Tcmetro

A couple pictures from Thursday

I've used the 31 on occasion, ridership looks light but turnover is pretty high. Very few trips are longer than a mile in length. I think AM rush service on the 31 (maybe starting as late as 7 am) could be logical for IIT students. It would be nice to have some later service in the evening, but the other bus lines nearby (35, 39) have pretty light ridership at those hours. I also wonder if turning the east end of the route into a loop via 26th St and 31st St or rerouting to 33rd St could provide better access (although at the expense of simplicity).

According to the CTA alert, the north entrance will be opening 12 AM Sunday (tonight), and the temporary entrances will be closed. http://www.transitchicago.com/travel_information/alert_detail.aspx?AlertId=42402

I've noticed more and more of these plastic seat inserts as opposed to the fabric ones on the Blue Line. I hope it is a fleetwide thing, at least for the Blue.

Part of it is infrastructure. If bus bulbs were built, buses wouldn't have to pull in and out of the travel lane and wait for traffic to move past before going again. Secondly, there's simply too many bus stops. Every quarter-mile would be a lot better, especially on the busiest routes. In my personal experience of using the 49/X49 it seems that travel times are similar on both. Having one service that stops every quarter mile would be more usable for passengers. I'm a little annoyed that the Logan to Addison construction project didn't consider installing a bus way in the median - there is definitely enough space. If CDOT isn't inclined to make the infrastructure changes, then there is little that can be done. With increased deliveries and Uber/Lyft as well as bike lanes in a lot of places, road space has been taken away from buses. That's more of a policy choice the city needs to make about the importance of who can use the street for what.

The CTA just started their "Bus Slow Zone" study, which will analyze changes to the Chicago and 79th corridors. Hopefully it amounts to something more than what happened on Jeffery, Western, and Ashland. http://www.rtams.org/rtams/planningStudy.jsp?id=3164

The competition will really be during peak hours, when LSD expresses get bogged down with traffic. The midday improvements are a side effect of canceling night shuttles and can better promote the line as a "turn-up-and-go" service. My only reservation is that the schedule could have more (or all) trains stop at all three Hyde Park stations. This would make PM commutes a lot easier, where one could simply take the first train leaving.

The 2/27/2017 Local Advisory Committee has narrowed down some of the routing options: Restructure 711/715 to connect with 608 at Roselle (Schaumburg-DuPage link) Extend 318 to Stratford Square via North, Addison, Lake, Glen Ellyn, Army Trail Reroute 330 to Rosemont Blue Line instead of O'Hare ATS York Rd - 390 route York Rd - Rosemont route (w/ O'Hare cargo deviation) Touhy Ave route from Elk Grove Village to Park Ridge, Rosemont, and/or Cumberland (223 restructure) Irving Park Rd route, Rosemont to Hanover Park Elk Grove - NWTC - Hoffman Estates route (Busse - Biesterfield - 290 - Higgins) 390 corridor - York Rd - 90 - Rosemont (223 restructure) Schaumburg - Forest Park upgrades Busse Rd - Oak Brook express 95th - Rosemont via 294 Golf Rd - Schaumburg to Des Plaines The next steps in the study are to narrow down the recommendations, and produce the final plan, which supposedly should be soon. http://pacebus.com/pdf/Initiatives/390/Pace_IL_390_LAC_Presentation_Mtg_3.pdf http://pacebus.com/pdf/Initiatives/390/Pace_IL_390_TAC_Presentation_Mtg_3.pdf

