More Bus Moves

[BusHunter]

Looking at the artics it seems like nothing's displaced. So how do they expect 103rd to run with less buses? They will definitely be short. The #26 running with artics may seem a bit unnecessary and then there's the debate about whether artics can't make that one turn on the south side too. as you are asking for a 135 degree turn. I say initially pepper it with artics and throw in a few 40 footers cause those non peak direction trips will be empty initially and the mid day trips may lack as well. You wouldn't want to take viable buses from the #6 and #J14 that really need them. 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Looking at the artics it seems like nothing's displaced. So how do they expect 103rd to run with less buses? They will definitely be short. ...

One also has to figure that the school only trips are done, so there shouldn't be a shortage.

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

One also has to figure that the school only trips are done, so there shouldn't be a shortage.

True which would probably be why buses that were thought to go to Kedzie were diverted to 74th instead. 

[jajuan]

Interesting little nugget here. #4352 is showing up on the #152 right now approaching Harlem on its way to Cumberland. It's seems kind of far out on the route to be an extra for tonight's Cubs game.

[RJL6000]

The final tally for this past weekend:

Buses In:

74th: 1575, 1576, 1587-89

Chicago: 1208-18, 1590-93

Kedzie: 1594

Buses Out:

103rd: 1208-18

77th: 1575, 1576, 1587-94

In addition to the above, 77th got back 1225-27 after those three buses were loaned to Kedzie for several weeks.

[jajuan]

It just occurred to me the other possible reason that 74th and Chicago would get more buses. This week, as is typical of the first week of summer pick, is the traditional start of everyday beach service on the #63 and #72. That's the only other reason I can think of that these two would see net gains in buses with there being no movement in artic assignments as BH posed the thought that #26's expanded hours was a possible part in this weekend's moves. 

[BusHunter]

2 minutes ago, jajuan said:

It just occurred to me the other possible reason that 74th and Chicago would get more buses. This week, as is typical of the first week of summer pick, is the traditional start of everyday beach service on the #63 and #72. That's the only other reason I can think of that these two would see net gains in buses with there being no movement in artic assignments as BH posed the thought that #26's expanded hours was a possible part in this weekend's moves. 

Yeah but why take from 103rd? How about 77th?

[jajuan]

Just now, BusHunter said:

Yeah but why take from 103rd? How about 77th?

Well Busjack did make the point that there are no longer the school day only trips to contend with, and 103rd does seem to have a higher number of routes than some of the other garages that have those types of trips with several doing those trips, most of the trips being associated with either Julian and Carver High Schools among a good number of the 95th Red Line terminating routes. Plus 77th already contributed by sending buses to 75th instead of Kedzie.

[andrethebusman]

1213,1215 still sitting on 103rd's apron as of 1100pm Sunday. Have been there since Saturday evening.

[dann]

1594 is on #60 now.

[garmon757]

Ummmm, why is #1591 on #72??? 

[RJL6000]

13 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

1213,1215 still sitting on 103rd's apron as of 1100pm Sunday. Have been there since Saturday evening.

 

5 hours ago, dann said:

1594 is on #60 now.

#1215 is now officially Chicago's (it's on the #54B).

Also, #1591 and #1593 have shown up on Chicago Garage's routes (in addition to the aforementioned #1592). This leaves only #1590 unaccounted for yet.

[Chicagos_D]

I didn't know where to put this but I just recently found this article the other day. Ford City Mall CTA Transit Center I lived by the mall and have been monitoring this project which I can say has not been started yet. I'm not saying it won't happen but the mall's management team have been focused on so many projects that I think they have simply placed this one last so far. The other article that came out 2 weeks later talks about other projects that have been completed whether inside or outside of the mall, so I guess they're behind schedule. I asked a few bus operators and they have no clue mostly saying they find out either at the last minute or when the public finds out. Will keep up to date with any info. I really hope that this project is successful. 

[Busjack]

24 minutes ago, Chicagos_D said:

I didn't know where to put this but I just recently found this article the other day. Ford City Mall CTA Transit Center I lived by the mall and have been monitoring this project which I can say has not been started yet. I'm not saying it won't happen but the mall's management team have been focused on so many projects that I think they have simply placed this one last so far. The other article that came out 2 weeks later talks about other projects that have been completed whether inside or outside of the mall, so I guess they're behind schedule. I asked a few bus operators and they have no clue mostly saying they find out either at the last minute or when the public finds out. Will keep up to date with any info. I really hope that this project is successful. 

