Old Bus Assignments (1990-1994)

[Busjack]

Wait, if the southwest side express routes ran articulateds, how would all routes be covered by Archer's 35 articulateds?

It depends on how you define "all." But I do remember seeing articulateds on 99 and 164. However, I can't pin down time periods. Also, I'll bet that no one now has internal schedules to prove how many runs that involved (I'll stand corrected if someone does).

[jajuan]

Wait, if the southwest side express routes ran articulateds, how would all routes be covered by Archer's 35 articulateds?

As I remember, when Archer still had articulated buses, they were mainly used for express runs that operated on the Stevenson Expressway: 99, 99M, 162, and 164. You might have seen them sometimes for the 62 express runs, but you mostly saw the on the runs I mentioned above. You rarely saw them on the other Archer routes. It's similar to how North Park and 103rd operated their articulateds in those days and how they're operated today. Run the arcticulateds on your more heavily operated express runs and use the 40 footers mainly for your local runs, ie NABIs for 6, 14, 145, 146, 147, 148, and TMCs or other 40 footers for the local routes. A few exceptions seen are NABIs from Kedzie on local routes 52, 82, and 156. 156 is operated by NABIs for most of its runs because it's so heavily traveled. You would see them mainly during rush hours on the other two especially 82 because there are so many more passengers during those times. Also with 52, NABIs are sometimes popular for southbound school trips from the high school (Marshall) that's just north of Kedzie garage

[Danielsmusic]

As I remember, when Archer still had articulated buses, they were mainly used for express runs that operated on the Stevenson Expressway: 99, 99M, 162, and 164. You might have seen them sometimes for the 62 express runs, but you mostly saw the on the runs I mentioned above. You rarely saw them on the other Archer routes. It's similar to how North Park and 103rd operated their articulateds in those days and how they're operated today. Run the arcticulateds on your more heavily operated express runs and use the 40 footers mainly for your local runs, ie NABIs for 6, 14, 145, 146, 147, 148, and TMCs or other 40 footers for the local routes. A few exceptions seen are NABIs from Kedzie on local routes 52, 82, and 156. 156 is operated by NABIs for most of its runs because it's so heavily traveled. You would see them mainly during rush hours on the other two especially 82 because there are so many more passengers during those times. Also with 52, NABIs are sometimes popular for southbound school trips from the high school (Marshall) that's just north of Kedzie garage

Three things:

One, I see a number of articulated buses on the 2, 26, X28, 106 (in the early morning), 134, 135, and 151 daily; the artics certainly are not limited to the 6, 14, 145, 146, 147, and 148.

Two, I thought garage assignments, at least out of 103rd, were pretty random. So, how would CTA really control which routes receive articulateds daily?

Three, all that said, how would 35 articulateds cover four (or five) routes? Did the 99, 99M, 162, and 164 (and maybe 62X) run in peak direction only?

[rmadisonwi]

Each pullout has a designated bus type, but it only indicates the size. The exact series of bus (Flxible, New Flyer, Nova, etc.) is up to the garage staff to assign, based on what's available, what the maintenance needs are, etc. If bus availability is low, then it becomes a matter of just taking whatever is available, regardless of capacity.

The poor quality NABI artics lend to a greater difficulty in assigning to specifically designated runs, because they break down so often that one may not be available when an artic is scheduled to go out, in which case a 40-footer will go in its place. Then, a bus may be fixed, and if the garage runs low on 40-footers (because they had to cover for all of the broken artics), then an artic might wind up on a 40-foot run. Occasionally, an artic might be assigned to a 40-foot run (or vice versa) because the operator pulling out the bus requests it, but that's not "supposed" to happen.

[Danielsmusic]

Each pullout has a designated bus type, but it only indicates the size. The exact series of bus (Flxible, New Flyer, Nova, etc.) is up to the garage staff to assign, based on what's available, what the maintenance needs are, etc. If bus availability is low, then it becomes a matter of just taking whatever is available, regardless of capacity.

The poor quality NABI artics lend to a greater difficulty in assigning to specifically designated runs, because they break down so often that one may not be available when an artic is scheduled to go out, in which case a 40-footer will go in its place. Then, a bus may be fixed, and if the garage runs low on 40-footers (because they had to cover for all of the broken artics), then an artic might wind up on a 40-foot run. Occasionally, an artic might be assigned to a 40-foot run (or vice versa) because the operator pulling out the bus requests it, but that's not "supposed" to happen.

That makes sense. I have a question, though: Because artics are sometimes on the 26 and X28, does that mean that the 26 and X28 are supposed to have artics but can't always, or does it mean that the 26 and X28 only get artics when there aren't 40-footers?

