Return of the 11 & 31 Bus

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Well, only thing to do now is launch a pilot for the old 110 Marquette, not that that will go anywhere...

This route was dead since the mid '70s.  First there was the Englewood changeover from White to Black.  Then there was the Dan Ryan Line, which became the preferred line for Englewood and West Englewood riders.  Third, Marquette  Park riders, which were predominately Whirw, stopped riding the 49A, 110, and the Englewood turn altogether.  The 110 eventually became a rush hour only route and the 49A was cut back to 79th.  Eventually the 110 was eliminated.

Nowadays Marquette Park is a mix of Black and mostly Hispanic.   Most of those riders choose to ride the 49, 52A to the Orange Line.  With that and the 67 and 63 running nearby, the 110 is not necessary.

[Busjack]

12 hours ago, artthouwill said:

With that and the 67 and 63 running nearby, the 110 is not necessary.

Just another example of overlap between the Surface and Boulevard systems being eliminated.

[renardo870]

18 hours ago, Busjack said:

The argument was made that riders wanted to go to the Bridgeport Mariano's, even though there is a better Mariano's closer to IIT in Bronzeville. Again, apparently not.

On your social media point, Ald. Thompson made all sorts of representations that the elderly in south Chinatown and Bridgeport were going to ride the bus. From the miserable summer ridership numbers, they weren't. If CTA has to rely on rectumbook to support a line, instead of, in this case, actual passengers being interested, especially when there were blue bus stop signs every quarter mile, good luck with that.

Just a thought...I wonder with the 31st St Study, was there any thought of making it like a circulator route but having 2 endpoints...using the 31st St route from Ashland/Archer Orange to 33rd King but connecting/extending north to 26th St and connecting to the Halsted/Orange via King, 26th, serving Mercy Hospital, north to Cermak -Chinatown / McCormick Place Red Green lines, Chinatown via Wentworth and west on 26th St to Halsted/Archer Orange. U can get to 3 train lines via 26th and get to Mercy Hospital and get to IIT. Like a Bridgeport Bronzeville Circulator route. And running it 15-20 minutes from 6am/7am-to 7pm might get more ridership. Again it was just a thought.

[Busjack]

25 minutes ago, renardo870 said:

Just a thought...I wonder with the 31st St Study, was there any thought of making it like a circulator route but having 2 endpoints...using the 31st St route from Ashland/Archer Orange to 33rd King but connecting/extending north to 26th St and connecting to the Halsted/Orange via King, 26th, serving Mercy Hospital, north to Cermak -Chinatown / McCormick Place Red Green lines, Chinatown via Wentworth and west on 26th St to Halsted/Archer Orange. U can get to 3 train lines via 26th and get to Mercy Hospital and get to IIT. Like a Bridgeport Bronzeville Circulator route. And running it 15-20 minutes from 6am/7am-to 7pm might get more ridership. Again it was just a thought.

Most of this is covered by 21.

Given that the U of C is being charged $113.34 per vehicle hour, I'm real sure that whatever Catholic agency runs Mercy Hospital can be convinced to cough that up.

[stormgasherc]

Here's Alderman Thom pson's statement on the31st Street Bus
https://www.facebook.com/aldpatdthompson/photos/pcb.1652819434823227/1652818494823321/?type=3&theater

[BusHunter]

2 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Just a thought...I wonder with the 31st St Study, was there any thought of making it like a circulator route but having 2 endpoints...using the 31st St route from Ashland/Archer Orange to 33rd King but connecting/extending north to 26th St and connecting to the Halsted/Orange via King, 26th, serving Mercy Hospital, north to Cermak -Chinatown / McCormick Place Red Green lines, Chinatown via Wentworth and west on 26th St to Halsted/Archer Orange. U can get to 3 train lines via 26th and get to Mercy Hospital and get to IIT. Like a Bridgeport Bronzeville Circulator route. And running it 15-20 minutes from 6am/7am-to 7pm might get more ridership. Again it was just a thought.

You have to do something because 31st as a standalone route is not going to make it. But then again I don't know how the #39 keeps running either.

[artthouwill]

46 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

You have to do something because 31st as a standalone route is not going to make it. But then again I don't know how the #39 keeps running either.

