8350-series Nova LFS - Updates

[YoungBusLover]

#8690 is at SS. #8622 and #8625 should be entering service soon.

[wayfaringrob]

On 2/15/2024 at 1:31 PM, jajuan said:

It is rather interesting though that older model buses are helping start off the test over sticking new fareboxes in the new buses as the get delivered and prepped for service and using those. 

makes sense that they're replacing oldest equipment with something new though

[YoungBusLover]

#8653 and #8685 are at SS.

[jajuan]

On 2/16/2024 at 9:44 PM, wayfaringrob said:

makes sense that they're replacing oldest equipment with something new though

Not exactly. Younger New Flyers have been getting pulled from service and retired faster than many of the oldest ones due to their composite steel frames corroding quicker than the regular steel bodied ones. Those are what the 8350s have been replacing albeit indirectly.

[Busjack]

14 minutes ago, jajuan said:

Not exactly. Younger New Flyers have been getting pulled from service and retired faster than many of the oldest ones due to their composite steel frames corroding quicker than the regular steel bodied ones. Those are what the 8350s have been replacing albeit indirectly.

I don't think that's what @wayfaringrob meant. I think he was referring to old fareboxes, although all of them are like 30 years old.

[YoungBusLover]

#8693 is at SS.

[YoungBusLover]

#8687 is at SS.

[YoungBusLover]

#8651 is at SS.

[RTD8481]

I wonder why NP is getting shunned from these new bus deliveries. Seems there’s enough of them to go around. Seems FG and NP are receiving old NFs from C and 74th. 

[artthouwill]

25 minutes ago, RTD8481 said:

I wonder why NP is getting shunned from these new bus deliveries. Seems there’s enough of them to go around. Seems FG and NP are receiving old NFs from C and 74th. 

Again,  historically North Park hasn't been assigned Novas except for a brief period after Archer garage closed.  It received about 20 Novas which were to be primarily assigned to the 49 Western but North Park primarily used its New Flyers on that route.  Eventually the Novas were redeployment to another garage .  

North Park is artic dominant,  so it has a smaller 40 ft bus allotment than other garages.  Therefore it's actually easier to keep that garage all New Flyer.   We will see what happens when it's time to replace the artics  

[Shannoncvpi]

On 2/25/2024 at 10:47 PM, RTD8481 said:

I wonder why NP is getting shunned from these new bus deliveries. Seems there’s enough of them to go around. Seems FG and NP are receiving old NFs from C and 74th. 

I think NP gonna get some this time around K got em & K had been all NF for years & they got trained on em so NP ain't no different they can get trained on em & then start getting Novas they been a picky garage for way too long its time to get with the program

[andrethebusman99]

On 2/25/2024 at 9:22 PM, artthouwill said:

Again,  historically North Park hasn't been assigned Novas except for a brief period after Archer garage closed.  It received about 20 Novas which were to be primarily assigned to the 49 Western but North Park primarily used its New Flyers on that route.  Eventually the Novas were redeployment to another garage .  

North Park is artic dominant,  so it has a smaller 40 ft bus allotment than other garages.  Therefore it's actually easier to keep that garage all New Flyer.   We will see what happens when it's time to replace the artics  

They did end up on other routes too. Personally drove them on 36, 151, and N201.

[artthouwill]

27 minutes ago, andrethebusman99 said:

They did end up on other routes too. Personally drove them on 36, 151, and N201.

They did, but those were exceptions.   They were supposed to be assigned to the 49 along with Novas from 74th  for the purpose of Transit Signal Priority,  which Ashland and Western were supposed to be the TSP corridors and the Novas were supposed to have or get the necessary equipment.   Needless to say,  most of the time very few, if any of North Park's 20 Novas made it on the street and almost none were used on Western.   Even 74th used a mix of Novas and New Flyers  on Western and Ashland,  though 74th did attempt to run as many Novas as possible on Ashland.   TSP was a failure because it never started. 

That was the extent of Novas at North Park,  save for a loaner here and there.  Like I said before,  due to the low amount of 40ft buses at NP compared to other garages,  it makes sense to keep NP all New Flyer for the foreseeable future.

One other thing.   The 49 and X49 were all Nova when operating out of Archer before its closing.   Most of Archer Novas went to 74th with some going to 77th   andNP.  NP finally gave theirs up to FG.

[pudgym29]

Buses numbered higher than 8649 are in service out of Chicago garage.

They do not appear collectively on Maths22's tracker, but can be detected individually. The highest number bus observed seems to be #8683. {An E-Mail was sent. When the software is amended remains unknown.}

[artthouwill]

6 minutes ago, pudgym29 said:

Buses numbered higher than 8649 are in service out of Chicago garage.

