CTA Bus Rapid Transit (take two)

[jajuan]

1 minute ago, Busjack said:

Are people forgetting that a 60 foot bus is 2 30 foot buses, or are they figuring that the rear compartment is going to whack something on day one?

Even though you're quoting me it was BH's concern. Remember I made that point when mentioning artics from 151 and 156 shouldn't have too much problem making the right and left turns needed to get from Jackson into the terminal. To answer your question, it may be the latter point of your question. But I probably should point out that despite having the turn radius of a 30-foor bus as you're intimating, in practice when you have intersection of two narrower width streets, the oncoming vehicles need to sometimes be situated some feet back from the stop line so that that artic can get through the turn without whacking anything. So the street island forces a left turn would seem a valid concern as far as the question of whether the city engineers took the length of 60 foot buses into account when determining how to space it in relation to the bus terminal.

[BusHunter]

But you cant park a long bus unless you have some room.

[BusHunter]

On Sunday, September 04, 2016 at 2:55 AM, cta5658 said:

Those look really impressive

Yeah nice shots indeed. Nice camera.

[jajuan]

4 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

But you cant park a long bus unless you have some room.

Well on that point BH, the pics would seem to suggest that there's room for a 60 foot bus to layover. Looking at each of the relevant schedules, it's likely going to be one bus pulling away as the following bus pulls up for a layover. So it shouldn't be a problem on that front. 

[ajm522]

14 hours ago, jajuan said:

It's still Labor Day weekend though sir if that's the case, and they still usually do the full holiday weekend with artics. 

There was one arctic out there, 4006 was out on 124 later in the day.

[BusHunter]

Ill have to check it out but the outer lane looks  wide. Maybe  i can  get over there and see it. 

[jajuan]

Juniorz's pics show the lane that 124 berths in to be the same width as the other two with construction vehicles able to pass regular vehicles comfortably. So it doesn't look like buses will have problems passing each other if need be. I'm sure CTA made that clear that buses would need to be able to fit side by side in each of the lanes to keep schedule. 

[BusHunter]

11 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Ill have to check it out but the outer lane looks  wide. Maybe  i can  get over there and see it. 

Ok i was over there and the lanes are quite large

I took a few shots of the transfer tunnel as well as a few exterior shots. 

They have this sign and some express bus sign maybe for the #121 because I really didnt see a sign for it or the 1. They will no doubt be the most confused  riders 

[jajuan]

On Busjack's prior question of whether the 1, 28, 151 and 156 will be returned to Adams on their way to the Transit Center after construction, I forgot to mention that CTA had changed all their new routing notices to revised temporary reroute notices on the website. The notices include the advisories to disembark at Wacker/Adams for Union Station that were part of earlier drafts  of the upcoming alerts for these routes last week and that had been removed from the later drafts that had become weekend notices.. Looking tonight, they put the route change notices back and have them in addition to the revised route change notices. The one for the #1 and #28, for example.

 

[Busjack]

8 minutes ago, jajuan said:

On Busjack's prior question of whether the 1, 28, 151 and 156 will be returned to Adams on their way to the Transit Center after construction, I forgot to mention that CTA had changed all their new routing notices to revised temporary reroute notices on the website. The notices include the advisories to disembark at Wacker/Adams for Union Station that were part of earlier drafts  of the upcoming alerts for these routes last week and that had been removed from the later drafts that had become weekend notices.. Looking tonight, they put the route change notices back and have them in addition to the revised route change notices. The one for the #1 and #28, for example.

 

As previously noted, a.m. buses that don't turn back end at Adams/Wacker, so as a universal rule, that would still be correct. However, that would not be necessary if the passengers knew that they were on the one out of 3 or one out of 2 buses that go to the TC. Even if the alerts have been corrected, they don't indicate what will happen when the bridge reopens.

[jajuan]

34 minutes ago, Busjack said:

As previously noted, a.m. buses that don't turn back end at Adams/Wacker, so as a universal rule, that would still be correct. However, that would not be necessary if the passengers knew that they were on the one out of 3 or one out of 2 buses that go to the TC. Even if the alerts have been corrected, they don't indicate what will happen when the bridge reopens.

Well if they're considered temporary reroutes, it's probably safe to infer that after the bridge reopens, at the very least buses going to the transit center might be routed Adams, Clinton, TC.  Why keeping going Adams, Wacker, Van Buren, Jefferson, and Jackson to the TC when the bridge would be open at that point? Also in the case of 151, with all its AM rush trips that reach the vicinity of between 7:54 and 9:54 except one ending at Wacker, those either have to be turning into something else and the NB trips coming from something else, or they're on the old reroute because obviously there are NB buses leaving the Union Station timepoint between 8 and 10 in the morning on weekdays.  

[BusHunter]

Huh my theory is right. If a dead bus is in a bay at usts the passing bus then blocks two lanes. #1010 currently disabled in the #151 bay. Or if its being serviced, (the mobile truck is here) the whole bay is blocked. 

[Kevin]

Prepaid boarding pilot coming to Madison/Dearborn. 

[Sam92]

22 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Prepaid boarding pilot coming to Madison/Dearborn. 

Is the one at Belmont still going on? 

[west towns]

At union station wonder why pace route 755 doesnt use the terminal?

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, west towns said:

At union station wonder why pace route 755 doesnt use the terminal?

That's a good question, as Union Station obviously is the terminus of the route.

I was going to make a crack about Emanuel; however, from the map, the bus has to go south on Clinton from the stop to get to Harrison. If it went to the TC, it would either have to cross the bridge  or loop via Canal and Adams.

[BusHunter]

6 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Huh my theory is right. If a dead bus is in a bay at ustc the passing bus then blocks two lanes. #4010 currently disabled in the #151 bay. Or if its being serviced, (the mobile truck is here) the whole bay is blocked. 