Some thoughts about reorganizing downtown service patterns: In the peak hour, there are currently 20 Red Line trains, and 10 Purple Line trains. Running both lines in the subway would mean that the CTA would need to be able to sustain 2 minute headways. I'm not sure how well CTA would be able to manage this - the busiest track of the loop sees about 28 trains in the peak hour, and the Brown/Purple manage 27 trains at the busiest, and the substations might need an upgrade. My personal preference would be to combine the Orange and Purple into one line, and run via the subway. The benefit would be a direct SW-N link as well as the possibility to run N Side express service all day. It would require a pretty significant increase in resources however, especially in the evening period where it may be less justified. Moving Orange and Purple (or to a lesser extent, Green south) to the subway could allow for a much less congested trip on the loop, and open slots for other service expansion. A big problem also comes up if Orange and Purple are moved to the subway. Brown line capacity cannot be added because of the shared track with the Green Line on Wabash and Lake. Some sort of supplementary Brown Line service on the inner loop would have to be added to balance the traffic on the inner and outer loops, which would be confusing for riders. Alternatively Harlem-bound Green Line trains would have to use Van Buren and Wells, which is also confusing for riders. If the SS Green Line was moved to the subway (and combined with Purple), perhaps the WS Green Line could run on the inner loop. Combined Green-Pink-Orange service would be about 24 trains at the peak hour, and the Brown line could run 27-28 trains at the peak hour on the outer loop. If 30 trains in the peak hour were possible, there could be service every 6 minutes on the express north of Belmont, and every 2-4 minutes on the locals. Between Belmont and Roosevelt, there would be a train every 2 minutes. 95th service would be every 2-4 minutes, while Ashland and Cottage Grove would have 12 minute frequencies for each branch. With the way that the infrastructure is set up, this could be a much more elegant solution.

There is somewhat of a neighborhood between Rockwell and Wood, and stretching down to as far as Adams or Monroe that this station would serve. I believe that CHA is hoping to finish redevelopment of their lands there, and they are doing a renovation project on some of the existing (late 90s/early 00s) stock. This station would also allow for better access for westsiders to Malcolm X and a bus transfer to the Medical District. I imagine that much of the demand is expected to materialize by extending the development from the West Loop over to the UC area. I'm not sure how much demand for the United Center this station will pull. The Blue Line is just a slightly longer walk away.

Looks like heavy construction is ready to begin at the Damen entrance. Jersey barriers were set up in the street and some equipment was on sight.

There hasn't been any work done to the physical structure of the ramp at Paulina. I'm speculating that the wheelchair gates were put in at Paulina so that Damen can be closed for stationhouse remodeling and reconstructing the ramp (which I would imagine would have landings added and perhaps widened like at Halsted). Then once Damen is reconstructed, Paulina could be closed and have the stationhouse and ramp worked on. I wonder how the Ogden stationhouse plays into the construction schedule. CTA's website states that they want to be finished by "late 2017", but they also started about four months later than what was stated. The Intergovernmental Agreement (because this project is funded with TIF money) states that construction needs to be finished by the end of 2018. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/agendas_minutes/016-104.pdf http://www.transitchicago.com/imd/

Yes, the rotogates were replaced with two wheelchair gates. A temporary agent booth opened as well, along with blue screening placed over the chain link fence on the ramp.

Supposedly the EIS for IDOT's 290 rebuild will be out soon. CTA put up a new presentation as well, a quick summary: - Recommendation to open secondary entrances at Keeler (Pulaski Stn) and Lavergne (Cicero Stn). The diagram shows a headhouse that is closer to the main street (i.e. no ramp), and a long ramp up to the secondary entrances (maybe about 600-700 feet long). - The presentation also mentions an auxiliary entrance at all single entry stations including Western. Perhaps this will mean a relocation of the platform directly under the avenue? - $1.7 billion estimate, includes tracks, FP Yard, stations, and 6 substations. - Public hearing on 1/25 and 1/26 - Next steps: NEPA, Design, Construction http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/planning/CTA_slides_from_I-290_CAG_22_2016Dec15_final.pdf IDOT's preferred alternative for 290 includes the extension to Mannheim Rd http://eisenhowerexpressway.com/pdfs/i290_cag22_2016-dec-15_final.pdf

Just saw one of them on Clinton. Definitely said 54 Cicero to North. Weird.