[jajuan]

Three things:

One, I see a number of articulated buses on the 2, 26, X28, 106 (in the early morning), 134, 135, and 151 daily; the artics certainly are not limited to the 6, 14, 145, 146, 147, and 148.

Two, I thought garage assignments, at least out of 103rd, were pretty random. So, how would CTA really control which routes receive articulateds daily?

Three, all that said, how would 35 articulateds cover four (or five) routes? Did the 99, 99M, 162, and 164 (and maybe 62X) run in peak direction only?

Before the orange line, 99M and 162 yes. 99 and 164 ran AM thru PM rush with the entrance and exit point to the Stevenson determined by time of day. Cicero was entrance or exit in peak direction and all other trips entrance or exits were at Pulaski. (Buses entered at Cicero in AM and exited Cicero in PM). 62X was Monday through Sat AM through midevening. And not all trips on these routes were Artics as noted in previous posts. 62X was at least half 40 footers if not more. Thats how 35 Artics served these routes. Just like 40 to 50 Artics don't completely cover all the express runs in North Park or 103rd. 40 footers are mixed in there. I thought that point would have been clear to you.

[jajuan]

That makes sense. I have a question, though: Because artics are sometimes on the 26 and X28, does that mean that the 26 and X28 are supposed to have artics but can't always, or does it mean that the 26 and X28 only get artics when there aren't 40-footers?

Not necessarily. 26 might need Arctics on some trips but X28 doesn't really get as many passengers to really need too many Arctics. And as has been said previously the NABIs have been breaking down so much that it would probably be too hard to put that many on anyway. Plus for your point of seeing Arctics on other routes, I wasn't saying Artics only ran on the routes I listed. I was using those as examples of heavier used express routes than the others in those garages thus needing the longer more spacious Arctics.

[Danielsmusic]

Before the orange line, 99M and 162 yes. 99 and 164 ran AM thru PM rush with the entrance and exit point to the Stevenson determined by time of day. Cicero was entrance or exit in peak direction and all other trips entrance or exits were at Pulaski. (Buses entered at Cicero in AM and exited Cicero in PM). 62X was Monday through Sat AM through midevening. And not all trips on these routes were Artics as noted in previous posts. 62X was at least half 40 footers if not more. Thats how 35 Artics served these routes. Just like 40 to 50 Artics don't completely cover all the express runs in North Park or 103rd. 40 footers are mixed in there. I thought that point would have been clear to you.

Thanks, this makes a lot more sense to me now.

[jajuan]

Thanks, this makes a lot more sense to me now.

Great just remember that the CTA of today is a lot different the the CTA of the early to mid 90s. For one there are a lot more Arctics today than there were then so how they get assigned to express runs today may be a little different to how they got assigned then. Just because there were arctics assigned to a route back then doesn't mean that those routes were run by nothing but artics. That being said, in today's CTA, not all routes with Artics are run by nothing but all artics. You'll still see 40 footers on those routes based on time of day, day of the week, and availability at the time the run is needed as noted in previous posts. That's why you also artics on less traveled or peak direction express routes and on some locals routes from that same garage.

[Busjack]

Great just remember that the CTA of today is a lot different the the CTA of the early to mid 90s. For one there are a lot more Arctics today than there were then so how they get assigned to express runs today may be a little different to how they got assigned then.

At the peak there were 145 MAN artics (20 of the earlier AM General/MANs, and 125 of the later ones). Based on that perspective, basically mostly all of the NABIs originally assigned to Kedzie and 77th can be considered a new application. Even 6 Jackson Park Express was run with 40 footers (I remember mostly Novas, although there were some 5300s) until 103rd got its NABIs, and some better MANs were sent to 77th for a short while. One also has to remember that both the North and South Lake Shore Drive restructurings affected the current layout of the express routes (i.e. prior to that time, the only express route on the south side with articulated buses was Jeffery, split between 6 Jeffery Express, entering LSD at 47th, and 14 as it is now, but sharing Jeffery).

A map I have from 1984 says that there was midday service on 99 and 164, which concurs with with what jajuan says. I also remember the mostly red destination signs saying either via Pulaski or via Cicero, but didn't know that there was a pattern to them.

[jajuan]

At the peak there were 145 MAN artics (20 of the earlier AM General/MANs, and 125 of the later ones). Based on that perspective, basically mostly all of the NABIs originally assigned to Kedzie and 77th can be considered a new application. Even 6 Jackson Park Express was run with 40 footers (I remember mostly Novas, although there were some 5300s) until 103rd got its NABIs, and some better MANs were sent to 77th for a short while. One also has to remember that both the North and South Lake Shore Drive restructurings affected the current layout of the express routes (i.e. prior to that time, the only express route on the south side with articulated buses was Jeffery, split between 6 Jeffery Express, entering LSD at 47th, and 14 as it is now, but sharing Jeffery).

