Random CTA

[YoungBusLover]

1 hour ago, Javi78 said:

Do you think the garages should move the 7900s and 8000s around to even mileage like for instance 77th sends a handful of 7900s to FG for a handful of 8200s-8300s that way the 7900s get some downtime at FG and operate on lighter routes and better roads while the 8200s-8300s get their use. Same thing with 8000s from 74th, send a handful to FG for some of FGs novas or send them to NP for some new flyers. Would that help maintenance wise?

I dont think that would be feasible, every garage minus NP and 103rd if my memory is correct recieved roughly 100 novas during there somewhat lengthy delivery process and out of all of them 112 ended up at 74th. Unlike the #1000s the #7900s have mixed mileage compared to the #8000s and moving that mixed bag of buses around in Hope's they would receive better maintenance and less wear and tear just wouldn't happen like that especially when we dont know what garage would be willing to trade off anything that's in better shape than what they would be recieving. These ideas are hypothetical at this point. 

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

I dont think that would be feasible, every garage minus NP and 103rd if my memory is correct recieved roughly 100 novas during there somewhat lengthy delivery process and out of all of them 112 ended up at 74th. Unlike the #1000s the #7900s have mixed mileage compared to the #8000s and moving that mixed bag of buses around in Hope's they would receive better maintenance and less wear and tear just wouldn't happen like that especially when we dont know what garage would be willing to trade off anything that's in better shape than what they would be recieving. These ideas are hypothetical at this point. 

You most def right about that bro cuz that's why the 6400-6499 spent most of their lives at 7 

[Shannoncvpi]

14 hours ago, CTA5750 said:

The CPD Flxible wouldnt do the job because the seating arrangement was altered  It was used as sort of a  Command bus rather than a transport vehicle Our Flxible on the other hand was not altered at all  The seating and interior remains the same

Aw now I see why CFD gave it back to cta

[Javi78]

I’ve always heard that bus drivers pick their routes but what happens when no bus driver wants to drive a certain route? Like a bus route that goes down a rough street like 79th, will the garage assign drivers to that route just to have drivers on that route? 

[Shannoncvpi]

55 minutes ago, Javi78 said:

I’ve always heard that bus drivers pick their routes but what happens when no bus driver wants to drive a certain route? Like a bus route that goes down a rough street like 79th, will the garage assign drivers to that route just to have drivers on that route? 

Basically bro the vet drivers get first pick people like me get whatever tf is left like 1 driver he aint did nothing but the 12 route for 3 years straight me on the other dam some days I may get the same route but lost of the time I get whatever is left

[Javi78]

11 minutes ago, Shannoncvpi said:

Basically bro the vet drivers get first pick people like me get whatever tf is left like 1 driver he aint did nothing but the 12 route for 3 years straight me on the other dam some days I may get the same route but lost of the time I get whatever is left

I ride the 50 Damen a lot for work and when I was back in high school I use to the ride to school and I’m in my fourth year of college, I’m still getting the same driver that I had since freshman year of high school lol. He’s probably been on the route even longer than that, he only drives that route and has been driving that route for 8+ years lol.

[artthouwill]

17 minutes ago, Javi78 said:

I ride the 50 Damen a lot for work and when I was back in high school I use to the ride to school and I’m in my fourth year of college, I’m still getting the same driver that I had since freshman year of high school lol. He’s probably been on the route even longer than that, he only drives that route and has been driving that route for 8+ years lol.

He is probably a veteran and picked that run.  Perhaps the hours are perfect.   Perhaps he has weekends off.  Dqmen is a pretty safe route.  I could be wrong but I think 77th and NP probably have the most extra board drivers.

[YoungBusLover]

7 hours ago, artthouwill said:

He is probably a veteran and picked that run.  Perhaps the hours are perfect.   Perhaps he has weekends off.  Damen is a pretty safe route.  I could be wrong but I think 77th and NP probably have the most extra board drivers.

