Random CTA

[busfan2847]

20 hours ago, artthouwill said:

U don't follow your 424 and 425 routing  since Jackson doesn't touch u-94 except downtown.  Are you saying both routes headed downtown before hitting the Kennedy?  If so, that seems to be a weird route, but based on my sightings of these buses, it makes perfect sense.  I would have thought that running straight down Cicero to Foster and entering the Edens there would be faster, especially in rush traffic  

#424 originally operated via Roosevelt Rd from Central/Jackson via Jackson, Cicero, Roosevelt to I-94 then non-stop to Avon (Waukegan/Golf). #425 operated via Cermak Rd from Cicero to I-94 then non-stop to Avon.  Both routes headed downtown before joining I-94 at Roosevelt or Cermak. There was a mistake in my 424 routing, sorry!

[jajuan]

27 minutes ago, busfan2847 said:

#424 originally operated via Roosevelt Rd from Central/Jackson via Jackson, Cicero, Roosevelt to I-94 then non-stop to Avon (Waukegan/Golf). #425 operated via Cermak Rd from Cicero to I-94 then non-stop to Avon.  Both routes headed downtown before joining I-94 at Roosevelt or Cermak. There was a mistake in my 424 routing, sorry!

I actually remember the 424 passing by on Roosevelt early mornings and again in afternoons and late evenings. I remember wondering what routes those could possibly be after seeing them pick up and drop off passengers. I learned from this forum in fact that they were the Avon Express. After CTA took over the modified service, I remember that Pace gave the 425 route number to its Loyola-Downtown Chicago Express, which today is the university's Intercampus Shuttle after Loyola moved the contract for the route from Pace to Free Enterprise.

[busfan2847]

29 minutes ago, jajuan said:

I actually remember the 424 passing by on Roosevelt early mornings and again in afternoons and late evenings. I remember wondering what routes those could possibly be after seeing them pick up and drop off passengers. I learned from this forum in fact that they were the Avon Express. After CTA took over the modified service, I remember that Pace gave the 425 route number to its Loyola-Downtown Chicago Express, which today is the university's Intercampus Shuttle after Loyola moved the contract for the route from Pace to Free Enterprise.

I was not aware of the second use of the 425 route number. I know there was a 426 Northwestern University Evanston - Northwestern Medical Campus Chicago service which ran from 9/4/2000 to 9/21/2007 when it passed to Free Enterprise.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, busfan2847 said:

I was not aware of the second use of the 425 route number. I know there was a 426 Northwestern University Evanston - Northwestern Medical Campus Chicago service which ran from 9/4/2000 to 9/21/2007 when it passed to Free Enterprise.

I never knew that was a Pace route.  I remember Royal American ran the service from its inception.  I didn't know it was actually a Pace route.  Royal American was sold to Free Enterprise. 

The Free Enterprise System is a company based in Jeffersonville,  IN, just outside of Louisville, JY, with another location in Indianapolis.    They were hoping to gain traction in the Chicago area with the Royal American purchase.  Alk they deemed to manage was one contract for Chicagoland and they had the Northwestern Chicago train station shuttle.   They also took over the Prudential/Ain shuttles when Coach USA abandoned their contract services.   It seems like they list ChuxafiDash to Royal Excursions and Prudential/Ain switched to Proterras operated by Standard Parking.  The Free Enterprise website doesn't list a Chicago area location so I guess they are no longer in the market. 

Does the 426 still operate?  If so, does Oace North Shore operate it?

 

I couldn't find the route on Pace's website,  so I guess this route was discontinued.   I suppose Northwestern was subsidizing the route?

[busfan2847]

426 ended 9/21/2007

[jajuan]

3 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

I was not aware of the second use of the 425 route number. I know there was a 426 Northwestern University Evanston - Northwestern Medical Campus Chicago service which ran from 9/4/2000 to 9/21/2007 when it passed to Free Enterprise.

My bad. I was off by a digit. It was in fact 426 after a double check in Bill V's site giving the history.

 

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I never knew that was a Pace route.  I remember Royal American ran the service from its inception.  I didn't know it was actually a Pace route.  Royal American was sold to Free Enterprise. 

The Free Enterprise System is a company based in Jeffersonville,  IN, just outside of Louisville, JY, with another location in Indianapolis.    They were hoping to gain traction in the Chicago area with the Royal American purchase.  Alk they deemed to manage was one contract for Chicagoland and they had the Northwestern Chicago train station shuttle.   They also took over the Prudential/Ain shuttles when Coach USA abandoned their contract services.   It seems like they list ChuxafiDash to Royal Excursions and Prudential/Ain switched to Proterras operated by Standard Parking.  The Free Enterprise website doesn't list a Chicago area location so I guess they are no longer in the market. 

Does the 426 still operate?  If so, does Oace North Shore operate it?

 

I couldn't find the route on Pace's website,  so I guess this route was discontinued.   I suppose Northwestern was subsidizing the route?

