If I ran Transit for one day...

[NewFlyerMCI]

6 hours ago, artthouwill said:

The X buses stopped approximately every 1/2 mile primarily to facilitate transfers. 59th us 1/2 mile from 55th.  The only exceptions seem to be rail transfers such as 49th/Western Orange Line .  

If you stop at 58th and Corrage why not the Social Security office at 64th,  Ir the Disable Museum at 56th,? Target at 86th?  Tha Armory at 52nd?  The locals stop at these places so it's not like there isn't service.   

RIP Target on Chicago's South Side

[strictures]

3 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I understand what you are saying, but the X4 wasn't designed for UC Hospital patients boarding at 58th.  Again, those people had the 4 *as they do now without the X4).  If those people just wanted an X4, they could walk one block south to 59th or take the local.  I could see the outrage if the X4 WAS THE ONLY OPTION,but it wasn't.  And it makes perfect sense for the stop at 59th.  For one, there's a traffic signal there.  For two, it fits within the stopping pattern.  For three, there are other buildings along 59th on the campus.   For a farfetched four, one could transfer from a SB 4 or X4 at 59th to a 192 Express going downtown,  which still qualifies as a transfer point.  Could CTA have added a stop at 58th?  Probably,  but apparently no one or very few people saw this as an issue.

Again, X routes were designed to speed up crosstown routes by 1/2 mile intervals where generally transfers to other routes could be made.  They were like a rail route with stops 1/2 mile apart.  Travelers could take an X9 or X49 rather than a local, or riding east to the Red Line only to have to ride west again.

You're being absurd!  Buses are for people.  People go to hospitals.  There's also a traffic signal at 58th.  There's also a traffic signal at 57th.  There aren't any entrances to buildings on 59th, until Drexel.  There's nothing west of there except the Fountain of Time & hardly anyone goes to see that weird thing!  You don't arbitrarily put stops at locations that no one uses & having walked there a few times to catch the X4, I was the only one boarding or alighting there.  Hundreds of people a day get on & off the local at 58th, so why not let them have a faster ride on an express?  And you can't transfer to the 192 at 59th, again it stops at Drexel & then at 57th, except the 57th stop is halfway down the block between 57th & 56th, due to the ambulance entrances to the garage.

[artthouwill]

6 minutes ago, strictures said:

You're being absurd!  Buses are for people.  People go to hospitals.  There's also a traffic signal at 58th.  There's also a traffic signal at 57th.  There aren't any entrances to buildings on 59th, until Drexel.  There's nothing west of there except the Fountain of Time & hardly anyone goes to see that weird thing!  You don't arbitrarily put stops at locations that no one uses & having walked there a few times to catch the X4, I was the only one boarding or alighting there.  Hundreds of people a day get on & off the local at 58th, so why not let them have a faster ride on an express?  And you can't transfer to the 192 at 59th, again it stops at Drexel & then at 57th, except the 57th stop is halfway down the block between 57th & 56th, due to the ambulance entrances to the garage.

Since there is no X4, the point is moot.  But should that route somehow rise again, feel free to be the lead advocate for an X stop at 58th either in addition to or instead of 59th.

[Sam92]

1 minute ago, artthouwill said:

Since there is no X4, the point is moot.  But should that route somehow rise again, feel free to be the lead advocate for an X stop at 58th either in addition to or instead of 59th.

 

10 minutes ago, strictures said:

You're being absurd!  Buses are for people.  People go to hospitals.  There's also a traffic signal at 58th.  There's also a traffic signal at 57th.  There aren't any entrances to buildings on 59th, until Drexel.  There's nothing west of there except the Fountain of Time & hardly anyone goes to see that weird thing!  You don't arbitrarily put stops at locations that no one uses & having walked there a few times to catch the X4, I was the only one boarding or alighting there.  Hundreds of people a day get on & off the local at 58th, so why not let them have a faster ride on an express?  And you can't transfer to the 192 at 59th, again it stops at Drexel & then at 57th, except the 57th stop is halfway down the block between 57th & 56th, due to the ambulance entrances to the garage.

