The debut of more "X" service, will it be a success or not!

[BusHunter]

Well yesterday was the debut of more "X" service along the "X" routes #X49 and #X80. There seems to be now 3 or 4 expresses that come before a local. I passed up about 10 riders waiting for NB service at Roscoe on the #49. They didn't look too happy. Especially when they saw two buses and neither was a local. This makes for some nice service for express riders, but local riders are left out in the cold. It may actually be faster to walk to an express stop or seek alternate service if you plan on riding a local in those corridors.

[Busjack]

In that the regular 49 is now scheduled for every 10 or 15 minutes when the X49 runs, and the 55 every 15 minutes when the X55 runs, and the X routes are about double the frequency, one would think that the CTA is trying to force that result (or at least that the local riders use BusTracker before approaching the stop).

You wonder how much CTA will be monitoring this "experiment" or if the result will be preordained.

Also, on the Alert, apparently CTA doesn't know the difference between an X55 and 59, and is adding stops to the X routes, making them less express.

[sw4400]

Well yesterday was the debut of more "X" service along the "X" routes #X49 and #X80. There seems to be now 3 or 4 expresses that come before a local. I passed up about 10 riders waiting for NB service at Roscoe on the #49. They didn't look too happy. Especially when they saw two buses and neither was a local. This makes for some nice service for express riders, but local riders are left out in the cold. It may actually be faster to walk to an express stop or seek alternate service if you plan on riding a local in those corridors.

Under normal service conditions(i.e no breakdowns, minimal traffice tie-ups, etc...) this is how the new service should be laid out...(I'll use #80 as my example)

X80 to Blue Line, X80 to Harlem, 80 to Cumberland, etc...(now of course the CTA doesn't extend the X80 to Harlem after I think 9 or 9:30a until 1 or 1:30p. But with this new plan, they should have it altered like this. Express #1 stops at Blue Line, Express #2 stops at Harlem, Local #1 stops at Cumberland, cycle repeats except Local #2 stops at Harlem, although I haven't seen locals stop there in a while, so I guess all Local Buses go to Cumberland)

[BusExpert32]

Under normal service conditions(i.e no breakdowns, minimal traffice tie-ups, etc...) this is how the new service should be laid out...(I'll use #80 as my example)

X80 to Blue Line, X80 to Harlem, 80 to Cumberland, etc...(now of course the CTA doesn't extend the X80 to Harlem after I think 9 or 9:30a until 1 or 1:30p. But with this new plan, they should have it altered like this. Express #1 stops at Blue Line, Express #2 stops at Harlem, Local #1 stops at Cumberland, cycle repeats except Local #2 stops at Harlem, although I haven't seen locals stop there in a while, so I guess all Local Buses go to Cumberland)

On weekdays, every X80 trip now goes to Harlem. There is no longer a break in X80 service to Harlem during midday weekdays.

[redlinerider]

Is that starting now this week? I was out that way last week @ Harlem and Irving around 11:30am and no X80s came by. The only ones I saw going west were to the Blue Line. Kind of a pain to wait for a regular 80 when I was going all the way to the Red Line.

[cta_44499_FG]

Is that starting now this week? I was out that way last week @ Harlem and Irving around 11:30am and no X80s came by. The only ones I saw going west were to the Blue Line. Kind of a pain to wait for a regular 80 when I was going all the way to the Red Line.

It started this week.

[BusHunter]

In that the regular 49 is now scheduled for every 10 or 15 minutes when the X49 runs, and the 55 every 15 minutes when the X55 runs, and the X routes are about double the frequency, one would think that the CTA is trying to force that result (or at least that the local riders use BusTracker before approaching the stop).

You wonder how much CTA will be monitoring this "experiment" or if the result will be preordained.

Also, on the Alert, apparently CTA doesn't know the difference between an X55 and 59, and is adding stops to the X routes, making them less express.

