Red Line South Reconstruction Bus Changes

[MetroShadow]

I didn't take the survey but if the portion of J14 south of 67th works as represented, it would be less of a hassle than making transfers at 95th and Garfield and navigating both crowds, even if the two transfers are free inbound. Also the transfer at 103rd probably won't be the hectic mess the outbound ones at Garfield and 95th are.

I'm assuming that Metra isn't an alternative in the South Holland and south portions of the route.

South of 138th, that would require a minimum of a crosstown transfer.

[renardo870]

It would be interesting if the X28 Stony Island Express came back and actually ran a limited stop route like stopping every 2 to 4 blocks between 95th and 47th (every bus connecting street and every 1/2 mile street) before going express to downtown. Also have the local 28 run as well. I'm not a planner but Stony Island is a straight shot to Hyde Park and Lake Shore but I know the premier route is the J14

[Busjack]

It would be interesting if the X28 Stony Island Express came back and actually ran a limited stop route like stopping every 2 to 4 blocks between 95th and 47th (every bus connecting street and every 1/2 mile street) before going express to downtown. Also have the local 28 run as well. I'm not a planner but Stony Island is a straight shot to Hyde Park and Lake Shore but I know the premier route is the J14

IIRC, X28 wasn't limited stops like 14 was. The merger of 28 and X28 didn't appear to accomplish much on a practical level, except to get one variant off Lake Park Ave.

Update: I had to check the schedule.

[renardo870]

I know that the 28 never was a limited stop service like the 14. I was stating that it would be nice if it was. The Lakefront Express service could use some improvements.

[Busjack]

I know that the 28 never was a limited stop service like the 14. I was stating that it would be nice if it was. The Lakefront Express service could use some improvements.

I don't think that an argument along those lines will be effective, so long as other X routes are not reinstated.

[jajuan]

The other interesting part of that post is that it says that the stop on 353 at 103rd is permanent.

Even more interesting is the that two Pace express shuttles begin two weeks before the Dan Ryan shutdown starts. From what I see in that post and the passenger notice under 353 they'll be rush hour service only with the exception of the single trip in each direction in the midday where they will operate as a single combined route.

[renardo870]

I don't think that an argument along those lines will be effective, so long as other X routes are not reinstated.

Like the X3 or the X4? I know that will not happen.

[MetroShadow]

I know that the 28 never was a limited stop service like the 14. I was stating that it would be nice if it was. The Lakefront Express service could use some improvements.

While I agree in principle and on paper, logistically it would make sense to go four blocks to Jeffery; it would make even more sense if the TSP on Jeffery would be completed beforehand to ensure folks can get through that corridor quickly.

[Sam92]

While I agree in principle and on paper, logistically it would make sense to go four blocks to Jeffery; it would make even more sense if the TSP on Jeffery would be completed beforehand to ensure folks can get through that corridor quickly.

If the 4300 hybrids are meant to become the new Jump artics then that probably won't happen till after the project when all the moves slow down and K and 77th send their 2 hybrids to 103rd. They started some kind of work for the jump signal on anthony cause theres a bus signal sign under the walkdont walk signal

[Busjack]

...They started some kind of work for the jump signal on anthony cause theres a bus signal sign under the walkdont walk signal

IIRC, that was the only place were they were going to put in the TSP.

[renardo870]

Well, some of the changes for the Red Line bus routes includes::

N5 South Shore Night Bus and 71 71st/South Shore extended to serve Garfied RED/GREEN LINE STATION

8A South Halsted rerouted and extended from 79th/RED to serve 63rd/Halsted RED LINE STATION

44 Wallace/Racine and 48 South Damen rerouted to serve Ashland/63rd RED LINE TERMINAL

51 51st rerouted and extended to serve 51st RED/GREEN LINE STATION

59 59th/61st rerouted and extended to serve 63rd/Halsted RED LINE STATION

FREE Dan Ryan Local/Express Shuttles includes:

R22 Cermak/Roosevelt Express Shuttle

R55 Dan Ryan OWL Shuttle 1am - 4am* Will operate when R63, R69, R79, R87 and R95 are not in service making all stops..

95th, 87th, 79th, 69th, 63rd and Garfield RED/GREEN LINE STATION

R63 Dan Ryan Local Shuttle 4am - 1am STOPS 95th, 87th, 79, 69th and 63rd

R69 69th - Garfield Express Shuttle 4am - 1am

R79 79th - Garfield Express Shuttle 4am - 1am

R87 87th - Garfield Express Shuttle 4am - 1am

R95 95th - Garfield Express Shuttle 4am - 1am

Expanded service may or will be provided on the 3 King Drive, 4 Cottage Grove, 6 Jackson Park Express, 8 Halsted , 9 Ashland, J14 Jeffery Jump, 24 Wentworth, 26 South Shore, 28 Stony Island (Union Station trips) and 29 State.

