Pink Line

[trainman8119]

With all the hoopla about the Pink Line and the west side/Paulina Connector, is it possible that the CTA might be shooting itself in the foot in the timing of trains from the Loop to O'Hare. With the current alternating of Congress and Douglas branches (I like the old names better), even though those branches may have a 10, 20 or 30 minute gap (depending on time of day), it becomes half of that from the Loop out to the airport with the two branches merging into one. I realize that there will be additional trips (or so they say) on the Congress branch, and rush hour trips off the Douglas into the subway, which would aleviate some of the time gap, is this another CTA snow job on it's riders that is a really a service cut disquised as a service addition ???

[RIPTA42]

It's my impression that headways on the O'Hare branch will remain the same, with increased service on the Congress.

[Chi-town Kid]

I don't think this a disguised service cut.

This actually got me thinking if the new Douglas Branch should be paired with the Brown Line to form one line. I'm not sure how practical this would be, but it is covered in the CTA's long-term Circle Line plan.

Also, I saw a two-car long Pink Line train on the Paulina Connector at Madison Street today. From a distance, it looked liked the destination sign wasn't actually pink (the CTA might not have updated yet). Anyways, it will be interesting to see how the Pink Line works out.

[RIPTA42]

It definitely isn't practical now, as Brown Line trains are longer and more frequent. Maybe every fifth Brown Line train could go to 54th & Cermak...

[Busjack]

It definitely isn't practical now, as Brown Line trains are longer and more frequent.  Maybe every fifth Brown Line train could go to 54th & Cermak...

That would really get confusing.

The questions are whether the shorter Pink Line trains are because that is the only way to maintain the proposed headways on the Forest Park and Douglas branches with the amount of equipment currently available, and whether the Brown Line has enough storage capacity for another 50 cars when that project is completed.

My reading of the conceptual plan is that both the Midway and 54th lines (getting past the colors) would go to Kimball, and that would balance the traffic, according to the ridership reports. Others have previously commented that having Midway-Kimball trains only on Van Buren and Wells would miss the Clark/Lake transfer point, but apparently free transfers are now being allowed between Library and the two subways.

While Ch-town Kid is correct in his reading of the plan, I doubt that it can be implemented now, and thus agree with both of you on that point.

[Chi-town Kid]

Actually, the more I think of it, it might be better if the Brown Line was routed with the Orange Line. However, the problem is that you would lose Loop coverage that way. The more I think about it, the Pink Line going to the Loop AND O'Hare is confusing enough and should not be made more confusing.

Also, there is one more problem with sending Douglas and Midway trains up to Ravenswood. The North El tracks would be way too crowded. The problem will reach epic proportions as the Circle Line is completed and the CTA demolishes the weird El strip around North and Halsted, sending all trains to the North and Clybourn station (all planned). You would have Red, Brown, Purple, Pink, and Circle Line trains stopping at one station during rush hour. The Red Line already every 3 minutes!

Does anyone have numbers on what the ridership of the Pink Line will be? 15,000-20,000 on a weekday? It's not a very long or especially busy line.

[Busjack]

The March 2006 Ridership Report says that the average weekday boarding on the Cermak branch is 12,014, and you have to assume that those who enter have to eventually come back, so maybe 24,000 (although some might be both entering and leaving on the branch). Your guess was close for 2005, which was 9891 boardings. There was a 21% increase over 2005, compared to about 6 to 8% on other lines, so the rebuilding did have positive effects.

I would assume that there would be several tracks at the proposed North and Clybourn station, and that Brown Line cars would be on a separate track. It probably wouldn't be more confusing than Belmont or Fullerton. Also, after the Brown Line is expanded, I would assume that the Purple Line would revert back to its old form, and would not make local stops to pick up essentially Brown Line passengers (there was some talk about routing it through the State Street subway).

[Chi-town Kid]

No, I'm afraid the 12,104 number is correct. I know this because the 131,000 and 201,000 numbers for the Blue and Red Lines look about right. Either way, this report is promising and shows ridership is going up a lot. It is somewhat surprising that the Green Line (34,000) has 7,000 more riders on a typical weekday than the Orange Line (27,000). 2/3 of those 34,000 rides are also coming from the Lake part of the Green Line as well.

[Busjack]

How do the people go home, then? I wasn't disputing the boardings, but the trains from the Dearborn subway aren't leaving empty.

[RIPTA42]

That would really get confusing.

I'm not advocating such a service pattern.

The questions are whether the shorter Pink Line trains are because that is the only way to maintain the proposed headways on the Forest Park and Douglas branches with the amount of equipment currently available, and whether the Brown Line has enough storage capacity for another 50 cars when that project is completed.

