How COVID-19 affects transit

[artthouwill]

18 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I hadn't considered that. My main issue was the unsanitary aspect: those doors are dirty and they have to be pried open if anyone isn't in the rear doorwell to open them.

This is part of the reason I've been saying it would be better to mandate rear alighting for all passengers that can.  The  CTA probably should order their new buses where the rear doors can be opened by the driver like on Pace  buses rather than just unlocking them.  I don't know if CTA can configure the rear doors to swing open automatically (like the 6000 series Pace Orions).  The only problem is that CTA riders aren't used to that and might be hit by a swinging door.

[Pace831]

Pace routes 382 and 895 are now suspended until further notice.

Route 855 trips serving Bridgeview are also suspended.

Highland Park routes 471 and 472 will operate on a Saturday schedule on weekdays.

[NewFlyerMCI]

39 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

Pace routes 382 and 895 are now suspended until further notice.

Route 855 trips serving Bridgeview are also suspended.

Highland Park routes 471 and 472 will operate on a Saturday schedule on weekdays.

What is the purpose of the 895? Same thing for the 757, 877 & 888 as well

I can probably guess why the 895 is suspended, I'm imagining it didn't have that much ridership in the first place

[artthouwill]

45 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

Pace routes 382 and 895 are now suspended until further notice.

Route 855 trips serving Bridgeview are also suspended.

Highland Park routes 471 and 472 will operate on a Saturday schedule on weekdays.

With the 855 Bridgeview trips are the whole trips suspended or just the Bridgeview stop only?  My guess is the whole trip, though I would guess the Burr Ridge stop didn't have many passengers before going to Bridgeview. 

[artthouwill]

3 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

What is the purpose of the 895? Same thing for the 757, 877 & 888 as well

I can probably guess why the 895 is suspended, I'm imagining it didn't have that much ridership in the first place

The 895 used Eldorado EZ Riders. so that says enough about its ridership.

The 757 provides a convenient connection from the Blue and Green Lines (from the West side) to jobs in Elj Grove,  Arlington Heights,  Rolling Meadows,  and Schaumburg.   Elj Grove has the factory and shipping jobs 

The 877/888 provides service from the job starved South Suburbs to jobs in Oakbrook,  Oakbrook Terrace,  and Lombard.   Remember 2/3 of the job market in Chicagoland are in the suburbs, primarily the Western and Northwestern suburbs.  The outbound Kennedy and Eisenhower in the a.m. rush and the inbound traffic in the p.m. rush (pre COVID-19)was just as bad, if not worse, than the peak travel direction. I think McDonald's and a few others moving their corporate headquarters back to Chicago from the suburbs may have affected ridership some.  The 877/688 had its best ridership when they had MCIs on the routes.

[Pace831]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

With the 855 Bridgeview trips are the whole trips suspended or just the Bridgeview stop only?  My guess is the whole trip, though I would guess the Burr Ridge stop didn't have many passengers before going to Bridgeview. 

The whole trip is suspended. Otherwise, they'd be running two buses on the same schedule, which makes no sense when ridership is this low.

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I can probably guess why the 895 is suspended, I'm imagining it didn't have that much ridership in the first place

895 ridership is not too bad, especially the trips that serve Rosemont. The main reason it is suspended is probably that nearly all riders are white collar workers whose businesses are likely closed. I was surprised to see 382 also had "extremely low ridership", as that route serves a more blue collar area. My guess is that Southwest Division rather than HQ suggested these suspensions.

While 877 and 888 are also designed to serve the office complexes, they differ from 895 because they have other ridership as well . While ridership has surely fallen a lot, there are probably still some local riders on both ends, or people who transfer at Oak Brook and Yorktown.

 

[NewFlyerMCI]

https://ggwash.org/view/77117/baltimores-transit-ridership-dropped-the-least-san-francisco-the-most-according-to-this-app

Not surprising that San Francisco, Seattle and Boston were the places with the most severe drops, transit is less stigmatized there, especially in Seattle. New York & DC being next due to NYC being NYC and the demographics of people riding WMATA aren't very surprising either. Philadelphia and Baltimore coming into last place is the least surprising, especially considering those are the transit systems I use the most 

[Pace831]

Tribune: Metra projects $500 million loss of revenue over two years, 97% April ridership decrease.

[NewFlyerMCI]

3 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Tribune: Metra projects $500 million loss of revenue over two years, 97% April ridership decrease.

Yikes, that's shocking, and at the same time, the nature of commuter rail systems means I'll be surprised to see any commuter rail system not suffer an at least 80%-85% drop

[BusHunter]

Saw a couple buses again on the 63rd/red line bridge. So far that stop gets more attention than any other. Counted 11 riders waiting for a bus going east and you know there are more than 4 people on that bus that was coming. Seemed to be the problem was bus bunching. 79th on the east end didnt look too bad. My uber customers were telling me they are scared to ride cta. Alot of people sit close to each other on those crowded buses especially on the south side. 