A map I have from 1984 says that there was midday service on 99 and 164, which concurs with with what jajuan says. I also remember the mostly red destination signs saying either via Pulaski or via Cicero, but didn't know that there was a pattern to them.

Right and artics were mainly on 135, 136 and 147 on the north side, before the restructurings, and not as much on 145 and 146. Those mostly had Flyers on 145, then Americanas and TMCs when it was reassigned to North Park; and GMCs, Americanas, and later TMCs on 146.

And yes that was the pattern behind the 'via Pulaski' and 'via Cicero' on the destination signs on 99 and 164. Interesting enough, both still showed '99 via Cicero' and '164 via Cicero' after they became rush hour only and all trips began entering/exiting the Stevenson on the western end at Cicero only.

[BusHunter]

Does anybody remember a New Flyer demonstator bus that ran out of the old Lawndale Garage for about two months in I think it was the summer of 1992. It was in a two tone green livery ( old cta livery) and ran alot on the #21 Cermak route. I think it was a bus to commercialize New Flyer's new low floor concept at that time. In fact it said lo floor on the side of the bus at the top of it. I think this bus might have paved the way for the #5800 series purchase.

[Danielsmusic]

Does anybody remember a New Flyer demonstator bus that ran out of the old Lawndale Garage for about two months in I think it was the summer of 1992. It was in a two tone green livery ( old cta livery) and ran alot on the #21 Cermak route. I think it was a bus to commercialize New Flyer's new low floor concept at that time. In fact it said lo floor on the side of the bus at the top of it. I think this bus might have paved the way for the #5800 series purchase.

Sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm not sure.

[jajuan]

Sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm not sure.

Yes it's vaguely familiar to me as well. Maybe someone else maybe lucky enough to have snapped a picture of it at the time.

[Danielsmusic]

Yes it's vaguely familiar to me as well. Maybe someone else maybe lucky enough to have snapped a picture of it at the time.

I don't think so. People don't seem to want to share their pictures on this website.

[Danielsmusic]

If some were lucky if waiting for a 70 Division during the 1990s, they might run across a bus stop sign that referenced it's former owl service from the 80s that operated between Clark/Walton and California/Division.

I noticed that a few of the signs on the 8 have had their stickers taken off. What's under the stickers reads, "Service at all times. Every half hour overnight."

[jajuan]

I noticed that a few of the signs on the 8 have had their stickers taken off. What's under the stickers reads, "Service at all times. Every half hour overnight."

Shows CTA has to get better at not only replacing old L signs from the skip stop days, but also its bus stop signs from the days before the service reductions of '97-98. I never liked the use of those stickers placed over old signs to show service updates because of Daniel's given example.

[Danielsmusic]

I took a look at my Spring 1994 map (the one with the info about the World Cup), and I saw that, at least during the spring of 1994, there was a lot of service on the southwest side. Apparently, only the 45 was discontinued right away. What was left, though, was a lot of service:

• Orange Line
  
• 42 - not southwest, but downtown service replaced by Orange Line
  
• 44 - not southwest, but downtown service replaced by Orange Line
  
• 61
  
• 62
  
• 62A
  
• 62H
  
• 62N
  
• X62
  
• 63W
  
• 99
  
• 99M
  
• 162
  
• 164
  
• 165
  

[Busjack]

Most of these bit it in the 1997 cutbacks, some even by the July 1995 map. The 62A and 62N became 55A and 55N. 162 was cut back and became 53AL. 62, 63W, and 165 are still around. 62 Express would have been denominated as that through most of its existence; the X before the route number started in the late 90s; the July 1995 map already has it gone.

The political discussion on other boards was that one politician forced CTA to keep the preexisting bus service but that the 1997 problems forced it to reassess things and cut most of the duplication with the Orange Line.

[Danielsmusic]

Most of these bit it in the 1997 cutbacks, some even by the July 1995 map. The 62A and 62N became 55A and 55N. 162 was cut back and became 53AL. 62, 63W, and 165 are still around. 62 Express would have been denominated as that through most of its existence; the X before the route number started in the late 90s; the July 1995 map already has it gone.

The political discussion on other boards was that one politician forced CTA to keep the preexisting bus service but that the 1997 problems forced it to reassess things and cut most of the duplication with the Orange Line.

What I was saying was that, even with the 99 and 164 continuing, I expected the 42, 61, X62 (I know the "X" isn't in the name - it's just easier for me that way), 99M, and 162 to be gone.