New Destination Signs

[artthouwill]

I must correct an earlier post. Harlem trains have 2 GREEN marker lights as does Ashland/63. The new Cottage Grove signs have a WHITE & GREEN marker light combo.

[jcmellencamp78]

I must correct an earlier post. Harlem trains have 2 GREEN marker lights as does Ashland/63. The new Cottage Grove signs have a WHITE & GREEN marker light combo.

I was a bit confused the other day. Since when did the Green Line Signs Change? Harlem/Lake is now just Harlem. And East 63rd is now Cottage Grove? Any info on this?

[artthouwill]

I was a bit confused the other day. Since when did the Green Line Signs Change? Harlem/Lake is now just Harlem. And East 63rd is now Cottage Grove? Any info on this?

Sometime earlier this month. One thing the change does is differentiate the Green Line trains from the Red Line trains (2 yellow marker lights) when the Red Line trains are rerouted over the Loop elevated tracks. It also makes signage more accurate and brings uniformity to signage on all lines. If a 3200 series car winds up on the Green Line, you should actually see Green Line signs now instead of the "Express" (blinking white marker lights) that was prevalent during Three Track Phase One.

[jcmellencamp78]

Sometime earlier this month. One thing the change does is differentiate the Green Line trains from the Red Line trains (2 yellow marker lights) when the Red Line trains are rerouted over the Loop elevated tracks. It also makes signage more accurate and brings uniformity to signage on all lines. If a 3200 series car winds up on the Green Line, you should actually see Green Line signs now instead of the "Express" (blinking white marker lights) that was prevalent during Three Track Phase One.

I just think the Harlem sign would confuse people since there is a Harlem on The Blue (x2) and Green Line. Plus, the Cottage Grove Sign is so hard to read. Not to mention the fact now the CTA is going to go and change all the signage again. Yet we are facing a budget crisis...? <_<

[jajuan]

I just think the Harlem sign would confuse people since there is a Harlem on The Blue (x2) and Green Line. Plus, the Cottage Grove Sign is so hard to read. Not to mention the fact now the CTA is going to go and change all the signage again. Yet we are facing a budget crisis...?

I can understand your concern about how money is spent with the current funding issue that's now arisen. We don't want to get caught in a pattern of questioning every little expenditure though when a lot of these were already earmarked in the current year's budget. The financial issues are with balancing next year's budget. Spending earmarks from this year's budget were already in place and approved at the beginning of the year. To be fair we should remember that. Remember it was announced earlier this year that rail station signs would be brought up to date and more in line with the train signs. This could very well be a part of that.

[artthouwill]

I can understand your concern about how money is spent with the current funding issue that's now arisen. We don't want to get caught in a pattern of questioning every little expenditure though when a lot of these were already earmarked in the current year's budget. The financial issues are with balancing next year's budget. Spending earmarks from this year's budget were already in place and approved at the beginning of the year. To be fair we should remember that. Remember it was announced earlier this year that rail station signs would be brought up to date and more in line with the train signs. This could very well be a part of that.

I guess I've been behind the times, but today I noticed the Red Line trains to 95th now say 95th instead of 95/Dan Ryan. What was wrong with 95/Dan Ryan?

[RJL6000]

I guess I've been behind the times, but today I noticed the Red Line trains to 95th now say 95th instead of 95/Dan Ryan. What was wrong with 95/Dan Ryan?

The reason for the "95th" (without the "/Dan Ryan") on the newer destination signs is the fact that there is currently only one CTA 'L' station at 95th.

[nflyer22]

The reason for the "95th" (without the "/Dan Ryan") on the newer destination signs is the fact that there is currently only one CTA 'L' station at 95th.

But then again, why the "Harlem" signs for Green Line? There are several "Harlem" stops on the CTA, but I guess, the Green Line only has one, which would somewhat clarify it.

I didn't bring up the "95th" signs on the Red Line since I thought they were in place for a week or 2 by now (also the fact that haven't ridden on the Red Line in about a week), but I guess it's just today.

[Zol87]

I just think the Harlem sign would confuse people since there is a Harlem on The Blue (x2) and Green Line. Plus, the Cottage Grove Sign is so hard to read.

I can understand how it can be confusing. but Harlem is not a terminal on any line besides the Green Line. If they were going to keep using Harlem/Lake, why not change the other names to Harlem/Higgins or Harlem/Congress in the announcements. There are also 2 Western Avenues (Milwaukee & Congress). Using the Chicago stops as an example the announcement says ("Chicago & State," "Chicago & Franklin," or "Chicago & Milwaukee" depending on whether it is the Red, Brown or Blue Line.) However the announcement name for the stop is more specific than how it is labeled on the map.

I guess they changed East 63rd to Cottage Grove to because it describes how far east the line goes. When the Green Line was rebuilt there were talks of of making the new terminal at either University or Dorchester. So the plan was to call the terminal East 63rd no matter where it was. It ended up being at Cottage Grove. The announcement and station signage said Cottage Grove. However the announcement said "This is a Green Line train to 63rd & Cottage Grove."

I don't think the new Cottage Grove sign is hard to read. They just made new ones for the Yellow line. It used to be yellow signs with black text but now it has white text. These are really hard to read.

As for 95th. It used to be called 95th. I don't know why they changed it in the first place.

Here are pictures of the new and old signs for comparison.

[Busjack]

As for 95th. It used to be called 95th. I don't know why they changed it in the first place.

With regard to 95th/Dan Ryan and Harlem/Lake, I believe the reason was to keep some of the line name on the sign. Until it received new stationary signs, 95th station had signs for 95th/State. Others have commented that Harlem/Lake is not actually on Lake in Oak Park/Forest Park, but on some combination of North Blvd., South Blvd., and Circle.

The north branch of the north side L was always Howard, so the sign didn't change (except to lose the south terminal).

The Des Plaines station was renamed to Forest Park when the destination signs appeared, apparently to avoid confusion with the city by the same name as the avenue. However, theoretically that could have been confusing, since the Lake signs at the stations at least used to say "To Harlem--Forest Park." Apparently that isn't confusing any more. Similarly, Dempster station was renamed to "Skokie," either to retain most of the name of the Skokie Swift, or to avoid confusing it with the one in Evanston.

However, the version of the CTA Map on the web at this moment still has the old names for the 95th-Dan Ryan and Cottage Grove-East 63rd stations, although a Chicago-L.org picture indicates that the stationary sign there is just "Cottage Grove."

[geneking7320]

I've noticed recently that the signal lights on the Yellow Line trains [aka Skokie Swift] are green.

The trains formerly ran 4 red lights [in addition to the white headlights].

Gene

[Guest ctafan630]

How are the destination signs on the 5000 series programed? With the older L cars, the destination signs were controlled by two knobs the first was a letter and the second was a number which corresponded to a particular sign. In the older cars, the roller curtain was limited to 15 signs per set.

With the signs on the 5000 series being digital are all destination signs now available? How are the particular signs selected?

[chgofan78]

Speaking of destination signs, the new roller curtains for the May 19th service changes have started being installed. The Yellow Line is back to using all black lettering instead of white with black outlines.

[TheBrunswickBowler]

I have a video of the Midway, Downtown, and O'Hare with a black background Destination Signs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIQE4ScQ9IE