Our last pick we had nearly the entire extra board filled up 3 pages deep especially after the winter pick got extended and operators got there runs taken away, this time around the extra board isn't as long as it once was, its about maybe a page and half long with names. A lot of the part time operators i've talked to in my badge range between 61 and 63 don't really like the new combination picks that have been put out because of having one early day and the rest being either mixed with swings or late starts. No matter what you choose there isn't much of a win-win coming from it but getting back to the topic, If I had some years i'd definitely stay on Halsted,Pulaski,87th and Cottage Grove mainly because of there length more so than the people itself, Hell if anything I would try my hardest to look for weekends on Halsted because you're only doing two trips roughly and they're about 6 to 7 hours at best.I feel a lot of operators got burned by looking at the days off more so than the runs and the times of those runs for the summer pick from my garage. 

[YoungBusLover]

9 hours ago, Javi78 said:

I’ve always heard that bus drivers pick their routes but what happens when no bus driver wants to drive a certain route? Like a bus route that goes down a rough street like 79th, will the garage assign drivers to that route just to have drivers on that route? 

You have two options, try your best to pick a combination schedule that fits into your schedule or go on the extra board and pray you don't get stuck with those bad streets. I'd rather pick than do another operators leftovers that they didn't even want to begin with being stuck on the board. "Pot luck" is a better way to describe it if you get my drift.

[Shannoncvpi]

29 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

Our last pick we had nearly the entire extra board filled up 3 pages deep especially after the winter pick got extended and operators got there runs taken away, this time around the extra board isn't as long as it once was, its about maybe a page and half long with names. A lot of the part time operators i've talked to in my badge range between 61 and 63 don't really like the new combination picks that have been put out because of having one early day and the rest being either mixed with swings or late starts. No matter what you choose there isn't much of a win-win coming from it but getting back to the topic, If I had some years i'd definitely stay on Halsted,Pulaski,87th and Cottage Grove mainly because of there length more so than the people itself, Hell if anything I would try my hardest to look for weekends on Halsted because you're only doing two trips roughly and they're about 6 to 7 hours at best.I feel a lot of operators got burned by looking at the days off more so than the runs and the times of those runs for the summer pick from my garage. 

Yea like if I got to pick what routes I would do I would pick the 12 7 52 & 126 & the part time runs on the 66 which I had this morning for a few runs before I switched to the 52

[WCR]

Now there's a display that reads "Busses may pass stops." Couldn't get a picture but it was on a 1900-series Flyer on the 49 NB.

[YoungBusLover]

The lack patience in people really shows how bad things have gotten for us as operators, so I'm operating north halsted late last night and I pick up these two gentleman from UIC and they seemed to be in a hurry to get to Chicago Ave for some odd reason, my guess was to catch the bus. So I get to the UIC blue line station and I realized I'm 3 minutes early so I sit my time out until I'm back on schedule.One of the guys asks me what's the hold up and I tell him that I'm ahead of schedule, so he makes it abundantly clear that he and his friend need to get to Chicago Ave Asap while saying a few other things, so fast forwarding a bit I proceed further north and pick up more passengers through the west loop and as soon as we get to lake street they bum rush through everybody as they're getting on to get off and begin running up that steep incline past Fulton market looking like two thieves in the night. As soon as I get the green light I bolt passed them like a bat out of hell and they look back in disbelief, so they get even more frantic and start running even harder to catch me at Grand and Milwaukee. Being the nice operator that i am wait for them after I pick up/drop off more passengers and all they could when they got back on was look me dead in my face with a mean mug as if I did something wrong. I couldn't help but laugh with my mask on because its literally 11:30 on a Saturday night and you're rushing me to do my job even faster than I'm required to do. When we finally get to Chicago Ave they urge me to let them off even though the light already turned green to get towards the far side stop. The passengers I had even got a kick out of those two with what they were doing. After they get off they run across the street to get to the bus stop and nearly got hit by oncoming traffic. I sat there stationary just in case to make sure that they wouldn't get hit all in all a funny situation for me. I dont think I've ever seen someone that much in a hurry to get to there destination where they literally jump off the bus they were on thinking they're the "Flash" and attempt to beat me to Chicago Ave just to realize that they're not. Throughout that entire ordeal I went from being on time to nearly five minutes behind dealing with them. I ask my fellow operators former and current have they ever gone through something as nutty as that????????

[YoungBusLover]

20 hours ago, WCR said:

Now there's a display that reads "Busses may pass stops." Couldn't get a picture but it was on a 1900-series Flyer on the 49 NB.

