8350-series Nova LFS - Updates

[BusHunter]

#8403 is on the #91 today for its debut.

[Ghoul]

#8401 has made a debut in service today on Irving Park

[YoungBusLover]

So after reviewing @Shannoncvpi video in the Random CTA  thread, 103rd apparently has received #8383,#8388,#8426,#8428 and #8431. 

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

11 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

So after reviewing @Shannoncvpi video in the Random CTA  thread, 103rd apparently has received #8383,#8388,#8426,#8428 and #8428. 

8431*

[YoungBusLover]

3 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

8431*

It's late I'm about to K/O for the night. Typo's are my achilleas heal. ?

[artthouwill]

10 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

3 got some of the 8350's now sitting in the back & they also have a rent a cop sitting out side of the garage tf since when they hired went a cops ??? & she rode up behind me as I'm riding through & 3 also kicked their Noah's out of the garage guess they plan on sending them to the boneyard soon

 

10 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

I'm shocked but then again not surprised perhaps the 50/50 of #8350s split is still relevant. 

 

10 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

So after reviewing @Shannoncvpi video in the Random CTA  thread, 103rd apparently has received #8383,#8388,#8426,#8428 and #8431. 

It could be a 50/50 split after all.  But seems like there's no rhyme or reason to which buses are assigned to which garages.  You have some 8350s up to like 837x at FG, then jumps to 8401, then 8420 and 8421.  Now you have 838xs at 103rd plus 8426, and8431.  These have yet to see service,  so while its likely they will serve at 3, it's an outside chance that these were just stored at 3 because there wasn't room at SS or FG.  If FG moves its retired Novas, maybe these 8350s go there, although I would think that would have happened by now.  But with staffing shortages. U never know. 

Are there still 8350s sitting at SS?

[BusHunter]

6 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

 

 

It could be a 50/50 split after all.  But seems like there's no rhyme or reason to which buses are assigned to which garages.  You have some 8350s up to like 837x at FG, then jumps to 8401, then 8420 and 8421.  Now you have 838xs at 103rd plus 8426, and8431.  These have yet to see service,  so while its likely they will serve at 3, it's an outside chance that these were just stored at 3 because there wasn't room at SS or FG.  If FG moves its retired Novas, maybe these 8350s go there, although I would think that would have happened by now.  But with staffing shortages. U never know. 

Are there still 8350s sitting at SS?

I thought maybe he meant some #8450's went over there. Remember how the Glen had 5 trainers. I think those are trainers. Check them out and see if they get a 103 sticker. They need something to train on and there's no 8450s. 

It is ctas style to give the Glen something and take it back. But I don't think that's what's happening here. I was just reminiscing this morning. The NFs are getting harder to find at the Glen. Soon you will not only be saying goodbye to 6800s up here, we will be waving so long to the NFs as well. It is sad.... they were the last to get NF's and the first to lose them!!!

[YoungBusLover]

36 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

 

 

It could be a 50/50 split after all.  But seems like there's no rhyme or reason to which buses are assigned to which garages.  You have some 8350s up to like 837x at FG, then jumps to 8401, then 8420 and 8421.  Now you have 838xs at 103rd plus 8426, and8431.  These have yet to see service,  so while its likely they will serve at 3, it's an outside chance that these were just stored at 3 because there wasn't room at SS or FG.  If FG moves its retired Novas, maybe these 8350s go there, although I would think that would have happened by now.  But with staffing shortages. U never know. 

Are there still 8350s sitting at SS?

A majority of the remaining 8350s are just about ready for transport. The Westside of SS isn't full of 8350s anymore but more of a mix of everything now that space has lightened up a bit. 

[Guest ChicagoRail]

12 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

So after reviewing @Shannoncvpi video in the Random CTA  thread, 103rd apparently has received #8383,#8388,#8426,#8428 and #8431. 

Whoa!

[YoungBusLover]

SS is practically down to maybe 25 #8350s now, the westside of the shops barely has any over there and the south fence has about 15 or so from what I saw. the boneyard hardly has any back there which makes me wonder where did this next batch get moved to? 

[Mr.cta85]

103rd is definitely about to get some of those new novas lol. Think back to the last time when the 8325’s started out at FG then a week later the bulk of those buses were at 103rd. Don’t be surprised if this happens again.

