Random CTA

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

I'd suggest everyone from this point forward take notice of what he's trying to convey here, add substance to the conversation or just react. Simple as that.....?????

Bet imma remember that for next time

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, Kevin said:

 

As mentioned in another thread, these one word responses are unnecessary and do not contribute to the forum. The "reactions" feature is better suited for acknowledging a post.

Bet I will remember that for next time broham

[mikeymc77]

On 5/10/2021 at 8:32 AM, Shannoncvpi said:

604 running a full rub on the 66 I guess & 1750 got its light fixed 

Gas is $4 !!! Damn Im glad to be in Arizona

 

[Shannoncvpi]

4 hours ago, mikeymc77 said:

Gas is $4 !!! Damn Im glad to be in Arizona

 

At some spots it is thats when you closert to the rich white area

[artthouwill]

6 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

At some spots it is thats when you closert to the rich white area

When you are in the city of Chicago. It's expensive. Especially if you're downtown.     It's a little cheaper in the collar counties (outside of Cook County).  It's even cheaper in Indiana 

  I know Kentucky and Tennessee are cheaper than Illinois.  I would think New York and California would be the only places more expensive than Chicago.

The last time we had gas prices this high. Obama was president.

The question is what happens to the cost of electricity and electric vehicles if fuel prices skyrocket.  OPEc is refusing to increase oil production to meet summer demand.  America still heavily depends on oil from the Middle East despite ramping up domestic oil production.   Regardless of the price of gas, i don't see people turning to public transit options en masse unless you are in NYC.

[BusHunter]

12 hours ago, mikeymc77 said:

Gas is $4 !!! Damn Im glad to be in Arizona

 

Hey at least we got some gas!! Lol!! In the southeast some stations are closed due to the pipeline problems in the news. You can find it for 3 dollars out in the burbs or at a Sam's or costco. But the gas is rapidly changing in price. I cant find it for under 3 bucks anymore. We are about the same in price as sf and la and they need a special blend go figure!! 

I missed my calling, there are now a shortage of tanker truck drivers due to layoffs during the pandemic. Heard here in illinois they have to retake the written hazmat endorsement every year. And I thought I was griping about all these frickin physicals!!

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Hey at least we got some gas!! Lol!! In the southeast some stations are closed due to the pipeline problems in the news. You can find it for 3 dollars out in the burbs or at a Sam's or costco. But the gas is rapidly changing in price. I cant find it for under 3 bucks anymore. We are about the same in price as sf and la and they need a special blend go figure!! 

I missed my calling, there are now a shortage of tanker truck drivers due to layoffs during the pandemic. Heard here in illinois they have to retake the written hazmat endorsement every year. And I thought I was griping about all these frickin physicals!!

Everyone pays a federal tax and a state tax.  Illinous motor furl tax doubled under Pritchett to fund some stuff here in Illinous.   Cook County has a fuel tax and the city of Chicago has a fuel tax.  That's why border states rack up in fuel sales with Illinois residents running across state lines to buy fuel.  I remember the back ups were so bad in Hammond,  Indiana that the gas stations on Indianapolis Blvd between 106th and Calumet Ave tore down all of their small stations and built super big ones.  Of course the border stations were a tad higher than the ones further in, but the border ones were still a great deal cheaper than the Chicago ones.  It was the same thing with Calumet City residents flocking to Hammond along 165th St. I'm guessing Wisconsin experienced this too.

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

When you are in the city of Chicago. It's expensive. Especially if you're downtown.     It's a little cheaper in the collar counties (outside of Cook County).  It's even cheaper in Indiana 

  I know Kentucky and Tennessee are cheaper than Illinois.  I would think New York and California would be the only places more expensive than Chicago.

The last time we had gas prices this high. Obama was president.

The question is what happens to the cost of electricity and electric vehicles if fuel prices skyrocket.  OPEc is refusing to increase oil production to meet summer demand.  America still heavily depends on oil from the Middle East despite ramping up domestic oil production.   Regardless of the price of gas, i don't see people turning to public transit options en masse unless you are in NYC.