The CTA did do something.   They eliminated the 31 route.

As for the 39, wes of Halsted, the next east west service is 47th.  While east of the Ryan is not the heaviest of load, the 39 does a decent feed to the Red Line.

[NewFlyerMCI]

56 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

You have to do something because 31st as a standalone route is not going to make it. But then again I don't know how the #39 keeps running either.

 

5 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

The CTA did do something.   They eliminated the 31 route.

As for the 39, wes of Halsted, the next east west service is 47th.  While east of the Ryan is not the heaviest of load, the 39 does a decent feed to the Red Line.

Seeing the 31 like this makes me wonder how the 43 has lasted so long, especially since it no longer goes west of Halsted at all.

[Busjack]

On 8/29/2018 at 12:33 PM, stormgasherc said:

Here's Alderman Thom pson's statement on the31st Street Bus

As  usual, speaking out of both sides of his mouth, not admitting that despite those purported efforts, it failed.

On 8/29/2018 at 3:09 PM, NewFlyerMCI said:

 

Seeing the 31 like this makes me wonder how the 43 has lasted so long, especially since it no longer goes west of Halsted at all.

The March Ridership report provides the answer: 1369 boardings vs 552. Now, if you are asking how it gets 1369 boardings a day, I don't know.

[andrethebusman]

43rd might be short, but it has quite a bit of riding. West of Halsted became pointless after Swift closed in 1970's. 

[stormgasherc]

Good news.. the pilot will still be continue!

[TaylorTank1229]

1 hour ago, stormgasherc said:

Good news.. the pilot will still be continue!

That’s odd. To announce it discontinuation, and announcing that it will continue. Guess it for for the school season, maybe. Any idea how long this next trial will last before its next determination to make it permanent, extend the pilot once again or just toss it altogether? If you ask me if their gonna continue testing, they should try testing an earlier schedule time, have it start at atleast 7am, and see if that helps.

[stormgasherc]

39 minutes ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

That’s odd. To announce it discontinuation, and announcing that it will continue. Guess it for for the school season, maybe. Any idea how long this next trial will last before its next determination to make it permanent, extend the pilot once again or just toss it altogether? If you ask me if their gonna continue testing, they should try testing an earlier schedule time, have it start at atleast 7am, and see if that helps.

All they posted on the pilot page is "The #31 pilot has been extended for the immediate future (updated 08/29/18)."

[andrethebusman]

A case of not being willing to make any decision. No willingness  to say it failed and kill it, yet neither to say it works and make it permanent. So now it ends up worked off extra board. Remember back in the 1990's when nobody could muster the cojones to kill 99 and 164 after the Midway L opened?

[artthouwill]

14 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

 

Seeing the 31 like this makes me wonder how the 43 has lasted so long, especially since it no longer goes west of Halsted at all.

The 43 serves a facility near Root and Wallace.  I can't  recall if it's an unemployment office, social security office, or some other social service office.  And it connects East 43rd to the Green and Red Lines. Service is every 20 minutes from about 6a to 7p.

[Busjack]

12 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

A case of not being willing to make any decision. No willingness  to say it failed and kill it, yet neither to say it works and make it permanent. So now it ends up worked off extra board. Remember back in the 1990's when nobody could muster the cojones to kill 99 and 164 after the Midway L opened?

Either Thompson cane up with the support he claimed or exerted the expected political muscle.

Staff had the guts to stand up to Pawar because he doesn't have clout.

[NewFlyerMCI]

I don't see how it will manage to survive without some sort of change. Be it a redundant extension to 35th/Archer Orange or interlining with the 35 and sending it to Komensky or Cicero/24th Pl, keeping it as is is just going to show the same ridership levels

[Tcmetro]

Sending the bus to Mercy Hospital would make sense, as many in the Bridgeport Chinese community go there. It also seems that IIT has classes that start at 8am, so it could make sense to have an earlier start at least during the school year. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

58 minutes ago, Tcmetro said:

Sending the bus to Mercy Hospital would make sense, as many in the Bridgeport Chinese community go there. It also seems that IIT has classes that start at 8am, so it could make sense to have an earlier start at least during the school year. 

