Chicagoist: CTA Buys 58 Hybrid Buses with Stimulus Money

Von Erich

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:33:44 -0600

What about these: http://www.chicagobus.org/bus/500 Bought for $140K a piece 4 years ago. I've seen these on the street. Seem a lot more practical. Sure they might hold less people, but put them on routes that don't usually have people pressed against the glass between 7-9am and 5-7pm. Oh well. It's kicking a dead horse. I'll look forward to $3 fares by Xmas.

pucca

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:51:29 -0600

Well, the current buses only have an mpg of 2. Most of the CTA's current fleet dates back to the mid 80s, so paying for themselves in 21 years seems doable, if not ideal. I couldn't find pricing information on the New Flyer website for diesel articulated buses, so it's hard to say how much more the city is paying for the hybrids, but that's where the price comparison should be - we really do need a younger fleet that won't break down so regularly.

JessNevins

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:46:23 -0600

Heh. I always loved that scene. Hell, why not just make repairs on the current generation of buses and wait 5-10 years until electric lithium ion fleet vehicles come online? The cost savings on those won't take 20 years and the pollution reduction is dramatic. It's not that we don't have enough buses. Never has been. The CTA can't field enough drivers on the routes. That's only going to get worse as you go from 4-5 workers paying for one retireee to 2.5 or even 2 paying for one. All those early retirements in the past few years as "cost cutting"? The baby boomers are going to bankrupt every pension plan in the next decade. And they're gonna live another 20+ years on average.

Von Erich

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:12:12 -0600

I see your point. But at least the numbers on the back of a package that says "Diet" reflect an actual change. This sales pitch to the public is remeniscent of Vanilla Sky when they were trying to convince him that his facial prostethic was not a mask. Take a look at New Flyer's website. Want something hybrid? Something people will notice a difference with? Look at the electric buses. San Francisco's BART has these. Sure we'll have wires everywhere, but we do already and it's better than 3.7 MPG. CTA pension, that's another. This entity suffered from irrepairable damage before the pension recipients even started for the CTA.

JessNevins

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:36:15 -0600

It's textbook "greenwashing". No different than slapping "Diet" or "50% less fat" on some fast food to make people think it's healthy. The CTA pension is about to explode and make the "doomsday budgets" look like a dip in the money bin.

Von Erich

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:41:22 -0600

So...each bus run nearly $850,000? And each bus will save almost $40,000 a year in maintenance costs? And this will take 21 years to recoup the cost? And 3.7 MPG is a hybrid? That's some bad economics. Who's cousin works for New Flyer?