8350-series Nova LFS - Updates

[NovaBusFan]

On 8/23/2021 at 12:56 PM, NewFlyerMCI said:

I was in NYC on Saturday, this is a clearer look of what the 8350s will look like w/o the front roof cap, since I realized all the pictures are thru fences 

Only if that Nova in these two photos didn’t have hopper windows like the #8325s and #8350s then that’ll match ours lol.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1 hour ago, NovaBusFan said:

Only if that Nova in these two photos didn’t have hopper windows like the #8325s and #8350s then that’ll match ours lol.

Honestly I think there’s no hopper windows and tinted windows to keep the bus cooler inside during the summer like it was in 8348 the other day it feels colder at 2 years old, 8248 felt the same coldness when I rode it a few weeks ago but it seemed colder at 5 years old the air conditioner needed time probably to break in

[NovaBusFan]

8 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Honestly I think there’s no hopper windows and tinted windows to keep the bus cooler inside during the summer like it was in 8348 the other day it feels colder at 2 years old, 8248 felt the same coldness when I rode it a few weeks ago but it seemed colder at 5 years old the air conditioner needed time probably to break in

Yeah sometimes we may never know how AC works on some buses. I remember back in 2017 I rode some of the D40LF units and majority of them had some good AC. #1299 was the best out of 77th with the AC when it was 10.5 years old & #1599 & #1700 had some good cold AC when I rode them out of Kedzie when they were 9/10 years old 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1 minute ago, NovaBusFan said:

Yeah sometimes we may never know how AC works on some buses. I remember back in 2017 I rode some of the D40LF units and majority of them had some good AC. #1299 was the best out of 77th with the AC when it was 10.5 years old & #1599 & #1700 had some good cold AC when I rode them out of Kedzie when they were 9/10 years old 

Oh cool when I rode 1352 earlier this year when the driver had the loud heating and air conditioning down to me it felt cooler somehow also when I rode 1388. To me when the air conditioning is quiet it’s feels better. Wish I rode 1599 when I was able to but got kicked off after she said she was going up to north avenue on Harlem.

[NovaBusFan]

3 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Oh cool when I rode 1352 earlier this year when the driver had the loud heating and air conditioning down to me it felt cooler somehow also when I rode 1388. To me when the air conditioning is quiet it’s feels better. Wish I rode 1599 when I was able to but got kicked off after she said she was going up to north avenue on Harlem.

Wow

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1 minute ago, NovaBusFan said:

Wow

Ye to me it feels cooler with the ac off since it sometimes hurts my ears when I record and barely able to hear the engine 

[geneking7320]

Can someone explain why the 79XX Nova's have roof caps and the 835X Nova's do not?

[Policeman]

10 minutes ago, geneking7320 said:

Can someone explain why the 79XX Nova's have roof caps and the 835X Nova's do not?

Different HVAC manufacturers i think

[NovaBusFan]

23 hours ago, geneking7320 said:

Can someone explain why the 79XX Nova's have roof caps and the 835X Nova's do not?

It’s a upgraded 2021 version most likely, I like how #8350 looks and the rest of the fleet in this new bus order that is coming soon that will look like what #8350 has, it looks better than the previous version that the #7900s and #8325s have. It reminds me of when #7955 was missing the front fro when it was ripped but they’ve fixed #7955 and it looks like a updated #6400 at the same time lol. The new Novas that were delivered to MTA this year also  has that same feature as #8350 shown in these two photos.

[WCR]

Anyone determine if 8350 has a rear window?

[Policeman]

41 minutes ago, WCR said:

Anyone determine if 8350 has a rear window?

It doesn't 

[WCR]

12 hours ago, Policeman said:

It doesn't 

Ah ok, thanks. Wonder why they decided to do away with that feature starting with the 8325s. It was one feature I always liked about the novas. I wonder if it was even an option to have no rear window on the Proterras.