When it comes to X routes their purpose is to help move the MAJORITY of riders within that corridor, not just ONE specific area or stop. That's what locals are for. 58th is not far from 59th and adding extra stops for relatively few riders defeats the purpose of an X route to begin with. So no adding an extra stop when MAJORITY of the market the x route serves can just walk that one extra block (which is also a side effect of what an X route encourages to take the stress off the locals and reduce dwell time on side streets) is not an important factor for a return of the X4 nor will it do much 

[NewFlyerMCI]

Thinking about 83rd, how about the following:

The 30 is a long route, and it section on South Chicago is its least ridden portion. Weekend service used to end at 92nd and was only just extended to 79th. The section of 83rd most likely to have potential riders is the one east of the Ryan and there's also that big commercial complex at 83rd & Holland (and the one just south of it at 86th). What I'd suggest is the 30 would no longer go to 69th Red Line. Instead, it would head along 83rd St (either via Commercial, Exchange & 83rd or just South Chicago & 83rd, until it reached 83rd & Holland. From here, there are several options: it could serve 87th Red Line and end at 83rd & Holland or it could go straight to 83rd & Holland, and then use the current 24 routing to 79th/Perry. This preserves the Red Line connections, provided access to the 83rd/Holland commercial area, provides access along East 83rd, while also maintaining connection to the 91st/Commercial area.

My initial idea was going to be merging the 30 & 100, but I realized it would leave that section of Ewing from 95th to 106th with only the 26 for service, which I think run's counter to CTA's ideal level of service for that area, along with also no longer going to 91st/Commercial.

[artthouwill]

5 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Thinking about 83rd, how about the following:

The 30 is a long route, and it section on South Chicago is its least ridden portion. Weekend service used to end at 92nd and was only just extended to 79th. The section of 83rd most likely to have potential riders is the one east of the Ryan and there's also that big commercial complex at 83rd & Holland (and the one just south of it at 86th). What I'd suggest is the 30 would no longer go to 69th Red Line. Instead, it would head along 83rd St (either via Commercial, Exchange & 83rd or just South Chicago & 83rd, until it reached 83rd & Holland. From here, there are several options: it could serve 87th Red Line and end at 83rd & Holland or it could go straight to 83rd & Holland, and then use the current 24 routing to 79th/Perry. This preserves the Red Line connections, provided access to the 83rd/Holland commercial area, provides access along East 83rd, while also maintaining connection to the 91st/Commercial area.

My initial idea was going to be merging the 30 & 100, but I realized it would leave that section of Ewing from 95th to 106th with only the 26 for service, which I think run's counter to CTA's ideal level of service for that area, along with also no longer going to 91st/Commercial.

The South Chicago routing South of 83rd or 87th would probably be better as to service CVS High school.   Currently (COVID 19 notwithstanding ) the 30 does carry a significant number of students between 8th and 69th.  South Chicago is a fast alternative in that it's a diagonal line.   I think your idea would give 87th and 79th some relief too, at least during the weekdays.  The frequency may have to beef up north of 91st, but nevertheless I like your thought process.

[strictures]

9 hours ago, Sam92 said:

 

When it comes to X routes their purpose is to help move the MAJORITY of riders within that corridor, not just ONE specific area or stop. That's what locals are for. 58th is not far from 59th and adding extra stops for relatively few riders defeats the purpose of an X route to begin with. So no adding an extra stop when MAJORITY of the market the x route serves can just walk that one extra block (which is also a side effect of what an X route encourages to take the stress off the locals and reduce dwell time on side streets) is not an important factor for a return of the X4 nor will it do much 

58th wouldn't have been an extra stop, 59th should've been eliminated!  It was barely used.  Jeez!

[NewFlyerMCI]

Not sure this is exactly the right topic, but oh well

Did pace explore the idea of commuter bus service from the I-90 lots? I took the 600 and 606 this Monday and will be taking the 603 next Monday and I realized that people might definitely take a bus that goes all the way to the loop instead of just to Rosemont. TBC, I’m not saying they need to implement a route, but whether or not it was considered, then scrapped in favor of the existing I-90 routes

[Tcmetro]

There's so much traffic on the Kennedy it's probably not worth it. 

The I-90 express from Elgin to Rosemont, then connecting to the Blue Line is very competitive with Metra in terms of time and cost. And the Blue Line takes you right into the Loop!

