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CTA 2015 Budget: No Fare Hikes, More Service


Juniorz

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On Page 60 they state after the rehab completes on the #1000's in mid 2015, they will then start rehabbing the 208 articulated #4000's also starting in 2015. There goes the rest of my spooky buses!!

Looking at it, this (except for giving dates) is not new. Very little of it is new. Service improvement does not seem to indicate any additional service, except on rail (page 43), so juniorz headline is deceptive. Maybe technical is a service improvement, including saying that they will now get CAD software to locate buses, as apparently BusTracker can't do the job, despite what we thought.

Page 29 reenforces those of you who said that there would be a "first batch of 100 Nova Buses."

Somebody on page 31 sold the "North and Cicero" bus garage for the SECOND time (I guess the dummy couldn't figure out that the Archer Garage was at Pershing and Rockwell).

For those of you wanting something better on Your New Blue, and taking offense to my Monica and Jess remarks, compare the $10 million for superficial repairs to Harrison with the $86 million for the CDOT project for Clark and Division. How many $86 million projects are you going to get out out $492 million? Heck, it is $16 million in TIF money just to put elevators at Quincy [that is something new].

For those on the 150 bus option, there is something new on page 60: they do intend to exercise it in 2015. Since it refers to conventional clean diesel buses, I don't think they are getting artics. Page 64 only mentions "the new Nova buses" in that connection.

The only surprise will be if there isn't a fight with the RTA this year.

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On Page 60 they state after the rehab completes on the #1000's in mid 2015, they will then start rehabbing the 208 articulated #4000's also starting in 2015. There goes the rest of my spooky buses!!

Is getting rid of the bowling alley seats one of the rehab projects for the 4000s?

I hate those buses because of the seats!

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Is getting rid of the bowling alley seats one of the rehab projects for the 4000s?

I hate those buses because of the seats!

I really doubt it.

Why don't you download the budget and see for yourself?

There seems to be too much projection in these kinds of comments.

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Yeah they mostly talk about the red line. Blue is barely mentioned. Thought I'd get a tip on the next station to receive a rehab but the budget doesn't seem to say. Mostly dates are given for UIC Halsted and IMD projects. Surprised they mention completions of #1000 bus rehabs for next summer. If so they better put the project in high gear. I still say late fall. They do state 100 #7900's will show up by years end. As they only have about 30 of those left in the first 100 that shouldn't be hard to achieve. They repeatedly stress how the fleet is in almost new condition. We'll those of us on the NW side are still waiting for equipment newer than 12 years old

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...They repeatedly stress how the fleet is in almost new condition. We'll those of us on the NW side are still waiting for equipment newer than 12 years old

Maybe they'll get something out of the 350 buses to go (if we accept that they will exercise the option for 150).

The Red Line seems concentrated on the Core Capacity funds, but no indication that those have actually been allocated to CTA.

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From first hand experience, I say the Blue Line needs those extra trips. I haven't been on the Orange Line in a long time though, so I'm a little surprised they are adding trips to that.

Question to be answered when the time comes is whether the extra Blue Line trips will be UIC-Halsted terminating trips or more trips that actually end/begin at Forest Park.

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Sun-Times: Has more analysis of rail service, but says no service improvement for bus, which reenforces my take.

They probably should expand service on the Purple line as they make Wilson a purple line stop and maybe Bryn Mawr in the not too distant future. They will start to attract riders off the red line north and on to the Purple line, they should just go ahead and make some of those 8 car trains even if some are only bound for Howard but long term they should try to expand the Evanston stations to serve 8 car trains.

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They probably should expand service on the Purple line as they make Wilson a purple line stop and maybe Bryn Mawr in the not too distant future. They will start to attract riders off the red line north and on to the Purple line, they should just go ahead and make some of those 8 car trains even if some are only bound for Howard but long term they should try to expand the Evanston stations to serve 8 car trains.

That's probably not until the 2017 budget, as those capital projects will not be created instantly.

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That's probably not until the 2017 budget, as those capital projects will not be created instantly.

Plus I'd think they'd want to balance just how many extra stops they add to the Purple Line south of Howard against having the line be express, otherwise where's the attraction? As is the slow zones make the line not so express to begin with and the Hilkevich and Ms. Swarz have both occasionally commented on that point with the slow zones.

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Question to be answered when the time comes is whether the extra Blue Line trips will be UIC-Halsted terminating trips or more trips that actually end/begin at Forest Park.

It would help if the headways to O'hare were more consistent in the mornings (spotty 10-20 minute intervals during the 6-7am hour get very crowded trains to the airport).

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It would help if the headways to O'hare were more consistent in the mornings (spotty 10-20 minute intervals during the 6-7am hour get very crowded trains to the airport).

Yeah that sounds like the perfect example of getting too carried away with being more "efficient" in aligning the service with where the passenger demand is and instead creating more inefficiencies as a result.

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