[jajuan]

On 8/14/2021 at 3:08 PM, ChicagoNova said:

I just thought about this now: I would like to see North Park & Forest Glen garages totally filled with nothing but Novas, both 60' & 40' for North Park & 40' for Forest Glen. I'm saying this now because I'm about to move to the north side.

This North sider says absolutely not. Keep it at a mix like it is now. It's already annoying that Dorval Carter went with Nova yet again instead of mixing things up for once and going for Xcelsiors truly being bold and mixing it up with the 40 foot fleet for once. Instead, he's basically trading one huge batch of monotony for another. So while the NF D40's are still here, let's keep the the different sections of the city at a good mix like it is now while it it's still possible and not encourage CTA management's serious lack of imagination when it comes to the bus fleet.

[jajuan]

14 hours ago, WCR said:

Anyone determine if 8350 has a rear window?

 

13 hours ago, Policeman said:

It doesn't 

Yeah per CTA's own mention in the contract announcement that the order of what we now know will be the 8350s will be similar to the most recent Novas before that contract award, there were not going to have rear windows. 

[BusHunter]

19 minutes ago, jajuan said:

This North sider says absolutely not. Keep it at a mix like it is now. It's already annoying that Dorval Carter went with Nova yet again instead of mixing things up for once and going for Xcelsiors truly being bold and mixing it up with the 40 foot fleet for once. Instead, he's basically trading one huge batch of monotony for another. So while the NF D40's are still here, let's keep the the different sections of the city at a good mix like it is now while it it's still possible and not encourage CTA management's serious lack of imagination when it comes to the bus fleet.

There will be lots of novas if they exercise the options for up to 600. 400 NFs will be hard to spread around too much. Someone will probably end up all nova. Wont be chicago garage and NP doesnt have to worry it will have artic NFs for the foreseeable future. Possibly Fg and 74th could become all nova but usually fg gets the oldest buses unless they got all 7900s I dont see that happening.

[jajuan]

36 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

There will be lots of novas if they exercise the options for up to 600. 400 NFs will be hard to spread around too much. Someone will probably end up all nova. Wont be chicago garage and NP doesnt have to worry it will have artic NFs for the foreseeable future. Possibly Fg and 74th could become all nova but usually fg gets the oldest buses unless they got all 7900s I dont see that happening.

And given how long it takes CTA to exercise contract options, it can take up to a couple of years at least to get to that point. My point is what's the rush especially when NP at that moment is not hurting from falling apart buses? Let everyone in the different regions enjoy a relative mix as exists now before we go back to a relative monotony as brought on before when all 1000-plus NF standards were on hand. 

[Mr.cta85]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

This North sider says absolutely not. Keep it at a mix like it is now. It's already annoying that Dorval Carter went with Nova yet again instead of mixing things up for once and going for Xcelsiors truly being bold and mixing it up with the 40 foot fleet for once. Instead, he's basically trading one huge batch of monotony for another. So while the NF D40's are still here, let's keep the the different sections of the city at a good mix like it is now while it it's still possible and not encourage CTA management's serious lack of imagination when it comes to the bus fleet.

I couldn’t have said it better ??????.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

And given how long it takes CTA to exercise contract options, it can take up to a couple of years at least to get to that point. My point is what's the rush especially when NP at that moment is not hurting from falling apart buses? Let everyone in the different regions enjoy a relative mix as exists now before we go back to a relative monotony as brought on before when all 1000-plus NF standards were on hand. 

O know monotony.   When I was in the Twin Cities,  all of Metro's 40' buses were Gillig Phantoms.   If you wanted to ride something else,  you had to catch a route that ran with New Flyer artics or ride a suburban bus from MVTA or SW Transit.

NYC has a good mix even though Novas are manufactured in NY state.   They learned their lesson when MTA appeared to be headed all in on the Grunman Flxibles back in the 1980s.  The cracked frames that popped up put them in a bad spot and they had to order RTS Zbuses which eventually became a stable in their fleet.  Notice now they have Novas and New Flyers.  Even for their Select service, they have MCI and Prevost coaches.   Even the artics are Nocas AND New Flyers.  They have electric and CNG.