[artthouwill]

23 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Not sure this is exactly the right topic, but oh well

Did pace explore the idea of commuter bus service from the I-90 lots? I took the 600 and 606 this Monday and will be taking the 603 next Monday and I realized that people might definitely take a bus that goes all the way to the loop instead of just to Rosemont. TBC, I’m not saying they need to implement a route, but whether or not it was considered, then scrapped in favor of the existing I-90 routes

I don't think anyone has studied it.  I don't think the Kennedy has enough shoulder space to even consider BOS service.  Unfortunately there's no infrastructure to expand Blue Line Line tracks from 2 tracks to 4 tracks, except in the reversible lanes.  To replace the reversible lanes with tracks would be political suicide.  To build new teackage overhead of the reversible might be prohibitively costly.  But Express train service from at least Heffernan Park to downtown would be a boon for CTA AND PACE ridership.  I think the Elon Musk O'Hare Express project was dead from scratch.  I suppose another Express route could run above the Metra UP NW tracks.

The only reason I 55 has downtown Pace service is because it has always had it.  There was no Bolingbrook or Romeoville Metra service  nor any connection to CTA rail service.before 1993.

[NewFlyerMCI]

Going back to the discussion earlier this week with the 43, how viable would combining the eastern portion of the route (east of Michigan/Indiana with the 1? I know the big issue with the 1 is the presence of the green line & the 4, and it's current iteration is basically rush hour relief/service to the loop for the 4. The 1 & the 43 serve close to the same frequencies (43 is 18-20 mins all day, 1 is 14-16 mins when its running), so this would effectively be reintroducing midday, late weekday evening and infrequent weekend service along Michigan/Indiana if service along 43rd is sustained.

The immediate downside is loss of Red Line connections at 47th (and also connections to 47 & 51). However, E 43rd riders, get a second Green Line connection at Indiana and a one-seat ride to the loop (including connections to the red line at Roosevelt, maybe and Jackson)

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Going back to the discussion earlier this week with the 43, how viable would combining the eastern portion of the route (east of Michigan/Indiana with the 1? I know the big issue with the 1 is the presence of the green line & the 4, and it's current iteration is basically rush hour relief/service to the loop for the 4. The 1 & the 43 serve close to the same frequencies (43 is 18-20 mins all day, 1 is 14-16 mins when its running), so this would effectively be reintroducing midday, late weekday evening and infrequent weekend service along Michigan/Indiana if service along 43rd is sustained.

The immediate downside is loss of Red Line connections at 47th (and also connections to 47 & 51). However, E 43rd riders, get a second Green Line connection at Indiana and a one-seat ride to the loop (including connections to the red line at Roosevelt, maybe and Jackson)

Wouldn’t be worth the cost because Union Station would be more of a rush hour type generator. CTA would argue that 3,4 and green provide enough coverage. 1 is probably on its way out the door if ridership doesn’t rebound enough after Covid-19 

[YoungBusLover]

4 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Wouldn’t be worth the cost because Union Station would be more of a rush hour type generator. CTA would argue that 3,4 and green provide enough coverage. 1 is probably on its way out the door if ridership doesn’t rebound enough after Covid-19 

The 1 is an odd ball route that hasn't served it's purpose during the pandemic quite well. It's a support route that doesn't attract anyone well enough. 

[Sam92]

On 3/31/2021 at 9:36 PM, YoungBusLover said:

The 1 is an odd ball route that hasn't served it's purpose during the pandemic quite well. It's a support route that doesn't attract anyone well enough. 

Yeah all of the useful parts are gone. It used to essentially follow the present 6 south of 63rd then cut back to 63rd, Hyde park and now 35th essentially acting as a reverse peak #4 that runs to union station. 

[Sam92]

Since we’re looking at efficiency and possible restructurings, Here’s a wild restructuring that could save the remaining useful part of 24 while acting as a short-turn for SB Clark St service placing empty buses in position around Belmont. 24 basically dies south of 35th so what I was thinking was to kill the remainder of the route south of there and combining it with the 22 south of Belmont creating the #24 Bridgeport/Lakeview. (Belmont Red to Sox-35th). Service every 5 min AM peak with 40ft buses (10 south of Harrison), 8–10min midday (double south of Harrison) and 5 min PM peak(peak pullouts at Lake). 22 Clark would end at Belmont Red, run every 7 min AM rush hours, 15 min midday and every 10 min PM Peak. Artics would move to Broadway as it will remain a thru service from far north to downtown. This also hopefully makes Clark a bit more reliable by eliminating the long milk run from Howard to downtown and frees up a few buses to use elsewhere. Upon completion of Phase One of RPM, reroute purple line express to 35th Green Line via Red Line south of Belmont every 6 min. Red line would depart Howard every 10 min and Argyle every 5 min using the turn back track included in the plan (at least it was in one of the documents). This would stop the imbalance of too many trains on the Dan Ryan branch, a handful of eliminated red line runs can be come “HowardWoods” (running lite from Howard Yard to Belmont) alternating with brownage runs providing the brown line with extra trains to replace the purpled rerouted to the subway. 

