Why does the Purple Line need to stop...

[dauber]

...at Sheridan for Cubs games when Belmont is just as close???

[Jon]

From a logical standpoint, stopping at Sheridan is more logical as no backtracking is required to go to Wrigley.

Sheridan is just a little bit closer, for whatever it's worth.

...at Sheridan for Cubs games when Belmont is just as close???

[MetroShadow]

From a logical standpoint, stopping at Sheridan is more logical as no backtracking is required to go to Wrigley.

Sheridan is just a little bit closer, for whatever it's worth.

Back when I was at Payton, the purple line trains went to Addison...moving the trains north to Sheridan without having to perform additional (if not unnecessary) switches increases efficiency.

Then again, I purposely took those Purple lines to/from Addison if I needed to head to Howard.

[Zol87]

Back when I was at Payton, the purple line trains went to Addison...moving the trains north to Sheridan without having to perform additional (if not unnecessary) switches increases efficiency.

Then again, I purposely took those Purple lines to/from Addison if I needed to head to Howard.

How does it stop at Addison without using the inner tracks that the red line uses?

[Busjack]

How does it stop at Addison without using the inner tracks that the red line uses?

There is a switch north of Addison, so yes, it can switch to the inner track, and while I haven't been on Purple Line trains that use it, I have been on Red Line trains that used the outer track at Sheridan, and then switched before Addison.

Give all the alerts about track work at Sheridan (such as this one) there must be a lot of that going on.

Of course, there is the myriad of new switches before Belmont.

[jcmellencamp78]

There is a switch north of Addison, so yes, it can switch to the inner track, and while I haven't been on Purple Line trains that use it, I have been on Red Line trains that used the outer track at Sheridan, and then switched before Addison.

Give all the alerts about track work at Sheridan (such as this one) there must be a lot of that going on.

Of course, there is the myriad of new switches before Belmont.

The Purple Line does NOT stop at Sheridan. Southbound trains that is anyway. I was trying to take the Purple Line to Washington/Wells to transfer to the Pink Line. I was at the platform and the Purple Line just flew by.

And for what it is worth, Sheridan is much closer that Belmont.

[MetroShadow]

How does it stop at Addison without using the inner tracks that the red line uses?

The northbound trains would at least move over to the inner track once leaving Belmont. That is, to use the NB red line track (the first crossover the Brown Line uses to get to their own crossover). The Purple would remain on NB Red until Addison, then the switch north of Addison will allow them to go along their "express-way."

Southbound trains would switch after Sheridan, stay on the SB red until the Brown Line Merge at Clark Jct., then goes back to the outer track.

[Busjack]

The Purple Line does NOT stop at Sheridan. Southbound trains that is anyway. I was trying to take the Purple Line to Washington/Wells to transfer to the Pink Line. I was at the platform and the Purple Line just flew by.

And for what it is worth, Sheridan is much closer that Belmont.

The Cubs specials are only at game time. See the Purple Line timetable, which says:

Weekday Service For Cubs Night Games

Southbound afternoon Express trains will stop at the Sheridan Red Line station for Cubs night games. Use northbound Red Line trains after night games to connect at Howard with Purple Line trains and with Yellow Line trains which operate until midnight after weekday night games.

So, unless you were there on game night, the comment wouldn't be relevant.

[artthouwill]

The Cubs specials are only at game time. See the Purple Line timetable, which says:

So, unless you were there on game night, the comment wouldn't be relevant.

A few points

1. Only Southbond Purples stop for night games, and NB trains during rush hour after day games.

2. The original Addison station was not an island station but on the outer tracks, and was also a "B" station (for those who remember when the Cubs weren't a big draw and when there was "A" "B" skip stop service and the trains were Englewood/Jackson Pk - Howard). "A" trains only stopped for games, otherwise A trains stayed on the inner track and "B" trains used the outer track at Addison only. Part of the reason for building an island platform was for the Purple Line trains to run unimpeded during game times. I believe Sheridan was chosen in part to minimize delays on both lines. That said, the Addison island platform as constructed is way too small and can't handle the crowds. Inhindsight, perhaps a better wayto have built an island platform at Addison would have been to duplicate the Loyola station setup, similar to the way the old Washington subway station (now half Washington and half Lake) used to be, that is Northbound trains on the north end of the platform and southbound trains on the south end of the platform.

3. Slightly OT, but just northof the Addison station there is some building on Wilton and the owner has some old street signs ( W 26th, S California is one example), some old Addison CTA station signs and even an old 5 Jeffery and Jeffery Express CTA bus stop ( the Green signs where the local was green print on white background and the express was white print on darkgreen background). Of course this is a notoriousl slow zone, but it was very interesting to see.

4. Purple Line trains started stopping at Brown Line stations when it became evident that 6 car Brown Line trains couldn't handle the loads it started getting. It helped in the a.m. rush, but during the p.m. rush, it seemed that people still opted for the Brown Line trains over the Purple Line. I thought that problem was solved when they rerouted the Purple Line to follow Brown Line routing in the Loop. But now they have reverted back to the original routing, Brown line trains are operating at crush loads as 8 car trains and Purple line trains aren't crowded as 6 car trains. Perhaps this is due to Brown lines better frequency, you'll see 3 or more Browns for every Purple.

[MetroShadow]

3. Slightly OT, but just northof the Addison station there is some building on Wilton and the owner has some old street signs ( W 26th, S California is one example), some old Addison CTA station signs and even an old 5 Jeffery and Jeffery Express CTA bus stop ( the Green signs where the local was green print on white background and the express was white print on darkgreen background). Of course this is a notoriousl slow zone, but it was very interesting to see.

That owner used to have a at least 2 other CTA signs on top of the "classic" 5.

