CTA Winter '23 Bus Pick

[renardo870]

Good afternoon. Is there any new information on the CTA Winter '23 Bus Pick?

[Mr.cta85]

2 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Good afternoon. Is there any new information on the CTA Winter '23 Bus Pick?

It goes in effect Sunday Jan 8 2023.

[renardo870]

3 hours ago, Mr.cta85 said:

It goes in effect Sunday Jan 8 2023.

Thanks @Mr.cta85, but I should've clarified my question of any service changes, service improvements, garage moves, etc,. I remember ATU 241 served routes moving the date from December to January. 

[YoungBusLover]

4 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Good afternoon. Is there any new information on the CTA Winter '23 Bus Pick?

Longer swings, some school runs are merged with quite a few runs over 8 hours while others are under 8 hours and last but not least the intervals on certain streets have been adjusted slightly. Weekends haven't really changed much either other than less runs that either pay more or less depending on the timeframe and street. . Here's some examples I've compiled together off the incoming changes mainly focused on the weekdays. 

 

[TGranzow29]

35 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

Longer swings, some school runs are merged with quite a few runs over 8 hours while others are under 8 hours and last but not least the intervals on certain streets have been adjusted slightly. Weekends haven't really changed much either other than less runs that either pay more or less depending on the timeframe and street. . Here's some examples I've compiled together off the incoming changes mainly focused on the weekdays. 

 

Thank you for this. So, I've got a couple of questions:

1. When you say there are school runs merged in, does this mean that there are now full runs that will be doing school trips on certain routes? Update: I think I answered part of my first question. I can see with the trip that begins at Pershing/Giles at 2:25pm, that must definitely be a school trip there. Haven't seen that before.

2. The run that pays 9.54, is that really a swing? With that many hours, it almost borders on being a Block. Aren't the Blocks usually about 10 hours or so, give or take? I'm truly surprised they have a swing with that many hours out there.

I believe I had either read or heard somewhere that intervals were being adjusted somewhat on some routes in part due to the on-going driver shortage, and that 241 may have been involved in having talks with CTA regarding this. I believe I had also heard something about CTA management having to appear before the City Council due to complaints that were fielded regarding service. Do you know if these adjustments were made due to talks with 241? I am very intrigued by this, and I guess I'm just looking for some more light to be shed on this. I know there is a system pick every 2 years but this one in particular seems to be really notable for some reason. 

[YoungBusLover]

14 hours ago, TGranzow29 said:

Thank you for this. So, I've got a couple of questions:

1. When you say there are school runs merged in, does this mean that there are now full runs that will be doing school trips on certain routes? Update: I think I answered part of my first question. I can see with the trip that begins at Pershing/Giles at 2:25pm, that must definitely be a school trip there. Haven't seen that before.

2. The run that pays 9.54, is that really a swing? With that many hours, it almost borders on being a Block. Aren't the Blocks usually about 10 hours or so, give or take? I'm truly surprised they have a swing with that many hours out there.

I believe I had either read or heard somewhere that intervals were being adjusted somewhat on some routes in part due to the on-going driver shortage, and that 241 may have been involved in having talks with CTA regarding this. I believe I had also heard something about CTA management having to appear before the City Council due to complaints that were fielded regarding service. Do you know if these adjustments were made due to talks with 241? I am very intrigued by this, and I guess I'm just looking for some more light to be shed on this. I know there is a system pick every 2 years but this one in particular seems to be really notable for some reason. 

To answer the first part of your question with a majority of PTOs transitioning over to full time thecruns themselves have been adjustors accommodate the transition. However, there is still a handful of PTOs that are at all 7 garages so there is still some school designated for the PTOs which are roughly no longer than 1- 6 hours given that they get the AM/PM rush periods trips. Blocks are generally 9 1/2 to 11 hours and some change. I have a block that pays over 10 hours that has a school run for the 2nd piece which I wasn't to surprised about giving the circumstances of the surge of rookies coming into the company now along with the system pick shaking things up. I won't speak to much on the union and cta having discussions about schedule adjustment but I will say that both sides better hope these incoming changes they've discussed and put into action doesn't backfire because these intervals with multiple runs missing on any given day will make things worse not better. Just like how bad things have been up to this point it could get a lot worse. Now granted we have a lot more trainees coming in but it's not always about how many you're acquiring but more so how many are qualified enough to pass all the checkmarks and stay when things get tough out there.

[Shannoncvpi]

Along with route changes & possible bus swaps who else is planning on switching garages 

[chitowndude84]

On 12/31/2022 at 12:21 AM, Shannoncvpi said:

Along with route changes & possible bus swaps who else is planning on switching garages 

Happy New Year's Shannon !!! Havent seen you much on the P71 groups?? Maybe one day we can meet up and hangout at Chicago Motors  lol  HA !!

[Shannoncvpi]

5 hours ago, chitowndude84 said:

Happy New Year's Shannon !!! Havent seen you much on the P71 groups?? Maybe one day we can meet up and hangout at Chicago Motors  lol  HA !!