The #49 may have a little problem with this experiment because it is such a long route. In the rush, if you get tied up with alot of riders (if you were a local), there's not that much help to be had with the cutting of your local follower. So you get backed up. Probably the locals were bunched together that day. Service in the opposite direction wasn't too great either. I counted four expresses before a local. If there's that much ridership on the expresses why not make them BRT's with a 60 foot artic. (maybe that's the future) It seems the 40 footers are stacked together now mostly in the rush.

[sw4400]

Also, on the Alert, apparently CTA doesn't know the difference between an X55 and 59, and is adding stops to the X routes, making them less express.

This is indeed puzzling on the CTA's part, Busjack... I know of the X55, but never heard of a X59. But honestly, some CTA riders don't know the difference between an Express and a Local, despite the signs both written and displayed on the crawls on the front and side of the buses, the audio announcement from "Mr. CTA", and even the occassional operator who will tell people as they come in that this is a Express Bus.(I'm sure T8H5307A and cta_5555 will agree here if they ever drove an "X" bus out of a garage) I've seen it many times on the X80. People get all P.O'ed because they want to exit at Kedzie(Local Stop), and the next stop for the Express is Kimball. They start yelling and pushing the back door making the dinger go off(or the beeper if it should be a New Flyer).

Two bottom lines here...

1) CTA needs to fix this mistake on their alert page

2) Some CTA Passengers(and some people) CAN'T READ OR LISTEN TO INSTRUCTIONS!!!

And a personal vent on my part(sorry Kevin for being way OT, I'll try to be brief)...

When you're on a Cell Phone and in your car, or in this case in a checkout line, PUT THE PHONE AWAY AND TAKE CARE OF THE BUSINESS AT HAND!!! I had a customer yesterday who was chirping away on her phone and almost walked out without paying for her groceries! Another earlier in the day complained to whoever he was talking to that I(the Cashier asking for his shopper card, telling him his total, etc...) was interrupting him. I'm just doing my job like T8H5307A and cta_5555 do, like Busjack, and Kevin, and even all the chicagobus.org members do(whatever those jobs are). And in the case of myself, T8H5307A and cta_5555, who are public workers, we are just doing our jobs! The least you, the customer, can do is put the phone down until you're away from the register or the farebox so you can listen to the Cashier or Bus Operator!

[Guest]

When I worked X80 Express, I was an X80 Express! No exceptions. Unless I was willing to give the passenger the benefit of the doubt. But I remember when there were people who would play dumb and know they were boarding an 80 Express and play it off like they made a mistake and request a local stop. I noticed after three or four days they were the same people. I let them know that they boarded an Express bus, that they would have to wait until I arrived at a local stop. But there are passengers who attempt to abuse the express service then deny they knew it was Express just to get down the street quicker.

[cta_44499_FG]

When I worked X80 Express, I was an X80 Express! No exceptions. Unless I was willing to give the passenger the benefit of the doubt. But I remember when there were people who would play dumb and know they were boarding an 80 Express and play it off like they made a mistake and request a local stop. I noticed after three or four days they were the same people. I let them know that they boarded an Express bus, that they would have to wait until I arrived at a local stop. But there are passengers who attempt to abuse the express service then deny they knew it was Express just to get down the street quicker.

I recall that happening to me one time at Kostner (which now is an express stop oddly! ) The guy was like "I rang the bell".....that's fine...ring it all you want the next stop is the BLUE LINE!

Sometimes the only way to teach them is the hard way. This guy is nuts anyway, as I remember getting him at Jewel when I used to work there, never says hello back always knows how to complain...that's the only time he speaks.

[Guest]

I recall that happening to me one time at Kostner (which now is an express stop oddly! ) The guy was like "I rang the bell".....that's fine...ring it all you want the next stop is the BLUE LINE!

Sometimes the only way to teach them is the hard way. This guy is nuts anyway, as I remember getting him at Jewel when I used to work there, never says hello back always knows how to complain...that's the only time he speaks.

