Winter Pick Dec. 2016

[Busjack]

CTA just posted the updated timetables effective Dec.18. Not many affected, but on those speculating about 66, the morning rush goes from about every 6 minutes from Austin and 3 minutes at Sacramento to 6:37 "then every 4 to 7 minutes from Austin, every 2 to 8 minutes from Pulaski, and every 5 to 13 minutes from Troy until" 8:08. While there are some trips starting from Troy through 8:56. nothing WB ending there in the morning. Only thing indicated in the p.m. rush is "every 3 to 6 minutes from Navy Pier" instead of 4 to 8 about that time in the old schedule. So they did have to increase the frequency,

What's the significance of Troy? Kedzie pullouts?

In the meantime, frequency on 79 is way down. AM rush was something like 5 to 10 minutes from Ford City to 79th/Lakefront and every 4 to 5 minutes from Western to 79th /Lakefront is being changed to something like every 12 minutes from Ford City with some trips starting at Wenttworth. PM rush frequencies are changed, but not so radically. Is it going to be stuck with the artics?

Anyone seeing anything else, let us know.

[artthouwill]

28 minutes ago, Busjack said:

CTA just posted the updated timetables effective Dec.18. Not many affected, but on those speculating about 66, the morning rush goes from about every 6 minutes from Austin and 3 minutes at Sacramento to 6:37 "then every 4 to 7 minutes from Austin, every 2 to 8 minutes from Pulaski, and every 5 to 13 minutes from Troy until" 8:08. While there are some trips starting from Troy through 8:56. nothing WB ending there in the morning. Only thing indicated in the p.m. rush is "every 3 to 6 minutes from Navy Pier" instead of 4 to 8 about that time in the old schedule. So they did have to increase the frequency,

What's the significance of Troy? Kedzie pullouts?

In the meantime, frequency on 79 is way down. AM rush was something like 5 to 10 minutes from Ford City to 79th/Lakefront and every 4 to 5 minutes from Western to 79th /Lakefront is being changed to something like every 12 minutes from Ford City with some trips starting at Wenttworth. PM rush frequencies are changed, but not so radically. Is it going to be stuck with the artics?

Anyone seeing anything else, let us know.

Perhaps in the morning rush,  the heaviest ridership is east of Western.   Since the 67 also serves Ford City,  perhaps the ridership west of Western on 79 has dipped.   If nothing else,  more short turns at Western should improve service in that less buses should ge delayed by freight trains near 79th and Central Park.  Besides that,  a lot of riders west of Western heading to the Loop have the option of Metra SWS, Kedzie, Pulaski,  Cicero,  or Western to the Orange Line. 

[Busjack]

27 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

Perhaps in the morning rush,  the heaviest ridership is east of Western.   Since the 67 also serves Ford City,  perhaps the ridership west of Western on 79 has dipped.   If nothing else,  more short turns at Western should improve service in that less buses should ge delayed by freight trains near 79th and Central Park.  Besides that,  a lot of riders west of Western heading to the Loop have the option of Metra SWS, Kedzie, Pulaski,  Cicero,  or Western to the Orange Line. 

But it looks like the short turns in the morning are at Wentworth, not Western (look at the bottom) and service is reduced mostly from Western. If I were to make any inference, the ridership is from the Red Line to the South Shore and Chatham neighborhoods.

[TaylorTank1229]

When I saw the post up for winter service change it said #43 43rd, #85 Central, & #91 Austin were getting changes to their hours of service. Is that legit or just some kind of error? 

[Busjack]

52 minutes ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

When I saw the post up for winter service change it said #43 43rd, #85 Central, & #91 Austin were getting changes to their hours of service. Is that legit or just some kind of error? 

There are advance schedules posted for all 3, so I guess you'll have to compare.

[Pace831]

2 hours ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

When I saw the post up for winter service change it said #43 43rd, #85 Central, & #91 Austin were getting changes to their hours of service. Is that legit or just some kind of error? 

 

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

There are advance schedules posted for all 3, so I guess you'll have to compare.

43 starts 100 minutes earlier on Saturdays and starts 125 minutes later on Sundays.

85 and 91 start 15 minutes earlier on weekdays.

[jajuan]

19 hours ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

When I saw the post up for winter service change it said #43 43rd, #85 Central, & #91 Austin were getting changes to their hours of service. Is that legit or just some kind of error? 

Well if it's on official CTA notices it tends to be legit as confirmed by Pace831 noting that 43 is getting an earlier Saturday start but also a later Sunday start, while 85 and 91 get earlier weekday starts.  These don't sound like items that require a change to bus stop signs. So in this case we don't have that issue of an eagle eyed forum member spotting a route change on the bus stop signs before CTA put out notices verifying that route change as we saw happen with the 26 and a lot of us, myself included, immediately set off rapid fire posts that somebody in CTA made a mistake.

[jajuan]

22 hours ago, Busjack said:

CTA just posted the updated timetables effective Dec.18. Not many affected, but on those speculating about 66, the morning rush goes from about every 6 minutes from Austin and 3 minutes at Sacramento to 6:37 "then every 4 to 7 minutes from Austin, every 2 to 8 minutes from Pulaski, and every 5 to 13 minutes from Troy until" 8:08. While there are some trips starting from Troy through 8:56. nothing WB ending there in the morning. Only thing indicated in the p.m. rush is "every 3 to 6 minutes from Navy Pier" instead of 4 to 8 about that time in the old schedule. So they did have to increase the frequency,

What's the significance of Troy? Kedzie pullouts?

