Timed Transfers?

[NewFlyerMCI]

Has CTA ever implemented any sort of timed transfer service between buses, trains or buses/trains. By timed transfer I mean something like "Route 82 (SB) arrives at Kedzie terminal at 9:55a and waits until 10:01a for the Route 11(SB) bus to arrive at 9:57a and Route 155 (WB) bus arrives at 9:59a so that passengers can make the appropriate transfer to the (SB) 82" or "Route 79 (WB) Route 75 (WB) arrive at 8:56a so that passengers can pickup the (NB) Red Line train at 9:00a and they wait until 9:02a to pickup passengers from that (NB) Red Line train"

[trainman8119]

Has CTA ever implemented any sort of timed transfer service between buses, trains or buses/trains. By timed transfer I mean something like "Route 82 (SB) arrives at Kedzie terminal at 9:55a and waits until 10:01a for the Route 11(SB) bus to arrive at 9:57a and Route 155 (WB) bus arrives at 9:59a so that passengers can make the appropriate transfer to the (SB) 82" or "Route 79 (WB) Route 75 (WB) arrive at 8:56a so that passengers can pickup the (NB) Red Line train at 9:00a and they wait until 9:02a to pickup passengers from that (NB) Red Line train"

As I remember from my childhood and beyond (1960-), transfers used to have zones. You had 10 minutes through each zone to use the transfer. If you were on the L, you had 10 minutes from the time stamp when you left the station. That changed in the 70s when the CTA implemented a 1 hour transfer to use as many times as you could in that one hour. Direction was not an issue. It was at this time the Sunday (Holiday) Supertransfer was created for unlimited rides on the particular day of issue. When the CTA realized that people like me would ride 10 buses in the hour, they went to a 3 ride limit in one direction 1 hour validity. As the transfer system went away, you were left with the fare cards you have now...a long way from the value which was realized in the earlier days.

I am sure there are those who may clarify this a bit, but I think this covers a lot of the bases.

[Busjack]

As I remember from my childhood and beyond (1960-), transfers used to have zones. You had 10 minutes through each zone to use the transfer. If you were on the L, you had 10 minutes from the time stamp when you left the station. That changed in the 70s when the CTA implemented a 1 hour transfer to use as many times as you could in that one hour. Direction was not an issue. It was at this time the Sunday (Holiday) Supertransfer was created for unlimited rides on the particular day of issue. When the CTA realized that people like me would ride 10 buses in the hour, they went to a 3 ride limit in one direction 1 hour validity. As the transfer system went away, you were left with the fare cards you have now...a long way from the value which was realized in the earlier days.

I am sure there are those who may clarify this a bit, but I think this covers a lot of the bases.

That's about it, although when they went to simpler transfers with bigger squares, it was 30 minutes per zone. Then there were the red punch clocks at the Rapid Transit stations, where you had to validate your transfer before transferring to the bus.

However, I don't think that is about what NewFlyerMCI is talking, but actual meets between buses. The answer to that is generally no, because in the old days, buses ran on fairly close intervals, such as every 3 minutes, all over the system. Also, before GPS, there wasn't any kind of precision method of making sure that a bus would hit a time point on time (and also no way to do it after GPS). The only thing close to "pulse point" service was owl, where the night buses would meet at State and Washington, and the N151 was timed to meet the Red Line at Granville. There might have been a few other N bus meets with the Red Line, But, otherwise, there isn't much point to meets with the Red Line, because, again, it still runs about every 3 to 5 minutes.

Some of your examples (like Devon and Kedzie, or you could imagine 79th and Western) involve actual bus terminals where buses would have recovery time before starting the next trip. However, if you were assuming that the 82 bus would be timed to wait for the 81 bus, 78 bus, 80 bus, etc., if the 81 bus is late, 82's schedule would be all screwed up.

The practice at Dan Ryan RT stations (at least as I am familiar with those such as Garfield and 79th) is that the bus would just pull up to the curb, discharge, load up, and leave. Usually, the passenger traffic either showing transfers to the bus driver or having to go through the turnstiles to catch the train was so great that trying to time anything didn't matter. At some stations (such as Loyola), there were street fare collectors who would collect cash fares or check transfers at the back door of the bus. Again, there were timed layovers at places like 95th and Jefferson Park, just as there are now, because there were bus terminals, as opposed to just cross streets.

The Pace idea of a pulse point (i.e. all buses meet for a 10 minute layover at the same time at terminals in Joliet, Aurora, Elgin, Chicago Heights, and Waukegan) never seemed to be followed by CTA, and has even broken down with Pace (given that routes such as 530 and 565 no longer are timed with the others).

[ajm522]

Has CTA ever implemented any sort of timed transfer service between buses, trains or buses/trains. By timed transfer I mean something like "Route 82 (SB) arrives at Kedzie terminal at 9:55a and waits until 10:01a for the Route 11(SB) bus to arrive at 9:57a and Route 155 (WB) bus arrives at 9:59a so that passengers can make the appropriate transfer to the (SB) 82" or "Route 79 (WB) Route 75 (WB) arrive at 8:56a so that passengers can pickup the (NB) Red Line train at 9:00a and they wait until 9:02a to pickup passengers from that (NB) Red Line train"

Only thing I know of is at Halsted Orange Line. Some runs on #8 have specific trains that they are suppose to "wait" on before departing.