Random Pace

[Busjack]

14 hours ago, Pace831 said:

That just brings up the often-discussed issue of a lack of coordination between the transit agencies. If only Metra and Pace could work out some sort of transfer policy...

Essentially though, Metra is the long haul carrier and Pace is the short haul one. Not much different than one might be willing to pay a toll to use I-88 from Naperville to Chicago, but not to Lisle. Ill. 390 will surely test that theory.

14 hours ago, Pace831 said:

He said he could take 834 to Yorktown and transfer to 888, but that only worked if both buses were right on time.

If he's going west on 888 (which reminds me that it was proposed as part of the South Cook restructuring to combine 877 and 888, end them at Yorktown, and institute a local bus to Warrenville), both run on Warrenville Road. Only difference is whether he was going to The Esplanade, but since you mention transferring to 722 at Ogden and Main, 722 would seem the more direct route to Warrenville Road.

[Pace831]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

which reminds me that it was proposed as part of the South Cook restructuring to combine 877 and 888, end them at Yorktown, and institute a local bus to Warrenville

Combining them seems like a good idea, I wonder why they didn't do it. They should at least extend 877 on the north end so the routing is the same as 888, sort of like how 850/851/855 have the same routing downtown but serve different suburban stops. Unlike the I-55 routes, however, 877/888 actually have decent local ridership on both ends. Combining them is the better solution for local riders, but they aren't the intended market.

[Busjack]

1 minute ago, Pace831 said:

I wonder why they didn't do it.

They said the buses served two different markets, but did not expound on that. Most of the runs are 877/888 combo runs, anyway.

[west towns]

Did they mean an express market and local market being the 2 markets served?

[Busjack]

2 minutes ago, west towns said:

Did they mean an express market and local market being the 2 markets served?

They didn't say. But if it were a local market, the suggestion for a local bus west of Yorktown would have been sufficient. I wonder if Pace ever made the connection between that and 722.

[west towns]

Will be intersting to see how ridership responds to 722.    Maybe this provides support to cut back the expresses

[Pace831]

4 hours ago, west towns said:

Did they mean an express market and local market being the 2 markets served?

I don't think so, as both routes are express. They probably just meant they serve different south suburbs, and 888 goes farther west than 877 does. The west end seems set up with the intent that people on 877 should transfer to 888 if they are going to Warrenville Road. If that is because there is not enough ridership for two routes on that end, it seems a no brainer to terminate both routes at the Esplanade and have Warrenville riders take 722 instead.

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, Pace831 said:

I don't think so, as both routes are express. They probably just meant they serve different south suburbs, and 888 goes farther west than 877 does.

As best I could figure out there must be some demand from the Homewood P&R to Warrenville Road, but not from Harvey or Blue Island. Basically, though, only two a.m. and two p.m. trips go past the Esplanade to Warrenville Road, and one of them in the p.m. is a combo.

[Pace831]

Has anyone been having problems with the Pace website lately?

First, any link you click on, including the route finder on the homepage, brings up this message:

Then I opened the passenger notice list in a new tab, clicked on the logo in the top left corner that should have opened the home page, but this happened instead:

So, is this an indication that something is wrong with the website, or that my computer has a virus? It reminds me of the latter, but I haven't experienced the problem on any sites other than pacebus.com

[Busjack]

29 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

So, is this an indication that something is wrong with the website, or that my computer has a virus?

I don't have any problems doing the same things on pacebus.com, but I wouldn't use Internet Explorer for anything.

Sometimes I get differing results on some sites using Waterfox and Chrome, but that seems to do with I have very restrictive cookie control on Waterfox, and possibly different script handling among programs. For instance, the Cook County Clerk's training program only works with Chrome, and you get an error dump using anything else.

[Busjack]

On 7/11/2016 at 6:22 PM, Pace831 said:

There were passenger notices for "timetable clarifications" that took effect today on routes 359, 383, 386, 390, 501, 561, 569, 571, 574, and 626.

626 one is basically  route name changed to "Route 626 Skokie-Buffalo Grove Limited." I wonder if this has anything to do with the Edens BOS, but I bet the sign is still "626 SKOKIE SWFT" Only other difference is that they put a B on the rush direction trips, as opposed to leaving the reverse rush trips without a footnote.

