Return of the X Routes

[renardo870]

Since the discontinuance of the X Express Routes in 2010 (save the X28 restructuring into the 28 Stony Island M-F Rush Hour service to Union Station), the X Routes are returning albeit slowly. X9 Ashland Express and X49 Western Express routes were restored in Dec 2015*(I think) as M-F Rush Hour service. Now the CTA Transit Board have decided to to restore the X4 Cottage Grove Express as a bidirectional Rush Hour route between 95th and Illinois Center effective with the Fall 2022 pick in August. This is great but what about the other routes? The other routes were the X3 King Drive Express, X20 Washington Express, X54 Cicero Express, X55 Garfield Express and X80 Irving Park Express. Are there studies or plans to reinstate those routes? If I remember correctly, the express routes were pretty decent. X3 was AM/PM peak direction service, X20 and X55 were AM and PM rush hour service, X9, X49, X54 and X80 were AM thru PM Mon-Fri service from 6AM - 7PM And the X80 I believe it was bi-directional from Lake Shore to Cumberland Mon-Fri peak hours but only going to Irving Park Blue Line off peak and weekends. It was a good alternative for riders from the North Side going to O'Hare and Blue Line without Red Line riders going to the Loop to transfer to the Blue. Hopefully they will restore midday service on the X9 and X49.

Edited June 9, 2022 by renardo870
Added additional Information on the X80 Irving Park Express

[BusHunter]

Probably the biggest blunder of modern times as far as service was the cut of the X routes. They were servicing areas of the city that have no rapid transit service. The near west side Cicero corridor, irving pk east west corridor, even the X28 could be argued it was doing something new and fresh. Too bad they lost something truelly good that moved the riders instead of sitting in traffic. We all need that too with gas prices out of control. 

[Busjack]

Only one that rationalized the system was X54, which provided a 2 seat ride between O'Hare and Midway (Jefferson Park to Midway Orange Line) and avoided the transfer between 54 and 54B. I don't know how many rode it in that manner, but the 2009 ridership report indicated 5800 riders/day, compared to 7765 for 54, and X54 was up while 54 was down.

They kept messing with X20, which was 1 or 2 blocks from the Green Line, and I don't think there is enough population on Garfield between King Dr. and Western to sustain X55 (which essentially bypassed west of St. Louis).

[artthouwill]

X54 should be the next X route to return. It provided fast crosstown north south service on one ride without transferring and without having to ride downtown.   It's a great 2 seat ride from O'Hare to Midway and an easier transfer to the X54 at Jefferson Park than going from subway to elevated train at Clark/Lake.  However I don't think CTA would recommend visitors to take the X54..

I think the City ruined whatever advantage the X20 would have been.   Washington and Warren have so many stop signs and speed bumps and school slow zones  that the time difference between taking a 20 and X20 is negligible .

The X55 could function well as long as the western terminus is St Louis and not Midway.

 

[Busjack]

55 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

The X55 could function well as long as the western terminus is St Louis and not Midway.

As I implied, there wouldn't be much point to that. The main benefit of X55 would be a quicker ride between the U of C area and Midway.

[NewFlyerMCI]

10 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Since the discontinuance of the X Express Routes in 2010 (save the X28 restructuring into the 28 Stony Island M-F Rush Hour service to Union Station), the X Routes are returning albeit slowly. X9 Ashland Express and X49 Western Express routes were restored in Dec 2015*(I think) as M-F Rush Hour service. Now the CTA Transit Board have decided to to restore the X4 Cottage Grove Express as a bidirectional Rush Hour route between 95th and Illinois Center effective with the Fall 2022 pick in August. This is great but what about the other routes? The other routes were the X3 King Drive Express, X20 Washington Express, X54 Cicero Express, X55 Garfield Express and X80 Irving Park Express. Are there studies or plans to reinstate those routes? If I remember correctly, the express routes were pretty decent. X3 was AM/PM peak direction service, X20 and X55 were AM and PM rush hour service, X9, X49, X54 and X80 were AM thru PM Mon-Fri service from 6AM - 7PM And the X80 ran weekend as well I believe from Broadway to Irving Park Blue Line. Hopefully they will restore midday service on the X9 and X49.

