Riding "Route 0 Deadhead"

[Scionic]

So some quick background.  I live on Foster in Andersonville, I work at Michigan/Randolph.  This means I have like 5 different transit options to get to the office, but usually I'll just take a 147 from Foster/Sheridan.

During the morning rush hour, it's a virtual parade of buses, most of them articulated express routes, heading from the North Park garage to their normal routes.  I go out there to wait on a 92, but a good 80% of the time, one of those "out of service" buses will pick up passengers and shuttle us either to Foster/Sheridan or to the red line, depending on who stops.  They still collect a fare, so I frequently have "Route 0 Deadhead" on my Ventra statement.

Will bus drivers get in trouble for this?  I'm still paying a fare, so I doubt the CTA would really care, but do drivers have the leeway to pick folks up when they are off-route?

Edited September 17, 2015 by Scionic

[Busjack]

So some quick background.  I live on Foster in Andersonville, I work at Michigan/Randolph.  This means I have like 5 different transit options to get to the office, but usually I'll just take a 147 from Foster/Sheridan.

During the morning rush hour, it's a virtual parade of buses, most of them articulated express routes, heading from the Forest Park garage to their normal routes.  I go out there to wait on a 92, but a good 80% of the time, one of those "out of service" buses will pick up passengers and shuttle us either to Foster/Sheridan or to the red line, depending on who stops.  They still collect a fare, so I frequently have "Route 0 Deadhead" on my Ventra statement.

Will bus drivers get in trouble for this?  I'm still paying a fare, so I doubt the CTA would really care, but do drivers have the leeway to pick folks up when they are off-route?

This goes back to a stink with the FTA a couple of years ago.

CTA policy (and although not pertinent to 147, CSL's in the trolley days) was that a bus was "in service" on all garage trips, so they were supposed to accommodate passengers, although, I assume, while getting to the starting point on the schedule on time.

FTA said that this resulted in CTA racking up invalid mileage, but since the feds don't pay operating assistance, I don't know what difference it makes to them.

[andrethebusman]

Until maybe 10 years ago, all pullouts and pullins used streets that had regular service as much as possible and were considered "in service" all the way to the garage. This was a policy that went back to 1914 if not before - transfers ued to have a "depot car" square to be punched when issued on pullouts or pullins. This started changing circa 2005 when it was decided to have pullins and pullouts go via the most direct route regardless of whether those streets had any regular service, including extensive use of expressways which was not done before then. Officially pullins/pullouts are still considered in service, but this is something that is no longer enforced to any degree, and coding many runs to use "not in service" signs has kind of made it more or less officially dead.

[jajuan]

I've been noticing quite often that whenever I ride a PM #136 bus, a lot of times it shows up on my Ventra transit history as 0-Deadhead. 

[Busjack]

10 hours ago, jajuan said:

I've been noticing quite often that whenever I ride a PM #136 bus, a lot of times it shows up on my Ventra transit history as 0-Deadhead. 

Is it otherwise signed 136 (i.e. headsign, Clever Device)?

[andrethebusman]

Exactly where are you getting on? When I was at North Park, I noticed an oddity in that a 135 or 136 would not show up on the Clever Device until after the bus had already made the turn off Franklin onto Jackson, so about 50 or so feet after you were already on route. The sign already was correct, but the inside display still showed as pulling out, so I guess those that got on at that stop would show up as boarding a deadhead.

[jajuan]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

Is it otherwise signed 136 (i.e. headsign, Clever Device)?

It's always signed as 136. 

59 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

Exactly where are you getting on? When I was at North Park, I noticed an oddity in that a 135 or 136 would not show up on the Clever Device until after the bus had already made the turn off Franklin onto Jackson, so about 50 or so feet after you were already on route. The sign already was correct, but the inside display still showed as pulling out, so I guess those that got on at that stop would show up as boarding a deadhead.

That oddity must still be part of the mix somehow then because that's exactly I board, the start of the NB route on Franklin at Jackson. There are times when I'll board at that same location and the bus shows up as 136 (or on rare occasions as a 22 since the times I'm boarding is when 22s start becoming 136s as the 22 transitions from 40 foot buses to artics for PM rush), but a lot of time now in recent weeks of boarding buses on that route in the evening my Ventra history shows them as 0 Deadhead.

[Scionic]

I think they must have been instructed not to do any of this anymore.  I can't get picked up by a "wrong" bus to save my life anymore, not even in the crazy cold weather of the last couple weeks.

[jajuan]

5 hours ago, Scionic said:

I think they must have been instructed not to do any of this anymore.  I can't get picked up by a "wrong" bus to save my life anymore, not even in the crazy cold weather of the last couple weeks.

In this case it's not so much what an operator is doing or has control over as much it is the GPS reading the start of the route properly between the PM rush period interline between 22 and 136 (along with 135 starting about 5:30 PM).

[andrethebusman]

There have been several miscodings this pick. For instance, some SB Milwaukee buses leaving Jeff Park for downtown have a 56 Milwaukee to Western Blue Line Station sign up. Also have seen northbounds with 56 Milwaukee to California Blue Line Station up. For a long tome Jackson park Expresses deadheading from 79th to Wacker/Columbus carried "North Park Garage". These are coding errors and driver can't do much about them.