I wish they would make an automated announcement about getting passed up and buses running express due to being over capacity. 

[BusHunter]

16 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

The lack patience in people really shows how bad things have gotten for us as operators, so I'm operating north halsted late last night and I pick up these two gentleman from UIC and they seemed to be in a hurry to get to Chicago Ave for some odd reason, my guess was to catch the bus. So I get to the UIC blue line station and I realized I'm 3 minutes early so I sit my time out until I'm back on schedule.One of the guys asks me what's the hold up and I tell him that I'm ahead of schedule, so he makes it abundantly clear that he and his friend need to get to Chicago Ave Asap while saying a few other things, so fast forwarding a bit I proceed further north and pick up more passengers through the west loop and as soon as we get to lake street they bum rush through everybody as they're getting on to get off and begin running up that steep incline past Fulton market looking like two thieves in the night. As soon as I get the green light I bolt passed them like a bat out of hell and they look back in disbelief, so they get even more frantic and start running even harder to catch me at Grand and Milwaukee. Being the nice operator that i am wait for them after I pick up/drop off more passengers and all they could when they got back on was look me dead in my face with a mean mug as if I did something wrong. I couldn't help but laugh with my mask on because its literally 11:30 on a Saturday night and you're rushing me to do my job even faster than I'm required to do. When we finally get to Chicago Ave they urge me to let them off even though the light already turned green to get towards the far side stop. The passengers I had even got a kick out of those two with what they were doing. After they get off they run across the street to get to the bus stop and nearly got hit by oncoming traffic. I sat there stationary just in case to make sure that they wouldn't get hit all in all a funny situation for me. I dont think I've ever seen someone that much in a hurry to get to there destination where they literally jump off the bus they were on thinking they're the "Flash" and attempt to beat me to Chicago Ave just to realize that they're not. Throughout that entire ordeal I went from being on time to nearly five minutes behind dealing with them. I ask my fellow operators former and current have they ever gone through something as nutty as that????????

After they got off I'd just let them be. You could be nice and let them back on like you did but it compromises your schedule, plus cta could always come back to you and say why didnt they pay another fare? Probably they paid the same as an uber being multiple people so they would have had faster curb to curb service if they went that route. You take a risk giving those guys a ride, because they could have ran in front  of your bus after getting off it's happened on buses before I rode. Bottom line is you want to stay safe and not rush that's what's in my training. Being late is not an issue compromising  safety is

[YoungBusLover]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

After they got off I'd just let them be. You could be nice and let them back on like you did but it compromises your schedule, plus cta could always come back to you and say why didnt they pay another fare? Probably they paid the same as an uber being multiple people so they would have had faster curb to curb service if they went that route. You take a risk giving those guys a ride, because they could have ran in front  of your bus after getting off it's happened on buses before I rode. Bottom line is you want to stay safe and not rush that's what's in my training. Being late is not an issue compromising  safety is

The crazy thing is they paid again after i waited for them which baffled and amused me at the same time. They did all of that just to pay another $2.50. Also today on Pulaski Road rage is crazy on Pulaski today, this one driver in a blue ford escape got pissed at me for moving to slow around 62nd after I had just merged back into traffic, he cut me off then slammed on the brakes while were going 30 mph, he then gave me the finger and sped off until he saw me coming again around 59th and cut me off again to brake check me 4 more times before then throwing a big ass water bottle out of roof hatch thinking it would scare me. He then passed my coworker and damn near crashed into her trying sped away at practically 45 mph. It's bad enough there is only 3 buses out here but what's even worse is I dont have a relief like last week. So once I get to 79th I'll be making that long trip back to the garage. The crazy part about it though is I could only go to the orange line because two out of the three buses got caught by a stopped freight train at 33rd. I was nearly 20 minutes down until I got to Pulaski and put myself back in place. I had a decent crowd waiting going back southbound. You are right though safety is the number thing that'll keep the checks coming in but also gaining respect from passengers that have the same frame of mindset.