.50 cent discount will be applied to all bus routes south of 63rd Street.

[BusHunter]

Hopefully they come out with a map for the bus changes. (If not a system map, a south side map) Or everyone is going to be confused especially if taking that bus for the first time.

[Busjack]

Hopefully they come out with a map for the bus changes. (If not a system map, a south side map) Or everyone is going to be confused especially if taking that bus for the first time.

There are the brochures on the website, and the Google Trip Planner just for this.

I noted elsewhere that my messing around with the Trip Planner indicates that the R buses are not the preferred means suggested.

[Sam92]

IIRC, that was the only place were they were going to put in the TSP.

All lights between 73rd and 84th are supposed to be

[Busjack]

All lights between 73rd and 84th are supposed to be

The Jeffery Jump page does reflect that. I guess I got it confused with the Queue Jump, which is only at Anthony.

[jajuan]

There are the brochures on the website, and the Google Trip Planner just for this.

I noted elsewhere that my messing around with the Trip Planner indicates that the R buses are not the preferred means suggested.

Depends on where on the south side you want to go. I did a sample trip to 95th and State from my place for example on May 20th (first weekday of the project) starting at 3:50 PM, and just about all trips mentioned suggested one of more of the shuttles as part of the trip. The most obvious and fastest trip was for me to take an 84 bus to the Red Line, the Red Line to Garfield and R95 the rest of the way for a total trip time of 1 hour and 35 mins compared to 1 hour and 19 mins on a current typical weekday trip starting at that same time and has me on the Red Line straight to 95th after leaving the 84 these last weeks before the Dan Ryan closure. Of course those trips assume no traffic or train delays.

[Busjack]

Depends on where on the south side you want to go...

The few I played around with were confined to the south side, basically about 104th and Halsted to 60th and Woodlawn, and 104th and State to about the same. The first recommended 8A and 59 (makes sense since 59 is supposed to connect with the Halsted Green Line station), the latter recommended 95E and 4 (not quite as intuitive).

There were routes incorporating R buses, but seemed lower in the rankings. I'm not sure what the basis is for that order. In the second case, the times were about the same (I think that via the R bus was a minute faster).

Maybe the issue was that the proposed trips were not as far as Garfield.

[Busjack]

Update: I retraced the 104th and State one (at noon), and this time I got something entirely different:

1. 54 mins

   119

   29

   59

   12:14pm - 1:08pm
2. 1 hour 6 mins

   106

   28

   12:14pm - 1:20pm
3. 59 mins

   119

   29

   59

   12:29pm - 1:28pm
4. 1 hour 2 mins

   34

   R63

   63

   12:23pm - 1:24pm

   Maybe the rankings have to do with the next available bus, but except for #4, none use an R and I suppose I would rather end on 4 or 59 than 63.

[jajuan]

Update: I retraced the 104th and State one (at noon), and this time I got something entirely different:

1. 54 mins

   119

   29

   59

   12:14pm - 1:08pm
2. 1 hour 6 mins

   106

   28

   12:14pm - 1:20pm
3. 59 mins

   119

   29

   59

   12:29pm - 1:28pm
4. 1 hour 2 mins

   34

   R63

   63

   12:23pm - 1:24pm

   Maybe the rankings have to do with the next available bus, but except for #4, none use an R and I suppose I would rather end on 4 or 59 than 63.

Actually it does depend on the depend on the next available bus (or train for those who live close enough to an L station to start on a train) when giving the four recommended trips to your intended destination. If you tweak your intended trip departure or arrival time by as little as five to ten minutes, different trip suggestions pop up (with maybe one or two suggestions unchanged depending upon how many minutes or hours you play around with when you want to travel. In my example trip to 95th and State one of the recommended trips suggested was to take an R79 from Garfield to 79th and finish up on the R63 local shuttle, which adds nine minutes to that travel time from using the R95. I think that one was suggested for just in case one misses the R95 since the R79 departure from Garfield was about four or five minutes after the R95.

[Busjack]

... I think that one was suggested for just in case one misses the R95 since the R79 departure from Garfield was about four or five minutes after the R95.

Now if they actually run on schedule, which might be questionable if they are fighting Dan Ryan rush hour traffic.....

Maybe sticking to the 29 might not turn out to be such a bad idea.

[jajuan]

Now if they actually run on schedule, which might be questionable if they are fighting Dan Ryan rush hour traffic.....

