Spring Pick 2016

[renardo870]

Speaking of the 11, when it is restored, will it run daily service to North/Clark? 

[Busjack]

14 minutes ago, renardo870 said:

Speaking of the 11, when it is restored, will it run daily service to North/Clark? 

They didn't say, or even if it would be interlined with either the current 11 or 37.

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

It gets down to the question, as indicated in the quoted alerts, whether there are "demand and ridership patterns."

While Carter isn't pleading poverty as did about every predecessor since the 1960s, there still has to be justification. There were plenty of people at community meetings calling for 11 and 31, which, BTW, have not been reinstated as of yet, and again note that he said there was funding for those two.

True. And the 11 and 31 not yet being reinstated seems to hold to my theory that between working out route alignments and scheduling in comparison to current service and offering the results of that planning up for the operators to bid on, CTA needs at least two pick periods beyond the making of an announcement to get that service in place. I'm basing that hypothesis on X9 and X49's restorations being announced last summer and being reinstated on the first weekday at the start of the current winter pick. 

[ArcherRider]

I read CTA alerts on  Bus Alerts I see #28 Stony Island will start later on weekends and holidays and  #39 Pershing effective 4/2/2016 Saturdays service will be discontinue  and #18 would run later from 16th/Cicero 8:23pm instead of 6:30 pm and Roosevelt/Michigan  at 9:23 p.m instead of 7:20 pm.

[jajuan]

22 hours ago, ArcherRider said:

I read CTA alerts on  Bus Alerts I see #28 Stony Island will start later on weekends and holidays and  #39 Pershing effective 4/2/2016 Saturdays service will be discontinue  and #18 would run later from 16th/Cicero 8:23pm instead of 6:30 pm and Roosevelt/Michigan  at 9:23 p.m instead of 7:20 pm.

Yes. All those except the #28 weekend/holiday later starts in the morning were already mentioned.

[andrethebusman]

No wonder 39 Saturday goes away. From what I gather, riding was in the single digits per day. Not quite as bad as the former Sunday, when there were days with zero riding.

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, andrethebusman said:

No wonder 39 Saturday goes away. From what I gather, riding was in the single digits per day. Not quite as bad as the former Sunday, when there were days with zero riding.

Yeah, maybe not that low but it was low. Maybe double digits. I took it one saturday from Red line to Orange and there were 3 riders including me. One or two got off on Wentworth, but once we hit the industrial areas it was smooth sailing. I wonder if #31 will get more riders? I don't know exactly ridership numbers on the west end of #35  but it has low ridership but it's better than #39. I wonder if it would make sense to just let the #31 run the western part of #35. Maybe the #35 could loop the west pershing/35th areas up to Kedzie or Cali. And possibly cut the #39 to serve just the Red line to Lake Park area. Seems like the best ridership on #39 is there. It probably needs to be looked at anyway.

[busfan2847]

So 157 has moved to Chicago, nice mixture of new Nova's and New Flyers from the last batch of 100 (1930-2029) this morning!

The route has disappeared from the Bustracker Map! You can find next arrivals at a stop on the route but it is not shown on the map when you select the 157.

 

 

[BusHunter]

44 minutes ago, busfan2847 said:

So 157 has moved to Chicago, nice mixture of new Nova's and New Flyers from the last batch of 100 (1930-2029) this morning!

The route has disappeared from the Bustracker Map! You can find next arrivals at a stop on the route but it is not shown on the map when you select the 157.

 

 

Yeah, chicago is going down as having the newest buses in the fleet. The #157 with new buses should look better on the Loop Link. They could always make the #124 a chicago garage route also if they wanted to perfect that persona. BTW, I was noticing on the weekend that 77th was only running 12 #7900's, they only ran 7 -10 last week. If the new novas there don't run so much on the weekend and tend to stay in the garage it would keep those buses miles down. They might actually age those buses gracefully instead of running them out of steam.

[busfan2847]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah, chicago is going down as having the newest buses in the fleet. The #157 with new buses should look better on the Loop Link. They could always make the #124 a chicago garage route also if they wanted to perfect that persona. BTW, I was noticing on the weekend that 77th was only running 12 #7900's, they only ran 7 -10 last week. If the new novas there don't run so much on the weekend and tend to stay in the garage it would keep those buses miles down. They might actually age those buses gracefully instead of running them out of steam.

Strangely there a hardly any Nova's on the 20 Madison which runs through Loop Link. Looks like Chicago is keeping them further North (and now on the 157).

[BusHunter]

The #124 wasn't appearing on bustracker either. Yeah I guess your right aboit the #20 hardly any of my pictures were on the #20 in the second half of #8100 deliveries but there were some on the first half. Maybe some aspect of that route doesnt blend well with that bus. 

