And You Thought CTA Had Bus Bunching !

[trainman8119]

Imagine my surprise when I got off the Kennedy at River Road at 8:00 pm and saw not one, not two, but three 606's pull out of the River Road Terminal. The first (2292) had a sign for Schaumburg, the second (2302) had a sign for Schaumburg TC and the third (2372) had a sign for Corporate Center. The first bus was empty, but the second 2 had passengers on them, so I don't think this was a case of someone headed to the garage. All made the turn onto Higgins westbound off of River and went off into the sunset. In all cases, the destination signs were so bad and unreadable, it made me think of the old CTA 4000's. This really caught me off guard !!!!!

[Guest]

Imagine my surprise when I got off the Kennedy at River Road at 8:00 pm and saw not one, not two, but three 606's pull out of the River Road Terminal. The first (2292) had a sign for Schaumburg, the second (2302) had a sign for Schaumburg TC and the third (2372) had a sign for Corporate Center. The first bus was empty, but the second 2 had passengers on them, so I don't think this was a case of someone headed to the garage. All made the turn onto Higgins westbound off of River and went off into the sunset. In all cases, the destination signs were so bad and unreadable, it made me think of the old CTA 4000's. This really caught me off guard !!!!!

Yes, believe it or not it happens on Pace too. Particularly on the 606 it happens quite often. Ive worked Run #43 on the 606 and its a worker!. You have no time to make it to Corp Ctr. because you still have to make the Woodfield trip which takes time away. Especially if you have a slow bus, its a headache. One bus in particular Orion #2300, It wont accelerate very well. Also the biggest headache is the traffic backup on I-90 EB or WB, that will really mess up the schedule. One other thing at Woodfield youll get a lot of "Are you going to Rosemont?" questions. When it clearly states on the front and side signs! "606 Rosemont CTA"

[Busjack]

Also the biggest headache is the traffic backup on I-90 EB or WB, that will really mess up the schedule.

I am starting to really doubt whether the Tollway should be used by an "express bus." I believe that one of the things that killed the 636 (Rosemont to Lake Cook) was that the bus got stuck in traffic and what should have been a 15 or 20 minute trip became a 45 minute to an hour one; thus, it couldn't attract any passengers. Also, I don't see the point of Route 606 getting on the Tollway at Elmhurst Road for the short trip that forces it to go through the River Road Toll Plaza (at least Pace doesn't have to pay any more).

Unless the Tollway builds dedicated bus lanes, I really don't see the kind of routes 5750 drives working.

One other thing at Woodfield youll get a lot of "Are you going to Rosemont?" questions. When it clearly states on the front and side signs! "606 Rosemont CTA"

Don't you also have Miss IBS saying where the bus is going? There is, of course, the question that buses going both ways stop at Woodfield, and the chance that the IBS does not flip the sign (I have seen southbound 422s displaying Northbrook Court, which would be confusing when both the inbound and outbound buses share the downtown Glenview loop and the same stop at Old Orchard), so the riders might not be that dumb. I'm surprised that the original signs in the 2300s generally aren't broken by now.

[pace2322]

Come down and watch the 352. Some bad days if we get trains there is 5 to 7 352 leaveing 95th at onetime.

[Busjack]

Come down and watch the 352. Some bad days if we get trains there is 5 to 7 352 leaveing [sic] 95th at onetime [sic].

I believe it, especially with all the railroad crossings in the south suburbs. However, since all the buses have IBS and Pace has demonstrated the ability to get real time data, don't the supervisors have strategies to correct the problem (of course, short of going through the crossing)? 352 is one of the Pace routes with sufficiently short headways that some strategy might work there.

[pace2322]

There dont care how late we are. The supervisors tell us to run it late. If we go and miss the trip we are late on there have to call rta. Then it looks bad the the buses are missing trips. There are alot of runs at south that pay 10 hours and u will not get out of the seat for 10 hours.

[trainman8119]

There dont care how late we are. The supervisors tell us to run it late. If we go and miss the trip we are late on there have to call rta. Then it looks bad the the buses are missing trips. There are alot of runs at south that pay 10 hours and u will not get out of the seat for 10 hours.

I can back that statement. Don't ever miss a trip. Late doesn't matter, and it never did. Pace also has no provisions for short turns. I do believe, in their vocabulary, a short turn is as good as a missed trip. They have to do the whole thing or it is as if the trip never existed. This is unlike Metra, who will fudge every late train and create a way to make it on time (such as putting a train on a "construction schedule" even when there is no construction !!!). With Pace, all that is cared about is that the trip is made and completed no matter how long it takes.

[Busjack]

So, I guess the answer is that Pace hasn't figured out how to use the IBS for service control. I guess that reinforces those who don't believe that CTA will figure out how to use Bustracker.

[trainman8119]

I don't know if Pace would even try figure it out or not, but it does show that investing in something like that for them is a big time waste of money. Other than tracking where a bus is, they have no use for it...and if they will not make run adjustments along the way, why bother tracking ???? I guess just a child's need for toys.

[Busjack]

Maybe the only difference is that Pace got everything (announcements, emergency communication, passenger count, and interactive tracking) with IBS, while CTA bought all of those components separately.

[pace2322]

U know why pace has the ibs. To Spy on there drivers that all there care about. There do not care how late we are. Look on time on the 352 i was so late the ibs went to my next trip. Then it toled me i was + 20 and yea there call me up. There ask me was i was + 20 i told them i am not. I am am -140 lol.

[Busjack]

And, in the meantime, both bleep the passengers. And you wonder why there isn't that much popular support to bail out either CTA and Pace being exerted on the legislature.

[BusExpert32]

There are many scenarios in which Pace buses can get bunched up. Such as in the 270 and 290 routes. During rush hour the buses run every ten minutes. In some cases one bus is late and is directly behind or in front of the bus that is on time during the whole route. At another time all the buses could be exactly on schedule but the disasterous traffic screws everything up. This shows that you can't always blame the bus drivers for every late bus and bus bunching.

Secondly, sometimes a bus is headed to the garage or is just not in service at the time, but people assume that there is bus bunching (along a street that has bus service) when there is not. This can be assumed when there is a broken destination sign, a wrong destination sign, exc. So you can't assume bus bunching just because you see a bus. You would have to investigate the situation.