Tcmetro

Some short stretches of bus lanes coming to Western, Chicago, and 79th: https://chi.streetsblog.org/2019/04/19/city-announces-new-bus-speed-initiative-but-will-drivers-respect-the-new-lanes/

The Congress branch of the Blue Line supposedly will get improvements from the Uber/Lyft tax. The 15th/Clark Red Line station will be funded through property taxes generated from the redevelopment. I assume that if the redevelopment doesn't happen, the Red Line station also won't happen.

Maybe Metra can put these in service to deal with the car shortage... They also don't have seats for max capacity.

New stations like the proposed ones at Peterson-Ridge, Auburn Park, and Niles are considered "infill", because they are on existing lines between existing stations. I assume one of the outcomes of this station evaluation is closures where one station is closed and riders are expected to use another, or maybe in some cases two would close and a new one would be placed between, but that might be quite unlikely. Most of the lowest performing stations are on the ME in Chicago, Manhattan and New Lenox on the SWS, and Franklin Park, Schiller Park, and Rosemont on the NCS. I think a couple on the Beverly branch also fall into this category.

126 Harrison night and weekend service goes to the Medical District when the 7 doesn't run. Independence/Congress is for a front-door stop at the senior building.

I think they want downtown commuters to drive to the 850 at Canterbury or 851 at White Fence and have Old Chicago for IMD/UIC commuters. My guess is that Old Chicago is more popular than Canterbury and they want to balance the demand.

The new I-55 Corridor schedules have been posted: 755/850/851: http://www.pacebus.com/sub/schedules/route_notice_detail.asp?Notice_ID=1362 855: http://www.pacebus.com/sub/schedules/route_notice_detail.asp?Notice_ID=1348 The SeatGeek stop has been renamed to Bridgeview Transit Center with two trips in each direction. The 855 trips that serve both stops leave at the same time as a direct trip from Burr Ridge.

The idea would be to extend the 62H to Pulaski Orange Line and eliminate the 62 between Harlem and Pulaski to reduce overlap and increase reliability.

Re: Bushunter Busfan is under the impression that the Cicero/Archer terminal is no longer available and could be redeveloped; therefore the 47 and 62 Cicero trips need new terminals. Expanding on your idea Bushunter, I would like to see the 62H run more frequently (maybe every 15-20 mins) and on Sunday, replacing the 62 west of Pulaski. Hopefully this would improve the reliability of the 62 line. 62H riders to Midway could change to the 47/54B at Cicero.

The 62H provides additional service on that part of Archer Weekdays and Saturdays, but there's lower demand on Saturday.

CTA has published the new schedules for March 31 2019. Pretty light on changes, mostly school trip modifications. The material changes are: Route 47: All Archer/Cicero trips extended to Midway. Midway service frequency improved on Sunday to 15-30 minutes. Route 62: Saturday trips that start and end at Archer/Cicero will now start and end at Pulaski Orange Line. Route 111A: Discussed elsewhere on the board - extension of the 111A route to the garage and transfer point at 103rd/Stony Island. https://www.transitchicago.com/travel-information/service-updates/advance-timetables-for-march-2019/

The last time I rode one of the buses (to the rental car facility) the interior stickers were from Trimet (Portland OR).

Marquette Rd is narrow and doesn't have space for bus stops. I think the idea behind using 69th is to space the routes out between 63rd and 79th (because Marquette and 75th can't be used for 1/2 mile route spacing). Additionally, the 67 extension to Ford City is relatively recent. If there was one change I would make, it might be using 69th/Lithuanian Plaza from Western to California to directly serve the hospital, but that would be fairly minor.

I like the idea of the 44 going to Downtown along Canal and Clinton. Things have changed significantly since the Orange Line opened in 1993 - the shopping district around Roosevelt and the West Loop office district. As for Clybourn, I think something might work between North and Belmont, especially if the Lincoln Yards project comes to fruition.

Ah - I didn't remember that the pre-construction Red Line schedule was every 6 minutes for peak-direction trains to/from the South Side. I do think that there are some operational difficulties with the construction, but this will be ending soon now. I hope that CTA can expand Red Line service once 95th is done, but only time will tell. The big problem with using the 63/Ashland Red Line trains is that they are scheduled every 18 minutes for only one-and-a-half in the peak direction. The extra service is really only useful if going in the reverse direction. Also, all of the AM runs from 63/Ashland only arrive downtown after 9 AM.