[YoungBusLover]

4 minutes ago, Mr.cta85 said:

103rd is definitely about to get some of those new novas lol. Think back to the last time when the 8325’s started out at FG then a week later the bulk of those buses were at 103rd. Don’t be surprised if this happens again.

Well if they do can we trade our #7900s for those #1100s? ?

[artthouwill]

56 minutes ago, Mr.cta85 said:

103rd is definitely about to get some of those new novas lol. Think back to the last time when the 8325’s started out at FG then a week later the bulk of those buses were at 103rd. Don’t be surprised if this happens again.

I remember years ago when complaints were abound that yhe CTA favored the North side garages ( No, FG, L) and A (the garage that served Daley's neighborhood).  Now it seems like a push to make sure the south side garages get first dibs on new equipment. 

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, Mr.cta85 said:

103rd is definitely about to get some of those new novas lol. Think back to the last time when the 8325’s started out at FG then a week later the bulk of those buses were at 103rd. Don’t be surprised if this happens again.

Not gonna happen this time, do I have to get the chains out again, LOL. 

No it's just 103rd is trained to get these, so it's only a matter of time before they will. 

It's positive though because if they are training with these buses the #8450's are coming soon, maybe a month or 2 out. 

If anything you need to get the goodbye NF party invitations sent out, cause guess who is going all Nova after fg, you guys!! But you do have artics. But check it out if Nova electrics are coming to 103rd, if they ordered Nova artics, you guys would have every style of Nova bus. 

Only monkey wrench is you guys have about 150 NF 40 footers. It would only be fair if you picked up 50 7900's, to go with your 100 #8450's. 

74th has some waiting for you if they ever get the proterras. 

[wordguy]

Quote

8 hours ago, Mr.cta85 said:

103rd is definitely about to get some of those new novas lol. Think back to the last time when the 8325’s started out at FG then a week later the bulk of those buses were at 103rd. Don’t be surprised if this happens again.

I think that Mr.cta85 might be right. The higher-numbered 8350s may be at FG temporarily until driver training at 103rd is finished. Other garages probably needed  buses in order to bulk up their fleets: 77th Street for launching service on the X4, and 103rd and NP for school runs. Because FG drivers have already been trained for the 8350s, the temporary assignment of the higher numbers would seem to make sense so that FG's NFs could be freed up for reassignment.. 

 

[wordguy]

4 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Not gonna happen this time, do I have to get the chains out again, LOL. 

No it's just 103rd is trained to get these, so it's only a matter of time before they will. 

It's positive though because if they are training with these buses the #8450's are coming soon, maybe a month or 2 out. 

If anything you need to get the goodbye NF party invitations sent out, cause guess who is going all Nova after fg, you guys!! But you do have artics. But check it out if Nova electrics are coming to 103rd, if they ordered Nova artics, you guys would have every style of Nova bus. 

Only monkey wrench is you guys have about 150 NF 40 footers. It would only be fair if you picked up 50 7900's, to go with your 100 #8450's. 

74th has some waiting for you if they ever get the proterras. 

I'm not so sure that the New Flyers are going to be disappearing from FG just yet. Assuming that the higher-numbered 8350s now at FG migrate south to 103rd, FG would likely receive a few of 103rd's New Flyers in return. So once everything's in place, I'm guessing that FG will have a net loss of a few New Flyers, but not many.

[Bus1883]

19 minutes ago, wordguy said:

I'm not so sure that the New Flyers are going to be disappearing from FG just yet. Assuming that the higher-numbered 8350s now at FG migrate south to 103rd, FG would likely receive a few of 103rd's New Flyers in return. So once everything's in place, I'm guessing that FG will have a net loss of a few New Flyers, but not many.

Possibly retirement for a few 

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, wordguy said:

I'm not so sure that the New Flyers are going to be disappearing from FG just yet. Assuming that the higher-numbered 8350s now at FG migrate south to 103rd, FG would likely receive a few of 103rd's New Flyers in return. So once everything's in place, I'm guessing that FG will have a net loss of a few New Flyers, but not many.

Yeah but even if 103rd started at #8400, due to no #8450's, there will be only 400 NFs left if they get all 600. Unless every garage gets 50, that scenario makes no sense. Fg could get a later set of 50, but they had 75 of the oldest buses, so they are justifiably in need of an updated fleet. 

