Academy/Pace operations.....

[RJL6000]

Anyway, it says "Effective Monday, June 13, Routes 600, 606 & 616 weekday trips will be operated by Pace River and Northwest Divisions."

I took the 606 for the first time yesterday afternoon. It looks like some of the weekday trips are operated by Pace River Division (as evidenced by the 35-foot 6600-series NABIs that make up some of the buses on that route); in fact, I rode in one of the NABIs to Woodfield but caught a Pace Northwest Orion VI on my return trip. Today, on WebWatch, there are two buses on the 606 during midday - one River Division bus and one Northwest Division bus.

[Guest]

I took the 606 for the first time yesterday afternoon. It looks like some of the weekday trips are operated by Pace River Division (as evidenced by the 35-foot 6600-series NABIs that make up some of the buses on that route); in fact, I rode in one of the NABIs to Woodfield but caught a Pace Northwest Orion VI on my return trip. Today, on WebWatch, there are two buses on the 606 during midday - one River Division bus and one Northwest Division bus.

Thats exactly what happened when Pace cancelled their contract with Academy Coach back in late May. Originally it was assumed that Pace NW would assume operations of the three remaining Academy routes, but it turned out that Pace River Div. also has assisted in operations on that route as well.

[MVTArider]

I took the 606 for the first time yesterday afternoon. It looks like some of the weekday trips are operated by Pace River Division (as evidenced by the 35-foot 6600-series NABIs that make up some of the buses on that route); in fact, I rode in one of the NABIs to Woodfield but caught a Pace Northwest Orion VI on my return trip. Today, on WebWatch, there are two buses on the 606 during midday - one River Division bus and one Northwest Division bus.

Pretty much what I saw when I was riding to/from Rosemont CTA. Sad to see VIs on the 606:

(Also a few other recent photos are in this set if anyone is interested.)

[Busjack]

Pretty much what I saw when I was riding to/from Rosemont CTA. Sad to see VIs on the 606....

Not sure why it is sad. I thought it was more bizarre looking that they replaced Colonial's OTRs on 610 when Pace took over that route about 6 years ago.

However, if you look at the 208 video and pretty much from my experience in north suburbs away from where North Shore intrudes, about all you see are VIs, unless it is a NW route where Eldos predominate.

Also, I have the feeling that some here don't agree with River's usual ElDorados sometimes being seen on these routes.

[artthouwill]

It is down to the last week of contract work at Coach USA. My source tells me that Aries Charter is lining up to take over their work, but still no word if that is inclusive of Pace. I guess we will have to see if a Pace Passenger Notice comes up at the end of next week, similar to the one that announced the carrier change for the former Academy routes. The questions are would Pace allow another carrier such as Aries to do their work, and if so, would that carrier do it for the amount agreed upon between Pace and Keeshin/Coach USA. There hasn't been any RFPs on Pace's website, and Coach wants out of the contract for sure. But can they really get out of this one, considering they are just a year into the 5 year contract.

I remember when Greyhound had the contract for Rt 855. The buses they used had the Pace logo located near the Americruiser 2 lettering.

I tried to catch up with an 855 this week to no avail. It does look like Free Enterprise has one of Coach USA's former contracts and Aries has another. Yet Pace still lists Coach USA on their schedules as the carrier for 755 and 855.

[Busjack]

(Also a few other recent photos are in this set if anyone is interested.)

Your picture captioned 6187 is really 6157. The VIs only go to 6161.

[MVTArider]

Not sure why it is sad.

Should have been more specific, sad in the sense that it's a different era than when Academy operated the line, so CTA5750 is no longer driving it or other lines like he used to. (I know he enjoyed doing that, at least for a while.)

Your picture captioned 6187 is really 6157. The VIs only go to 6161.

Thanks, I'll change that :D

[Guest]

Im being teased or what??? This morning as I reported to my fire station, I spotted Pace NABI #6646 passing by my firehouse "Not In Service". I wondered what a Pace bus is doing in this part of the city where there is no service near. It was weird to see one of my old Academy buses driving past my fire station. :)

[Busjack]

Im being teased or what??? This morning as I reported to my fire station, I spotted Pace NABI #6646 passing by my firehouse "Not In Service". I wondered what a Pace bus is doing in this part of the city where there is no service near. It was weird to see one of my old Academy buses driving past my fire station.

Probably being delivered somewhere else from West, but one figures they would have used the expressway.

It would have been stranger if it had a real destination on it, such as 533 Aurora Premium Outlets Center.;)

[Busjack]

I don't have any idea if this is still the correct thread, but the Pace Minutes indicate all sorts of new routes that would presumably be created when and if the I-90 Tollway project begins.