I think CTA'S most diverse fleet was in the mid to late 1980s  with Flx 3500s and 3700s, GMC 1000s, 7400s, 9000s and 9600s, Flyer 9800d and 1600s. NAN ZArtics 7000 - 7019, 7100s and Man Americanas 4000s.  

[NovaBusFan]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

There will be lots of novas if they exercise the options for up to 600. 400 NFs will be hard to spread around too much. Someone will probably end up all nova. Wont be chicago garage and NP doesnt have to worry it will have artic NFs for the foreseeable future. Possibly Fg and 74th could become all nova but usually fg gets the oldest buses unless they got all 7900s I dont see that happening.

Yeah since there is a second rehab for only the remaining 430 of the #1000s circa 2008 and 2009, there isn’t really going to be enough that is left after the first half of the fleet is retired. It seems like two or three garages will have them.

[NovaBusFan]

4 hours ago, WCR said:

Ah ok, thanks. Wonder why they decided to do away with that feature starting with the 8325s. It was one feature I always liked about the novas. I wonder if it was even an option to have no rear window on the Proterras.

At this point all of the Proterras will have rear windows.

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, NovaBusFan said:

Yeah since there is a second rehab for only the remaining 430 of the #1000s circa 2008 and 2009, there isn’t really going to be enough that is left after the first half of the fleet is retired. It seems like two or three garages will have them.

It's going to be hard anyway taking this delivery which will last up to 2026. Nova delivers so slow. Can you imagine 18 year old NFs? Well the final 400 will be just that and they have the artics that will need replacing.  They will be 17 years old. I see them behind the 8 ball around that time. The only way they are really gonna come out ahead is do a bus order while receiving the tail end of the nova options. They almost would have to order nfs but if they did electric artics nf is the only manufacturer besides byd. If they ordered more novas how would they fill both orders. That would be taking 2 steps forward 3 steps back. 

[YoungBusLover]

2 hours ago, NovaBusFan said:

Yeah since there is a second rehab for only the remaining 430 of the #1000s circa 2008 and 2009, there isn’t really going to be enough that is left after the first half of the fleet is retired. It seems like two or three garages will have them.

I don't think the last 430 will get rehabbed, it may be hard to believe but I think the best equipment will get rehabbed from the 06-09 circa. 

[NovaBusFan]

26 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

I don't think the last 430 will get rehabbed, it may be hard to believe but I think the best equipment will get rehabbed from the 06-09 circa. 

Yeah I was having a hard time believing what will get rehabbed some of the older ones have low mileage I believe 

[NewFlyerMCI]

19 hours ago, jajuan said:

This North sider says absolutely not. Keep it at a mix like it is now. It's already annoying that Dorval Carter went with Nova yet again instead of mixing things up for once and going for Xcelsiors truly being bold and mixing it up with the 40 foot fleet for once. Instead, he's basically trading one huge batch of monotony for another. So while the NF D40's are still here, let's keep the the different sections of the city at a good mix like it is now while it it's still possible and not encourage CTA management's serious lack of imagination when it comes to the bus fleet.

I think CTA might be the last big agency not to have any significant numbers of Xcelsiors lol. I thought they would be the natural choice to replace the shoeboxes once it was their time to go, since they're basically the evolution of that, but I guess not lol. I thought CTA's fleet would look like a bigger version of Baltimore's by now

[BusHunter]

49 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I think CTA might be the last big agency not to have any significant numbers of Xcelsiors lol. I thought they would be the natural choice to replace the shoeboxes once it was their time to go, since they're basically the evolution of that, but I guess not lol. I thought CTA's fleet would look like a bigger version of Baltimore's by now

I bet cta will have a nova fleet that rivals the eastern Canadian operators or maybe the MTA. 

We will just have to enjoy the Pace Xcelsiors. I would have never thought they would have more Xcelsiors than CTA but it's the new age. Seems Pace west always gets the oddball equipment. If it's not Ikarus' its grummans!!