2016 South Side Service Changes

[Busjack]

Tribune says you guys are going to get what you want:

• The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route (doesn't say anything about coordination with 381).
• The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
• The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
• The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
• The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
• The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more buses [really, or bad reporting?] during rush hours.

Is 4 going to overlap 115? I can't see them cutting access to the 95th station.

 

[MetroShadow]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

Tribune says you guys are going to get what you want:

• The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route (doesn't say anything about coordination with 381).
• The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
• The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
• The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
• The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
• The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more buses [really, or bad reporting?] during rush hours.

Is 4 going to overlap 115? I can't see them cutting access to the 95th station.

 

I can't seem to count how many times we've proposed or foamed over combining the 95 over the last decade in these forums…

 

But more buses over the branches of the green line, however? I'm assuming they would be 63rd buses short-turning at Ashland.

[Busjack]

36 minutes ago, MetroShadow said:

...

 

But more buses over the branches of the green line, however? I'm assuming they would be 63rd buses short-turning at Ashland.

As I noted  above, I assume it is a mistake.

Looks like they may be reinstating a cut, as the rush hour Harlem to Roosevelt trains are not on the schedule.

[TaylorTank1229]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

Tribune says you guys are going to get what you want:

• The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route (doesn't say anything about coordination with 381).
• The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
• The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
• The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
• The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
• The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more buses [really, or bad reporting?] during rush hours.

Is 4 going to overlap 115? I can't see them cutting access to the 95th station.

 

Never thought I see the day. #4? Had some hope on that. #71? Yes. #26? Maybe. #34 & #119? Yes also. The 95th street buses? No. Green line? About time, and I believe they mean more trains.

 

Is this all happening in the summer pick?

[Busjack]

3 hours ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

About time....

Again, the Sun-Times has an article that this was in connection with the appointment of Zopp to take care of the political heat on the south side. There is a video of Carter's and Emanuel's statement at 95th (his favorite place to politic when the going gets tough), but nothing of substance, unless you can figure out the placard map in the background.

Also: CTA Press Release.

[artthouwill]

6 hours ago, Busjack said:

Tribune says you guys are going to get what you want:

• The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route (doesn't say anything about coordination with 381).
• The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
• The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
• The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
• The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
• The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more buses [really, or bad reporting?] during rush hours.

Is 4 going to overlap 115? I can't see them cutting access to the 95th station.

 

Emmanuel needs to do something to make people forget the still unfulfilled promise of the Red line extension.   Perhaps that will get going close to the 2019 elections. 

[Busjack]

9 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

Emmanuel needs to do something to make people forget the still unfulfilled promise of the Red line extension.   Perhaps that will get going close to the 2019 elections. 

Somewhat interesting,the news reports mention the Red Line South and the 95th St. station project, but nothing about that. Stuff in the video gives the impression that he doesn't want you to remember (such as this is a 21st century intermodal solution).

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

Is this all happening in the summer pick?

I reread the press release, which says at the bottom "The improvements are expected to begin as soon as this summer, with the majority of improvements implemented in September."

[Pace831]

52 minutes ago, Busjack said:

unless you can figure out the placard map in the background.

 

6 hours ago, Busjack said:

Is 4 going to overlap 115?

The "map in the background" would indicate the answer to your question is yes. I doubt 115 would be rerouted to avoid duplication. I can't tell from the map whether 4 will continue to serve the Chicago State turnaround (probably not though). If the alleged purpose of the extension is to speed up travel for far south siders to northern destinations, then I guess the duplication is justified, as the 4 and 115 would continue to serve mostly different markets.

[Busjack]

37 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

The "map in the background" would indicate the answer to your question is yes.

I put the video on full screen, and while there is a dotted brown line for #4, it doesn't look like other preexisting routes are on the map.

As said at the bottom of the press release "More details to come. "

[BusHunter]

I don't know if extending the #4 is such a hot idea. With it's delays in the loop, they are probably looking at alot more bus bunching than they did out south of 95th as the feeders don't really have bus bunching. So if the #4 runs all night to 63rd and points south will the 115th terminal have all night service? I don't believe #115 has all night service. 115th/cottage sounds close to Wal mart. Why not just run it to walmart. They would probably have a smash hit on their hands if they did that.

I find it interesting they want to beef up the south side green line but not the west side. That may be impossible though as they have to send those out of harlem yard. South side green line for the most part is weak ridership. They hardly ever have a standing load. On the west side though they have quite a few

[Pace831]

18 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

So if the #4 runs all night to 63rd and points south will the 115th terminal have all night service? I don't believe #115 has all night service. 115th/cottage sounds close to Wal mart. Why not just run it to walmart. They would probably have a smash hit on their hands if they did that.

We haven't seen a proposed schedule yet, but most likely the N4 will continue to terminate at 63rd. I do agree that Walmart could have better service than 111A currently provides. However, I think it would work best if 4 goes to 115th as planned, since it is the Cottage Grove bus, a main line route. Then reroute 115, a more local route, along 111th, Doty/Woodlawn, 103rd. Eliminate 111A as it would be redundant. That would improve service to Walmart and remove duplication between 4/115 on Cottage Grove between 103rd and 111th.

[jajuan]

8 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

I can't seem to count how many times we've proposed or foamed over combining the 95 over the last decade in these forums…

 

But more buses over the branches of the green line, however? I'm assuming they would be 63rd buses short-turning at Ashland.

 

8 hours ago, Busjack said:

As I noted  above, I assume it is a mistake.

Looks like they may be reinstating a cut, as the rush hour Harlem to Roosevelt trains are not on the schedule.