Some of those are only feeders to the NWTC from Addison and Palatine (of course, 699 was canceled).

In that nothing has been approved yet, I wonder how much NW and River would be impacted by such changes.

[Guest]

I don't have any idea if this is still the correct thread, but the Pace Minutes indicate all sorts of new routes that would presumably be created when and if the I-90 Tollway project begins.

Some of those are only feeders to the NWTC from Addison and Palatine (of course, 699 was canceled).

In that nothing has been approved yet, I wonder how much NW and River would be impacted by such changes.

Well with Academy gone, I assure you that Colonial Coach will have no part in this expansion project. It could be contracted out to Coach USA, Cook County, First Student or another private coach company. Id like to see Mid America in Elk Grove Village bid on a Pace contract. Colonial will have no chance, their relationship with Pace has been eliminated, Im sure for good!.

[Busjack]

Well with Academy gone, I assure you that Colonial Coach will have no part in this expansion project. It could be contracted out to Coach USA, Cook County, First Student or another private coach company. Id like to see Mid America in Elk Grove Village bid on a Pace contract. Colonial will have no chance, their relationship with Pace has been eliminated, Im sure for good!.

Given that at this point what was in the minutes was purely hypothetical....

...I'm not even convinced that this would be contracted out. Since they mention CMAQ, it could be like 580-582, and 636, 637, and 714, which were CMAQ routes, but were operated by the divisions.

As seems usual for most CMAQ routes, they lasted three years, didn't develop ridership, and all except 714 were canceled. Pace kept going back to DuPage County to pay for 714.

As far as Coach USA, there was what art said about them (apparently Keeshin Charter Service/Coach USA Chicago have dropped off the web). Mid America once had the 855, which then when to Colonial, which then went to Keeshin.

I probably mentioned before that the only successful CMAQ, of which I am aware, is 272, which, of course is run by NW and N.

One could even speculate that the procurement of OTRs could be reopened, if anything came to pass. The Addison-NWTC and Palatine-NWTC would undoubtedly be conventional buses, anyway.

[Tcmetro]

Well, I thought I would add a little to this thread, because I was in Chicago recently, and used the 606 bus a lot.

1. Put an automated gate in at the Rosemont bus exit on the tollway. It's ridiculous that the driver has to manually open the gate.

2. The Orion VI I rode was very leaky in the rain. Nearly 10 seats were being rained on. :angry:

[twyztdmynd]

Well, I thought I would add a little to this thread, because I was in Chicago recently, and used the 606 bus a lot.

1. Put an automated gate in at the Rosemont bus exit on the tollway. It's ridiculous that the driver has to manually open the gate.

2. The Orion VI I rode was very leaky in the rain. Nearly 10 seats were being rained on.

1. That's the decision of IDOT. Been that way forever. I'm sure PACE would do it if they could.

2. The Orion VI in from PACE Northwest division. To my knowledge, Academy no longer handles PACE routes.

See RJL6000's post 20 July 2011 - 12:25 PM

[artthouwill]

1. That's the decision of IDOT. Been that way forever. I'm sure PACE would do it if they could.

2. The Orion VI in from PACE Northwest division. To my knowledge, Academy no longer handles PACE routes.

See RJL6000's post 20 July 2011 - 12:25 PM

It is actually the Illinois Tollway that makes the decision concerning that gate, not IDOT. They allow Pace to use the service road to directly serve the Rosemont station provided Pace driver manually ipen and close the gate. Otherwise you wind up adding an extra mile to the trip by using what we used to call the O'Hare Cutoff, which was the O'Hare exit from I,90, then exit at Mannheim south, the enter I-190 easr to River Rd North to the station.

[MetroShadow]

Well, I thought I would add a little to this thread, because I was in Chicago recently, and used the 606 bus a lot.

1. Put an automated gate in at the Rosemont bus exit on the tollway. It's ridiculous that the driver has to manually open the gate.

2. The Orion VI I rode was very leaky in the rain. Nearly 10 seats were being rained on.

1. I think, even when Keeshin had operations, the second gate automatically opens and shuts. The first (iron) gate was always like that.

2. Northwest assumed operations last year (first weekend service then 7 day operations), henceforth the O6's (and their leaky roofs).

[twyztdmynd]

1. I think, even when Keeshin had operations, the second gate automatically opens and shuts. The first (iron) gate was always like that.

