8350-series Nova LFS - Updates

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, Rhys Pate said:

8550 is in service as a Blue Line shuttle. 8550 is assigned to 77th Garage.

I guess a way to get it out there without programming the sign. ??

[Rhys Pate]

I noticed that the driver was having technical difficulties with 8550. I am thinking that it was because 8550 is a brand new bus.

[Rhys Pate]

Are there any other Option 2 buses in service right now besides 8550?

[jajuan]

18 hours ago, Rhys Pate said:

8550 is in service as a Blue Line shuttle. 8550 is assigned to 77th Garage.

Surprised that they jumped to 77th again for new assignments instead of heading to Kedzie next. But they probably figure that the very recent swap of New Flyers for Novas that occurred between K and FG took care of K for the time being.

[Busjack]

3 hours ago, jajuan said:

Surprised that they jumped to 77th again for new assignments instead of heading to Kedzie next. But they probably figure that the very recent swap of New Flyers for Novas that occurred between K and FG took care of K for the time being.

The two are not mutually exclusive. The training at Kedzie was announced, and given stuff like the odds/even splits between NP and 103 with 400 1000s and that the scattered distribution of 8325 and up, I'm not surprised. What surprised me was that 8343 up at FG turned out to be essentially a trade for 8260-8324, even though in the short term they retired 6400s.

Also, 77 getting something new is never a surprise.

[artthouwill]

8 minutes ago, Busjack said:

The two are not mutually exclusive. The training at Kedzie was announced, and given stuff like the odds/even splits between NP and 103 with 400 1000s and that the scattered distribution of 8325 and up, I'm not surprised. What surprised me was that 8343 up at FG turned out to be essentially a trade for 8260-8324, even though in the short term they retired 6400s.

Also, 77 getting something new is never a surprise.

The surprise is never 77th getting new equipment.  The surprise is 77th keeping that equipment, though I suppose that st a certain point,  no one else wants their used equipment anymore.

[YoungBusLover]

3 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

The surprise is never 77th getting new equipment.  The surprise is 77th keeping that equipment, though I suppose that st a certain point,  no one else wants their used equipment anymore.

Well currently we only have 7 buses on the updated Master list that have been exclusively used for the BL Shuttle outside of the two used as loans from last week. A lot of our #1000s are running on pins and needles at this point where I can assume we're just stuck with what we have for right now. I still think these elderly #7900s should of been shipped out to Kedzie for those #1600s but it's a win - win I guess for FG. 

16 minutes ago, Busjack said:

The two are not mutually exclusive. The training at Kedzie was announced, and given stuff like the odds/even splits between NP and 103 with 400 1000s and that the scattered distribution of 8325 and up, I'm not surprised. What surprised me was that 8343 up at FG turned out to be essentially a trade for 8260-8324, even though in the short term they retired 6400s.

Also, 77 getting something new is never a surprise.

It surprised me that it took this long for 77th to get anything, #8405 is the only bus we got last summer well after the deliveries to FG were underway. I just hope we don't get anymore until at least next year. They take off so slow compared to the #7900s and as always the rear doors are the Achilles heal that really slows a trip down. 

[jajuan]

5 hours ago, Busjack said:

The two are not mutually exclusive. The training at Kedzie was announced, and given stuff like the odds/even splits between NP and 103 with 400 1000s and that the scattered distribution of 8325 and up, I'm not surprised. What surprised me was that 8343 up at FG turned out to be essentially a trade for 8260-8324, even though in the short term they retired 6400s.

Also, 77 getting something new is never a surprise.

No I know that they're not mutually exclusive and was not suggesting that they were. What I was getting at was between various reassignments of earlier option NFs, swaps of them to even out mileage, and different OOS and boneyard lists posted by @YoungBusLover showing high numbers of what were K assigned NFs down, K seemed to be harder up NF-wise and that the focus of 8350s deliveries would there next before they handle 77th as deliveries to 103rd wind down. 

For what it's worth though, the bigger surprise out of any all of us have mentioned is that 8350 counts at both FG and 103rd are both lower than it's seemed and felt like from deployment pattern observations on various routes at both. 

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

No I know that they're not mutually exclusive and was not suggesting that they were. What I was getting at was between various reassignments of earlier option NFs, swaps of them to even out mileage, and different OOS and boneyard lists posted by @YoungBusLover showing high numbers of what were K assigned NFs down, K seemed to be harder up NF-wise and that the focus of 8350s deliveries would there next before they handle 77th as deliveries to 103rd wind down. 

For what it's worth though, the bigger surprise out of any all of us have mentioned is that 8350 counts at both FG and 103rd are both lower than it's seemed and felt like from deployment pattern observations on various routes at both. 

Maybe that wasn't planned.  With the high number of OOS New Flyers, CTA may have had to adjust accordingly.   As @Busjack has stayed, 74th initially wasn't going to get any 1000 series New Flyers but the high number of Flxble breakdowns forced CTA to send them some.

I believe that 103rd was slated to have all 40 ft buses there be Novas but K's high rate of breakdowns forced CTA'S hand.  Add to this Novas plans to exit the U S. market which may force CTA to speed up deliveries.

[jajuan]

11 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Maybe that wasn't planned.  With the high number of OOS New Flyers, CTA may have had to adjust accordingly.   As @Busjack has stayed, 74th initially wasn't going to get any 1000 series New Flyers but the high number of Flxble breakdowns forced CTA to send them some.