I think all the X routes should come back, but I mostly agree with Busjack about the X20 & X55. Priority should be all-day & weekend service on X4, X9 & X49. Followed by re-introducing the X3, X54 & X80. After that, it's probably time to look elsewhere. Pulaski & Chicago have the corridors to justify an X route, and bypassing the need to switch routes would be useful for Pulaski. Clark, Sheridan & Broadway have enough alternatives that it's probably not as necessary, which leaves just Halsted, 79th and potentially Kimball/Homan, I'm less sure about that one.

[Busjack]

54 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I think all the X routes should come back, but I mostly agree with Busjack about the X20 & X55. Priority should be all-day & weekend service on X4, X9 & X49. Followed by re-introducing the X3, X54 & X80. After that, it's probably time to look elsewhere. Pulaski & Chicago have the corridors to justify an X route, and bypassing the need to switch routes would be useful for Pulaski. Clark, Sheridan & Broadway have enough alternatives that it's probably not as necessary, which leaves just Halsted, 79th and potentially Kimball/Homan, I'm less sure about that one.

53 makes sense, although I don't know up to 115th. 66 makes sense, especially with the environmental emphasis and claims that the casino will add to congestion. I had questions about 8 and 79, basically because there were segments without room for bus lanes, but apparently that's not essential.

[Tcmetro]

Moving to a 1/4 mile stop system helps reduce the need for duplicate X routes. 54 was nice because it offered a different service pattern than the local, from Jeff Park to Midway.

[YoungBusLover]

3 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I think all the X routes should come back, but I mostly agree with Busjack about the X20 & X55. Priority should be all-day & weekend service on X4, X9 & X49. Followed by re-introducing the X3, X54 & X80. After that, it's probably time to look elsewhere. Pulaski & Chicago have the corridors to justify an X route, and bypassing the need to switch routes would be useful for Pulaski. Clark, Sheridan & Broadway have enough alternatives that it's probably not as necessary, which leaves just Halsted, 79th and potentially Kimball/Homan, I'm less sure about that one.

Halsted needs less time points on it with how slow they're currently making us run out there. To be quite honest with Pulse Halsted looming I think it's time to extend the 8A to either the 63rd Green line or even Archer Orange line. I never really saw the need for the 8 to become an express service because in reality from 47th to Pratically Cermak you're hardly picking up anyone so it's already an express in itself. The 53 & 82 are interesting candidates for an express service though. My only concern is how narrow both streets get at some points along with heavy traffic. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

Moving to a 1/4 mile stop system helps reduce the need for duplicate X routes. 54 was nice because it offered a different service pattern than the local, from Jeff Park to Midway.

Political non-starter, and personally, I don’t entirely see the need for it. I understand the benefits, but it really only matters for some of routes, not all

[NewFlyerMCI]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

53 makes sense, although I don't know up to 115th. 66 makes sense, especially with the environmental emphasis and claims that the casino will add to congestion. I had questions about 8 and 79, basically because there were segments without room for bus lanes, but apparently that's not essential.

My concern with 79th was the busy section of the route is also the place where it’s hard(er) to overtake. Can’t really speak for Halsted, but I imagine it’s similar?

[Busjack]

34 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

To be quite honest with Pulse Halsted looming I think it's time to extend the 8A to either the 63rd Green line or even Archer Orange line

The latest proposal is to eliminate 108 and beef up 8A, but only south of 79th with a connection to the Red Line at 79th.

IMO, despite scattered generators like Kennedy-King College, X8 could be limited to north of Root. The short turns at Root and North Branch indicate where the demand is.