[Busjack]

art: only one slight correction:

The island platform was constructed as part of the project to connect the Dan Ryan to Howard to establish the current Red Line (the others were, of course, the tunnel from 14th to 18th and the Howard Yard improvements and shop). The concern was not forcing the Red Line trains onto the outer track at Addison, not the Purple Line.

[artthouwill]

art: only one slight correction:

The island platform was constructed as part of the project to connect the Dan Ryan to Howard to establish the current Red Line (the others were, of course, the tunnel from 14th to 18th and the Howard Yard improvements and shop). The concern was not forcing the Red Line trains onto the outer track at Addison, not the Purple Line.

I stated in my post that the purpose of building the island platforms at Addison was for the Purple Line trains to run unimpeded, meaning that the Red Line trains would not have to switch to the outer tracks.

This is the quote from mypost:

Part of the reason for building an island platform was for the Purple Line trains to run unimpeded during game times.

[jcmellencamp78]

4. Purple Line trains started stopping at Brown Line stations when it became evident that 6 car Brown Line trains couldn't handle the loads it started getting. It helped in the a.m. rush, but during the p.m. rush, it seemed that people still opted for the Brown Line trains over the Purple Line. I thought that problem was solved when they rerouted the Purple Line to follow Brown Line routing in the Loop. But now they have reverted back to the original routing, Brown line trains are operating at crush loads as 8 car trains and Purple line trains aren't crowded as 6 car trains. Perhaps this is due to Brown lines better frequency, you'll see 3 or more Browns for every Purple.

[trainman8119]

4. Purple Line trains started stopping at Brown Line stations when it became evident that 6 car Brown Line trains couldn't handle the loads it started getting.

I will disagree with that statement. I believe Purples started stopping at Browns when they really weren't "express" trains anymore because they kept getting caught behind Brown (at the time Ravenswood) trains. It was decided then that Evanston Express trains would make additional stops because they were stopping anyway and too many people were whining that they wouldn't open doors, and since they were stopped why not do so. Then the Evanston people were getting po'ed because at the time they were paying additional fares for so called "express" service and having to stop and pick up a "lower clientelle" who didn't have to pay extra (go back to the 70's and 80's...times have changed since then). If I remember, in it's day, Evanston Express trains did not even stop at Belmont and Fullerton (those were the first 2 added as stops)....it was a straight shot from Howard to the Mart.

[Busjack]

I stated in my post that the purpose of building the island platforms at Addison was for the Purple Line trains to run unimpeded, meaning that the Red Line trains would not have to switch to the outer tracks.

This is the quote from mypost:

Part of the reason for building an island platform was for the Purple Line trains to run unimpeded during game times.

Thanks for the clarification, but I still think it had nothing to do with the Purple Line or game times, but just that they didn't want to switch half the Red Line trains (or all of them once AB service ended).

As trainman's post implies, if there ever was any concern about Purple Line trains being impeded, they would have run them on the inner track between Belmont and Fullerton, since the Brown Line impedes them worse than any delay in unloading a Red Line train at Addison.

[Busjack]

I will disagree with that statement. I believe Purples started stopping at Browns when they really weren't "express" trains anymore because they kept getting caught behind Brown (at the time Ravenswood) trains. It was decided then that Evanston Express trains would make additional stops because they were stopping anyway and too many people were whining that they wouldn't open doors, and since they were stopped why not do so. Then the Evanston people were getting po'ed because at the time they were paying additional fares for so called "express" service and having to stop and pick up a "lower clientelle" who didn't have to pay extra (go back to the 70's and 80's...times have changed since then). If I remember, in it's day, Evanston Express trains did not even stop at Belmont and Fullerton (those were the first 2 added as stops)....it was a straight shot from Howard to the Mart.

The official reason was overloading on the Brown Line. The real reason may have been that the Purple Line was stuck behind the Brown Line trains, but CTA never stated that (nor never could for PR reasons).

[artthouwill]

Thanks for the clarification, but I still think it had nothing to do with the Purple Line or game times, but just that they didn't want to switch half the Red Line trains (or all of them once AB service ended).

As trainman's post implies, if there ever was any concern about Purple Line trains being impeded, they would have run them on the inner track between Belmont and Fullerton, since the Brown Line impedes them worse than any delay in unloading a Red Line train at Addison.

I read somewhere (don't know how true it is) but there was some talk about rerouting the Purple line thru the Red Line subway and cpnnect to the Orange Line out to Midway. The Midway connect makes no sense to me, but me thinks the subway reroute is a good idea. I would connect it to the SSM instead. There is no cost for that. This way the west side Green Line could circle the Loop and go back west.

[Busjack]

I read somewhere (don't know how true it is) but there was some talk about rerouting the Purple line thru the Red Line subway and cpnnect to the Orange Line out to Midway. The Midway connect makes no sense to me, but me thinks the subway reroute is a good idea. I would connect it to the SSM instead. There is no cost for that. This way the west side Green Line could circle the Loop and go back west.

The Circle Line (really conceptual) Plan talked about routing it through the State Street subway, and then up the SSM incline to the Orange Line, and then up the Circle Line bridge over the Chicago River (currently nonexistent) to the United Center. Some say that other plans were just to end it at Cermak-Chinatown. The link is http://www.chicago-l.org/plans/CircleLine.html, although some of you said that site was too sensitive to just clicking on the link from another site.

The real problem with interlining the Purple Line with anything is that, as currently configured, it only runs rush hour. So, unless your proposal is to make the SSM Green Line rush hour only, it isn't going to fly.

Of course, you would have to wonder about the use of the State Street subway if the Clinton Street line through the West Loop Transportation Center were ever built.

Update: There was also the planning group's suggestion about the future rapid transit system, including a route running the length of the city based on 4 track express service similar to the Purple Line on the north main.