Sam92

The trips you're thinking of operated between Mercy/Reese and 79th/81st up till a few years after the 2003 Lake Shore Restructuring. Ironically 3 was counted as "key" initially when should've been counted as support back then since North of 35th #4 helped provide the frequency between there and downtown before being rerouted (only difference 3 provided was a one seat ride to mag mile) thus was only heavy from bronzeville to the south; of course that all changed when 3 had to pick up the 4's slack. If we were going by frequency I'd count 29 as support and 3 as key but I think of it like this. Half mile streets are mainly support cause they support not having to walk as far as you would have to if buses only ran on main streets lol

I gave up the bus assignment game once they stopped grouping fleet numers together 😅. Hopefully it's easier to put stuff in service, get heavy maintenance and milage trades done without having to make sure the fleet numbers stay consolidated in blocks.

There are actually a few exceptions made(Jeffery, King Drive before being switched, 52, 54B). I look at it as key routes and rail system being the skeleton providing basic coverage throughout the city. Support routes are the rest of the body, you got stuff like 3, 50 and other long routes that are blood vessels; 96, 201 etc doing localized roles and the expresses outside of 14 are supporting a train or key route like you said. 6 Jeffery was a key, then for a while Jackson park exp was key till it switched roles with 14. I guess the argument can be that Jeffery is so far from the red line it has to basically be a whole key corridor itself since many depend on it vs a long ride to state. 6 being a support doesn't really make sense to me either but I guess it can be argued that it has alternatives nearby (14/26 south of 67th, 15 to the red/green from Hyde park). Back when 6 was still a key route during the 2007 doomsday threats 14 was cut while 6 and 15 would have stayed (downtown riders would have had to take 15 and transfer to 6 or 14 since 14 as a support route was close to 6 and 15 which were key routes. 3 being support makes sense to me cause its close to the green, 4 and 29 and it wasn't until mid 2000's were it started putting in more work. Before that only alternate trips went downtown and it had a pretty late start time particularly on the weekends.

Anything on a main street and scheduled at least till midnight/headways usually never more than 20 min is usually key not counting delays. Some changes were made at some point cause 3 and 6 became support routes while 14 is now a key route.

I can understand the O'Hare branch service but the forest park branch is questionable especially with so many people I hear talking about preferring the green line for the west side due to the slow zones

Wait so did 8949 get sent back then?

Yeah looks like it's a tug of war/sky is falling scenario as busjack says and while the 2010 cuts were a more reasonable approach they still should've did a mix of the 2012 restructuring along with cutting the lowest performing X routes rather than just blindly cutting all the X routes just to still compete with pace (which thankfully they finally knocked that off). Part of me feels like one side is gonna cave the give the others what they want BUT after whatever bailout hopefully comes they hurry and clean up a few things like the remainder of the Evanston restructuring that was supposed to happen. As far as what I'd do, I've hinted at it in other places in the forum but to reiterate: A further realignment of the south Lakeshore corridor (particularly the downtown terminals of J14, 26 and 28), eliminate 30 north of 92nd but instead of my previous suggestion to send it bronzeville I'd just combine the remaining segment with 95 (to still give them a red line connection). 43 and 44 would get combined, an idea came to mind about the development in west loop; bring back 23 in some form as busjack suggested but route it via Halsted, Harrison, Racine, Washington, Green and loop around near grand pretty much replacing the short trips on 8 Halsted to give Bridgeport riders a more direct connection to the medical district/UIC area as well. For rail how about using the argyle middle track to put in Red line trains that run between there and Garfield (turning back at 63rd middle) to address the Dan Ryan being over served in the reverse peak direction and put purple in the subway to end at Roosevelt. Apparently Belmont is also getting a middle track nearby so maybe start some peak brown line service there to make up for the purple line reroute. It's a game of making the most with what we have IMO 🤷

Hard to say really to be honest. I feel like it's rushed and there are better solutions in the meantime such as encouraging travel outside of rush hour to lower congestion (and idling vehicles). The TAs might have their own agenda and still want to push for electric conversion although now that there's apparently no mandatory dead line they'd have more space and time to perfect things (such as the issues we're having with the 600s, the associated infrastructure etc)

103rds problem is keeping the artics they have repaired. 70 artics pretty much covers their needs but due to 10-15 of them always being in the south shops they end up using 40fts on 6 and 26 more (26 really only needs them morning rush into mid afternoon, the PM rush can get by with 40fts since the evening rush hour is more spread out.) If anything since 103rd strictly uses artics on express routes I'd have all the diesel artics assigned there and send all the hybrids to K or P since they make more sense on the local routes those 2 tend to use them all. I don't think the hybrids take too well to being used at high speeds so often (plus defeats the fuel savings point)

Wait it's getting replaced soon? Cause the red line extension opens in 2029 I thought

Usually 2400s assigned but I used to see 2600s and 3200s a lot as well.

Part of it might be them planning ahead for the inevitable move of 4 to 103rd. When the red line gets extended relieving the 29 via 106 won't be an option anymore so it's probably gonna go back to 77th and the 4 is the only thing at 7 that goes far south enough to get relieved at 103rd when they have to trade something in return. 3 might get an extension to 111th when 111 gets realigned

79 didn't mention a doubling of service to Ford city like the others. I think it's already 10 min to Ford city now plus with Ford city being dead everyone over there is probably either staying in their area or going to the orange line. However Ford city trips won't be entering the terminal

https://www.transitchicago.com/frequent/ Looks like they added some details on when the increases are. Basically no more short turns on 47 and 63. Doesn't mention the same for 79 (not that Ford city needs it). Pretty sure 55 will do the same in the fall. I wonder if 34's changes breaks the interline with 119 since 119th isn't getting anything. What's gonna be interesting is to see what 53 does as far as short turns

Yeah plus we're all waiting to see what's about to shake with this system pick 🤭