I goofed on the route number by a digit, but the route was indeed a Pace route for a short time before its current present day operation by private carrier. 

[artthouwill]

20 minutes ago, busfan2847 said:

426 ended 9/21/2007

 

13 minutes ago, jajuan said:

My bad. I was off by a digit. It was in fact 426 after a double check in Bill V's site giving the history.

 

I goofed on the route number by a digit, but the route was indeed a Pace route for a short time before its current present day operation by private carrier. 

So what private carrier operates the service currently?

[jajuan]

27 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

 

So what private carrier operates the service currently?

It was Free Enterprise at the time the university had operation of it moved from Pace. Not sure if that's still true today, though I have seen reports on the forum that it was still the case. I do know it was Free Enterprise when the route went private carrier because I still remember those old AN440s with that gawdy orange company logo rolling through my north side neighborhood.

[artthouwill]

27 minutes ago, jajuan said:

It was Free Enterprise at the time the university had operation of it moved from Pace. Not sure if that's still true today, though I have seen reports on the forum that it was still the case. I do know it was Free Enterprise when the route went private carrier because I still remember those old AN440s with that gawdy orange company logo rolling through my north side neighborhood.

I know they once ran it.  I gave a brief history a few posts above.  I also noted that Free Enterprise appears to have exited the Chicago market    Therefore. iF the service still operates, it's another carrier, maybe Chicago Cladsic, Mid America, Windy City. I haven't seen on Sheridan in a minute and I didn't see anything while up north or in Evanston.   

In fact,  I didn't know it Northwestern Medical still operates its own shuttles to the train stations,  especially since the CTA extension of the 120 and 121 into Streeterville    That service was initially operated by Hammond Yellow until about 1995.  I believe Royal American ran it until it was sold to Free Enterprise.   I'm not sure if Aries Charter took it over l.  I will have to check with my Aries sources  

[jajuan]

23 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I know they once ran it.  I gave a brief history a few posts above.  I also noted that Free Enterprise appears to have exited the Chicago market    Therefore. iF the service still operates, it's another carrier, maybe Chicago Cladsic, Mid America, Windy City. I haven't seen on Sheridan in a minute and I didn't see anything while up north or in Evanston.   

Yeah I was trying to find info to be able to answer your question, but couldn't find any info just yet. I lost track of who was running the shuttles for them currently when the buses changed from the AN440s and Icarus buses to the current Gillig low-floor diesels and hybrids and Gillig BRTs, some of which are wrapped in NU purple with the NU hospital name on them. I did a quick search of the phone number that NU gives for the vendor operating their shuttle service while writing this, and it comes back with Free Enterprise in South Holland, Sodrel Trucking in Lansing, IL, and WeDriveU Holdings located at 23rd and Throop in Chicago near the Pilsen area.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

Yeah I was trying to find info to be able to answer your question, but couldn't find any info just yet. I lost track of who was running the shuttles for them currently when the buses changed from the AN440s and Icarus buses to the current Gillig low-floor diesels and hybrids and Gillig BRTs, some of which are wrapped in NU purple with the NU hospital name on them. I did a quick search of the phone number that NU gives for the vendor operating their shuttle service while writing this, and it comes back with Free Enterprise in South Holland, Sodrel Trucking in Lansing, IL, and WeDriveU Holdings located at 23rd and Throop in Chicago near the Pilsen area.

I know the Free Enterprise buses that ran the downtown shuttles used to park their buses at 23rd and Trooper, at least during the midday.  At one time,  I would see those buses deadhead downtown from Lansing in the early morning  .  So I don't know if that was just a midday parking spot to reduce deadhead mileage or if they decided to base the contract drivers there full time.  I believe Sorrell Trucking is where they parked * or used to park) their buses in Lansing.  Royal American used to park their buses there as well as VanDerAA school buses.You could see the facility from I-80/94.  I think the South Holland facility is where the Van Der AA corporate office was, which was also the place where Hammond Transit buses operated from when ATC/Viacom had that contract..   Thus ir make sense to list all three locations for lost and found.

Since I was able to eliminate Aries, perhaps Free Enterprise is still running that contract.m, at least between the two campuses.  I would think that they would also need the train shuttles to be profitable.   In that scenario,  I can only imagine Lansing being a maintenance facility at best.  

One other thing if note.  In 2003, Royal American purchased Robinson Coach,  which was based in Evanston.   I believe Robinson facility is now used as the Pace North Shore garage.  I'm surprised that they didn't just use the Robinson Coach buses and shift that contract work to Evanston unless it was still a Pace route and Robinson Coach equipment was too old.  Robinson Coaches were McIs and could navigate the low viaduct better than Royal's Prevost H3-45s.