I believe that 103rd was slated to have all 40 ft buses there be Novas but K's high rate of breakdowns forced CTA'S hand.  Add to this Novas plans to exit the U S. market which may force CTA to speed up deliveries.

Yeah that's part of what I was thinking of when I said maybe they figured the switch up of 7900s to Kedzie would take of them for now. Kind of stabilize things until 8350s come into Kedzie. After all before the shakeup, it had a pretty high NF count on the 40 foot side of things, sometimes having had the highest number especially during the pandemic era when C and 7 had artics assigned. Like NP, they weren't as much a Nova garage. So their running into a high breakdown count in NFs wasn't too surprising. I think what probably kept NP from having as big a problem is NP having such a high artic count due to having so many express and local routes that are heavily artic operated. As @YoungBusLover noted though, this recent swap out has done a lot in evening out the fleet. I'd say it also stabilized the fleet a bit as far as breakdowns exacerbating delay problems that may have cropped up due to traffic or operators being absent from work.

[YoungBusLover]

2 hours ago, jajuan said:

Yeah that's part of what I was thinking of when I said maybe they figured the switch up of 7900s to Kedzie would take of them for now. Kind of stabilize things until 8350s come into Kedzie. After all before the shakeup, it had a pretty high NF count on the 40 foot side of things, sometimes having had the highest number especially during the pandemic era when C and 7 had artics assigned. Like NP, they weren't as much a Nova garage. So their running into a high breakdown count in NFs wasn't too surprising. I think what probably kept NP from having as big a problem is NP having such a high artic count due to having so many express and local routes that are heavily artic operated. As @YoungBusLover noted though, this recent swap out has done a lot in evening out the fleet. I'd say it also stabilized the fleet a bit as far as breakdowns exacerbating delay problems that may have cropped up due to traffic or operators being absent from work.

One thing that does concern me though is what does the future hold for the 2006 and early 2007 models #1000 - #1629 range. 103rd finally got some relief for there's but now 74th and 77th have the highest concentration of elderly buses so to speak. I know that they'll eventually get some relief when more #8350s get delivered but as slow as Novabus has been with deliveries how much longer can they hang on? 

[YoungBusLover]

15 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Maybe that wasn't planned.  With the high number of OOS New Flyers, CTA may have had to adjust accordingly.   As @Busjack has stayed, 74th initially wasn't going to get any 1000 series New Flyers but the high number of Flxble breakdowns forced CTA to send them some.

I believe that 103rd was slated to have all 40 ft buses there be Novas but K's high rate of breakdowns forced CTA'S hand.  Add to this Novas plans to exit the U S. market which may force CTA to speed up deliveries.

I really thought 103rd would wipeout there entire roster of #1000s and be strictly Nova by now but I guess that's not the case. 

[kdavis77]

Does CTA are planing to ordering 60 foot articulated buses from the bus factory of Nova or New Flyer in the future order that used for highest passengers boarding?

[Busjack]

11 minutes ago, kdavis77 said:

Does CTA are planing to ordering 60 foot articulated buses from the bus factory of Nova or New Flyer in the future order that used for highest passengers boarding?

Has nothing to do with 8350s, and the only indication in a consultant's report was that CTA would have to buy electric buses "equivalent to" 208 articulated buses. And somehow you missed that Nova is leaving the market.

[jajuan]

6 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

I really thought 103rd would wipeout there entire roster of #1000s and be strictly Nova by now but I guess that's not the case. 

Yeah the way it was looking, it seemed that 103rd would keep getting 8350s assigned until NFs were off the 40-foot part of their roster. That's why when you mentioned that K drivers were in training to get 8350s I was a bit surprised due to the implication that deliveries to 103rd was going to wind down. I'm still that their count is only about 90 based on your most recent roster count and FG is a bit shy of 70. I see 8350s so often on every route from both that I observe in passing, that really seems like they both have more 8350s than actually counted.

[William Miles]

I heard that the cta Nova bus series number going to end at 8949.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, William Miles said:

I heard that the cta Nova bus series number going to end at 8949.

If all options are exercised then yes. 

[ajm522]

I think all 8350s are getting the rear “Doors opening” “Doors closing” was on 8354 and that bus had it. I thought it was only 8450+

[jajuan]

9 minutes ago, ajm522 said:

I think all 8350s are getting the rear “Doors opening” “Doors closing” was on 8354 and that bus had it. I thought it was only 8450+

I thought it was only 8450+ as well, but I think I did hear the "Doors opening/Doors closing" announcement on a lower number 8350 when on a short ride on the 84. I can't remember which bus it was though.

[Policeman]

3 hours ago, ajm522 said:

I think all 8350s are getting the rear “Doors opening” “Doors closing” was on 8354 and that bus had it. I thought it was only 8450+

a lot of the 8350-8449 buses have them

[ajm522]

15 hours ago, Policeman said:

a lot of the 8350-8449 buses have them

I would hope to see them on all busses similar to how NYC does it. 

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

#8560 has entered service wit a “7” sticker on the windshield on the BL shuttle 

[jajuan]

6 hours ago, Mr.NewFlyer1279 said:

#8560 has entered service wit a “7” sticker on the windshield on the BL shuttle 

So more added to 7 to work on the BL shuttle.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:52 PM, ajm522 said:

I think all 8350s are getting the rear “Doors opening” “Doors closing” was on 8354 and that bus had it. I thought it was only 8450+

I haven’t heard them on any 8350-8449 yet except 8405, so it looks like they’re adding them onto that range now. 

[Mr.NewFlyer1279]

#8543 has entered service out of 77th on route 8 Halsted