Seems to me what is going on is a lack of service. They get away with that on the north side cause the ridership is not as strong as the south side. But when you have delays on the 63 or 79 you get packs of riders and that's not good right now. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Saw a couple buses again on the 63rd/red line bridge. So far that stop gets more attention than any other. Counted 11 riders waiting for a bus going east and you know there are more than 4 people on that bus that was coming. Seemed to be the problem was bus bunching. 79th on the east end didnt look too bad. My uber customers were telling me they are scared to ride cta. Alot of people sit close to each other on those crowded buses especially on the south side. 

Seems to me what is going on is a lack of service. They get away with that on the north side cause the ridership is not as strong as the south side. But when you have delays on the 63 or 79 you get packs of riders and that's not good right now. 

Every time I've been out the house since 4/3, I've seen bunched buses on the 4, especially on the day they debuted the artics, buses were moving in groups of 2-3. At this point, I'm wondering what are the motives behind CTA's seemingly unwillingess to reduce service on non-critical corridors and increase it on others + sending more artics south (as needed)

[BusHunter]

Does it seem like the artics run late versus the 40 footers. Everytime I see artics theres a 40 foot bus behind it. Now when there are lots of artics like on #53 I dont see bunching so much. I did see 3 #79's at Jeffery eb but they didnt seem crowded riders were well spaced. King drive was doing well service was good and frequent. I didnt see many packs of people. I'm surprised 63 doesnt get artics , they have a good ridership despite the virus. On the abc7 zip codes with corona they showed a heavy concentration right around south shops. 79th is probably the route where you would most likely catch it. I saw people hanging out on the corner like nothings wrong some were wearing masks some not I'd say 50 percent. There is a hot spot on the north side around Devon and western down to Peterson west over to cali. Dont know why that's so bad. The heavy concentration of people are along the north lakefront. I actually picked up a cta employee from the red line out south yesterday. I guess she felt uber was safer. I've picked up  cta employees before but never in uniform. Seems there are no employees riding the bus. They had the 6400s but I didnt see any yesterday. They actually had #1409 at ashland 55th and that spot had a nova bus before.

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Does it seem like the artics run late versus the 40 footers. Everytime I see artics theres a 40 foot bus behind it. Now when there are lots of artics like on #53 I dont see bunching so much. I did see 3 #79's at Jeffery eb but they didnt seem crowded riders were well spaced. King drive was doing well service was good and frequent. I didnt see many packs of people. I'm surprised 63 doesnt get artics , they have a good ridership despite the virus. On the abc7 zip codes with corona they showed a heavy concentration right around south shops. 79th is probably the route where you would most likely catch it. I saw people hanging out on the corner like nothings wrong some were wearing masks some not I'd say 50 percent. There is a hot spot on the north side around Devon and western down to Peterson west over to cali. Dont know why that's so bad. The heavy concentration of people are along the north lakefront. I actually picked up a cta employee from the red line out south yesterday. I guess she felt uber was safer. I've picked up  cta employees before but never in uniform. Seems there are no employees riding the bus. They had the 6400s but I didnt see any yesterday. They actually had #1409 at ashland 55th and that spot had a nova bus before.

Can artics fit at the Midway terminal? I'd think the answer is yes, but I could be wrong. And I totally agree about the people not being inside on 79th, unfortunately, people have nothing better to do and have taken relative advantage of there being less people outside than usual. I start work at FedEx on Tuesday and I'm not looking forward to taking the 79 at all.

[Sam92]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Does it seem like the artics run late versus the 40 footers. Everytime I see artics theres a 40 foot bus behind it. Now when there are lots of artics like on #53 I dont see bunching so much. I did see 3 #79's at Jeffery eb but they didnt seem crowded riders were well spaced. King drive was doing well service was good and frequent. I didnt see many packs of people. I'm surprised 63 doesnt get artics , they have a good ridership despite the virus. On the abc7 zip codes with corona they showed a heavy concentration right around south shops. 79th is probably the route where you would most likely catch it. I saw people hanging out on the corner like nothings wrong some were wearing masks some not I'd say 50 percent. There is a hot spot on the north side around Devon and western down to Peterson west over to cali. Dont know why that's so bad. The heavy concentration of people are along the north lakefront. I actually picked up a cta employee from the red line out south yesterday. I guess she felt uber was safer. I've picked up  cta employees before but never in uniform. Seems there are no employees riding the bus. They had the 6400s but I didnt see any yesterday. They actually had #1409 at ashland 55th and that spot had a nova bus before.