 

[Busjack]

1 minute ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

My concern with 79th was the busy section of the route is also the place where it’s hard(er) to overtake. Can’t really speak for Halsted, but I imagine it’s similar?

Around Greektown.

[NewFlyerMCI]

34 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

Halsted needs less time points on it with how slow they're currently making us run out there. To be quite honest with Pulse Halsted looming I think it's time to extend the 8A to either the 63rd Green line or even Archer Orange line. I never really saw the need for the 8 to become an express service because in reality from 47th to Pratically Cermak you're hardly picking up anyone so it's already an express in itself. The 53 & 82 are interesting candidates for an express service though. My only concern is how narrow both streets get at some points along with heavy traffic. 

Ashland/63rd would be better than 79th red, especially since that’s barely a connection

[jajuan]

14 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Since the discontinuance of the X Express Routes in 2010 (save the X28 restructuring into the 28 Stony Island M-F Rush Hour service to Union Station), the X Routes are returning albeit slowly. X9 Ashland Express and X49 Western Express routes were restored in Dec 2015*(I think) as M-F Rush Hour service. Now the CTA Transit Board have decided to to restore the X4 Cottage Grove Express as a bidirectional Rush Hour route between 95th and Illinois Center effective with the Fall 2022 pick in August. This is great but what about the other routes? The other routes were the X3 King Drive Express, X20 Washington Express, X54 Cicero Express, X55 Garfield Express and X80 Irving Park Express. Are there studies or plans to reinstate those routes? If I remember correctly, the express routes were pretty decent. X3 was AM/PM peak direction service, X20 and X55 were AM and PM rush hour service, X9, X49, X54 and X80 were AM thru PM Mon-Fri service from 6AM - 7PM And the X80 I believe it was bi-directional from Lake Shore to Cumberland Mon-Fri peak hours but only going to Irving Park Blue Line off peak and weekends. It was a good alternative for riders from the North Side going to O'Hare and Blue Line without Red Line riders going to the Loop to transfer to the Blue. Hopefully they will restore midday service on the X9 and X49.

The X4 coming back makes sense because even with 77th holding on to artics for use on the local route (and the 79) after artic allotments went back close to pre-pandemic assignment structures, the local Cottage Grove buses still seem to get overwhelmed with passengers. The X20 wouldn't make much sense to bring back because of the stated points about all the stop signs and speed bumps placed on Washington and Warren. Plus CTA itself killed the other half of the advantage of the route by turning the Madison portion of the route west of Central Park into a local stop zone. The X54 definitely had plenty of ridership advantages outside of the obvious quicker trip ride. And I could see X80 coming back if they used the same service pattern of service along a full route in peak hours and only east of the Blue Line during off peak.

2 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

Moving to a 1/4 mile stop system helps reduce the need for duplicate X routes. 54 was nice because it offered a different service pattern than the local, from Jeff Park to Midway.

As I mentioned before the last time you brought this up, that may sound good on paper and on theory, it's not going to fly in Chicago because the seniors and those with disabilities would make the argument that CTA would be making it harder for them to use the system. And given how brutal the city's winters get, that argument would be even more persuasive and there'd be more than just them pushing back hard at that proposal. 

[Busjack]

Just now, NewFlyerMCI said:

Ashland/63rd would be better than 79th red, especially since that’s barely a connection

Even wuth the Red Line down, 8a didn't go to Ashland, just Halsted 63.

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Even wuth the Red Line down, 8a didn't go to Ashland, just Halsted 63.

I’d only said Ashland cause there was a dedicated terminal there, but if Halsted/63rd works ??‍♂️

[sht6131]

40 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

Halsted needs less time points on it with how slow they're currently making us run out there. To be quite honest with Pulse Halsted looming I think it's time to extend the 8A to either the 63rd Green line or even Archer Orange line. I never really saw the need for the 8 to become an express service because in reality from 47th to Pratically Cermak you're hardly picking up anyone so it's already an express in itself. The 53 & 82 are interesting candidates for an express service though. My only concern is how narrow both streets get at some points along with heavy traffic. 