 

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Since we’re looking at efficiency and possible restructurings, Here’s a wild restructuring that could save the remaining useful part of 24 while acting as a short-turn for SB Clark St service placing empty buses in position around Belmont. 24 basically dies south of 35th so what I was thinking was to kill the remainder of the route south of there and combining it with the 22 south of Belmont creating the #24 Bridgeport/Lakeview. (Belmont Red to Sox-35th). Service every 5 min AM peak with 40ft buses (10 south of Harrison), 8–10min midday (double south of Harrison) and 5 min PM peak(peak pullouts at Lake). 22 Clark would end at Belmont Red, run every 7 min AM rush hours, 15 min midday and every 10 min PM Peak. Artics would move to Broadway as it will remain a thru service from far north to downtown. This also hopefully makes Clark a bit more reliable by eliminating the long milk run from Howard to downtown and frees up a few buses to use elsewhere. Upon completion of Phase One of RPM, reroute purple line express to 35th Green Line via Red Line south of Belmont every 6 min. Red line would depart Howard every 10 min and Argyle every 5 min using the turn back track included in the plan (at least it was in one of the documents). This would stop the imbalance of too many trains on the Dan Ryan branch, a handful of eliminated red line runs can be come “HowardWoods” (running lite from Howard Yard to Belmont) alternating with brownage runs providing the brown line with extra trains to replace the purpled rerouted to the subway. 

 

I would modify your idea.  First, you can't eliminate 22 service north of Belmont as it is a very heavy route. You can still increase service south of Belmont by using another garage like C or K to run the service between Belmont and 35tg Red Line  or increase Broadway service by reinstating the short turn service between Halsted and downtown with C or J provides that service that was once ran by Limits   

[Sam92]

6 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I would modify your idea.  First, you can't eliminate 22 service north of Belmont as it is a very heavy route. You can still increase service south of Belmont by using another garage like C or K to run the service between Belmont and 35tg Red Line  or increase Broadway service by reinstating the short turn service between Halsted and downtown with C or J provides that service that was once ran by Limits   

I wasn’t cutting 22 north of Belmont I was splitting it to run Howard to Belmont. I know it’s heavy because of all the bar demand and all but if people really needed to get downtown the transfer penalty wouldn’t be too bad or just ride over to the red line or broadway.  There would be freed up hours to beef up the East west lines a bit 

[YoungBusLover]

3 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Yeah all of the useful parts are gone. It used to essentially follow the present 6 south of 63rd then cut back to 63rd, Hyde park and now 35th essentially acting as a reverse peak #4 that runs to union station. 

I remember during the pre pandemic days that it was a useful route during the rush periods. However, bottleneck of heavy traffic on Adams heading westbound to Union Station made it more viable to just walk there because there would just be pure grid lock. Right now all I see is empty buses with maybe less than 7 or 8 people at times.  The headways made it even worse during the pandemic to the point where unless there was a big gap in service on the 3 or 4 you wouldn't be doing much of anything. 

2 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Since we’re looking at efficiency and possible restructurings, Here’s a wild restructuring that could save the remaining useful part of 24 while acting as a short-turn for SB Clark St service placing empty buses in position around Belmont. 24 basically dies south of 35th so what I was thinking was to kill the remainder of the route south of there and combining it with the 22 south of Belmont creating the #24 Bridgeport/Lakeview. (Belmont Red to Sox-35th). Service every 5 min AM peak with 40ft buses (10 south of Harrison), 8–10min midday (double south of Harrison) and 5 min PM peak(peak pullouts at Lake). 22 Clark would end at Belmont Red, run every 7 min AM rush hours, 15 min midday and every 10 min PM Peak. Artics would move to Broadway as it will remain a thru service from far north to downtown. This also hopefully makes Clark a bit more reliable by eliminating the long milk run from Howard to downtown and frees up a few buses to use elsewhere. Upon completion of Phase One of RPM, reroute purple line express to 35th Green Line via Red Line south of Belmont every 6 min. Red line would depart Howard every 10 min and Argyle every 5 min using the turn back track included in the plan (at least it was in one of the documents). This would stop the imbalance of too many trains on the Dan Ryan branch, a handful of eliminated red line runs can be come “HowardWoods” (running lite from Howard Yard to Belmont) alternating with brownage runs providing the brown line with extra trains to replace the purpled rerouted to the subway. 