Press release confirms that the Tribune was in error. The increase mentioned for the Green Line branches are for the trains themselves, not the buses along 63rd. As for keeping the coordination with the 381 on 95th, it should be possible for them to work a schedule for the proposed combined 95th route in such a way that service up to the Red Line is every ten minutes and the full trips west of the Red Line are done on the current 95W frequency of every 20 mins and thus keeping that coordination in place. 

[ChicagoNova]

12 hours ago, Busjack said:

Tribune says you guys are going to get what you want:

• The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route (doesn't say anything about coordination with 381).
• The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
• The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
• The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
• The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
• The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more buses [really, or bad reporting?] during rush hours.

Is 4 going to overlap 115? I can't see them cutting access to the 95th station.

 

This I'm loving.

[artthouwill]

12 hours ago, Busjack said:

Tribune says you guys are going to get what you want:

• The 95th Street bus will combine separate east and west segments to create a continuous route (doesn't say anything about coordination with 381).
• The #4 Cottage Grove bus will extend south from 95th Street to 115th Street.
• The #71 71st Street bus will extend all trips from 73rd to 112th and Torrence, with increased frequency.
• The #26 South Shore Express service will start earlier and run later.
• The #34 Michigan and #119 Michigan/119th bus routes will see more buses running during midday and evening hours.
• The Cottage Grove and Ashland/63rd branches of the Green Line will get more buses [really, or bad reporting?] during rush hours.

Is 4 going to overlap 115? I can't see them cutting access to the 95th station.

 

I also wonder if every 4 will go to 115th.   Perhaps it could do a 115th,  Doty (Walmart) 111th Cottage loop.  Other than school trippers to serve Corliss, density south of 95th doesn't justify high frequency service. 

[BusHunter]

22 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I also wonder if every 4 will go to 115th.   Perhaps it could do a 115th,  Doty (Walmart) 111th Cottage loop.  Other than school trippers to serve Corliss, density south of 95th doesn't justify high frequency service. 

One thing to note with the #4 going south of 95th on Cottage. If there is not redundant service, then all of those riders will not have access to the red line which actually may make their commutes longer. I see riders possibly flocking to the Metra electric but if it costs more maybe not.

#115 seems like it would be cut off altogether from the Red line. Really, that doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe they will go back to a 111/115 route though, then it would have access.

As far as 95th, #381 is supposed to run express (or it used to) in Chicago with stops only at major intersections, sort of like the #270/#56A combo did. While Milwaukee may not have enough riders (debatable) 95th would seem to have plenty of riders.

Funny in all these changes in 95th/red line routings, what seems to be happening is 95th is losing some routes for it's bus bays. All this money for 95th terminal and already they could be eliminating two bays. That was always the downside to a 130th red line extension. Remember Jeff Pk was bustling with routes before the O'Hare extension and now it actually has empty bays in both terminals.

[Juniorz]

Service Map for SouthSide service Improvements

[BusHunter]

5 minutes ago, Juniorz said:

Service Map for SouthSide service Improvements

Wow south cottage #4's will be supplementing #115.

[cta5658]

Question, with the #4 being extended to 115th, do you think the route will remain at 77th or be switched to 103rd, or would the two garages share the route?

[renardo870]

Interesting concept for AM and PM rush for an expanded 26 South Shore Express from 4:20am-2pm NB and 130pm-935pm.

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, renardo870 said:

Interesting concept for AM and PM rush for an expanded 26 South Shore Express from 4:20am-2pm NB and 130pm-935pm.

If this attract enough people it could eventually become bi directional all day service

[Sam92]

And I don't know about the 381/95W plan because according to the map 95W is increased to match former 95E's frequency. I could see 381 becoming a focus more for suburnban riders once that happens and like I said in prior posts this combo will deffinately end a lot of transferring at the dan ryan with a lot of cross-95th ridership happening between Cottage Grove and Western now that the need to take mulitple buses between that corridor

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Interesting concept for AM and PM rush for an expanded 26 South Shore Express from 4:20am-2pm NB and 130pm-935pm.

So it's basically bidirectional for the PM rush. Wow. Never thought I'd see that happen. Michigan avenue slacks off after 7:30PM. It will be interesting to see if #26 can attract riders in the late evening/early night period. I don't know if I would have done nb's so late, but maybe sb's would work that late. So they are definitely going to need more buses at 103rd for this. If they keep #115 they'll need buses for that and the #4 extension but the #4 will still probably remain at 77th unless they want to possibly overcrowd 103rd.

I can't help wondering with all the service increases out south if this is some kind of consolation prize for no Red line extension. Service seems to be slated to be more frequent than some main line routes in the city. As usual this seems political, but hopefully CTA can expand some more service elsewhere in the city because now the SE side looks favored. Interesting how some service expansions can be 6 month testing periods and others are slated in stone.

[ChicagoNova]

3 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Interesting concept for AM and PM rush for an expanded 26 South Shore Express from 4:20am-2pm NB and 130pm-935pm.

Yes. A very hot first in my book.

[Busjack]

13 hours ago, jajuan said:

As for keeping the coordination with the 381 on 95th, it should be possible for them to work a schedule for the proposed combined 95th route in such a way that service up to the Red Line is every ten minutes and the full trips west of the Red Line are done on the current 95W frequency of every 20 mins and thus keeping that coordination in place. 

The Mare doesn't win any votes doing that. His constituents were promised through service, not half time through service.

This, combined with 11 shows some willingness to undo the Crowd Reduction plan, but note--while his name was all over this press release, and he wrent to 95th, he was not mentioned in the 11-31 materials, and did not make an appearance at Lincoln and Belmont. Hence this is all about political appearance--not coordinating with Pace. At least here, by undoing the 46 year old 95E 95W split, he is not admitting that his lackey made a mistake. Instead, Andrea Zopp is bringing  economic development in his name.