[jajuan]

3 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I know the Free Enterprise buses that ran the downtown shuttles used to park their buses at 23rd and Trooper, at least during the midday.  At one time,  I would see those buses deadhead downtown from Lansing in the early morning  .  So I don't know if that was just a midday parking spot to reduce deadhead mileage or if they decided to base the contract drivers there full time.  I believe Sorrell Trucking is where they parked * or used to park) their buses in Lansing.  Royal American used to park their buses there as well as VanDerAA school buses.You could see the facility from I-80/94.  I think the South Holland facility is where the Van Der AA corporate office was, which was also the place where Hammond Transit buses operated from when ATC/Viacom had that contract..   Thus ir make sense to list all three locations for lost and found.

Since I was able to eliminate Aries, perhaps Free Enterprise is still running that contract.m, at least between the two campuses.  I would think that they would also need the train shuttles to be profitable.   In that scenario,  I can only imagine Lansing being a maintenance facility at best.  

One other thing if note.  In 2003, Royal American purchased Robinson Coach,  which was based in Evanston.   I believe Robinson facility is now used as the Pace North Shore garage.  I'm surprised that they didn't just use the Robinson Coach buses and shift that contract work to Evanston unless it was still a Pace route and Robinson Coach equipment was too old.  Robinson Coaches were McIs and could navigate the low viaduct better than Royal's Prevost H3-45s.

Yeah when doing that reverse search on the phone number Northwestern gives its students and staff, brought up those other two corporate names along with Free Enterprise, I did have a vague memory of the other two locations coming up in prior forum discussions. And each case, the search results said it was a cell phone number, so sounds like regardless of which corporate entity name you get your services from them under, you're initiating it and setting it up directly through the the top guy himself.

[busfan2847]

17 hours ago, jajuan said:

It was Free Enterprise at the time the university had operation of it moved from Pace. Not sure if that's still true today, though I have seen reports on the forum that it was still the case. I do know it was Free Enterprise when the route went private carrier because I still remember those old AN440s with that gawdy orange company logo rolling through my north side neighborhood.

Just had a look at the tracker and three buses are on it at present 21704, 29723 and 29725. These are typical Free Enterprise fleet numbers,

The original gaudy orange buses were ex AC Transit NABI 416 29701-29722. Since then they have switched to various Gillig Phantom (29742, 29743, 29751-29761) and Gillig LF buses (29723-29740, 29746 and at least 21701-21705) all painted white or Northwestern purple. 29732 is a hybrid bus.

[busfan2847]

From the Northwestern Student Affairs website

"NU Shuttle Tracker app

Access the NU Shuttle Tracker app for your mobile device.

University Services has launched a beta version of a new bus tracking application for Northwestern University shuttle riders.  The system, called DoubleMap, delivers real-time information via GPS tracking.  DoubleMap shows the location of the shuttles on each route and provides estimated wait times for shuttle stops. The beta version is live and available for use immediately at northwestern.doublemap.com. DoubleMap also offers free apps for Android and iPhone as well as a mobile version of the web app for use on other mobile devices.

Please note: GPS trackers are installed in the 11 buses that are regularly assigned to NU’s shuttle system. Free Enterprise Systems (the motorcoach company that owns and operates the buses on NU’s behalf) must occasionally swap in different buses from their fleet, due to mechanical issues or other delays. Additionally, special coach buses are often used for the Frostbite shuttles. In these instances, some shuttles will not appear in DoubleMap.  Free Enterprise Systems will install additional trackers in the coming weeks to help improve DoubleMap's accuracy."

[busfan2847]

17 hours ago, artthouwill said:

 

In fact,  I didn't know it Northwestern Medical still operates its own shuttles to the train stations,  especially since the CTA extension of the 120 and 121 into Streeterville    That service was initially operated by Hammond Yellow until about 1995.  I believe Royal American ran it until it was sold to Free Enterprise.   I'm not sure if Aries Charter took it over l.  I will have to check with my Aries sources  

Yes the station shuttles are still running. Lost & Found number is same as intercampus route which is still run by Free Enterprise.

https://www.northwestern.edu/transportation-parking/documents/trainshuttle.pdf

[Shannoncvpi]

1233 was on its way to 7 from K 

[NovaHater]

53 minutes ago, Shannoncvpi said:

1233 was on its way to 7 from K 

I hope y’all are taking an artic back

[Policeman]

7 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

1233 was on its way to 7 from K 

Surprised 1236 went to 3 instead of 7

[Shannoncvpi]

13 hours ago, NovaHater said:

I hope y’all are taking an artic back

I hope so too yall.need to give us our buses back 

[Shannoncvpi]

6 hours ago, Policeman said:

Surprised 1236 went to 3 instead of 7

I think 3 is down alot of buses also 

[Shannoncvpi]

1008 broke down on the 7

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

20 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

1233 was on its way to 7 from K 

last ran 8/15 on the 52 

[NewFlyerMCI]

 

Saw this on Twitter, could only laugh ??

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

 

Saw this on Twitter, could only laugh ??

Very creative for sure.

 

I'd bet that these complainers couldn't do any better.

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

last ran 8/15 on the 52 

Aw ok