I can't speak to rerouting to Mercy Hospital, but starting the route at 6am or 7am would go a long way. I can't find another route in the system that starts after 10:00am on a weekday. IIT not withstanding, the 31 would actually stand a better chance of being made permanent just by starting it 3-4 hours earlier. For some additional info, here is a chart that shows the weekday boarding of Route 31 from Oct 2017-Mar 2018 and other routes that have similar levels of ridership.

[stormgasherc]

22 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I can't speak to rerouting to Mercy Hospital, but starting the route at 6am or 7am would go a long way. I can't find another route in the system that starts after 10:00am on a weekday. IIT not withstanding, the 31 would actually stand a better chance of being made permanent just by starting it 3-4 hours earlier. For some additional info, here is a chart that shows the weekday boarding of Route 31 from Oct 2017-Mar 2018 and other routes that have similar levels of ridership.

Maybe of having the same/similar schedule as 43?

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

Sending the bus to Mercy Hospital would make sense, as many in the Bridgeport Chinese community go there. It also seems that IIT has classes that start at 8am, so it could make sense to have an earlier start at least during the school year. 

The pre 1997 version of the route terminated at Mercy Hospital.  It also served Michael Reese Hospiral which now  no longer  exists.  The  current version of the  route serves the best existing  traffic generators that are possible.

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

The pre 1997 version of the route terminated at Mercy Hospital.  It also served Michael Reese Hospiral which now  no longer  exists.  The  current version of the  route serves the best existing  traffic generators that are possible.

I'd like to piggyback and say, that for the workers at least, Mercy Hospital isn't a demanding walk, only 5 blocks from King/31st or Michigan/31st and if you really need to, you can transfer to the 1/3/4

[artthouwill]

22 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I'd like to piggyback and say, that for the workers at least, Mercy Hospital isn't a demanding walk, only 5 blocks from King/31st or Michigan/31st and if you really need to, you can transfer to the 1/3/4

Or take the 21 directly to the Hospiral.  Te 21 serves the Red and Green Lines also. 

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I can't speak to rerouting to Mercy Hospital, but starting the route at 6am or 7am would go a long way. I can't find another route in the system that starts after 10:00am on a weekday. IIT not withstanding, the 31 would actually stand a better chance of being made permanent just by starting it 3-4 hours earlier. For some additional info, here is a chart that shows the weekday boarding of Route 31 from Oct 2017-Mar 2018 and other routes that have similar levels of ridership.

1. If the comparison is to 206, it was cut back recently to even fewer rush hours  and essentially is only an ETHS feeder. Also, I don't think one can compare a suburban route to city recovery ratio requirements.

2. If you are saying 55A and 55N are comparable, only because some other clout heavy alderman blocked restructuring them into 59W (turning the route back at 59th St. and having passengers south of the railroad use 63W/386).

3. Route 54A is next to be canned, and runs rush hour only.

4.Routes 100 and 165 are rush hour only.

The main result of your apples and oranges comparison is that Thompson is not calling for a rush hour only service. Since this test (as was also explained with the Lincoln one) depends on riders per service hour, any expansion of service would move the goal from 850 passengers a day to say 1400, to cover the existing deficit plus the additional service hours. Unless someone comes up with a business plan that demonstrates that, extending service to subsidize this failed route and service hours segment is  not economically justified.

The only rationale I can determine for this about face from what was posted from official sources is that staff figured that since CT Board had only authorized this trial until about now, staff figured it could discontinue the route on 5 days notice, Thompson complained that  he didn't get prior notice, so someone leaned on staff to give him some time to come up with something, as he claimed in the FB post he was doing.

[Busjack]

If one wants to compare apples to apples, the following routes are comparable in the sense that they are short, run rush and midday, and don't have real apparent traffic generators:

11	1430	now reflects only north of Brown Line
43	1369
81W	1743
96	0808 	

The goal for 31 (after 10 a.m.) is comparable to 96, but the average daily passenger count in March 2018 was 552. Two buses cover each of 31 and 96, so one is talking about adding 9 service hours a day on 31, which, as I said above, would have to cover the recovery ratio of those hours plus the deficit for the current service span, My calculation is that something in the area of 43's ridership is necessary