[jajuan]

38 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah but even if 103rd started at #8400, due to no #8450's, there will be only 400 NFs left if they get all 600. Unless every garage gets 50, that scenario makes no sense. Fg could get a later set of 50, but they had 75 of the oldest buses, so they are justifiably in need of an updated fleet. 

Even if they do get all 600 Novas, that does not say any garage is going all Nova unless any of the garages that receive them already had 100-plus Novas from the 7900s and doesn't reassign those. They would be dividing 600 buses between six garages (if @artthouwill's theory that NP doesn't receive any holds up. The math doesn't add up. At best any given garage might have a boatload of Novas and a much smaller contingent of New Flyer standards. And unless CTA has some secret order for Nova artics we don't know about, the garages with artics ain't going all Nova. You've just latched on to this all Nova garage theory and ran with it based solely on observations of FG, only one garage out of the total seven currently open. I think by now we should all know not to run too far with a theory and get carried away based solely on one garage or one initial bus option. 

[wordguy]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah but even if 103rd started at #8400, due to no #8450's, there will be only 400 NFs left if they get all 600. Unless every garage gets 50, that scenario makes no sense. Fg could get a later set of 50, but they had 75 of the oldest buses, so they are justifiably in need of an updated fleet. 

Maybe so, BH, but I'm just thinking about the next few months or so, until/whenever the 8450s start appearing. Also, I'm wondering if a bus's age will make much difference regarding its retirement. The entire fleet of 40-foot NFs is between 13 and 16 years old. The first units to leave the roster might be the ones with the most downtime, the highest mileage, or structural issues, rather than the oldest.

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, wordguy said:

Maybe so, BH, but I'm just thinking about the next few months or so, until/whenever the 8450s start appearing. Also, I'm wondering if a bus's age will make much difference regarding its retirement. The entire fleet of 40-foot NFs is between 13 and 16 years old. The first units to leave the roster might be the ones with the most downtime, the highest mileage, or structural issues, rather than the oldest.

It will be some sort of combination.  Buses not worth repairing probably go first.  Age and mileage might be interchangeable.   A lower mileage older bus. If one exists, might stick around longer than a younger higher mileage bus. But u think that gets relegated to bus numbers under 1600.  Those above 1600 that get retired are going to be the ones beyond repair.

[Shannoncvpi]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

It will be some sort of combination.  Buses not worth repairing probably go first.  Age and mileage might be interchangeable.   A lower mileage older bus. If one exists, might stick around longer than a younger higher mileage bus. But u think that gets relegated to bus numbers under 1600.  Those above 1600 that get retired are going to be the ones beyond repair.

Exactly  see you might have a 1900 that's in way worst shape then a 10 so that that 1900 will get knocked off first do like how they did the 6400's you had 68's getting knocked off first before the 64's& 65's which they just retired the rest of the 64' & 65's during the start of covid just like the 66's kept running until 6860 caught fire then the 68's was the only ones to come back 

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, wordguy said:

Maybe so, BH, but I'm just thinking about the next few months or so, until/whenever the 8450s start appearing. Also, I'm wondering if a bus's age will make much difference regarding its retirement. The entire fleet of 40-foot NFs is between 13 and 16 years old. The first units to leave the roster might be the ones with the most downtime, the highest mileage, or structural issues, rather than the oldest.

Well the #1930's have been living a stress free life at chicago with boatloads of 8100s around. That should be good with mileage. Places that have high miles are places like np or Kedzie or 103rd that don't really have Novas in great number. So the nfs just run all the time. 

One thing we haven't mentioned is how slow this Nova bus order will be up to 6 years. No wonder they have not yet trained a 3rd garage because they would not get buses for a year. If the #8450's are 2023s and they should be the new models could theoretically be built starting in September. With only 200 buses by the next year that could be perceived as 100 a yard. 

[YoungBusLover]

It appears that the remaining #8350s are heading to 103rd, a lot more have popped up at 103rd today. Not sure of the number blocks though. The only ones that remain are sitting along the SS Fence on 79th. 

Not my photo, courtesy of Locoooo from Youtube. 

[Ghoul]

#8420 on the 56! (Ghost bus)