I remember this very short "pinhead" who worked at the Jewel at Irving/Narragansett. Very rude, never says hello, so I ignored him everytime he got on. One day he wanted to get off my X80 at a local stop. He tells me "I rang the bell!" I didnt say anything until I got to the next Exp. stop. And then Im thinking he may make the unwise decision of pulling the "cherry" because if he did I would deny him boarding the next day and subsequently the next and the next!. Not to rub it in to my CTA friends but thankfully the Pace buses dont have the "cherries". Anytime one of these "pinheads" pulled that red knob, it would really boil my blood!

[Buslover88]

CTA Passengers(and people in general) CAN'T READ OR LISTEN TO INSTRUCTIONS!!!

First of all, you're a passenger too, so you're talking about yourself, too. Second, this doesn't probably apply to EVERY SINGLE (and don't think about giving the argument they don't, anyone) passenger. I read and listen to instructions.

I have a OT vent of my own (sorry): To whoever was driving bus #6776 today around 3pm at Addison and Pulaski, you need to get into the turning lane when you want to make a left or right turn onto Addison from Pulaski. You held up everyone at the light because you were all slow about making your turn. I wasn't happy with your decision making at all since I was already mad about something.

But I remember when there were people who would play dumb and know they were boarding an 80 Express and play it off like they made a mistake and request a local stop. I noticed after three or four days they were the same people. I let them know that they boarded an Express bus, that they would have to wait until I arrived at a local stop. But there are passengers who attempt to abuse the express service then deny they knew it was Express just to get down the street quicker.

Now that's stupid on their part. I don't understand or like people like that.

[cta_44499_FG]

Under normal service conditions(i.e no breakdowns, minimal traffice tie-ups, etc...) this is how the new service should be laid out...(I'll use #80 as my example)

X80 to Blue Line, X80 to Harlem, 80 to Cumberland, etc...(now of course the CTA doesn't extend the X80 to Harlem after I think 9 or 9:30a until 1 or 1:30p. But with this new plan, they should have it altered like this. Express #1 stops at Blue Line, Express #2 stops at Harlem, Local #1 stops at Cumberland, cycle repeats except Local #2 stops at Harlem, although I haven't seen locals stop there in a while, so I guess all Local Buses go to Cumberland)

All local 80s now go to Cumberland, except the first AM and all late PMs which terminate at Harlem. Originally, the trips alternated during the mid-day and all day on weekend/holidays, with all rush hour runs ending at Cumberland, but this mid-day practice was stopped because the Norridge Police Department wasn't happy with all the buses sitting in front of the Harlem/Irving mall (as the terminal cut-out only houses two buses), and had threatened to issue tickets to the CTA for parking the buses in the street. Mind you, you have the 78, 80, and X80 serving this area. Of course, even with this restriction, you easily still can have more than two buses in the area with the X80s now going there all day...so I think that was a useless threat.

Of course, the late PMs on the 80 terminate at Harlem, at that point the mall is closed and the 78 is close to ending service hours. Service to Cumberland is cut off after that time, which has a very-low patronage on that end of the line anyway.

[T8H5307A]

[quote name='Buslover88' date='Mar 25 2009, 05:48 PM' post='19617'

You held up everyone at the light because you were all slow about making your turn.

[Guest]

[quote name='Buslover88' date='Mar 25 2009, 05:48 PM' post='19617'

You held up everyone at the light because you were all slow about making your turn.

Standard operating Procedures states the speed for making a turn is 3-5mph. I guess that is too slow for you....

Buslover is just that, a bus lover. He is not a bus operator so he wouldnt understand CTA SOPs. :)

[Guest]

This is indeed puzzling on the CTA's part, Busjack... I know of the X55, but never heard of a X59. But honestly, some CTA riders don't know the difference between an Express and a Local, despite the signs both written and displayed on the crawls on the front and side of the buses, the audio announcement from "Mr. CTA", and even the occassional operator who will tell people as they come in that this is a Express Bus.(I'm sure T8H5307A and cta_5555 will agree here if they ever drove an "X" bus out of a garage) I've seen it many times on the X80. People get all P.O'ed because they want to exit at Kedzie(Local Stop), and the next stop for the Express is Kimball. They start yelling and pushing the back door making the dinger go off(or the beeper if it should be a New Flyer).