Hsppy new year to you also I don't have the vic no more I sold it a few months ago but I may get another or go tahoe ppv & me & CMI don't do business no more but we still cool just haven't been there been working & hustling 

[jajuan]

Earlier this week, my regular operator that I see on the 22 in the morning was warning us regular riders that he sees that it was possible that he would be starting later in the morning next week, and that it could be a different operator than him operating during the trip time that we all usually catch his run in the morning. Currently he's operating his first in service trip of the day at the time that we see him.

[YoungBusLover]

25 minutes ago, jajuan said:

Earlier this week, my regular operator that I see on the 22 in the morning was warning us regular riders that he sees that it was possible that he would be starting later in the morning next week, and that it could be a different operator than him operating during the trip time that we all usually catch his run in the morning. Currently he's operating his first in service trip of the day at the time that we see him.

That's another thing I forgot to mention as well certain runs that a lot of use to have have been moved up or back in the run order and have a different start time of several minutes or so.

[Tcmetro]

CTA has put the new schedules online. They have refreshed the design of the timetables as well.

The schedule reductions are largely during peak and midday hours on weekdays. Most of the changes are reducing the frequencies by a few minutes (i.e. 7 to 10, 10 to 12-15, 15 to 20), which should hopefully make the reliability of service better. Interestingly, weekend service hasn't been modified and a lot of routes have better frequencies on weekends than weekday middays now.

https://www.transitchicago.com/travel-information/service-updates/advance-timetables-for-january-2023/

[renardo870]

Looking at the 4 Cottage Grove weekend schedule, most trips go to 115th during the day as very little trips goes to 95th early morning and late evening. I wonder why service was tweaked like that?

[artthouwill]

11 minutes ago, renardo870 said:

Looking at the 4 Cottage Grove weekend schedule, most trips go to 115th during the day as very little trips goes to 95th early morning and late evening. I wonder why service was tweaked like that?

O don't know. Especially when VTA has shifted driver reliefs to 95th/State.  Are drivers "lunching " themselves and only go to 95th for relief or are the drivers also pulling in and out from 115th?  Or could reliefs be made at 95th and Cottage Grove EAST of the Metra tracks?  That might be safer than west of the Metra tracks on Cottage Grove.  

[jajuan]

On 1/6/2023 at 9:36 PM, Tcmetro said:

CTA has put the new schedules online. They have refreshed the design of the timetables as well.

The schedule reductions are largely during peak and midday hours on weekdays. Most of the changes are reducing the frequencies by a few minutes (i.e. 7 to 10, 10 to 12-15, 15 to 20), which should hopefully make the reliability of service better. Interestingly, weekend service hasn't been modified and a lot of routes have better frequencies on weekends than weekday middays now.

https://www.transitchicago.com/travel-information/service-updates/advance-timetables-for-january-2023/

Yeah I noticed that on Tuesday morning. I used Uber during the morning rush on Monday. And during PM rush that day, I was hitting my rides and connections fairly quick, so I didn't have much of a wait then to notice the headway changes. Both of my routes I use during the morning were part of the schedule change. So it's forced me to push myself to leave out earlier now, which in a way is a good thing because now I don't feel like I'm having to rush like before. The fact that the buses have been coming when they say or pretty close to it helps with that last part too. The only issue I've had with a missing run this week was the first PM trip of the 136 going unfilled Friday afternoon.

[Nova's at 103rd]

16 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Looking at the 4 Cottage Grove weekend schedule, most trips go to 115th during the day as very little trips goes to 95th early morning and late evening. I wonder why service was tweaked like that?

 

15 hours ago, artthouwill said:

O don't know. Especially when VTA has shifted driver reliefs to 95th/State.  Are drivers "lunching " themselves and only go to 95th for relief or are the drivers also pulling in and out from 115th?  Or could reliefs be made at 95th and Cottage Grove EAST of the Metra tracks?  That might be safer than west of the Metra tracks on Cottage Grove.  

From what I see when riding the 4 and X4, the relief point switched back to 71st after a week or two of being at 95th…didn’t last long at all. Since last month, buses I’ve been on were relieved at 71st. And most runs now it seems goes to 115th, there’s definitely a new and less rapid schedule. Cottage did have a lot of unnecessary, off schedule runs, and with the X4 during rush now service could use some scaling back a bit.  It seems like they might eventually phase out 95th runs on the local 4 all together especially since I don’t think they’ll be repurchasing the land on Burnside again. The distance between 95th & Cottage to 95th & State (via Michigan and State) or 115th isn’t too far different, so just pick one terminal and use it. Plus in the last few days, service has been much more reliable and consistent. The 10 to 12 and 12 to 15 min works well.