I'm guessing loading on the Pink Line will more closely resemble the Green Line. The only reason it has full-length trains now is because of the O'Hare branch.

I don't have exact numbers, but from glancing at the yard, I don't think Kimball can hold more equipment.

My reading of the conceptual plan is that both the Midway and 54th lines (getting past the colors) would go to Kimball, and that would balance the traffic, according to the ridership reports.

That does make more sense. I could see 3 minute headways on Ravenswood and 6 minutes on the Douglas & Midway during peak hours, 5/10 or 7½/15 minutes off-peak, and 10/20 late evening.

[RIPTA42]

Actually, the more I think of it, it might be better if the Brown Line was routed with the Orange Line. However, the problem is that you would lose Loop coverage that way. The more I think about it, the Pink Line going to the Loop AND O'Hare is confusing enough and should not be made more confusing.

The Pink Line isn't going to O'Hare; some Blue Line trains are still serving the Douglas branch in peak hours.

Also, there is one more problem with sending Douglas and Midway trains up to Ravenswood. The North El tracks would be way too crowded. The problem will reach epic proportions as the Circle Line is completed and the CTA demolishes the weird El strip around North and Halsted, sending all trains to the North and Clybourn station (all planned). You would have Red, Brown, Purple, Pink, and Circle Line trains stopping at one station during rush hour. The Red Line already every 3 minutes!

The number of Ravenswood trains wouldn't increase; they would just continue south of the Loop. When/if the North/Clybourn super station is built, as Busjack indicated, there would be additional tracks for the Circle Line route.

[Guest Busman1000]

I heard the CTA might change the Pink Line to the Silver Line

[Busjack]

No, backwards.

[MetroShadow]

Later today, I will be posting a couple of pictures of run 301 (considering I was actually wide awake at that hour to actually ride it from the Loop going southbound).

Interestingly enough, this early morning's runs were 2-car lengths [Edit: later runs run 4-car lengths later on through the day]

It was really interesting, for that being a first run on the pink line ever. (Pics will be posted later).

-Dave

[trainman8119]

Why is it that all the news outlets are calling this the first new Rail line in 20 years (since the Orange). This is not new !!!!! It is old rerouted. The current Green and Red Lines were not considered new when the switchover came about. The Orange was new....it was built to and from the connector southwest. The Pink line is nothing but a revised Blue with a new color.

[RIPTA42]

Most regular 'L' riders have never been over the Paulina connector in revenue service. Therefore, it's "new."

[trainman8119]

Say what you want about the connector...it is still an old line, just rerouted. To put it into a more simplified perspective...if there was no color involved here and the line was just know as the Douglas, it would still be the Douglas branch...before and after yesterday...there is really nothing new.

[RJL6000]

Due to the need for more cars on both the Blue and the Pink Lines, it seems like the Brown and Purple Lines' fleets have been directly affected: Any remaining 2600-series cars assigned to those two North Side lines (namely, 2963-3002) have been reassigned to the Blue/Pink Line. {I was at Forest Park today, and saw at least cars 2983-2984 (previously assigned to the Purple Line) in the DesPlaines Yard and cars 2995-2996 (previously on the Brown Line) in revenue service, between Blue Line runs.} As a result, the Brown Line once again runs entirely with 3200-series equipment, while the Purple Line now runs entirely with 2400's.

[Busjack]

I guess we will have to wait for Chicago-l.org to update the current car assignment sheet (seeing a few reassigned cars doesn't establish that all were). The question is whether this will leave the Brown and Purple Lines short (especially with the overloading going up to Lakeview) or there were that many spares? The latter is possible, since during the rehab process, 40 cars at a time were at Alstom.

[rmadisonwi]

Pink Line's car assignments are 2201-2222 and 3001-3022. The pink cars are 3003-3008.

As for run 301, there wasn't a conductor (technically). That was the VP of planning making announcements due to a minor programming glitch in the stop announcement system (which was really more of an issue of the operator not being aware of some minor differences in programming run numbers for Pink Line trains).

[RJL6000]

Due to the need for more cars on both the Blue and the Pink Lines, it seems like the Brown and Purple Lines' fleets have been directly affected: Any remaining 2600-series cars assigned to those two North Side lines (namely, 2963-3002) have been reassigned to the Blue/Pink Line. {I was at Forest Park today, and saw at least cars 2983-2984 (previously assigned to the Purple Line) in the DesPlaines Yard and cars 2995-2996 (previously on the Brown Line) in revenue service, between Blue Line runs.} As a result, the Brown Line once again runs entirely with 3200-series equipment, while the Purple Line now runs entirely with 2400's.