In the meantime, frequency on 79 is way down. AM rush was something like 5 to 10 minutes from Ford City to 79th/Lakefront and every 4 to 5 minutes from Western to 79th /Lakefront is being changed to something like every 12 minutes from Ford City with some trips starting at Wenttworth. PM rush frequencies are changed, but not so radically. Is it going to be stuck with the artics?

Anyone seeing anything else, let us know.

I think those trips starting at Troy on the 66 are Kedzie's contribution to AM rush eastbound service so that it can get a bus in position for something else downtown, in this case probably the 125 if not the 120 or 121, without having to do so on too much of a deadhead. Before that a number of those were tied to Chicago's trips on the 12. An artic would end on the 12 at Kedzie, deadhead up to Chicago and then become a 66. However, Chicago has since tied a lot of its trips on the 12 to the 157 by ending a WB 12 at Western before it travels Western, 16th and Washtenaw to become an EB 157.

[Busjack]

19 minutes ago, jajuan said:

I think those trips starting at Troy on the 66 are Kedzie's contribution to AM rush eastbound service so that it can get a bus in position for something else downtown, in this case probably the 125 if not the 120 or 121, without having to do so on too much of a deadhead. Before that a number of those were tied to Chicago's trips on the 12. An artic would end on the 12 at Kedzie, deadhead up to Chicago and then become a 66. However, Chicago has since tied a lot of its trips on the 12 to the 157 by ending a WB 12 at Western before it travels Western, 16th and Washtenaw to become an EB 157.

I figured eventually something like that. What hit me as strange is that if this is the case, last time around K unloaded a bunch of trips on C, and now it will be working C's territory.

[jajuan]

I think that arrangement on the 66 is a few picks old. It's probably not that many trips compared to what total work Kedzie gave to Chicago. But it's still enough to have kept it at a minimum 3 mins (from the current Sacramento schedule notes) and keep it at a minimum 5 mins (Troy notes) starting next week. Probably the main radical change that we'll see and ordinary folks notice is Chicago having no more artics for the 66, and what artics we do see being from Kedzie.

[BusHunter]

Damn since when does the #76 only go down kedzie and not milwaukee going east? Had a bus come down kedzie thought it was going to harlem. It wasn't. Checked the route description and sure enough no via milwaukee trips.

[jajuan]

46 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Damn since when does the #76 only go down kedzie and not milwaukee going east? Had a bus come down kedzie thought it was going to harlem. It wasn't. Checked the route description and sure enough no via milwaukee trips.

That's due to a temporary reroute on the 76 because of sewer work on Diversey between Central Park and Milwaukee. It started Dec. 30th and supposed to end next Thursday, Jan. 19th. The eastbound detour is Central Park, Wrightwood, Kimball, Diversey, Kedzie, Logan Square bus terminal, and Kedzie back to Diversey. Westbound after turning off Kedzie back from Logan Square is Diversey, Milwaukee, and Central Park back to Diversey. The EB detour is probably set up the way it is because CTA might figure the right turn from Kimball to Milwaukee is too sharp a turn for buses to make at that intersection since that can be a busy intersection due to being one between three streets instead of two. 

[BusHunter]

Hmm the public information sign says nothing about milwaukee though like its permanent. But now that I'm looking that appears to be the sign at the blue line only unless some signs have yet to be changed.

[jajuan]

1 minute ago, BusHunter said:

Hmm the public information sign says nothing about milwaukee though like its permanent. But now that I'm looking that appears to be the sign at the blue line only unless some signs have yet to be changed.

It's not permanent BH. It's only for a detour. The map of what regular service should be and BusTracker's map trace both show Milwaukee as part of the route. By next Thursday, EB buses should be back on Milwaukee going into Logan Square. Look at how sharp a turn buses would have to make to get on to Milwaukee from Kimball. They can't make that turn without seriously screwing up traffic at that intersection especially if we're talking rush hour.

[BusHunter]

2 hours ago, jajuan said:

It's not permanent BH. It's only for a detour. The map of what regular service should be and BusTracker's map trace both show Milwaukee as part of the route. By next Thursday, EB buses should be back on Milwaukee going into Logan Square. Look at how sharp a turn buses would have to make to get on to Milwaukee from Kimball. They can't make that turn without seriously screwing up traffic at that intersection especially if we're talking rush hour.

Well the EB bus I was on, #6686 I believe, did make that complete turn from nb kimball to sb milwaukee but it sounded like his power steering pump wasn't too happy about it!! (It was groaning away)

PI signs on Milwaukee still had the diversey signs on them detour or not, so it seems almost to me to be operator's discretion here but probably officially they are supposed to use Kedzie, depends on how strict management is if they let that slide or not.

[jajuan]

3 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Well the EB bus I was on, #6686 I believe, did make that complete turn from nb kimball to sb milwaukee but it sounded like his power steering pump wasn't too happy about it!! (It was groaning away)

PI signs on Milwaukee still had the diversey signs on them detour or not, so it seems almost to me to be operator's discretion here but probably officially they are supposed to use Kedzie, depends on how strict management is if they let that slide or not.

You found the one operator who was going down Milwaukee unofficially. But the CTA website says that officially until the sewer work is complete next week, EB operators are supposed to turn onto Diversey and enter the Logan Square bus terminal after going down Kedzie instead of Milwaukee. And I suspect that that's because they don't want operators mucking up traffic trying to do that sharp right turn onto Milwaukee.

[BusHunter]

Just don't wait for an eb bus between kimball/diversey and logan square bus terminal cause chances are you might miss it!!  I don't know if all buses are doing the detour or not, like I say though it's up to management if they feel they need to discipline someone, although I don't see the harm if buses were bunched at the time, but they were not.