Not only narrow on the 82 but has a ton of stop signs on the north second half of the route.

[cta5658]

My opinion on the X28 Stony Island Express was that the problem was that it stopped every block like the 28 until 47th/Lake park when the X28 headed on Lake Shore Drive to Union Station, if it was brought back, it would have to stop every 4 blocks.

[jajuan]

13 minutes ago, cta5658 said:

My opinion on the X28 Stony Island Express was that the problem was that it stopped every block like the 28 until 47th/Lake park when the X28 headed on Lake Shore Drive to Union Station, if it was brought back, it would have to stop every 4 blocks.

Well Stony Island is definitely wide enough to allow bypassing local buses along the way for making X28 similar in stop pattern to the J14. But if they did bring back X28, they'd also need to pull the 28 back to terminating at 47th since the motivation for sending the 28 back into downtown by running express along the Drive was the elimination of the X28. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, cta5658 said:

My opinion on the X28 Stony Island Express was that the problem was that it stopped every block like the 28 until 47th/Lake park when the X28 headed on Lake Shore Drive to Union Station, if it was brought back, it would have to stop every 4 blocks.

That wasn’t the true X28 if we’re being honest

[renardo870]

5 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

That wasn’t the true X28 if we’re being honest

X28 should have been set up as true Express route making limited stops every 2 to 4 blocks from 95th/Stony to 47th/Lake Park (via Hyde Park) or 57th/Stony and then jump on LSD expressing to 11th/Columbus and resuming local operations to Union Station serving Ogilvie Transportation Center.

[NewFlyerMCI]

1 hour ago, renardo870 said:

X28 should have been set up as true Express route making limited stops every 2 to 4 blocks from 95th/Stony to 47th/Lake Park (via Hyde Park) or 57th/Stony and then jump on LSD expressing to 11th/Columbus and resuming local operations to Union Station serving Ogilvie Transportation Center.

The X28 did stop every 4 blocks and run via Hyde park to Union, but that was before all other X routes were cut. Whether or not it should’ve gone to OTC is debatable, CUS was just a convenient layover point, not it’s dedicated destination

[Shannoncvpi]

7 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

Halsted needs less time points on it with how slow they're currently making us run out there. To be quite honest with Pulse Halsted looming I think it's time to extend the 8A to either the 63rd Green line or even Archer Orange line. I never really saw the need for the 8 to become an express service because in reality from 47th to Pratically Cermak you're hardly picking up anyone so it's already an express in itself. The 53 & 82 are interesting candidates for an express service though. My only concern is how narrow both streets get at some points along with heavy traffic. 

The 82 got too many dam stop signs up north & at 31st terminal its already tight af when you got the 53 82 & 53a all in one term then with the 53 running artics & the 82 running artics have anyone ever tried to pull in with an attic while another attic or 2 along with the 53A there at the same time its a nightmare 2 weeks ago I had a artic & it was 2 53 buses thats was artics & a 53a there it was he'll sliding in then another reg 53 40 foot & 82 40 footer was close behind 

[NewFlyerMCI]

6 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

The 82 got too many dam stop signs up north & at 31st terminal its already tight af when you got the 53 82 & 53a all in one term then with the 53 running artics & the 82 running artics have anyone ever tried to pull in with an attic while another attic or 2 along with the 53A there at the same time its a nightmare 2 weeks ago I had a artic & it was 2 53 buses thats was artics & a 53a there it was he'll sliding in then another reg 53 40 foot & 82 40 footer was close behind 

Further proof the 53 should start at the Orange Line. 31st to 51st isn’t such a long distance, esp considering 33rd to 43rd is effectively going to be no stops considering the landscape. Then 82 can be moved to 31st/Komensky full time