[jajuan]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah, chicago is going down as having the newest buses in the fleet. The #157 with new buses should look better on the Loop Link. They could always make the #124 a chicago garage route also if they wanted to perfect that persona. BTW, I was noticing on the weekend that 77th was only running 12 #7900's, they only ran 7 -10 last week. If the new novas there don't run so much on the weekend and tend to stay in the garage it would keep those buses miles down. They might actually age those buses gracefully instead of running them out of steam.

I don't think CTA really cares about bus model as far as Loop Link goes otherwise FG would be trying to concentrate NFs on the #56 now that it has them and that's the newer model there for now. Plus you'd think they'd keep a good number of the Newer Novas assigned on the #20 which as Busfan pointed out also runs through the Loop Link Corridor. Riding the #157 through UIC should be interesting now though since buses on that route tend to get packed running through the campus and those newer model Novas don't seem to have as much standee room as the standard size New Flyers do. Seems NFs numbering in the 1900s and 2000s would be the NF that fits good for assignment on that one now that Chicago has it. And at 77th, maybe the newness of their Smart buses has worn off for them and more of them prefer pulling out in a New Flyer on the weekends.

[busfan2847]

21 hours ago, BusHunter said:

The #124 wasn't appearing on bustracker either. Yeah I guess your right aboit the #20 hardly any of my pictures were on the #20 in the second half of #8100 deliveries but there were some on the first half. Maybe some aspect of that route doesnt blend well with that bus. 

The last one I caught on the 20 was on January 8th. Certainly there have not been any on the route from the end of January and probably from mid January

[jajuan]

23 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

The last one I caught on the 20 was on January 8th. Certainly there have not been any on the route from the end of January and probably from mid January

I've seen them on that route since then, but you are right that their being on the #20 is very rare these days. It seems all the other east-west routes at Chicago see the newer Novas except the #20 these days, including 157 now with Chicago having taken this one on from Kedzie. In fact, it seems all other routes overall assigned to Chicago get new Novas placed in service except #20. Case in point, besides the #157 the #54 is heavily Nova operated today.

[pudgym29]

On 3/23/2016 at 0:44 PM, BusHunter said:

Yeah, maybe not that low but it was low. Maybe double digits. I took it one saturday from Red line to Orange and there were 3 riders including me. One or two got off on Wentworth, but once we hit the industrial areas it was smooth sailing. I wonder if #31 will get more riders? I don't know exactly ridership numbers on the west end of #35  but it has low ridership but it's better than #39. I wonder if it would make sense to just let the #31 run the western part of #35. Maybe the #35 could loop the west pershing/35th areas up to Kedzie or Cali. And possibly cut the #39 to serve just the Red line to Lake Park area. Seems like the best ridership on #39 is there. It probably needs to be looked at anyway.

At least once (in 2015), I rode the #35 eastbound on a Saturday afternoon from Cicero / 24th to the Zhou B Art Center (near Morgan on 35th). If I recall correctly, we had a few passengers board @ Pulaski & 31st. Otherwise, no, not a lot. I did not go back the same way.

[jajuan]

On 3/23/2016 at 0:44 PM, BusHunter said:

Yeah, maybe not that low but it was low. Maybe double digits. I took it one saturday from Red line to Orange and there were 3 riders including me. One or two got off on Wentworth, but once we hit the industrial areas it was smooth sailing. I wonder if #31 will get more riders? I don't know exactly ridership numbers on the west end of #35  but it has low ridership but it's better than #39. I wonder if it would make sense to just let the #31 run the western part of #35. Maybe the #35 could loop the west pershing/35th areas up to Kedzie or Cali. And possibly cut the #39 to serve just the Red line to Lake Park area. Seems like the best ridership on #39 is there. It probably needs to be looked at anyway.

If you're suggesting having a #31 with the west end of 31st connected to the eastern portion CTA is proposing to bring back, then as discussed quite some time ago we're not going to see that because 31st doesn't exist between Western and around Archer due to the configuration of the Stevenson and some rail yard tracks through that area. That creates a significant duplication with the #35 that CTA apparently did not want to visit and caused them to route the #35 through there in the first place as part of a modification of a related request to create a 31st Street route between Cicero and the lakefront. And they tried that west end of Pershing and 35th looped as one route proposal back when the Orange Line first opened. That route was the #35W. Folks at the time complained that that route left them with inadequate bus service west of the Orange Line, so a few months later CTA eliminated the route and restored the west ends of the #35 and #39 with both routes diverting into the 35/Archer Orange line station bus terminal. For that reason combined with folks in Little Village putting up enough of a fuss that CTA created the extension of the #35 west of Kedzie along 31st Street  as described above makes revisiting the splitting off of the #35 and #39 west of the Orange Line as unified separate route on CTA's part pretty unlikely. 