Was like that when I drove 610 for Colonial. After opening/closing manual gate (a @#$%& when it rained or snowed) you had to go to a keypad and enter a code. Then make the wide left swing into CTA. Was ok for 40' coaches and decent with 45' coaches unless you had one without a turning tag axle. Also entering the code was a pain if you had a MCI with a mini toll window. Still was a great route to drive.

[artthouwill]

Checking the Illinois Secretary of State site, it seems that Colonial and its sister (brother) company Pioneer are both out of business. The other day I noticed a coach bus running around the Medical District. It was operated by Alexis ( a small coach bus company, but the bus was clearly an older Colonial coach with the same livery as Colonial, but with the Colonial name being replaced.

The Colonial website is still up and running as well as its bus sales website, though it doesn't appear to have been updated in a couple of years..

[Busjack]

Checking the Illinois Secretary of State site, it seems that Colonial and its sister (brother) company Pioneer are both out of business. The other day I noticed a coach bus running around the Medical District. It was operated by Alexis ( a small coach bus company, but the bus was clearly an older Colonial coach with the same livery as Colonial, but with the Colonial name being replaced.

The Colonial website is still up and running as well as its bus sales website, though it doesn't appear to have been updated in a couple of years..

I saw an Alexis bus yesterday, but too dark to see what it was.

One source gives the same address as Colonial (but area code 708 is either old or wrong); another has a different one in an office building near O'Hare.

[artthouwill]

I saw an Alexis bus yesterday, but too dark to see what it was.

One source gives the same address as Colonial (but area code 708 is either old or wrong); another has a different one in an office building near O'Hare.

To take that even further, the listed President for Alexis is Rocky Ceravolo. The last names of the presidents for both Pioneer and Colonial are Ceravolo (Orazio and Jerome, respectively). IIRC, the original Alexis company was located south. Perhaps the brothers bought Alexis around 2011 (around the time their companies were falling?). In any way, an interesting turn of events.

[BusHunter]

Maybe something was wrong at Colonial like they couldn't maintain the fleet, or couldn't keep the books in the positive, and they switched names of companies. Workers there have complained of not getting paid for months at a time. Probably when they lost the Pace contract that was a big loss. It's like a meat contractor losing a contract for McD's. Maybe they downsized. Doesn't sound like the greatest place to work.

[busfan2847]

I saw an Alexis bus yesterday, but too dark to see what it was.

One source gives the same address as Colonial (but area code 708 is either old or wrong); another has a different one in an office building near O'Hare.

Alexis has been using Orions and coaches on the Cook County Shuttle. A number of the vehicles are the Colonial ones with Alexis fleetnames over the Colonial ones.

Last Wednesday they were using former Fairfax Connector Orion V 7856 on the route

[Busjack]

Alexis has been using Orions and coaches on the Cook County Shuttle. A number of the vehicles are the Colonial ones with Alexis fleetnames over the Colonial ones.

Last Wednesday they were using former Fairfax Connector Orion V 7856 on the route

Although it was nowhere near Cook County Hospital, the rear of the bus sort of looked like an Orion. But, as I mentioned, it was too dark to tell.

[twyztdmynd]

Alexis was acquired shortly after Colonial's take over of Keeshin Ohare. Things were very different then. Sources on $$$ first and foremost were Pace. Primarily 610 and subscription routes. After 9/11, staffing at Prairie Stone (SEARS) plummeted. 5 sub routes became 1 (1012). After Pace cleaned P. Stone.... Colonial inherited 606, 616, 696, 699 and 855. All services were transferred to other PACE operations when Colonial has difficulties with payroll. Colonial also had Educational Tours, Continental Airport express (McCormick Shuttles and Airport express) and Chicago Sports. After a costly investment in Setra, the company sold most newer equipment keeping older but decent maintained buses. And Rumors (YES BJ, RUMORS !) that funding was coming in from family. All this changed with in 7 years. In time, after the death of Bob Thomas... driver super.... the sighting of the 'brothers' became scarce, They were great guys to work for... when they were there. I will miss the company.. especially Jerry literally ripping my CB out of the dash cause I talked to much. Gotta say not bad for a couple of drivers that started their careers at American Sightseeing.

[twyztdmynd]

I saw an Alexis bus yesterday, but too dark to see what it was.

One source gives the same address as Colonial (but area code 708 is either old or wrong); another has a different one in an office building near O'Hare.

Colonial/Pioneer bus barn was on James in Mount Prospect. Back in 99-03 when I was there it was on Wille road in Mount Prospect. Offices for Pioneer was Harlem and Foster and Colonial was at Harlem and Avondale.