Honestly bro if gas get too high then imma buy me a 4 wheeler cuz cta is just too dam slow for me & I work for them I like going where I want when I want how I want insteadof waiting on a bus that wont be on time & the driver thats late be driving slow as hell 

[artthouwill]

21 minutes ago, Shannoncvpi said:

Honestly bro if gas get too high then imma buy me a 4 wheeler cuz cta is just too dam slow for me & I work for them I like going where I want when I want how I want insteadof waiting on a bus that wont be on time & the driver thats late be driving slow as hell 

So YOU re the late slow driver!?

[Shannoncvpi]

40 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

So YOU re the late slow driver!?

Naw when im late I be rolling & when im early I tell the passenger I know y'all got better places to be but I'm early so I will be creeping down the street or we will sit here a few mins

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Everyone pays a federal tax and a state tax.  Illinous motor furl tax doubled under Pritchett to fund some stuff here in Illinous.   Cook County has a fuel tax and the city of Chicago has a fuel tax.  That's why border states rack up in fuel sales with Illinois residents running across state lines to buy fuel.  I remember the back ups were so bad in Hammond,  Indiana that the gas stations on Indianapolis Blvd between 106th and Calumet Ave tore down all of their small stations and built super big ones.  Of course the border stations were a tad higher than the ones further in, but the border ones were still a great deal cheaper than the Chicago ones.  It was the same thing with Calumet City residents flocking to Hammond along 165th St. I'm guessing Wisconsin experienced this too.

My aunt lives in Austin and will literally spend her last vestiges in the tank making it all the way to Indiana to fuel up. Maybe some enterprising bus driver will head on over to Hammond to fuel up before starting a run on the 30 or 100 ?

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

My aunt lives in Austin and will literally spend her last vestiges in the tank making it all the way to Indiana to fuel up. Maybe some enterprising bus driver will head on over to Hammond to fuel up before starting a run on the 30 or 100 ?

I thought I read cta buys fuel from a fuel bank, which means it can set the price from the purchase. Any kind of ridesharing vehicle like a bus though is very profitable. The more you can carry the better. 

Out in DuPage, the gas is considerably cheaper than cook county. Then all of a sudden this year they matched cook county prices. Turns out there was a story they were not getting tax revenue due to the pandemic, so they doubled the gas tax. Lately though the prices are down again. It's incredible you can save almost a dollar a gallon from lincoln park to out there and we are just talking west of ohare. When it was higher I went to Sams, now it's cheaper I'm back out there. 

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

Woodstock gas prices are around $3.20 a gallon now. I remember $3.25 and $3.65 recently too. Reminds me of when gas was $4 a gallon around Oak Park.  
 

When the new Woodman’s opened up east of McHenry in 2019 they had gas prices as low as $1.89. Those were the days. A friend of mine who works there said the store manager wanted to be super competitive with the nearby gas stations.

[Sam92]

7 hours ago, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

Woodstock gas prices are around $3.20 a gallon now. I remember $3.25 and $3.65 recently too. Reminds me of when gas was $4 a gallon around Oak Park.  
 

When the new Woodman’s opened up east of McHenry in 2019 they had gas prices as low as $1.89. Those were the days. A friend of mine who works there said the store manager wanted to be super competitive with the nearby gas stations.

Well hopefully this helps cta and metra recover easier. I’m not too sure how metra is going to hold up being commuter dependent. The Fulton Market area of west loop and river north are slowly coming back to life but the Wacker Drive, Canal street and lasalle areas are still weak so the 130’s and 156 if anything will stick with the schedule they’re on currently.

[Shannoncvpi]

13 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

My aunt lives in Austin and will literally spend her last vestiges in the tank making it all the way to Indiana to fuel up. Maybe some enterprising bus driver will head on over to Hammond to fuel up before starting a run on the 30 or 100 ?

