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New Express Routes Coming Soon.


jesi2282

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13 minutes ago, west towns said:

How will the express buses run if lane gets clogged with yuppies paying big $$$ to drive fast?

 

The "drive fast" is the issue, as the current speed limit on the shoulder is 35 m.p.h. Presumably, if the express lane is clogged, people will not pay to use it.

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On 2/4/2016 at 3:11 PM, Busjack said:

The "drive fast" is the issue, as the current speed limit on the shoulder is 35 m.p.h. Presumably, if the express lane is clogged, people will not pay to use it.

And that 35 m.p.h. limit on the shoulder seems to be a standard because other TA's I've seen have express bus routes that have authorization to operate on expressway shoulders in rush hour when there's congestion also have to adhere to a posted 35 m.p.h speed limit. Minneapolis-St. Paul's Metro for example adheres to this setup for example with its multitude of express routes that have express zones along I-35W if I'm not mistaken. 

Edited by jajuan
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17 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Can't say that they didn't try.

Come to think about it, I wonder if Pace could have been like CTA and just initially say that the route was an experiment, obviating the need for a public hearing. At least the hearing is where the bus drops people off.

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4 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Damn so I wonder if NS is losing the highway eldorado. They could always use it for #626.

The few times i woke up at 6 a.m., they were using a 30 foot bus (per Webwatch). Looks like 6377 and 6378 are mostly for 619 and 620.

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3 hours ago, Busjack said:

Come to think about it, I wonder if Pace could have been like CTA and just initially say that the route was an experiment, obviating the need for a public hearing. At least the hearing is where the bus drops people off.

It depends on their Title VI guidelines. I forgot when they started the route, but if you didn't mention "pilot," and/or gave a timeline, then you [should] have one. 

 

Then again, they're the type of agency to do one for good measure. 

Edited by MetroShadow
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40 minutes ago, Busjack said:

...but the one under 631 didn't say there was a hearing on 631.

That's correct. I didn't read the header that says the hearing is for 618. The text beginning with "Pace proposes the elimination..." gave me the incorrect impression that the other routes were affected as well.

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  • 4 weeks later...
11 hours ago, west towns said:

Why was this trip never shown in the metra Milwaukee north schedule?  It served only metra passengers seems metra was asleep on the throttle on this one.  

That would require cooperation, which isn't one of Metra's strengths. For the same reason, the 7:30 PM #755 bus to Joliet doesn't appear on the HC schedule.

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  • 2 months later...

I guess as relevant here as anywhere, is  a Daily Herald article about Rosemont station renovations, including "The facility is out-of-date and also needs to be modernized to accommodate new Pace express buses that will be traveling on the widened Jane Addams Tollway." Surprising thing is that it says Cook County owns the facility, not CTA.

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1 hour ago, Busjack said:

I guess as relevant here as anywhere, is  a Daily Herald article about Rosemont station renovations, including "The facility is out-of-date and also needs to be modernized to accommodate new Pace express buses that will be traveling on the widened Jane Addams Tollway." Surprising thing is that it says Cook County owns the facility, not CTA.

Interesting that Pace will fund this then. o.O I guess no one else will. 9_9 Rosemont should really help pay the bill, they have so many hotels and convention centers and arenas, they are like a mini Vegas. They have to be swimming in cash. You know in Rosemont no one pays real estate taxes.

Well as far as the terminal reconstruction, why face the buses west. I don't get that unless they plan on some direct access to River Rd. Maybe smarter would be to design a bus ramp on/off the tollway direct to the station. Then they just eliminated alot of bus traffic. Seems like there may be an excess of bus traffic for north River Rd and Higgins. They could always create a perk for park n ride customers and let them use the ramp to escape a toll if they are willing to ride the CTA "L". This would be dependent on them staying/parking in the lot or leaving to go back west.  Regardless though they will probably need more bays or they will have bus overcrowding. Some routes share bays and if you introduce up to 5 more, I don't know how everyone will fit. Then you also have the issue of where everyone will layover. So this does have the potential to be a circus if not handled correctly. We shall see what happens.

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There IS a direct ramp for buses from EB tollway to the station. Has been used by 606 for years. Only problem is it is "manual" in that driver has to get off, open gate, pull thru, get out again to close gate, then continue. Basically it is a service road off River Rd for the toll plaza.

As for county owning River Rd station, I believe county also owns Cumberland and Harlem, as they are within highway rights-of-way.

 

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52 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

There IS a direct ramp for buses from EB tollway to the station. Has been used by 606 for years. Only problem is it is "manual" in that driver has to get off, open gate, pull thru, get out again to close gate, then continue. Basically it is a service road off River Rd for the toll plaza.

As for county owning River Rd station, I believe county also owns Cumberland and Harlem, as they are within highway rights-of-way.

 

Yeah I know, but lately they haven't been opening a gate. It's left open. It used to be closed though in the Academy era. Maybe it is closed non rush, I don't know as I haven't traveled non rush since the #2300's were there.

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9 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Interesting that Pace will fund this then.

Pace got the CMAQ grants for the I-90 project.

 

9 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

As for county owning River Rd station, I believe county also owns Cumberland and Harlem, as they are within highway rights-of-way.

But the expressways are state property. Again, if I would have guessed, I would have thought Rosemont was also state property, because that land was an abandoned part of a full cloverleaf. Maybe the state unloaded the property on the county.

 

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9 hours ago, BusHunter said:

why face the buses west

It didn't say the buses would face west, just that the berths would be moved west. It sounds like they want to keep pedestrians from walking directly in front of buses by stopping farther from the crosswalk.

8 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Maybe it is closed non rush, I don't know

I believe it is always open now, at least it was last time I rode 606 on a Saturday.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/19/2015 at 0:38 PM, BusHunter said:

. I don't really know where the choke point starts on the Edens,

Tonight illustrates the problem. The SB Edens was packed (radio said travel time 1 hour) and i saw a 626 bus (6235) on Skokie Road in Wilmette.

Does dispatch send a message to the driver to get off the expressway, or did he decide the case was hopeless while approaching Exit 34A?

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3 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Tonight illustrates the problem. The SB Edens was packed (radio said travel time 1 hour) and i saw a 626 bus (6235) on Skokie Road in Wilmette.

Does dispatch send a message to the driver to get off the expressway, or did he decide the case was hopeless while approaching Exit 34A?

If any lessons were learned from watching Academy operations, it would be that they contact the dispatcher and he tells them to deviate or detour, so it wouldn't be to much of a leap to say that is what's happening here. As far as where the choke point is, it can pretty bad from south of Lake-Cook Rd on the Edens.

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