Here's some shots of that

The #151's had to use the #124 lane

And in this case the #156 bay too, which made us all question what bus was first

Then his leader had his butt sticking out. See what I was saying. Now if this were rush hour they would have a problem

BTW, I learned two things also, the mobile trucks are hybrids, since when? Also when did the Chevy express van get a hybrid? Those must be new mobile trucks. This was truck #615 btw.

 

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Then his leader had his butt sticking out. See what I was saying. Now if this were rush hour they would have a problem

It looks like if the rear end weren't sticking out, but more importantly, if the mechanics' truck wasn't blocking the lane, there is a second lane. However, probably wouldn't leave sufficient platform space.

8 hours ago, BusHunter said:

BTW, I learned two things also, the mobile trucks are hybrids, since when? Also when did the Chevy express van get a hybrid?

This search indicates that the hybrid system must have been added by an after market customizer. Chevy's build it page indicates only a WT (Vortec gasoline or flex fuel) or Duramax diesel.

[Juniorz]

Now in Revenue!

The station looks better in person and continues the "premium theme" of the LoopLink stations. 

[Juniorz]

On 9/10/2016 at 7:37 PM, Kevin said:

Prepaid boarding pilot coming to Madison/Dearborn. 

Information is now available for the LoopLink-prepaid boarding! The pilot begins September 19th

http://www.transitchicago.com/looplinkprepaid/

[Busjack]

24 minutes ago, Juniorz said:

Information is now available for the LoopLink-prepaid boarding! The pilot begins September 19th

http://www.transitchicago.com/looplinkprepaid/

The "magic words" in that (and harks back to Belmont) are:

During the evening rush period (3pm to 6:30pm), you will be able to pay your fare in advance of boarding so you can get on your bus and get to your destination more quickly. ...Note that outside of evening rush periods, when prepaid boarding is not in effect, you will pay your fare onboard the bus as before.

i.e. not all the time.

The area will also be staffed by designated CTA employees similar to train stations to help assist customers.

and prevent fare jumpers. If having a CA at each platform is going to be a requirement, I wonder how CTA is going to justify paying for that.

Also, they are saying that Ventra vending machines are nearby, but not there.

 

 

 

[Juniorz]

11 minutes ago, Busjack said:

The "magic words" in that (and harks back to Belmont) are:

During the evening rush period (3pm to 6:30pm), you will be able to pay your fare in advance of boarding so you can get on your bus and get to your destination more quickly. ...Note that outside of evening rush periods, when prepaid boarding is not in effect, you will pay your fare onboard the bus as before.

i.e. not all the time.

The area will also be staffed by designated CTA employees similar to train stations to help assist customers.

and prevent fare jumpers. If having a CA at each platform is going to be a requirement, I wonder how CTA is going to justify paying for that.

Also, they are saying that Ventra vending machines are nearby, but not there.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if the CTA has looked at this notion, but mta's selectbus service is a great example of how they are trying to implement prepay service. There are special fare kisok at the stops "stations" and all doors are opened for passenger boarding when the bus arrives with no CA's overseeing the service. Customers must have a valid Selectbus transfer should transit guards are abroad the bus. This service is also used successfully at CTfastrak.

[BusHunter]

51 minutes ago, Busjack said:

The "magic words" in that (and harks back to Belmont) are:

During the evening rush period (3pm to 6:30pm), you will be able to pay your fare in advance of boarding so you can get on your bus and get to your destination more quickly. ...Note that outside of evening rush periods, when prepaid boarding is not in effect, you will pay your fare onboard the bus as before.

i.e. not all the time.

The area will also be staffed by designated CTA employees similar to train stations to help assist customers.

and prevent fare jumpers. If having a CA at each platform is going to be a requirement, I wonder how CTA is going to justify paying for that.

Also, they are saying that Ventra vending machines are nearby, but not there.

 

 

 

Yeah, I think this is CTA's way of trying to get the loop link stops all prepaid fare areas but don't tell me how you can police it. They were attempting to do that. This is probably their pilot. At Belmont a supervisor was doing the CA's job, this way in a way he's got a dual function, point supervisor and CA so you can justify his/her presence but I don't know how that can be done with 8 stops. Eventually, they could install a rotogate but they need to seal the streetside in glass like the O'hare people mover and when the bus comes it trips the doors. It's not designed right to do that though.

Probably more interesting though is how are they going to prevent entrance from both sides of the loop link platform with one CA?

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, Juniorz said:

I'm not sure if the CTA has looked at this notion, but mta's selectbus service is a great example of how they are trying to implement prepay service. There are special fare kisok at the stops "stations" and all doors are opened for passenger boarding when the bus arrives with no CA's overseeing the service. Customers must have a valid Selectbus transfer should transit guards are abroad the bus. This service is also used successfully at CTfastrak.

The issues appear to be:

• SBS seems to be for the entire length of the route, while Loop Link is only a mile. Thus, for instance, the fare collection from 103rd to Madison, or even Ogden-California would be different than on the Loop Link. Probably would have to have offboard fare payment at the Union Station Transit Center, at least for 124.
• As you noted, NY passengers need a receipt. The MTA page says if they pay cash, which they can't at this Loop Link station. However, as I implied  above, they can pay cash outside the Loop Link. The "transit guards" implies that there would have to be fare inspectors able to distinguish among the passengers (and presumably be able to read the Ventra cards to make sure that a legal fare was paid). Could be done, but seems like a P.I.T.A.

[Juniorz]

To clear up some of these preconceived notions, here's the grandfather of all documents related to the USTC.

G22-16--Union Station Transit Center Bulletin.pdf