Guess we forgot the bigger issue of 63rd bring at 74th ?

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Can artics fit at the Midway terminal? I'd think the answer is yes, but I could be wrong. And I totally agree about the people not being inside on 79th, unfortunately, people have nothing better to do and have taken relative advantage of there being less people outside than usual. I start work at FedEx on Tuesday and I'm not looking forward to taking the 79 at all.

I'm pretty sure artics can fit at Midway Terminal.  Exiting onto 59th may present a challenge,  but still doable.

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

I'm pretty sure artics can fit at Midway Terminal.  Exiting onto 59th may present a challenge,  but still doable.

Well if an artic from Chicago pop up on 54B that'll answer everything lmao

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Guess we forgot the bigger issue of 63rd bring at 74th ?

Good thing 79 does not run out of 74th then.

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Guess we forgot the bigger issue of 63rd bring at 74th ?

 

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Good thing 79 does not run out of 74th then.

This makes me question route assignments even more. Still wondering why the 52A & 53A are at 77th instead of 74th

[artthouwill]

38 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

 

This makes me question route assignments even more. Still wondering why the 52A & 53A are at 77th instead of 74th

That's because driver reliefs can happen at 79th on both routes.  It's only one ride to and from the garage.  The 75, on the other hand, terminates at Damen, and the 67 is 5 blocks from 74th St at Ashland and Damen.  If the 51 and 52A interlinked, then a case could be made to use 51st and Ashland as a relief point for 74th garage.  That's not the case for 53A.  Also 79tg provides a straight shot to the garage.   Even the end of the route has access to 111th and I-57 for a quick drive to 79th and the Dan Ryan. 

[BusHunter]

7 hours ago, artthouwill said:

That's because driver reliefs can happen at 79th on both routes.  It's only one ride to and from the garage.  The 75, on the other hand, terminates at Damen, and the 67 is 5 blocks from 74th St at Ashland and Damen.  If the 51 and 52A interlinked, then a case could be made to use 51st and Ashland as a relief point for 74th garage.  That's not the case for 53A.  Also 79tg provides a straight shot to the garage.   Even the end of the route has access to 111th and I-57 for a quick drive to 79th and the Dan Ryan. 

I believe back in the day #51 and #52a did interline but that would be when Archer was around. 77th is weird anyway why do #35 and not #51 when you have a easy deadhead down the ryan. Back in the day when 69th was around it was a better centrally located garage. It had one ride access to the whole service area. I'm surprised they didnt try to just rebuild on the 69th site. 77th has the biggest garage so they could have ran 400 buses out of there, they still had archer they could use. It could have been done. There was something about 74th that was attractive. 

Oh I saw a first a bus with no one on it. A #48 around 63rd. Talk about easy money. Dont know how cta is going to pay for this we probably have at least until mid may before we can open the city. Even then everyone is going to be too scared to go out. 

The Metra electric was running two cars around Jeffery/71st. The resident that was in my uber car remarked that that was a short train. I think they run 4 cars regularly. Didnt see any passengers. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

51 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I believe back in the day #51 and #52a did interline but that would be when Archer was around. 77th is weird anyway why do #35 and not #51 when you have a easy deadhead down the ryan. Back in the day when 69th was around it was a better centrally located garage. It had one ride access to the whole service area. I'm surprised they didnt try to just rebuild on the 69th site. 77th has the biggest garage so they could have ran 400 buses out of there, they still had archer they could use. It could have been done. There was something about 74th that was attractive. 

Oh I saw a first a bus with no one on it. A #48 around 63rd. Talk about easy money. Dont know how cta is going to pay for this we probably have at least until mid may before we can open the city. Even then everyone is going to be too scared to go out. 

The Metra electric was running two cars around Jeffery/71st. The resident that was in my uber car remarked that that was a short train. I think they run 4 cars regularly. Didnt see any passengers. 

77th does have the 51, in part for the reason it doesn't have the 35. The 51 ends at the Red Line, the 35 doesn't. Any 35 trip would either short-turn early at the Red Line or deadhead back from 33rd/Rhodes. However, even before the 31st St extension, the 35 did end at Kedzie, so its a straight shot. Even now, after 8p, the 35 doesn't go past Kedzie and presumably when each run is down, it just heads north on Kedzie up to Van Buren. Can't be anymore than 15 mins.

To the Metra point, I haven't seen any ME trains with passengers, I've seen the SS & Main branch twice each, but neither train was stopped, so I probably missed something. Haven't seen 2-car trains though

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

I believe back in the day #51 and #52a did interline but that would be when Archer was around. 77th is weird anyway why do #35 and not #51 when you have a easy deadhead down the ryan. Back in the day when 69th was around it was a better centrally located garage. It had one ride access to the whole service area. I'm surprised they didnt try to just rebuild on the 69th site. 77th has the biggest garage so they could have ran 400 buses out of there, they still had archer they could use. It could have been done. There was something about 74th that was attractive. 

