O'Hare Shuttle Buses

[pokemonprime]

Delaware Car Rental operates shuttle buses at O'Hare between the economy parking lots and the MMF; it appears this was once split between Delaware and Continental Air Transport, but it appears the latter has dropped out and handed their service to Delaware, including the buses. Delaware has some ElDorados that were delivered to them new, but the majority of the fleet are secondhand from various other operators.

I've only ridden in two of Delaware's ElDorados, #3 and #25. #3 is one of the batch delivered new in 2008, and CPTDB Wiki claims #25 is secondhand but doesn't say from who, though this would track as it carries a plain white paint scheme compared to the Chicago flag livery carried by #1-#14, and #25 has different seating than #3 (#25 has cloth seats, while #3 has hard plastic). Both have similar configurations- a large luggage rack with standing room only on the low floor portion, with a few seats in the raised portion in the rear. #3 has a few seats in the front by the driver, on the left side.

Aside from #1-#14, the rest are secondhand. I'll include what I managed to take photos of here, along with what information I've gleaned.

1, 3, 9, and 10 are 35 foot EZ Rider II MAX, new to the service in 2008.

Two mysteries in plain white; 25 is another 35 foot EZ Rider II MAX, but of unknown history, and 52 is a 40' Gillig BRT of similarly unknown past. Delaware has two more Gillig BRTs from Metro Transit (Minnesota) and Utah Transit Authority (50 and 51, respectively)

44 and 45 were originally operated by Continental Air Transport, but now say they're operated by Delaware. They're both ElDorado Arrivos from the University of Southern California. They're both in original livery with only minor modifications.

47 is ex-Detroit Metro Airport Shuttle, 53 is ex-Boston College Campus Shuttle, and 55 is ex-Norwalk Transit. All three carry their original liveries with the only modifications being the crude removal of the original company's name.

I also got this photo of a bus storage area, on the edge of Economy Lot G. 42 is ex-Intercity Transit (un-repainted), and was another bus formerly operated by Continental. 

 

[Busjack]

1. I guess the old, white New Flyers, used when the People Mover was out of service, are gone.
2. The fronts and rears look like ENCs, but the side windows don't (but I might have confused an EZ Rider with an Axxess).

[artthouwill]

If I recall correctly,  Continental Air Transport was contracted by the ATS .  When the people mover shut down,  service between the terminals was initially handled with CTA buses from FG and NP (NP provided artics) while Delaware provided service from the remote lots to the terminals.  Continental then took over the terminal only service.   When the people mover started operating with the new cars, the all terminal shuttle ( operated by Continental) and the terminal to parking lot service ( operated by Delaware) were kept intact while making sure the new ATS cars didn't have any more operational issues.   

Eventually the MMF opened and Continental still operated from the MMF to the airport,  but the Delaware operation scaled back to operate between the remote lots and the MMF.

Continental buses were parked along the Balmoral exit ramp on the east side of Manheim Rd.   They initially had to send some of their buses from Midway  to help with the service as Continental also had the Midway contract for their remote parking lots ( as a joint venture with Cook County School Bus).