[Juniorz]

Major South-side Service improvements will be announced Thursday (May 12th) in regards to the Green Line and numerous routes serving the south-side. STAY TUNED and watch LIVE! at 10:30am https://t.co/gwf7M6c3ZF

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, Juniorz said:

Major South-side Service improvements will be announced Thursday (May 12th) in regards to the Green Line and numerous routes serving the south-side. STAY TUNED and watch LIVE! at 10:30am https://t.co/gwf7M6c3ZF

Already being discussed under Red Line bus changes,

[Busjack]

On 3/16/2016 at 0:18 AM, TaylorTank1229 said:

#39 - Pershing

Length:

Sunday, March 27, 2016
to TBD

Impact Level:

Service Change

 

Full Description:

How does this affect my trip? 

#39 Pershing buses will no longer operate on Saturdays.

 

Why is service being changed?

The Saturday service that was added to the #39 route was part of an experiment. Due to low ridership, the experimental service is being discontinued.

Looks like the experiment is back on (Press Release).

[artthouwill]

6 hours ago, Busjack said:

Looks like the experiment is back on (Press Release).

I don't see  this  working as the route serves mostly nonresidential  areas.   The area with the most residences  are I walking  distance  of that Mariano's.  

[jajuan]

On 6/1/2017 at 11:09 AM, Busjack said:

Looks like the experiment is back on (Press Release).

 

On 6/1/2017 at 5:09 PM, artthouwill said:

I don't see  this  working as the route serves mostly nonresidential  areas.   The area with the most residences  are I walking  distance  of that Mariano's.  

Sounds like they're thinking in the official stance that this time around weekend service on the 39 this time around will turn out like the results that occurred on the 31 resurrection even though they killed weekend service for a second time just three months ago. Unofficially I can see how anyone might think and argue that this is another one of Emanuel's feeling out another way to buy votes among black voters. 

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, jajuan said:

Unofficially I can see how anyone might think and argue that this is another one of Emanuel's feeling out another way to buy votes among black voters.

Very little of this in the 4th Ward. Most of it is in Bridgeport and Canaryville. To the extent it goes through Back of the Yards and Brighton Park, there never were Emanuel votes there.

bTW, unlike the bus overhaul announcement, this was not headlined with MAYOR EMANUEL AND CTA ANNOUNCE...

[jajuan]

16 hours ago, Busjack said:

Very little of this in the 4th Ward. Most of it is in Bridgeport and Canaryville. To the extent it goes through Back of the Yards and Brighton Park, there never were Emanuel votes there.

bTW, unlike the bus overhaul announcement, this was not headlined with MAYOR EMANUEL AND CTA ANNOUNCE...

It might not be largely 4th Ward, but they're still touting Bronzeville as one of the areas benefiting in their list of reasons for trying this again, and like folks in other communities who use CTA 4 Ward folks aren't staying restricted to just the 4th Ward in their travels. To be honest I agree with Art that it's hard to see how this will work on weekends during this second try when despite what development may have happened on the eastern end, the route still passes through larger stretches of nonresidential space than the 35 does. In my prior post, I'm just running through possible reasons behind the scenes that enticed them to want to try this experiment again when the first resurrection of weekend service on the 39 was deemed a failure just three months ago. Who knows maybe Emanuel is trying to be more sly about how obvious his footprint is on it. At any rate, I didn't say he actually was trying to buy votes with this, I said i could easily see how someone might think that were the case simply looking at the surface of it.

[TransitXan17]

Along the topic of Express Buses, I want to talk about theAshland BRT. Now I think the idea might be dead right now, but hey it could happen. I think a better solution than a BRT would be a Streetcar since it's doesn't pollute the environment as much as a bus. Also, according to the 2016 reports of the Ashland X9 bus, ridership went up by 5000% since 2015. A streetcar can hold a bigger capacity, so it won't be as crowded. You could also had extra segments to a flexible Streetcar, and can hold more capacity for bigger events, tell me what you guys think.

Look at Ashland 9 and Ashland Express X9

[Pace831]

11 hours ago, TransitXan17 said:

Also, according to the 2016 reports of the Ashland X9 bus, ridership went up by 5000% since 2015.

Look at Ashland 9 and Ashland Express X9

The "ridership went up by 5000%" is because the X9 didn't start service until November 2015. Before that, most were riding the local 9. To make any sort of comparison you would have to add the numbers for 9 and X9, which show total ridership on Ashland went down in 2016.

On the streetcar point, you also have to figure that the construction cost would be much higher than BRT, and I doubt anyone would be convinced the project is enough of a priority to justify spending that much. The BRT project seems dead for now, which shows the support needed isn't there. I don't ride the route, so someone else will have to say whether crowding is an issue, but 60' buses should be able to provide almost as much capacity as streetcars.