Oh I saw a first a bus with no one on it. A #48 around 63rd. Talk about easy money. Dont know how cta is going to pay for this we probably have at least until mid may before we can open the city. Even then everyone is going to be too scared to go out. 

The Metra electric was running two cars around Jeffery/71st. The resident that was in my uber car remarked that that was a short train. I think they run 4 cars regularly. Didnt see any passengers. 

When Srcher closed,  the 35 and 39 were initially given to 77th.  Both routes did driver reliefs at 35th Red Line.  While deadheads to and from th east ends of those routes were quick and easy, deadheading to 24th and Cicero or even Perishing and St Louis wasn't easy.  Kedzie even has an easier deadhead to 35th and Cottage and 39th and Lake Park because of Lake Shore Drive.  Kedzie is also a shorter relief point for both routes as well as a more direct pull in. 

Also when Archer closed,  the 51, 52A, and 53A were assigned to 74th.  I believe the 51 and 52A still interlined with reliefs at 51st and Ashland    The 53A did reliefs at 79th and Pulaski,  but that required 2 tides via the 9 and 79.  Also the 62 operated primarily out of K  Eventually,  77th gave up 35 and 39 for 51, 52A, and 53A.  K gave up 62 for 35 and 39 and 74th gave up 51, 52A, and 53A for 62.

The only assignment that was curious to me was 54B, but in fairness there's no ideal garage.   77th seems logical, but if you thought 53A S Pulaski was a stretch,  that's a long ride from the garage but similar to Archer Ashland reliefs for 74th drivers.  Ar least,  54B drivers can do short trips on the 53 or 54 to and from Chicago Ave.  I wonder if all of those runs are pull ins/ours. It would be a similar situation with K wirh either all pulls or short interline with 21 or 60 

[NewFlyerMCI]

20 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

When Srcher closed,  the 35 and 39 were initially given to 77th.  Both routes did driver reliefs at 35th Red Line.  While deadheads to and from th east ends of those routes were quick and easy, deadheading to 24th and Cicero or even Perishing and St Louis wasn't easy.  Kedzie even has an easier deadhead to 35th and Cottage and 39th and Lake Park because of Lake Shore Drive.  Kedzie is also a shorter relief point for both routes as well as a more direct pull in. 

The only assignment that was curious to me was 54B, but in fairness there's no ideal garage.   77th seems logical, but if you thought 53A S Pulaski was a stretch,  that's a long ride from the garage but similar to Archer Ashland reliefs for 74th drivers.  Ar least,  54B drivers can do short trips on the 53 or 54 to and from Chicago Ave.  I wonder if all of those runs are pull ins/ours. It would be a similar situation with K wirh either all pulls or short interline with 21 or 60 

I don't see how 74th, Kedzie or even 77th would be a worse placement than Chicago? Most of the midway routes run out of 74th, ford city is a straight shot from 77th and Cermak/Kenton to Kedzie/Van Buren can't take that long with the Eisenhower nearby

[artthouwill]

8 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I don't see how 74th, Kedzie or even 77th would be a worse placement than Chicago? Most of the midway routes run out of 74th, ford city is a straight shot from 77th and Cermak/Kenton to Kedzie/Van Buren can't take that long with the Eisenhower nearby

I'm not saying any of those are worse than C.  They actually might be better than C.  

[Anthony Devera]

9 hours ago, artthouwill said:

The only assignment that was curious to me was 54B, but in fairness there's no ideal garage.   77th seems logical, but if you thought 53A S Pulaski was a stretch,  that's a long ride from the garage but similar to Archer Ashland reliefs for 74th drivers.  Ar least,  54B drivers can do short trips on the 53 or 54 to and from Chicago Ave.  I wonder if all of those runs are pull ins/ours. It would be a similar situation with K wirh either all pulls or short interline with 21 or 60 

Another garage assignment I find strange is the 20 at C when it's so close to K. 29 at 103rd is a similar situation, but I'm assuming that's so it can interline with other 103rd routes at the 95th terminal. I also find the 157 at C a bit strange, but C to the northern terminus at Erie/Lake Shore is almost a straight shot along Chicago, and C to the future terminus at Pulaski is a straight shot along Pulaski. I don't see these kinds of benefits with the 20 at C.

Speaking of the 54B, how much does it make sense to move its northern terminal to the 16th/Cicero turnaround that the 18 uses? It would give 54B riders a connection to the Pink Line. Also, when more electric buses are rolled out, a charging station can be installed at the turnaround for both routes 18 and 54B.