I get gas in austin at the falcon on division& central its 329 there 

[NewFlyerMCI]

Looking at the 22 least busiest stations in the system (Feb 2021), the lion's share of them are on the Green & Purple Lines. Broken down, they distribute as:

• Green: 9 (Ridgeland, Oak Park, SSE, except for 47th & A/63rd)
• Purple: 7 (all Evanston stops except for Davis)
• Yellow: 1 (Oakton)
• Blue: 3 (Racine, Montrose, Oak Park)
• Pink: 1 (Kostner)
• Brown: 1 (Rockwell)

Adjusting for Feb 2020, they distribute as such:

• Green: 12 (SSE, California, Laramie, Conservatory)
• Purple: 6 (all Evanston stops except Davis & Main)
• Yellow: 1 (Oakton)
• Pink: 3 (Kostner, Kedzie, Pulaski)

Some other interesting related and unrelated tidbits:

• In February 2020, the Brown Line (~1.4m) outpaced the Green Line (~893k) in terms of ridership, but 1 year later, had mostly equalized (~276k riders on the Brown vs ~259k on the Green)
• In Feb 2020, the least busiest stations on the Green Line were every station south of and including Indiana, along with Conservatory, California & Laramie. In Feb 2021, Ashland/63rd, Laramie, California & 47th left this list, and were replaced with Ridgeland & Oak Park.
• Kostner is the consistently the 2nd least busiest station in the system, often trading places with King Dr over the years. Central (Purple) and Halsted/63rd round out the bottom 4. The pandemic didn't change this, and Kostner was one of the stations with the least dramatic decline in ridership, about 60%. Other stations around this metric are 79th (60% decline), 95th (62% decline), Howard (63% decline) & Polk (64% decline).
• Out of the stations listed here, none reached over 1000 in Feb 2020 (except the Oak Parks, Ridgeland & Main, all of whom suffered about an 80%-87% decline in ridership), or over 400 in Feb 2021. 
• The Blue & Red Lines are the only lines that have more ridership than the Loop stations (and usually every other line by orders of magnitude). Due to the pandemic, the Green & Brown lines now join this group (just barely) with the Orange Line just narrowly missing out. 

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Looking at the 22 least busiest stations in the system (Feb 2021), the lion's share of them are on the Green & Purple Lines. Broken down, they distribute as:

• Green: 9 (Ridgeland, Oak Park, SSE, except for 47th & A/63rd)
• Purple: 7 (all Evanston stops except for Davis)
• Yellow: 1 (Oakton)
• Blue: 3 (Racine, Montrose, Oak Park)
• Pink: 1 (Kostner)
• Brown: 1 (Rockwell)

Adjusting for Feb 2020, they distribute as such:

• Green: 12 (SSE, California, Laramie, Conservatory)
• Purple: 6 (all Evanston stops except Davis & Main)
• Yellow: 1 (Oakton)
• Pink: 3 (Kostner, Kedzie, Pulaski)

Some other interesting related and unrelated tidbits:

• In February 2020, the Brown Line (~1.4m) outpaced the Green Line (~893k) in terms of ridership, but 1 year later, had mostly equalized (~276k riders on the Brown vs ~259k on the Green)
• In Feb 2020, the least busiest stations on the Green Line were every station south of and including Indiana, along with Conservatory, California & Laramie. In Feb 2021, Ashland/63rd, Laramie, California & 47th left this list, and were replaced with Ridgeland & Oak Park.
• Kostner is the consistently the 2nd least busiest station in the system, often trading places with King Dr over the years. Central (Purple) and Halsted/63rd round out the bottom 4. The pandemic didn't change this, and Kostner was one of the stations with the least dramatic decline in ridership, about 60%. Other stations around this metric are 79th (60% decline), 95th (62% decline), Howard (63% decline) & Polk (64% decline).
• Out of the stations listed here, none reached over 1000 in Feb 2020 (except the Oak Parks, Ridgeland & Main, all of whom suffered about an 80%-87% decline in ridership), or over 400 in Feb 2021. 
• The Blue & Red Lines are the only lines that have more ridership than the Loop stations (and usually every other line by orders of magnitude). Due to the pandemic, the Green & Brown lines now join this group (just barely) with the Orange Line just narrowly missing out. 