 

Interesting idea but I agree with @Sam92 to some degree. 

[Sam92]

17 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

I wasn’t cutting 22 north of Belmont I was splitting it to run Howard to Belmont. I know it’s heavy because of all the bar demand and all but if people really needed to get downtown the transfer penalty wouldn’t be too bad or just ride over to the red line or broadway.  There would be freed up hours to beef up the East west lines a bit 

The idea is since 36 would still run straight downtown, run artics to make up capacity since it has a fairly decent frequency, you increase reliability on Clark by splitting it in 2 so because realistically no one is gonna ride from downtown to Howard on 22, you can possibly make things more efficient by making 22 More of a heavy north side local (remember Clark is a long  narrow diagonal street which makes it super slow to begin with) the new #24 would basically do the same job for the #36 that K runs do for 151 while also saving the most used part of 24 and linking it to more generators 

[NewFlyerMCI]

3 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Since we’re looking at efficiency and possible restructurings, Here’s a wild restructuring that could save the remaining useful part of 24 while acting as a short-turn for SB Clark St service placing empty buses in position around Belmont. 24 basically dies south of 35th so what I was thinking was to kill the remainder of the route south of there and combining it with the 22 south of Belmont creating the #24 Bridgeport/Lakeview. (Belmont Red to Sox-35th). Service every 5 min AM peak with 40ft buses (10 south of Harrison), 8–10min midday (double south of Harrison) and 5 min PM peak(peak pullouts at Lake). 22 Clark would end at Belmont Red, run every 7 min AM rush hours, 15 min midday and every 10 min PM Peak. Artics would move to Broadway as it will remain a thru service from far north to downtown. This also hopefully makes Clark a bit more reliable by eliminating the long milk run from Howard to downtown and frees up a few buses to use elsewhere. Upon completion of Phase One of RPM, reroute purple line express to 35th Green Line via Red Line south of Belmont every 6 min. Red line would depart Howard every 10 min and Argyle every 5 min using the turn back track included in the plan (at least it was in one of the documents). This would stop the imbalance of too many trains on the Dan Ryan branch, a handful of eliminated red line runs can be come “HowardWoods” (running lite from Howard Yard to Belmont) alternating with brownage runs providing the brown line with extra trains to replace the purpled rerouted to the subway. 

 

I feel like artics are going to have a spot of difficulty on Broadway immediately north of Diversey. I also don't think that purple line reroute will gain any traction, I can already hear the "evanston officials speak out against..."

Ultimately, I like this idea, but I don't think there's really space to layover at Belmont R/P/B. The 74 doesn't even layover at Fullerton R/P/B and I know it has to be a hassle for EB 74's when a 37 is waiting there, which is only mitigated by the fact that the 37 only runs every ~25 or so minutes. The 77 is way more frequent, and even if you structure it so that the 22 and 24 are laying over on separate sides of the street, its still gonna clog terribly. Logically, the place to end for this truncated 22 and extended 24 would be Belmont/Halsted immediately east of the station, but that's gonna get crowded during peak (maybe even just during the weekday in general). Maybe this new 22 ends at the Nature Musuem and the new 24 at Belmont/Halsted instead?

Edited April 2, 2021 by NewFlyerMCI
clarification

[Sam92]

2 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I feel like artics are going to have a spot of difficulty on Broadway immediately north of Diversey. I also don't think that purple line reroute will gain any traction, I can already here the "evanston officials speak out against..."

Ultimately, I like this idea, but I don't think there's really space to layover at Belmont R/P/B. The 74 doesn't even layover at Fullerton R/P/B and I know it has to be a hassle for EB 74's when a 37 is waiting there, which is only mitigated by the fact that the 37 only runs every ~25 or so minutes. Logically, the place to end for this truncated 22 and extended 24 would be Belmont/Halsted immediately east of the station, but that's gonna get crowded during peak (maybe even just during the weekday in general). Maybe this new 22 ends at the Nature Musuem and the new 24 at Belmont/Halsted instead?

It’s lakeview the artics are gonna be slow wherever up there, at least broadway Is a shorter thru route lol and I was thinking nature museum as well. 

