Blackline Buses

[sw4400]

Like Jewel has Mariano's, CTA may have competition in the form of Blackline. Pricier than CTA, but more comfortable ride and touted to be cleaner...

Story

[TripleTransit1]

Like Jewel has Mariano's, CTA may have competition in the form of Blackline. Pricier than CTA, but more comfortable ride and touted to be cleaner...

Story

Oh, please! Only people who hate crowded buses would ride this.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

Interesting concept. I'm not sure if it will attract customers, but we'll see.

[BusHunter]

Interesting concept. I'm not sure if it will attract customers, but we'll see.

Probably not going three stops that are a mile apart. They need to hit them where they have had success like express limited service, X buses, or long distance travel routes like a NWTC to loop route. Sneakier service would be an express bus from O'hare on days when the blue line shuttle runs. Something someone could also jump on is a Chicagoland Speedway bus from Joliet Metra. That's a sporting event that has no bus service.

[artthouwill]

This doesn't seem financially viable if this is its primary source of income. If one bus carries 40 people at a weekly rate of $23, that is $920. Divide that by 5 days and the daily income is $184. Remember that there is one trip in the a.m and one tirip in the p.m, which breaks down to $92 each. Only a used motor coach (15 years or older would make any sense. Filling a 55 passenger coach brings it up to $1265 a week or $253 per day or $126.50 per rush period. Now if you use one bus to do two t rips, say a 6:30 and an 8:30, then it could work. But if they plan to actually use two buses, it won't be feasible unless they have other uses for the buses outside of this venture. I haven't counted the cost of diesel fuel at about $4 a gallon, the cost of insurance which is no less then a grand a month, and driver pay. I haven't mentioned maintenance, licensing, motor fuel taxes.

UPDATE: Looking at the Blackline website, it looks like they are using either 25 or 29 passenger limobuses or minibuses. , the ones built on truck chassis. They are using two vehicles. According to the sec of state, I could only find Blackline Partners based in Elgin. My guess would be that someone who independently contracts to a limo company 9like Windy City Limo) will use this to supplement their limo income. It is interesting that it doesn't SEEM like they are registered with the state as a corporation or LLC as of yet.

[andrethebusman]

Back about 1982 when RTA had its meltdown and jacked up the rail fares to the stratosphere, there was an attempt to run some competing bus services, mostly between downtown and IC Electric locations like Riverdale, Harvey, Hazelcrest, Homewood on a "subscription" basis, using chartered school buses at a fare that was LOWER than what the IC was charging at the time. They picked up downtown at Michigan/Randolph and Van Buren, probably a couple of other places on Michigan Av, then took the Ryan and Calumet to 142nd and then mainly via Halsted and Dixie Hwy. This business lasted maybe a year or two, by which time most of the "protesters" had decided riding ion a yellow peril on the Dan Ryan to save a couple of bucks a week was just not worth it, and it slowly died out.

[artthouwill]

Back about 1982 when RTA had its meltdown and jacked up the rail fares to the stratosphere, there was an attempt to run some competing bus services, mostly between downtown and IC Electric locations like Riverdale, Harvey, Hazelcrest, Homewood on a "subscription" basis, using chartered school buses at a fare that was LOWER than what the IC was charging at the time. They picked up downtown at Michigan/Randolph and Van Buren, probably a couple of other places on Michigan Av, then took the Ryan and Calumet to 142nd and then mainly via Halsted and Dixie Hwy. This business lasted maybe a year or two, by which time most of the "protesters" had decided riding ion a yellow peril on the Dan Ryan to save a couple of bucks a week was just not worth it, and it slowly died out.

I knew that was going to fail the moment I found out they were going to use school buses.

[Busjack]

The things this reminded me of:

• The CSL books said that the jitneys (mostly on South Park Ave.) were unfair competition, including to CMC, but more relevant, that CMC and the jitneys could skim the gravy, without the obligation CSL had to serve the whole city. This just sounds like a bigger jitney.
• Also, in the old days, bus operators would complain that these unlicensed runs violated their franchises. I guess starting with the RTA episode noted above, the incumbents don't care.

Somebody may have figured out how to make money off those who do not wan to be peed on on the 146, but I'm surprised that this, like Uber, isn't subject to regulation.

[See Tea Eh]

Can't quite tell from their website, but it looks like their buses will hold somewhere around 25-30 people (photo on their home page shows six rows of seats, at probably four across, plus what might be a row of five in the back; can't tell if there's anything behind the photographer's position).

So, that's maybe 29 per trip. This won't put a dent in CTA ridership. When you're competing with a route runing articulated buses at essentially a three-minute headway, and you have a service that runs two trips per rush hour, it is effectively a niche market.

So, every day, the passenger has to be on the same bus at the same time. If they're running late, or need to be somewhere early, they're out of luck (or back on the CTA, or catching a taxi). One of the biggest benefits of the CTA service in that area is its frequency. So, maybe a couple dozen people per day will eventually decide they like the service. The other few thousand: still riding the CTA.