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

After they got off I'd just let them be. You could be nice and let them back on like you did but it compromises your schedule, plus cta could always come back to you and say why didnt they pay another fare? Probably they paid the same as an uber being multiple people so they would have had faster curb to curb service if they went that route. You take a risk giving those guys a ride, because they could have ran in front  of your bus after getting off it's happened on buses before I rode. Bottom line is you want to stay safe and not rush that's what's in my training. Being late is not an issue compromising  safety is

I did that plenty of times myself I did that today on the 82 when somebody was set tripping about why I was creeping then they got off & I floored it passed them & nap going for sitting again then I waited for him then when he got close I sped off he walked & ran all the way from central park to Pulaski & when I was pulling out of 31st & Kaminski I could see that he was tired as hell

[Shannoncvpi]

Caught 6163 on the streets a few mins ago & u turned parked & got pics & video of her she still runs beautiful got 500k miles dam alot of new flyers got more then that but she was assinged to FG her entire life even went aboard to get video after asking the driver could I come on 

[Shannoncvpi]

6163 out on the street with the sign lit up 

[BusHunter]

2 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

Caught 6163 on the streets a few mins ago & u turned parked & got pics & video of her she still runs beautiful got 500k miles dam alot of new flyers got more then that but she was assinged to FG her entire life even went aboard to get video after asking the driver could I come on 

Actually it ran out of kedzie up until they did the 5300/4400 bus swap to swap out the buses without preheaters. I wanna say that happened around 2002 or 3. You can find out exactly on my 6000s lifetime in service roster. But half to three quarters of its life was at fg. But just cause a bus runs at fg does not necessarily mean it has low miles. If you remember I took the shot of 6714s odometer than showed it had 413k miles in 2013. Id like to see the miles on a 6400 now.

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Actually it ran out of kedzie up until they did the 5300/4400 bus swap to swap out the buses without preheaters. I wanna say that happened around 2002 or 3. You can find out exactly on my 6000s lifetime in service roster. But half to three quarters of its life was at fg. But just cause a bus runs at fg does not necessarily mean it has low miles. If you remember I took the shot of 6714s odometer than showed it had 413k miles in 2013. Id like to see the miles on a 6400 now.

True I'm just saying thats low compared to some of the new flyers today like 1469 when ibwas on that bus last nive it had 700k miles on it 

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Actually it ran out of kedzie up until they did the 5300/4400 bus swap to swap out the buses without preheaters. I wanna say that happened around 2002 or 3. You can find out exactly on my 6000s lifetime in service roster. But half to three quarters of its life was at fg. But just cause a bus runs at fg does not necessarily mean it has low miles. If you remember I took the shot of 6714s odometer than showed it had 413k miles in 2013. Id like to see the miles on a 6400 now.

I forgot about the pre heater swap in 02-03

[Shannoncvpi]

Guess an artic is down due to a driver at 7 testing positive for the virus its stitting outside the bus bay area with tape around the front

[artthouwill]

34 minutes ago, Shannoncvpi said:

Guess an artic is down due to a driver at 7 testing positive for the virus its stitting outside the bus bay area with tape around the front

What number?

[YoungBusLover]

On 8/24/2020 at 8:24 PM, BusHunter said:

Actually it ran out of kedzie up until they did the 5300/4400 bus swap to swap out the buses without preheaters. I wanna say that happened around 2002 or 3. You can find out exactly on my 6000s lifetime in service roster. But half to three quarters of its life was at fg. But just cause a bus runs at fg does not necessarily mean it has low miles. If you remember I took the shot of 6714s odometer than showed it had 413k miles in 2013. Id like to see the miles on a 6400 now.

I had #1343 yesterday and it only had 330 miles on it, so i'm guessing it received a minor rebuild of some sorts because it was pretty quick.   

[artthouwill]

On 8/24/2020 at 8:24 PM, BusHunter said:

Actually it ran out of kedzie up until they did the 5300/4400 bus swap to swap out the buses without preheaters. I wanna say that happened around 2002 or 3. You can find out exactly on my 6000s lifetime in service roster. But half to three quarters of its life was at fg. But just cause a bus runs at fg does not necessarily mean it has low miles. If you remember I took the shot of 6714s odometer than showed it had 413k miles in 2013. Id like to see the miles on a 6400 now.

If I'm not mistaken,  6714 originally debuted at C.