Pace New Flyer buses

[John7]

20418 on route 332

[artthouwill]

I suppose when 39 to 35 of the New Flyers are on the street at West, we will start to see the retirement of their NABI buses.  The first thing I will look for is when they stop using the NABIs on the weekends.  I would say two or three NABIs go to Ravinia, but with the COVID- 19,I don't know. 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

20419 is on the 301.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

20414 is on the 318.

[mel bernero]

Has anyone noticed that a number of the New Flyer buses do not have license plates.

[artthouwill]

9 hours ago, mel bernero said:

Has anyone noticed that a number of the New Flyer buses do not have license plates.

I've only seen three of them but hadn't noticed the plates, or lack thereof.   

[Shannoncvpi]

Yea I took 1 of the new bus on the 318 at 5th & north 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

20420, 20421, and 20422 are out. I didn't see 20412 and 20417 on the tracker yet.

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

20420, 20421, and 20422 are out. I didn't see 20412 and 20417 on the tracker yet.

#20422 was out 2 or 3 days ago. I updated the Pace roster to reflect the change.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

20423 is now in service.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

I spotted 20412, 20417, 20424, and 20425 on the tracker.

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

I spotted 20412, 20417, 20424, and 20425 on the tracker.

Ok.  We need to see another 10 to 15 new buses on the street before we start seeing the NABIs start to retire.

[BusHunter]

Oh, I spotted #20400 on the #318 today. Thought #20401 was the prototype. Bus looked the same but it had license plates on it, which may indicate it has been around longer than the other NF's.

[Guest]

I wonder with the lack of graphics If they plan to use some of these as future Pulse buses. They look like the "Plain Jane" 6500s before the Pulse graphics were put on.

[artthouwill]

7 hours ago, CTA5750 said:

I wonder with the lack of graphics If they plan to use some of these as future Pulse buses. They look like the "Plain Jane" 6500s before the Pulse graphics were put on.

It's certainly possible.   The original order was for 75 buses, now it's for 85.  Assuming 65 retires all if the remaining NABIs, that could mean 20 goes to NW for Pulse  with 6511 -6521 going to W, or 20476 through 20485 going to NW for Pulse .  I didn't know what route after 250 is slated to get Pulse,  but my guess would be between 352 or 381 with 307 being a darkhorse. 

[BusHunter]

6 hours ago, CTA5750 said:

I wonder with the lack of graphics If they plan to use some of these as future Pulse buses. They look like the "Plain Jane" 6500s before the Pulse graphics were put on.

Where did you see NFs with no graphics. Did I miss something???

[NewFlyerMCI]

I "think" I saw one today on the 307 at BTC. I say this because I was on a 386 that had a wrap, I was sitting on the left side of a SB bus and it wasn't close from the street to the terminal, but I saw it turning and couldn't make out anything. I could definitely be wrong though

[mel bernero]

Any reason why West Division does not operate their New Flyers on weekends.

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, mel bernero said:

Any reason why West Division does not operate their New Flyers on weekends.

I don't know.   This may sound farfetched,  but could the reason have to do with the license plates?  A case can be made for using the buses during the week due to shortages,  but apparently the weekends didn't allow that reason.   Maybe when the New Flyers get plates, we'll see them on the weekends. 

[chicagocubs6323]

On 5/6/2020 at 4:48 PM, artthouwill said:

with 6511 -6521 going to W, 

Why would you send these buses to West?  They're assigned to the Pulse Milwaukee Line

[artthouwill]

On 5/9/2020 at 7:23 PM, chicagocubs6323 said:

Why would you send these buses to West?  They're assigned to the Pulse Milwaukee Line

I know they are currently assigned to Pulse at NW.  I only floated a possibility that 20 New Flyers go to NW and become the new Pulse buses at NW.  It would give their Pulse buses a more uniformed look as opposed to 10 New Flyers and 10 Axxess buses.  

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

20426, 20427, 20428, and 20429 are now in service!

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

20426, 20427, 20428, and 20429 are now in service!

Do these (or any New Flyers) have license plates?

[BusHunter]

7 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Do these (or any New Flyers) have license plates?

#20400 has plates but it was most likely the prototype. Maybe the buses don't run on weekends because that's when the lower seniority works. Or the managers that put them out there are off. They are still new, don't want anyone doing anything dumb while the lead mechanics and trainers are off. By me, my company is only running the newest buses, probably cause they don't want to pay for a mechanic, and service levels are very light by me right now. we run a fleet of over 200 buses in my home garage, but now we run about 20.

[mel bernero]

20403 has plates