Pace Routes 674, 709, 711 and 715 MV Transportation Inc.$7,760,206.21  5/30/2018.

I mentioned that this contract was discussed at the May board meeting.

Your source must have gotten confused with that, which confirms that MV has the contract until 2023.

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Sorry, Busjack, that I haven't kept up with the less-obvious developments.

And with the slowness of new procurements, it might make more sense for W to give up some of its fixed routes to third parties or other Pace divisions given their current ridership performance.

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56 minutes ago, RJL6000 said:

And with the slowness of new procurements, it might make more sense for W to give up some of its fixed routes to third parties or other Pace divisions given their current ridership performance.

There was the aborted attempt to contract out 877 and 888, and that seems resolved by putting transit CNGs on them.

West is simply the latest result of consolidating series within garages. There appears no need to lease either buses or companies. If you look at the video, the directors were not that eager to renew the contract for Wheaton-Lombard because "we're in the bus business." Pace isn't going to turn W over to First Student to run some school buses on W routes.

Instead, the solution reflected in the solicitation is to buy 78 40 foot buses,which more than takes care of the NABIs.The 2005 ones are barely at their service life.

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7 hours ago, Busjack said:

West is simply the latest result of consolidating series within garages. There appears no need to lease either buses or companies. If you look at the video, the directors were not that eager to renew the contract for Wheaton-Lombard because "we're in the bus business." Pace isn't going to turn W over to First Student to run some school buses on W routes.

Instead, the solution reflected in the solicitation is to buy 78 40 foot buses,which more than takes care of the NABIs.The 2005 ones are barely at their service life.

If the Wheaton-Lombard contract weren't renewed, the four routes might have simply been discontinued and possibly replaced with an on-demand "Call-and-Ride" service since there is simply very little if any demand for a north-south fixed West Suburban bus route that doesn't operate into any part of the City of Chicago.

And who knows from which company the 78 new 40-footers will be coming? That's to be decided after the conclusion of the bidding.

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7 hours ago, RJL6000 said:

If the Wheaton-Lombard contract weren't renewed, the four routes might have simply been discontinued and possibly replaced with an on-demand "Call-and-Ride" service since there is simply very little if any demand for a north-south fixed West Suburban bus route that doesn't operate into any part of the City of Chicago.

Obviously you didn't view the board video. I suggest you do so.

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W has been picking up a lot of Axess'. Was out there yesterday and spotted #6730 As well as #6735 with the A1 message on the #303, the bus on 25th. #6559 was out on the #318. So there seems to be lots of different blocks at west. Looks like Axess hq. LOL!!

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4 hours ago, BusHunter said:

W has been picking up a lot of Axess'. Was out there yesterday and spotted #6730 As well as #6735 with the A1 message on the #303, the bus on 25th. #6559 was out on the #318. So there seems to be lots of different blocks at west. Looks like Axess hq. LOL!!

Yes, but I did mention the 6730's and 6559.

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On 7/17/2018 at 6:07 PM, John7 said:

6558 now at R

6381 now at SW

Screenshot_2018-07-17-18-05-07.png

Screenshot_2018-07-17-18-04-08.png

That was to maintain a balance between the 40-foot transit and highway buses in the R fleet; R and SW swapped equipment, in this case (one transit Eldo moved from SW to R while one highway edition Eldo went from R to SW.

R just recently lost another transit Eldo: 6561 is now at W. Expect 6556 and 6557 (and possibly 6555) to be transferred from SW to R.

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15 minutes ago, RJL6000 said:

That was to maintain a balance between the 40-foot transit and highway buses in the R fleet; R and SW swapped equipment, in this case (one transit Eldo moved from SW to R while one highway edition Eldo went from R to SW.

R just recently lost another transit Eldo: 6561 is now at W. Expect 6556 and 6557 (and possibly 6555) to be transferred from SW to R.

6562 is also at W.

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11 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Add 6563 too the West list too.

We'll have to see what happens to the 6700s and whether or not they go back to NS in August, but it's clear that the 2003 NABIs remaining are slim.  The only ones that are out there right now (8am this morning) are 6612, 6666, 6210, 6219, 6246, and 6251.  So if there is a bus shortage as previously mentioned, it's because the NABIs are retiring fast. I have a feeling more movement with El Dorados within all divisions to retire these last 6 buses (and more if they are any left) is coming in the next week or two.    

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