 

[NewFlyerMCI]

13 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

It’s lakeview the artics are gonna be slow wherever up there, at least broadway Is a shorter thru route lol and I was thinking nature museum as well. 

 

I didn't mean moving slow, my concern was with them actually fitting, especially side by side. Broadway from like Diversey to Belmont is narrow. Not that Clark is that much wider, but they do a much better job at having clearly demarcated lanes than that section of Broadview

[NewFlyerMCI]

28 minutes ago, BrownLineTrainToTheLoop said:

You can make any line you want, as long as it is logical. You can also modify current lines.

I'll start:

Cermak/22nd Line

Color: Havent Decided yet

Stops:

1. Desplaines
2. Harlem 
3. Oak Park
4. Ridgeland
5. Austin
6. Central
7. 54th/Cermak 
8. Cicero
9. Kostner
10. Pulaski
11. Central Park
12. Kedzie
13. California
14. Western
15. Damen
16. Ashland
17. Racine
18. Halsted
19. Canal
20. State St (Connect to Cermak-Chinatown and Cermak-McCormick Pl)

 

We have a thread for these sort of discussions, which I've quoted you here.

Furthermore, I fail to see how this in an improvement over the current Pink Line, and at the frequency it can run sometimes, there's no advantage to taking this over the 21.

[BrownLineTrainToTheLoop]

5 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

We have a thread for these sort of discussions, which I've quoted you here.

Furthermore, I fail to see how this in an improvement over the current Pink Line, and at the frequency it can run sometimes, there's no advantage to taking this over the 21.

Yeah, t was just an example i thought of in 5 minutes

[NewFlyerMCI]

 

2 hours ago, ChicagoNova said:

Harlem--Oak Park--Ridgeland--Austin--Central--54th/Cermak--Cicero--Kostner--Pulaski--Central Park--Kedzie--California--Western--Damen--18th--Roosevelt--Polk--Racine Transfer to Blue Line)--UIC-Halsted--Clinton--LaSalle--Jackson--Monroe--Washington--Clark/Lake--Grand/Milwaukee--Chicago/Milwaukee--Division/Milwaukee--Damen (Transfer to Blue Line to O'Hare)--Then on the branch which is currently a walk path: Western--California--Humbolt--Kimball--Lawndale (or Central Park)--Pulaski--Kostner--Grand/Cicero--Laramie--Central--Austin--Narragansett--Oak Park--Harlem/Grand

What would be the purpose of this new convoluted rail line? What new or existing market does it serve that doesn't have adequate existing service? In this proposal, there's no advantage to taking this new line over any N/S CTA route that would run between these stations. The 53 from Armitage or North to Pulaski Pink would be just as fast, if not faster than taking this train line. Same thing goes for taking the 307 from Grand/Fullerton to Cermak, the 54 from Grand to Cermak, the 49 from North to Western Pink.

Additionally, scheduling nightmares with the Blue & Pink Lines aside, the northern/western portion of this route would reclaim the 606, a very popular bike and walking trail that won't just disappear or be subject to eminent domain without a very vocal and powerful lashing out. The section after that, is active freight tracks, and unlike with the Orange Line, there's not really space to purchase ROW to run CTA tracks parallel to them. Also assuming there would be no NIMBY pushback as well.

The way to actually do a proposal would be as follows: An actual proposal for the Pink Line would be an infill station, at say, Madison

• Pros
  • Closer access to United Center
    • Closest walking distance from a CTA station, is currently IMD
  • Direct access to Route 20
  • Closer access to schools and senior living facilities in the area
    • Patrick Sullivan Homes
    • Jesse Spalding School
    • Brown School of Technology
• Cons
  • Bulk of ridership would be dependent on United Center
  • Competes with Ashland for ridership
    • Also probably competes with IMD for ridership
  • Potential train/bus transfers will be limited due to parallel services
    • No advantage for west side riders to transfer from the 20 at this proposed station vs Washington/Wabash or Washington/Wells for south loop riders and everyone else won't gain or lose walking time to their destination
    • Most riders heading south or north will have switched to other bus routes prior

Something like this, where the rationale is explained, makes it easier for us to understand, and predict what CTA would do (here, a Madison Pink probably isn't on their short list). Despite our butting of heads in the past, @Busjack had a great point about making sure to not just "fill in the lines" and that's effectively what this train line is (really more of a trace, but that's beside the point). Look through some of the other proposals in this thread, see what people have suggested and why

Edited April 13, 2021 by NewFlyerMCI
Further explanation