The thing that hit me is that while it mentions 3 CTA routes, it doesn't mention 5 Pace routes, which unlike the CTA ones, run bidirectionally.

It does mention that the mall is apparently doing this, which is also strange, but I guess the case. Looks like you would have to contact Mid America Group instead of asking bus drivers.

[BusHunter]

When I was out there on #379 the other week, there was this area roped off with fences and the ground looked to be torn up. I wonder if that's near JCPenney's as I don't know the layout that well. Maybe that's the project right there.

There seems to be tons of buses just laying over wherever. I saw 3 #79's and a #54B laying over way over by Wendy's (south end of the property) The mall probably wants to control that. It's weird to see that cause usually Pace does that (not there though) but not CTA. That seems to be the only spot where they have free reign of the property.

[Pace831]

4 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

When I was out there on #379 the other week, there was this area roped off with fences and the ground looked to be torn up. I wonder if that's near JCPenney's as I don't know the layout that well. Maybe that's the project right there.

There seems to be tons of buses just laying over wherever. I saw 3 #79's and a #54B laying over way over by Wendy's (south end of the property) The mall probably wants to control that. It's weird to see that cause usually Pace does that (not there though) but not CTA. That seems to be the only spot where they have free reign of the property.

I think you're referring to an area on the immediate south side of the mall where a building once stood. The article says the transit center will be on the east side of the mall.

The mall management has seemed averse to buses if the signs in the parking lot are any indication. "No Bus Parking, Standing, or Stopping" signs are all over. They also have directional signs pointing out the bus route as if operators don't know it already. That worn out section of parking lot on the far south side is where the CTA buses lay over, as you observed. If that area was still needed for shopper parking, buses may not have been allowed to lay over on mall property, reminiscent of what happened at Yorktown. When I read the article I was surprised to find out a transit center would be paid for by the mall owners. Hopefully this signals a positive change in attitude toward transit. The downside, however, is the configuration may not be well suited for a potential Orange Line extension.

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Hopefully this signals a positive change in attitude toward transit.

Actually, that;s about the same as Yorktown--the bus is allowed but only in the designated spot and don't tear up out parking lot.The only difference is that they allow layovers. Being in what now is the inner city, they know that the mall has to accommodate public transportation in some manner to stay in business (which is different from being in Lombard).

8 hours ago, Pace831 said:

The downside, however, is the configuration may not be well suited for a potential Orange Line extension.

That was supposed to be near Daley College or out on Cicero near 76th. Besides this being a private investment, nothing has been said about the project for over 6 years (see project page).  If that ain't dead, I don't know what is.

[Pace831]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

That was supposed to be near Daley College or out on Cicero near 76th. Besides this being a private investment, nothing has been said about the project for over 6 years (see project page).  If that ain't dead, I don't know what is.

My thought was it would seem wasteful to build a terminal that would become obsolete if the Orange Line extension were built. However, as you noted, the extension won't happen for a long time if ever, so the new terminal should get many years of use. Since it's being built with private funds, I can't really complain about its location. If CTA was paying, I'd want it built to require minimal reconfiguration in case the Orange line were extended eventually.

[Busjack]

39 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

My thought was it would seem wasteful to build a terminal that would become obsolete if the Orange Line extension were built.

But that gets down to Mid America's motivation. It isn't building a terminal for CTA*. Similar to Golf Mill, the owners must think having a bus terminal on its property somehow helps business.Old Orchard has a terminal, while the NWTC is off Woodfield Mall's grounds.

While I had some of the same idea that this may indicate the Orange Line isn't coming, there were the other indications I mentioned earlier. More direct circumstantial evidence that the Red Line extension is not coming is CTA itself spending $240 million in borrowed money on the 95th multimodal facility, as well as yesterday's mention of the ME.

 

*Update: Rereading the Press Release, it is mostly about the shoppers and employees, although Carole Morey thanks the mall owners for its support and is providing some planning support.

[jajuan]

On 6/23/2016 at 3:57 PM, Chicagos_D said:

I didn't know where to put this but I just recently found this article the other day. Ford City Mall CTA Transit Center I lived by the mall and have been monitoring this project which I can say has not been started yet. I'm not saying it won't happen but the mall's management team have been focused on so many projects that I think they have simply placed this one last so far. The other article that came out 2 weeks later talks about other projects that have been completed whether inside or outside of the mall, so I guess they're behind schedule. I asked a few bus operators and they have no clue mostly saying they find out either at the last minute or when the public finds out. Will keep up to date with any info. I really hope that this project is successful. 