They do not appear collectively on Maths22's tracker, but can be detected individually. The highest number bus observed seems to be #8683. {An E-Mail was sent. When the software is amended remains unknown.}

I think that's a function of buses being delivered out of sequence.   I don't know if CTA has reached 300 of the 8350s being delivered yet, seeing that a good number if lower numbered 86xxs haven't been delivered yet.  We will eventually see where those go.  Apparently CTA isn't as concerned about blocks of buses being at a particular garage luje it has been before.  So conceivably 8683 could be at C and 8630 could wind up at 77th or 74th.  Heck, 8700 could see service before 7630.

[jajuan]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:36 AM, Shannoncvpi said:

I think NP gonna get some this time around K got em & K had been all NF for years & they got trained on em so NP ain't no different they can get trained on em & then start getting Novas they been a picky garage for way too long its time to get with the program

To Art's point though, NP has been more easily insulated from any issues with D40LF New Flyers falling out of service because of its exceptionally high artic count. Outside of the spreading out of artics due to the need to facilitate social distancing when COVID was at its worst, NP's artic count tended to hover between 120 and 130 artics on average depending on the pick with the higher counts tending to be in spring and summer months when tourism in the city is higher. That leaves a much lower overall 40-foot bus count, 140 to 160 buses on average, again depending on the pick, while most of the other garages have very close to or more than 200 total 40-footers. The only other garage to have a good deal less than 200 total 40-foot buses is 103rd in part to 103rd having a relatively high artic count compared to its overall fleet total and also in part due to needing less buses during the last couple of years than was traditionally the case historically.

[YoungBusLover]

#8663 is at SS.

[Rhys Pate]

I saw 8687 on the 65 tonight at Grand/Austin.

[Bus1883]

22 minutes ago, Rhys Pate said:

I saw 8687 on the 65 tonight at Grand/Austin.

Already???

[Rhys Pate]

8622 and 8625 are in service and are assigned to 5. 8622 is on the 66 and 8625 is on the 70.

[YoungBusLover]

#8659 and #8665 are at SS.  #8684,#8685 and #8693 should be entering serivce soon. Not sure what is up with #8616 though.

[garmon757]

Forgot to mention that #8660 is in service while spotted on #53 this past weekend. 

[andrethebusman99]

On 2/28/2024 at 3:18 PM, artthouwill said:

They did, but those were exceptions.   They were supposed to be assigned to the 49 along with Novas from 74th  for the purpose of Transit Signal Priority,  which Ashland and Western were supposed to be the TSP corridors and the Novas were supposed to have or get the necessary equipment.   Needless to say,  most of the time very few, if any of North Park's 20 Novas made it on the street and almost none were used on Western.   Even 74th used a mix of Novas and New Flyers  on Western and Ashland,  though 74th did attempt to run as many Novas as possible on Ashland.   TSP was a failure because it never started. 

That was the extent of Novas at North Park,  save for a loaner here and there.  Like I said before,  due to the low amount of 40ft buses at NP compared to other garages,  it makes sense to keep NP all New Flyer for the foreseeable future.

One other thing.   The 49 and X49 were all Nova when operating out of Archer before its closing.   Most of Archer Novas went to 74th with some going to 77th   andNP.  NP finally gave theirs up to FG.

Actually when Archer closed, North Park did for a while make an effort to run only Novas on Western. But after six months or so, Western did become mostly Flyers.

 As a story, the way the Nova ended up on N201 (twice) was that at the time, North Park was short on drivers and having drivers do a tripper and a full run. So twice, I got a tripper on Western and a 36/N201 combi that was supposed to pull out. But the tripper off 49 was due in after the 36 piece was due out, so clerk says don't pull in but go straight from Berwyn to Clark and Arthur. So did that, made a 36 to Desplaines and back to Arthur, then up to Howard to do N201. 

[artthouwill]

8 hours ago, andrethebusman99 said:

Actually when Archer closed, North Park did for a while make an effort to run only Novas on Western. But after six months or so, Western did become mostly Flyers.

 As a story, the way the Nova ended up on N201 (twice) was that at the time, North Park was short on drivers and having drivers do a tripper and a full run. So twice, I got a tripper on Western and a 36/N201 combi that was supposed to pull out. But the tripper off 49 was due in after the 36 piece was due out, so clerk says don't pull in but go straight from Berwyn to Clark and Arthur. So did that, made a 36 to Desplaines and back to Arthur, then up to Howard to do N201. 

My main point is that I don't think CTA plans to send any Novas to North Park for the foreseeable future .  It makes more sense to keep that garage all New Flyer.  

[YoungBusLover]

Getting back on track, I forgot to mention this last week but #8691 was about to be shipped out and surely enough today it has popped up at C.