I guess we will have to wait for Chicago-l.org to update the current car assignment sheet (seeing a few reassigned cars doesn't establish that all were). The question is whether this will leave the Brown and Purple Lines short (especially with the overloading going up to Lakeview) or there were that many spares? The latter is possible, since during the rehab process, 40 cars at a time were at Alstom.

Actually, I am correcting myself on this. The 2970's through 3000 are now assigned to the Blue Line, while the 2960's are still assigned to the Purple Line. To compensate for the lost Brown Line 2600-series cars, the Skokie/Yellow Line 3200's (3441-3450) are now assigned to the Brown Line, while the Yellow Line is now running with either 2400-series or 2600-series cars (whichever is not needed for either Red Line or Purple Line service).

And as rmadisonwi said, the first 22 cars in the 2200 series, and the first 22 cars numbered in the 3000's (still considered part of the 2600-series), are assigned to the Pink Line. And the Pink Line currently runs 4-car trains during weekday rush periods due to the fact that every third train between 54th and Polk during those times is an eight-car Blue Line train. A typical Pink Line train during the day on weekdays and Saturdays consists of one pair of 2600's (numbered in the lower 3000's) and one pair of 2200's. I have yet to ride the Pink Line on weekends -- but I suspect that Sunday runs would be only two cars long, and use only those cars in the 3001-3022 range (the 2200's cannot be operated alone due to current ADA regulations).

[RJL6000]

Here is an update on the 2600-series car assignments between the Blue and Pink Lines:

When the Pink Line began operating back in 2006, 2200-series cars 2201-2222 and 2600-series cars 3001-3022 were assigned to the Pink Line. But as of April 2008, 3001-3022 have been reassigned to the Blue Line, and the last 40 cars of the series (3161-3200) are now assigned to the Pink Line. I do not know which of the two lines that 2201-2222 are currently assigned to; if they are still assigned to the Pink Line, they are now being laid up on weekends, and will be on reserve in case the Pink Line begins using 6-car trains during weekday rush periods towards the end of April.

[jajuan]

Here is an update on the 2600-series car assignments between the Blue and Pink Lines:

When the Pink Line began operating back in 2006, 2200-series cars 2201-2222 and 2600-series cars 3001-3022 were assigned to the Pink Line. But as of April 2008, 3001-3022 have been reassigned to the Blue Line, and the last 40 cars of the series (3161-3200) are now assigned to the Pink Line. I do not know which of the two lines that 2201-2222 are currently assigned to; if they are still assigned to the Pink Line, they are now being laid up on weekends, and will be on reserve in case the Pink Line begins using 6-car trains during weekday rush periods towards the end of April.

Actually the Pink Line has been using 6-car trains during weekday rush hours on occasion during different trial runs to see if ridership had grown enough to justify 6-car operations. They started out as 4-car trains during weekdays and Saturdays with 2-car trains using 2600s on Sundays during the first months of operation (except for the 4-car trains on the very first day of operations). However, as ridership shifted from the Blue line 54/Cermak trains to the Pink line trains and increased steady as time progressed, they got bumped up to 6-car rush hour trains during different trial periods and 4-car operations during weekday non-peak periods and weekends. I've mostly seen 6-car weekday trains during the holiday shopping season and during the summer when tourism tends to bring up CTA ridership across the board. During most times of operations including Sundays, the minimum has been 4-cars, though like you reported the 2200s are not used on weekends just as they aren't on the Blue line during weekends. I admit though I'm not sure if 6-car trains are still used on weekdays because I tend to avoid using any of the rail lines during rush hour because of the crowds and only one CTA employee on the trains with current CTA policy.

[jcmellencamp78]

I have never seen a 6 Car Pink Line Train during rush hour but have thought lately that they need to implement that.

As a regular Pink Line rider, I have been wondering why after two years, they have not updated any of the station signage (espcially from Damen to 54/Cermak). If a rider did not know about the pink line, they would be confused as it rolled up to the station because the signs at the station are all blue. And the smaller signs (that are posted on poles/support beams with the Letter of the Station, the Name, and the destination) are all blue (for example D Damen to O'Hare).

I hope they fix this. And to all those who complain about losing your direct connection to O'Hare, there is still that free transfer at Clark/Lake.

[qwantae]

Here is an update on the 2600-series car assignments between the Blue and Pink Lines:

I do not know which of the two lines that 2201-2222 are currently assigned to; if they are still assigned to the Pink Line

Nothing changed on the 2201-2222, I was on 2221 car on Pink Line this past Friday.