Two bottom lines here...

1) CTA needs to fix this mistake on their alert page

2) CTA Passengers(and people in general) CAN'T READ OR LISTEN TO INSTRUCTIONS!!!

And a personal vent on my part(sorry Kevin for being way OT, I'll try to be brief)...

When you're on a Cell Phone and in your car, or in this case in a checkout line, PUT THE PHONE AWAY AND TAKE CARE OF THE BUSINESS AT HAND!!! I had a customer yesterday who was chirping away on her phone and almost walked out without paying for her groceries! Another earlier in the day complained to whoever he was talking to that I(the Cashier asking for his shopper card, telling him his total, etc...) was interrupting him. I'm just doing my job like T8H5307A and cta_5555 do, like Busjack, and Kevin, and even all the chicagobus.org members do(whatever those jobs are). And in the case of myself, T8H5307A and cta_5555, who are public workers, we are just doing our jobs! The least you, the customer, can do is put the phone down until you're away from the register or the farebox so you can listen to the Cashier or Bus Operator!

You certainly hit the nail on the head! They either choose not to read instructions or are just plain illiterate. But every passenger has to understand and read instructions otherwise they end up in a conflict with the driver and then theyre reporting the operator for a mistake the passsenger makes.

[MetroShadow]

Standard operating Procedures states the speed for making a turn is 3-5mph. I guess that is too slow for you....

I would argue with or without the SOP, that making a faster turn on a large bus would be disastrous. Its just common sense not to go extremely fast at the turns.

long rant snipped...

Well said. I would ride the X49 and X80 years ago, and people just dion't read the signs. People annoy me when they don't understand the difference between a local and a express; let alone pay attention at all.

Now if I was a driver on any of the express portion, I wouldn't dare make any exceptions. If my passengers want to take the risk and potentially walk 3-4 blocks back to their destinations, then that's their problem. I can sense the level of driver frustration, but still it wouldn't make sense to make accomodations to those who fail to pay attention.

Now as for this plan they're implementing: It really doesn't make any sense to me, because if you're making all locals run 15 minutes with these long drives, would discourage passengers from even taking the locals. In my opinion, maybe with the express runs every 7-10 minutes, the least the locals can do is make them 12 minutes to at least put one extra bus on the line...

just a thought

[Buslover88]

I would argue with or without the SOP, that making a faster turn on a large bus would be disastrous. Its just common sense not to go extremely fast at the turns.

I can agree with that. That would be disatrous.

UPDATE, @ 4:01pm -

Standard operating Procedures states the speed for making a turn is 3-5mph. I guess that is too slow for you....

I can understand that, but this driver kept switching lanes, then he made a right turn on Addison from Pulaski where you're supposed to go straight on Pulaski. He should've been in the turning lane.

Buslover is just that, a bus lover. He is not a bus operator so he wouldnt understand CTA SOPs.

Well, I would, but that driver on #6776 didn't look like he was following SOP standards.

[sw4400]

First of all, you're a passenger too, so you're talking about yourself, too. Second, this doesn't probably apply to EVERY SINGLE (and don't think about giving the argument they don't, anyone) passenger. I read and listen to instructions.

Sorry about that, Buslover88. At the time of posting, I was just so mad with the ignorance of the two cell phone chatters I had at the store. What I should've said was "Some CTA Passengers and Some People Don't Know How To Read and Listen To Instructions".

[BusHunter]

Speaking of mistakes, I couldn't help but notice all these stop relocations last week. The white paper sign that is put up says the bus now stops here, so people stand there. The actual stop in places is up to 50 feet away. One example is at Addison/Cicero EB, the stop is now across the street at the first alley, (maybe 50 -60 feet from the intersection) where the paper sign is only 10 feet from the intersection. I saw some guy get passed up in the rain because he stood at the wrong spot. Kind of reminds me of riders of the #156. On #4000's the rear door says touch here, so they press there hand on the word here instead of on the hands symbol. When the door doesn't open they get mad. I don't know why but it just seems to happen on that route.