Ridership has plummeted but looking at traffic on the Kennedy. Eisenhower., and the Dan Ryan, you wouldn't know it was a pandemic.   

Based on observations, these trains aren't running at ore-pandemic intervals, and Based on the numbers, they shouldn't have to.  That doesn't mean that service is infrequent. But there's no need for 2 to 3 minutes headway when 5 to 8 seem to be working with these numbers.

[Sam92]

6 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Looking at the 22 least busiest stations in the system (Feb 2021), the lion's share of them are on the Green & Purple Lines. Broken down, they distribute as:

• Green: 9 (Ridgeland, Oak Park, SSE, except for 47th & A/63rd)
• Purple: 7 (all Evanston stops except for Davis)
• Yellow: 1 (Oakton)
• Blue: 3 (Racine, Montrose, Oak Park)
• Pink: 1 (Kostner)
• Brown: 1 (Rockwell)

Adjusting for Feb 2020, they distribute as such:

• Green: 12 (SSE, California, Laramie, Conservatory)
• Purple: 6 (all Evanston stops except Davis & Main)
• Yellow: 1 (Oakton)
• Pink: 3 (Kostner, Kedzie, Pulaski)

Some other interesting related and unrelated tidbits:

• In February 2020, the Brown Line (~1.4m) outpaced the Green Line (~893k) in terms of ridership, but 1 year later, had mostly equalized (~276k riders on the Brown vs ~259k on the Green)
• In Feb 2020, the least busiest stations on the Green Line were every station south of and including Indiana, along with Conservatory, California & Laramie. In Feb 2021, Ashland/63rd, Laramie, California & 47th left this list, and were replaced with Ridgeland & Oak Park.
• Kostner is the consistently the 2nd least busiest station in the system, often trading places with King Dr over the years. Central (Purple) and Halsted/63rd round out the bottom 4. The pandemic didn't change this, and Kostner was one of the stations with the least dramatic decline in ridership, about 60%. Other stations around this metric are 79th (60% decline), 95th (62% decline), Howard (63% decline) & Polk (64% decline).
• Out of the stations listed here, none reached over 1000 in Feb 2020 (except the Oak Parks, Ridgeland & Main, all of whom suffered about an 80%-87% decline in ridership), or over 400 in Feb 2021. 
• The Blue & Red Lines are the only lines that have more ridership than the Loop stations (and usually every other line by orders of magnitude). Due to the pandemic, the Green & Brown lines now join this group (just barely) with the Orange Line just narrowly missing out. 

As far as green line that shows that Bronzeville and south loop is carrying the SSM ridership with Ashland branch possibly carrying the main ridership south of there (based off king drive being the lowest/2nd lowest). Brown was a business district oriented route even with the lake view boom (Entertainment based ridership from lake view most likely was carried by red) so that’s no surprise that it’s even with the green line now. What I see happening is recreational and student ridership coming back first. The offices are still dead so brown, purple and along with the 120’s, 130 lasalle expresses are gonna be the last to come back

[artthouwill]

12 hours ago, Sam92 said:

As far as green line that shows that Bronzeville and south loop is carrying the SSM ridership with Ashland branch possibly carrying the main ridership south of there (based off king drive being the lowest/2nd lowest). Brown was a business district oriented route even with the lake view boom (Entertainment based ridership from lake view most likely was carried by red) so that’s no surprise that it’s even with the green line now. What I see happening is recreational and student ridership coming back first. The offices are still dead so brown, purple and along with the 120’s, 130 lasalle expresses are gonna be the last to come back

I don't know if or when the Obama Presidential Library will be built.   If not for that, i would consider doing away with the Cottage Grove branch altogether 

  It has made me 25 year mark, so if it's torn down,  federal funds would not have to be repaid.   Ridership on both branches pale in comparison to boarding at the 63rd St Red Line station.  At least the library could possibly generate traffic, IF that branch were extended back to Stony Island 

  Outside of that, the Cottage Grove branch competes with the 2. 3 4, and the Red Line,  and even with an extension to  Stony, may compete with the 6 and 28.