Maybe sticking to the 29 might not turn out to be such a bad idea.

And that's really the catch, if they run on schedule.

[renardo870]

Looks like NP artics are helping with the R shuttles routes. 4110 and 4107 were seen at 95th..R95 and R63.

[BusHunter]

Looks like NP artics are helping with the R shuttles routes. 4110 and 4107 were seen at 95th..R95 and R63.

Actually those I believe are now 103rd buses. BTW, I rode the whole service from 95th and I have to say it's not that bad. (so far anyway) It took me just as long to ride the shuttles and the Red line today as it took me to ride from 95th the other day. (40 minutes, no slow zones make a big difference) I got a good look at the Garfield Green line terminal. I would have to say they've done a good job, all bus bays are clearly marked with signage directing the riders to the appropriate bay. Each bay has a short fence separating it from the other. There are Jersey barriers painted yellow stating what bus goes in each bay. Each bay has room for two artics with a passing lane beside it. There is also a raised sidewalk with red rumble strip at the end along side each bay. They have big green signs over the turnstiles that say "free walk through" They even set those up on the wooden stairs. (looks like there counting the riders) Now as far the buses, The #R69 stops at the far east bay. It's buses were all 40 footers today ran out of 74th. (spotted #1736, #1750) I spotted 10 riders getting off one of the buses. The #R87 is in the next bay going west. It is ran with artics out of 77th. Spotted 10 riders getting off a bus there. The #R79 is in the next bay, ran out of 77th with artics. Spotted 2 riders getting off a bus. ( #4384 and #4372) And finally in the most western bay is the #R95 ran out of 103rd, they had the most riders get off there bus 20. (spotted #4353 and #4396) Really it didn't look like they needed any artics at all. I was sort of shocked to see how little ridership was on the shuttles. Each bus would pull out when the next bus pulled in around 8-10 minutes apart. (I wonder if everyone's trying to go around this)

Now as far as the trains. The Red line #2600's have issues. I saw a good amount of trains with white signs again (I would estimate between 16-20 cars) #2461-62 had issues too with a Howard sign in one car and an Ashland/63rd in the other. The #5000's had no issues and were signed correctly. All system map car cards have been installed along with Red line cards showing the correct stops.

[ctrabs74]

Actually those I believe are now 103rd buses. BTW, I rode the whole service from 95th and I have to say it's not that bad. (so far anyway) It took me just as long to ride the shuttles and the Red line today as it took me to ride from 95th the other day. (40 minutes, no slow zones make a big difference) I got a good look at the Garfield Green line terminal. I would have to say they've done a good job, all bus bays are clearly marked with signage directing the riders to the appropriate bay. Each bay has a short fence separating it from the other. There are Jersey barriers painted yellow stating what bus goes in each bay. Each bay has room for two artics with a passing lane beside it. There is also a raised sidewalk with red rumble strip at the end along side each bay. They have big green signs over the turnstiles that say "free walk through" They even set those up on the wooden stairs. (looks like there counting the riders) Now as far the buses, The #R69 stops at the far east bay. It's buses were all 40 footers today ran out of 74th. (spotted #1736, #1750) I spotted 10 riders getting off one of the buses. The #R87 is in the next bay going west. It is ran with artics out of 77th. Spotted 10 riders getting off a bus there. The #R79 is in the next bay, ran out of 77th with artics. Spotted 2 riders getting off a bus. ( #4384 and #4372) And finally in the most western bay is the #R95 ran out of 103rd, they had the most riders get off there bus 20. (spotted #4353 and #4396) Really it didn't look like they needed any artics at all. I was sort of shocked to see how little ridership was on the shuttles. Each bus would pull out when the next bus pulled in around 8-10 minutes apart. (I wonder if everyone's trying to go around this)

What time of day did you make these observations?

[Sam92]

What time of day did you make these observations?

How about you guys step back and let a REAL south sider handle the reporting sorry, in a bit of a goofy mood. But anyways I've gotten a chance to ride this Monday morning and I can say they have gotten it together with these shuttles.... As news have stated while I was walking out, a lot of people have used Metra as an alternate which probabaly is a reason for the lower crowds. Encountered a light bit of traffic but managed to get to Garfield in about 15 minutes. And just as chicagopcccar mentioned with Garfield, they did just as good a job at arranging everything at 95th for replacement service.... All in all far from the disaster people have pictured and a bit more smoother than the Wells project seemed to be... And on a sidenote, I'm pretty sure it's in an article on the home page, but an article mentions that they plan on using 200 buses to help out (for supplementary service on other routes?). I'll find it and post later.