[Pace831]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

626 one is basically  route name changed to "Route 626 Skokie-Buffalo Grove Limited." I wonder if this has anything to do with the Edens BOS, but I bet the sign is still "626 SKOKIE SWFT" Only other difference is that they put a B on the rush direction trips, as opposed to leaving the reverse rush trips without a footnote.

The name change is probably just to make it clearer where the bus actually goes. "Skokie Valley Limited" was more of a catchy name (sounds more like the name of a train), but mentioning the towns makes it obvious where the route endpoints are.

[Pace831]

12 hours ago, Busjack said:

I don't have any problems doing the same things on pacebus.com, but I wouldn't use Internet Explorer for anything.

Sometimes I get differing results on some sites using Waterfox and Chrome, but that seems to do with I have very restrictive cookie control on Waterfox, and possibly different script handling among programs. For instance, the Cook County Clerk's training program only works with Chrome, and you get an error dump using anything else.

I just ran a full system scan using Norton Antivirus, which seemed to fix the problem.

[MetroShadow]

On July 15, 2016 at 2:16 PM, Pace831 said:

The name change is probably just to make it clearer where the bus actually goes. "Skokie Valley Limited" was more of a catchy name (sounds more like the name of a train), but mentioning the towns makes it obvious where the route endpoints are.

While I've been a fan of "Skokie Valley Limited" (and the 747 name "DuPage Connection"), these changes help the customer determine where the heck the bus actually goes - and they've been starting to change these names (on buses and the timetables) over the last few years. 

[Pace831]

This would seem to support our theory that they are trying to standardize the bus stop signs where routing variations exist. This sign is on 88th Ave at 103rd St.

The bus stop signs on the Shorewood branch of 501 hadn't been changed yet as of a week ago.

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, Pace831 said:

This would seem to support our theory that they are trying to standardize the bus stop signs where routing variations exist.

Probably also why they are "clarifying" the schedules by adding legends to obvious variants, so then the signs can conform to the schedules.

[Busjack]

A comic, either inspired by our favorite bus company, or vice versa.

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

.... At that point, the buses are required to "make best time" meaning you could be ahead of the schedule by the end of your route. It is indicative of Pace, less so of CTA.

Really about the only place it would be indicative of Pace is 626 on the Edens Expressway. But as I noted in a separate discussion, the issue there basically is whether the travel time is the usual 12 minutes from Dundee-Edens to Skokie, or the bus has to use Skokie Road because the actual travel time is 45.

Something like this might have killed 636-Rosemont/Lake Cook because the Tollway was so congested that a 30 minute (12 mile) trip took an hour. Now that that stretch of Tollway has been rebuilt, that route might work, except on Fridays..

On something like i-55 and the proposed I-90, the only real issue is whether it gets to the Transit Center or Park and Ride, and the way 850/851/855 and 600/603/605/607 are structured it is only a couple of park and rides.

I suppose there may also be  an issue if 888 has to sit at Oakbrook to handle local riders on the Warrenville Rd.corridor or 895 at the NWTC for the Schaumburg flex portion.

[BusHunter]

Why would a pace 779 be on  the kennedy thought they did the ike to ashland and on to wrigley

[west towns]

Traffic jam down line?

[MetroShadow]

3 hours ago, west towns said:

Traffic jam down line?

Going to 294 and then back over to Yorktown. There's more than one way to get there. 

[BusHunter]

33 minutes ago, MetroShadow said:

Going to 294 and then back over to Yorktown. There's more than one way to get there. 

Here we are. If someone asks you did you ever see a #779 on the Kennedy you can say yes. That surprises me they would do that as the Kennedy traffic is horrible on Friday. You basically just sit there and watch several blue line trains pass you by.

\

Our Double Jeopardy question is what other bus ran out to Lombard that served Jeff Pk in the past?

 

[jesi2282]

That bus is actually on route. 779 routing to Wrigley is I88-I294-River Rd.-I90-Addison. Routing to Yorktown is Clark-Irving Pk-Ashland-I290-I88-Highland.

[Busjack]

20 minutes ago, jesi2282 said:

That bus is actually on route. 779 routing to Wrigley is I88-I294-River Rd.-I90-Addison. Routing to Yorktown is Clark-Irving Pk-Ashland-I290-I88-Highland.

Eisenhower eventually to LSD to Belmont would be too direct?

[artthouwill]

On Fridays every expressway is a parking lot.   There's no good way to get to Wrigley or anywhere else from the west burbs.