[cta_44499_FG]

Now if I was a driver on any of the express portion, I wouldn't dare make any exceptions. If my passengers want to take the risk and potentially walk 3-4 blocks back to their destinations, then that's their problem. I can sense the level of driver frustration, but still it wouldn't make sense to make accomodations to those who fail to pay attention.

Exactly that. Sometimes people take it as you are "being rude" by teaching them this hard lesson, but as I politely tell them, if you weren't sure you should have asked, and it is just as rude to the riders whom knowingly boarded this bus for me to cause a delay in their service because of you. Point blank.

Sometimes riders just don't ask questions. I encountered a similar experience last week, not the extent of this...but to the consequence of not asking questions. I had switched my day off and got a run where I did the 36 and 146. My first trip on my second half on the 146, I had a group of college kids board at State and Randolph, didn't say a word or anything...mind you I was only going to Roosevelt at this point in the night. When we turned at Roosevelt and I informed them it was the last stop....they asked me if I was going to the Shedd Aquarium. Mind you, the last bus to/from the Museum Campus was about 15 minutes before me, which I informed them, and of course now there is no longer #12 service at all. They now had to walk, to and from. Of course, at 2130....I don't see any of the attractions open...oh well.

The point of this was exactly was DSorrell said, riders fail to pay attention...and backs up my point that sometimes the only way to train them is the hard way.

[BusHunter]

Exactly that. Sometimes people take it as you are "being rude" by teaching them this hard lesson, but as I politely tell them, if you weren't sure you should have asked, and it is just as rude to the riders whom knowingly boarded this bus for me to cause a delay in their service because of you. Point blank.

Sometimes riders just don't ask questions. I encountered a similar experience last week, not the extent of this...but to the consequence of not asking questions. I had switched my day off and got a run where I did the 36 and 146. My first trip on my second half on the 146, I had a group of college kids board at State and Randolph, didn't say a word or anything...mind you I was only going to Roosevelt at this point in the night. When we turned at Roosevelt and I informed them it was the last stop....they asked me if I was going to the Shedd Aquarium. Mind you, the last bus to/from the Museum Campus was about 15 minutes before me, which I informed them, and of course now there is no longer #12 service at all. They now had to walk, to and from. Of course, at 2130....I don't see any of the attractions open...oh well.

The point of this was exactly was DSorrell said, riders fail to pay attention...and backs up my point that sometimes the only way to train them is the hard way.

Sometimes talking to the driver backfires on the customer. I know of one such incident where a customer who pulled the cord and had a stop requested sign had there stop passed up. When they said to the driver you passed my stop. The driver said you should have pulled the cord. The customer said they did and pointed to the stop requested sign. The driver hits the gas and takes them to the next stop then swears at them when they disembark. I guess it all depends on a driver's state of mind at the time.

[Buslover88]

Sorry about that, Buslover88. At the time of posting, I was just so mad with the ignorance of the two cell phone chatters I had at the store. What I should've said was "Some CTA Passengers and Some People Don't Know How To Read and Listen To Instructions".

That's okay . I also apologize, to you. I was very angry yesterday as well.

[T8H5307A]

Some CTA Passengers(and some people) CAN'T READ OR LISTEN TO INSTRUCTIONS!!!

You mean Humanoids, they are Humanoids not passengers!

[cta_44499_FG]

Sometimes talking to the driver backfires on the customer. I know of one such incident where a customer who pulled the cord and had a stop requested sign had there stop passed up. When they said to the driver you passed my stop. The driver said you should have pulled the cord. The customer said they did and pointed to the stop requested sign. The driver hits the gas and takes them to the next stop then swears at them when they disembark. I guess it all depends on a driver's state of mind at the time.

Are you insinuating that we are all that way? Because you are severely misguided if u think so...