I don't know if CTA should;

• Send all tripstoAshland/63

• Truncate the route to Garfield or 61st

• Reroute the line along the Skyway to at least92nd or 108th and the State Line.

I'm not in favor of eliminating the SSM  south of 35th at all.  There's a 2 or 3 year project of residential apartments being built with transit in mind at the 43rd St Green Line station. 

.

[Shannoncvpi]

On 5/12/2021 at 7:49 PM, NewFlyerMCI said:

My aunt lives in Austin and will literally spend her last vestiges in the tank making it all the way to Indiana to fuel up. Maybe some enterprising bus driver will head on over to Hammond to fuel up before starting a run on the 30 or 100 ?

I get gas in austin at

[Shannoncvpi]

1 of the covid buses out working couldnt see which number it was 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

2 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

1 of the covid buses out working couldnt see which number it was 

Looool why does it say blue line shuttle?

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I don't know if or when the Obama Presidential Library will be built.   If not for that, i would consider doing away with the Cottage Grove branch altogether 

  It has made me 25 year mark, so if it's torn down,  federal funds would not have to be repaid.   Ridership on both branches pale in comparison to boarding at the 63rd St Red Line station.  At least the library could possibly generate traffic, IF that branch were extended back to Stony Island 

  Outside of that, the Cottage Grove branch competes with the 2. 3 4, and the Red Line,  and even with an extension to  Stony, may compete with the 6 and 28.

I don't know if CTA should;

• Send all tripstoAshland/63

• Truncate the route to Garfield or 61st

• Reroute the line along the Skyway to at least92nd or 108th and the State Line.

I'm not in favor of eliminating the SSM  south of 35th at all.  There's a 2 or 3 year project of residential apartments being built with transit in mind at the 43rd St Green Line station. 

.

63rd/Dan Ryan alone has more monthly riders than all stations Indiana and south? I find that somewhat hard to believe.

The Green Line is definitely in an interesting situation. Oak Park, West Loop & South Loop basically carry the line as @Sam92 said. Laramie, Conservatory and California leaving the least-performing station list and being replaced with Oak Park & Austin speaks more to the pandemic causing more SAH work than ridership rising at those stations. The advent of the Red Line pretty much did kill the SSM. The Green Line being extended via the Skyway would actually see ridership increase, I'm sure of it, but I don't know if it would be enough to offset the cost of construction. Or whether or not the residents would want that.

If costs ever needed to be cut, it might actually be the most prudent option to close King Drive and Cottage Grove and send all trips to Ashland/63rd. Ironically, despite Halsted's underperformance, there are calls to re-open Racine and they aren't exactly quiet. And an extension to Western couldn't hurt either (maybe finally the 349 could have a L connection).

[Tcmetro]

I really like the idea of extending the Green Line to 63/Western. It would be pretty cost effective, and would be pretty key to adding transit options on the SW side. I think a Midway extension would be nice but probably not feasible. 

I also like the idea of having the Green Line run along the Skyway, then take over the ME to 93/South Chicago. 

I think then the branches could become a 63rd St line with extensions on both sides from Western to Stony Island. 

A new wye would have to be built at 59th and a transfer station at 61st.

The 63 bus is pretty busy and I think there's opportunity to reuse the L to create a crosstown line.

[Shannoncvpi]

1 hour ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Looool why does it say blue line shuttle?

Lol idk