Bus Spring Pick 2018

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 hours ago, Busjack said:

What supports that is that the trips start at Halsted instead of LSD/Diversey, so are undoubtedly 156s. Strangely, though, the March 25, 2018 schedule brochure does not show any non-owl trips starting at Halsted. Since some of these buses were sent back downtown from Sheridan/Belmont,the next bit of detective work is what is substituting for the next trip from downtown. (reconsidered based on the below posts)

The "longer" buses test our thesis of about 5 years ago that Belmont could use them, but given failures on 79 and 66, we'll have to see.

I remember the 79 losing artics, but when I was in Chicago in January, I saw one artic on the 66. Have they been pulled off en masse now? What's the reason?

[Busjack]

8 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I remember the 79 losing artics, but when I was in Chicago in January, I saw one artic on the 66. Have they been pulled off en masse now? What's the reason?

They were, supposedly due to dwell time at stops. The current proposal, as reflected in the Procurements is to put the electric buses there (see here).

[jesi2282]

According to Bus Tracker, it looks like these 156/77 trips also do a short trip on the 82 from Belmont to Jackson. Makes sense, they might as well pick people up on the way to the garage.

[andrethebusman]

Basically the AM trip (K453) pulls out via Pulaski-Grand-Harlem-Belmont to Octavia, goes east to Halsted, and goes into 156 service. The 6 PM trips (K496, K498, K864, K815, K536, K816) basically are acting as doubles from Red Line west to Kimball, then south on Kimball/Homan to Jackson, then to garage. All run right behind or right behind a thru 77 trip. Otherwise these would be pulling in empty.

[jajuan]

On 3/30/2018 at 4:34 PM, andrethebusman said:

Basically the AM trip (K453) pulls out via Pulaski-Grand-Harlem-Belmont to Octavia, goes east to Halsted, and goes into 156 service. The 6 PM trips (K496, K498, K864, K815, K536, K816) basically are acting as doubles from Red Line west to Kimball, then south on Kimball/Homan to Jackson, then to garage. All run right behind or right behind a thru 77 trip. Otherwise these would be pulling in empty.

Of course that means Kedzie has to be sure to have an artic available and ready for each of those #134, #143. #151, or #156 runs these specific run times apply to and not use a 40 foot NF in their place as can sometimes happen on occasion with some of these routes since CTA said explicitly in the notice:

"For added capacity, longer buses will operate during the additional morning and evening trips."
 

[artthouwill]

On 3/30/2018 at 4:34 PM, andrethebusman said:

Basically the AM trip (K453) pulls out via Pulaski-Grand-Harlem-Belmont to Octavia, goes east to Halsted, and goes into 156 service. The 6 PM trips (K496, K498, K864, K815, K536, K816) basically are acting as doubles from Red Line west to Kimball, then south on Kimball/Homan to Jackson, then to garage. All run right behind or right behind a thru 77 trip. Otherwise these would be pulling in empty.

You would think they would run IN FRONT OF a thru 77 trip as to give the thru trips a chance to accommodate more passengers  at Kimball Blue Line station.

[Busjack]

3 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

You would think they would run IN FRONT OF a thru 77 trip as to give the thru trips a chance to accommodate more passengers  at Kimball Blue Line station.

Aside from that, usual CTA rider behavior is to pack the leader, which would be the 40 foot bus, leaving the artic to run empty.

[BusHunter]

36 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

You would think they would run IN FRONT OF a thru 77 trip as to give the thru trips a chance to accommodate more passengers  at Kimball Blue Line station.

Your luck is they take a few runs off the #77 and make them ballgame extras. 

Can you imagine the headache of running an artic through Kimball terminal.  Almost worth filming Lol!! How will 3 buses fit in the terminal now. I would run those outside the terminal and terminate at the sb #82 stop.

[artthouwill]

10 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Your luck is they take a few runs off the #77 and make them ballgame extras. 

Can you imagine the headache of running an artic through Kimball terminal.  Almost worth filming Lol!! How will 3 buses fit in the terminal now. I would run those outside the terminal and terminate at the sb #82 stop.

Because those K 77s turn into SB 82s, the the SB 82 stop at Belmont is a far side stop (directly  across from the Belmont station), those 82s don't  necessarily  have to pull into that terminal

  I would  recommend that they don't.  It's an easier manuveur mot to, and the drivers won't  have to face the mob that awaits them after the previous 40ft 77 left them due to being packed.

[andrethebusman]

First, each garage with artics had a pullout sheet that shows which runs get artics. In addition there is a list of which runs that are supposed to get artics can get a standard if there aren't enough artics available.

Second , I assume the shorts will just make a left at Kimball. Their main purpose is extra capacity at Red Line. Anybody they happen to get on Kimball/Homan is purely by chance.

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

First, each garage with artics had a pullout sheet that shows which runs get artics. In addition there is a list of which runs that are supposed to get artics can get a standard if there aren't enough artics available.

Second , I assume the shorts will just make a left at Kimball. Their main purpose is extra capacity at Red Line. Anybody they happen to get on Kimball/Homan is purely by chance.

I'm sure there's a nice crowd a Belmont Red Line.  The issue not being addressed  is the bigger crowd  at Belmont Blue Line.   Too bad the attics don't run at least to Cicero or Central before deadheading back to Kedzie garage.

[Aiden Tabucic]

3 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

First, each garage with artics had a pullout sheet that shows which runs get artics. In addition there is a list of which runs that are supposed to get artics can get a standard if there aren't enough artics available.

Second , I assume the shorts will just make a left at Kimball. Their main purpose is extra capacity at Red Line. Anybody they happen to get on Kimball/Homan is purely by chance.

Where can I find that sheet

[jajuan]

4 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

First, each garage with artics had a pullout sheet that shows which runs get artics. In addition there is a list of which runs that are supposed to get artics can get a standard if there aren't enough artics available.

Second , I assume the shorts will just make a left at Kimball. Their main purpose is extra capacity at Red Line. Anybody they happen to get on Kimball/Homan is purely by chance.

I suspected that to be the case, which is why I made the point that they need to make sure that they ensure these runs fall into that category as often as the service notice explicitly mentioned the extra trips on the #77 that they will now do before getting back to the garage as a #82 would be run with artics. 

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Aiden Tabucic said:

Where can I find that sheet

You won't. That's internal CTA material meant specifically for the supervisors much like the internal version of BusTracker that shows the run numbers is not available to the public and those 992 runs indicating buses heading to or from a garage with no route number are not visible on the Tracker after mention that they were visible for a short time.

[Aiden Tabucic]

On 3/30/2018 at 4:34 PM, andrethebusman said:

Basically the AM trip (K453) pulls out via Pulaski-Grand-Harlem-Belmont to Octavia, goes east to Halsted, and goes into 156 service. The 6 PM trips (K496, K498, K864, K815, K536, K816) basically are acting as doubles from Red Line west to Kimball, then south on Kimball/Homan to Jackson, then to garage. All run right behind or right behind a thru 77 trip. Otherwise these would be pulling in empty.

How do you know all these runs

[jajuan]

13 hours ago, Aiden Tabucic said:

How do you know all these runs

He's a long time CTA employee who shares and fleshes out details with the group that are observable publicly and not restricted only to CTA personnel. 

[Aiden Tabucic]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

He's a long time CTA employee who shares and fleshes out details with the group that are observable publicly and not restricted only to CTA personnel. 

Oh Alright