[YoungBusLover]

2 hours ago, Nova's at 103rd said:

 

From what I see when riding the 4 and X4, the relief point switched back to 71st after a week or two of being at 95th…didn’t last long at all. Since last month, buses I’ve been on were relieved at 71st. And most runs now it seems goes to 115th, there’s definitely a new and less rapid schedule. Cottage did have a lot of unnecessary, off schedule runs, and with the X4 during rush now service could use some scaling back a bit.  It seems like they might eventually phase out 95th runs on the local 4 all together especially since I don’t think they’ll be repurchasing the land on Burnside again. The distance between 95th & Cottage to 95th & State (via Michigan and State) or 115th isn’t too far different, so just pick one terminal and use it. Plus in the last few days, service has been much more reliable and consistent. The 10 to 12 and 12 to 15 min works well.

One thing I've noticed doing the X4 since it's reinstatement into service is the overall time points on certain trips are spread out a little to far apart thus slowing it down to a crawl. The locals are doing more work than they should at some points of the peak rush periods than the actual express.Every other run doing the X4 either roll around with a fairly empty bus or semi full bus nothing in between it seems. 79th to 95th State has us taking 20 minutes to get there which in reality takes about 12 minutes or so with limited stops. 

[jajuan]

14 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

One thing I've noticed doing the X4 since it's reinstatement into service is the overall time points on certain trips are spread out a little to far apart thus slowing it down to a crawl. The locals are doing more work than they should at some points of the peak rush periods than the actual express.Every other run doing the X4 either roll around with a fairly empty bus or semi full bus nothing in between it seems. 79th to 95th State has us taking 20 minutes to get there which in reality takes about 12 minutes or so with limited stops. 

Sounds like they need to get feedback from the operators and adjust the time points accordingly. What you mention here sounds like they're relying to heavily on what a local should be able to do between those same time points and applying it the schedules of the express with no accounting for the fact that an express is not serving as many stops as a local.

[YoungBusLover]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

Sounds like they need to get feedback from the operators and adjust the time points accordingly. What you mention here sounds like they're relying to heavily on what a local should be able to do between those same time points and applying it the schedules of the express with no accounting for the fact that an express is not serving as many stops as a local.

If only that were a thing, the older schedule from the Fall pick was much easier to manage since the timing was a little thrown off with CSU kicking us out. I would be given no more than 10 minutes to get from 95th and State to 79th and I would always be behind schedule but I would catch and pass 3 locals while still doing a good chunk of the work they were doing in both directions. Now I barely catch anyone and I'm kind of a lone wold out there with the current swing run that I have now. The intervals although have proven to be working right now let's pump the brakes and see how long the consistent service lasts on the 3/4/X4, 8 and 79.

[ArcherRider]

Today I check bus tracker and new schedule the #151 to Belmont and Halsted have been discontinued for weekdays. Now it run weekend and holiday only.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, ArcherRider said:

Today I check bus tracker and new schedule the #151 to Belmont and Halsted have been discontinued for weekdays. Now it run weekend and holiday only.

Not sure what you are looking at  but I just checked the z CTA website and the Belmont trips are still there.

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, ArcherRider said:

Today I check bus tracker and new schedule the #151 to Belmont and Halsted have been discontinued for weekdays. Now it run weekend and holiday only.

The schedule shows some afternoon trips end at Belmont.  Morning short trips start at Fullerton, although between 9 and 10 am at Belmont. I'm not sure where you are looking. Maybe they aren't going to the Halsted loop, but come or go directly off DLSD.

 

 

[artthouwill]

9 minutes ago, Busjack said:

The schedule shows some afternoon trips end at Belmont.  Morning short trips start at Fullerton, although between 9 and 10 am at Belmont. I'm not sure where you are looking. Maybe they aren't going to the Halsted loop.

 

 

ALSO, NB a.m Trips show buses ending at Delaware/Michigan.   I assume p.m Belmont trips continue as 77s.

It makes sense that some morning trips would start at Fullerton assuming people between Belmont and Fullerton would opt for the 143.  The morning NBs that end at Delaware,/Michigan would just deadhead to Fullerton for the return trip.  Midday shorts aren't necessary anymore.   I would think K would still operate the shorts. 

[Busjack]

14 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

ALSO, NB a.m Trips show buses ending at Delaware/Michigan.   I assume p.m Belmont trips continue as 77s.

Yes. Must be additional demand between Union Station and Michigan Ave.

I added the DLSD point while you were typing because I had ridden 156s that ended at Belmont/Sheridan and deadheaded back downtown. There still seem to be such trips later in the afternoon. There is a Belmont-Kimball trip on 77, but only in the morning.

[artthouwill]

12 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Yes. Must be additional demand between Union Station and Michigan Ave.

I added the DLSD point while you were typing because I had ridden 156s that ended at Belmont/Sheridan and deadheaded back downtown. There still seem to be such trips later in the afternoon. There is a Belmont-Kimball trip on 77, but only in the morning.

Funny that you mentioned the 156

  I checked the morning schedule.  It has some trips originating at Fullerton as well.   Some of the Belmont trips seem to come from the 77 as you noted.