 

On 6/23/2016 at 4:16 PM, Busjack said:

The thing that hit me is that while it mentions 3 CTA routes, it doesn't mention 5 Pace routes, which unlike the CTA ones, run bidirectionally.

It does mention that the mall is apparently doing this, which is also strange, but I guess the case. Looks like you would have to contact Mid America Group instead of asking bus drivers.

Maybe it's because the Pace buses just pass through the mall and don't actually layover in the malls parking lot as the three CTA routes do that they didn't emphasize the Pace routes. They're probably going to still also have space for the Pace buses to stop.  One would think they'd have to in that they're already making themselves stand out from other area malls by openly presenting themselves as transit friendly with this move to build a space that facilitates bus layovers and serves the dual purpose of keeping buses from tearing up the parking lot as opposed to saying "you can still run your buses here, but they can't end their routes and do layovers here. You'll have to find somewhere off our property for that." Plus one would think they wouldn't want to put themselves in a position of appearing to favor city transit riders over suburban ones. 

16 hours ago, BusHunter said:

When I was out there on #379 the other week, there was this area roped off with fences and the ground looked to be torn up. I wonder if that's near JCPenney's as I don't know the layout that well. Maybe that's the project right there.

There seems to be tons of buses just laying over wherever. I saw 3 #79's and a #54B laying over way over by Wendy's (south end of the property) The mall probably wants to control that. It's weird to see that cause usually Pace does that (not there though) but not CTA. That seems to be the only spot where they have free reign of the property.

When CTA significantly increased the number of its buses entering mall property with its extension of the #67 to Ford Cit, they created a situation of there being more buses needing to layover than could conceivably do so closer to the mall entrance through JCPenney's. So we started to see even more of that situation that you observed of CTA buses parking at various points in the southern parking lots to do their layovers. I've seen #67 buses parking in the lot across from the Ford City AMC Theaters. With shorter headways on the #67 and #79 creating situations of  several buses arriving and having scheduled layovers that can be as long as 15 to 20 minutes, it's easy to see how mall management would want to get that under control. As Busjack pointed out though, the mall being located in that city rather than being in a suburban location makes mall owners more willing to acknowledge they need they all those customers the bus traffic brings in. Ford City did use to have that bus layover problem as well with the Pace routes, but CTA fixed that part two decades ago with the bus terminal facility at its Midway Orange Line stop. 

[Busjack]

Looks like if you are working at 77th, it isn't a good idea to eat at the Pizza Hut (Sun-Times).

There are other comments I could make, but given the warnings to keep it appropriate, I won't.

[jajuan]

CTA rail car #2876 is going to be in the upcoming Transformers 5 movie apparently as part of background debris from one of the movie's fight scenes as scene in this YouTube clip. Interestingly enough that wreckage scene is being filmed in Detroit.

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, jajuan said:

CTA rail car #2876 is going to be in the upcoming Transformers 5 movie apparently as part of background debris from one of the movie's fight scenes as scene in this YouTube clip. Interestingly enough that wreckage scene is being filmed in Detroit.

I didn't see anything of Michael Yu worth sitting through.

There was a reference here to dropping a CTA car next to the Detroit People Mover, but buslist said it was a 2200.

[jajuan]

19 hours ago, Busjack said:

I didn't see anything of Michael Yu worth sitting through.

There was a reference here to dropping a CTA car next to the Detroit People Mover, but buslist said it was a 2200.

Well fortunately the pictorially evidence of 2876 and an unknown companion #2600 series car is toward the beginning of the clip. The cars are shown starting at roughly 1:30. You can cut the sound after that and see that 2876 is clearly shown starting out and then the cars shown from different angles along with a part of the clip showing that the section of track depicted is a mock-up of the Chicago L as it appears today in sections that have the steel structure and supports. That leads to the theory that Detroit is standing in for Chicago for some generic neighborhood shots as it did for Chicago and other cities in Transformers 4 as shown in part from buslist's clip showing the 2200. This time around 2200s and 2400s weren't available apparently for the obvious reason of having gone to the shredder for the most part. So they used 2600s.

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, jajuan said:

Well fortunately the pictorially evidence of 2876 and an unknown companion #2600 series car is toward the beginning of the clip. The cars are shown starting at roughly 1:30. You can cut the sound after that and see that 2876 is clearly shown starting out and then the cars shown from different angles along with a part of the clip showing that the section of track depicted is a mock-up of the Chicago L as it appears today in sections that have the steel structure and supports.

Yes, at about 1:30. I'm surprised CTA didn't make them take the logos off.