June 2023 pick

[Tcmetro]

New schedules have been posted for June 4th: https://www.transitchicago.com/travel-information/service-updates/advance-timetables-for-june-2023/

 

The usual beach (35, 63, 72, 78), summer (10, 124, 130), and school trip changes apply. Also, four trips on the #97 have been extended to Old Orchard on weekend evenings.

A good number of routes are getting frequencies trimmed, mostly on weekdays. A review of the latest "Meeting the Moment" scorecard says operator numbers are still well below what's needed for full service.

[artthouwill]

14 minutes ago, Tcmetro said:

New schedules have been posted for June 4th: https://www.transitchicago.com/travel-information/service-updates/advance-timetables-for-june-2023/

 

The usual beach (35, 63, 72, 78), summer (10, 124, 130), and school trip changes apply. Also, four trips on the #97 have been extended to Old Orchard on weekend evenings.

A good number of routes are getting frequencies trimmed, mostly on weekdays. A review of the latest "Meeting the Moment" scorecard says operator numbers are still well below what's needed for full service.

Please advise @Shannoncvpi  concerning that last paragraph.  He thinks CTA is running routes too infrequently ( routes like the 12).  But he doesn't seem to understand that in order to run 10 minutes frequencies, you have to have enough staffing in place.  If CTA can only run 20 minute frequency consistently, that is better than having 3 buses show up 10 minutes apart. Then the next bus doesn't show for 30 to 40 minutes when the schedule says every 10 minutes.  At least Pace is training drivers.

[sht6131]

Noticed that 82 Kimball-Homan early Sunday mornings was extended from Belmont blue line to Lawrence brown line. Did it happen on this pick as I did not notice prior or did not notice it on CTA alerts?

 

[artthouwill]

40 minutes ago, sht6131 said:

Noticed that 82 Kimball-Homan early Sunday mornings was extended from Belmont blue line to Lawrence brown line. Did it happen on this pick as I did not notice prior or did not notice it on CTA alerts?

 

I think that happened last pick.  I remember someone posted about it.

[sht6131]

21 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I think that happened last pick.  I remember someone posted about it.

Thanks.

[andrethebusman99]

On 6/4/2023 at 8:26 AM, sht6131 said:

Noticed that 82 Kimball-Homan early Sunday mornings was extended from Belmont blue line to Lawrence brown line. Did it happen on this pick as I did not notice prior or did not notice it on CTA alerts?

 

Why does NB show Kimball Brown Line as terminus, but SB shows Kimball BLUE Line as start, four minutes later???

 

[Busjack]

17 hours ago, andrethebusman99 said:

Why does NB show Kimball Brown Line as terminus, but SB shows Kimball BLUE Line as start, four minutes later???

 

I think it is a goof. The NB shows Kimball-Brown Line 5 minutes after Fullerton, but usually it's like 14. The descriptive page says "Earlier and later Sunday/holiday svc between 31st and Belmont (Blue)." Should have had a "B--Trip ends at Belmont at time shown" note on those trips.

[sht6131]

17 hours ago, andrethebusman99 said:

Why does NB show Kimball Brown Line as terminus, but SB shows Kimball BLUE Line as start, four minutes later???

 

Good catch Andre I did not notice that.

[jajuan]

I've noticed this week that buses out of Kedzie have been undergoing a tweak in destination sign displays. The first detail that indicates a route with an undated display is the route name will appear very close to the route number. (In the case of buses not in service, the "NOT IN SERVICE" display will be offset towards the left edge of the sign instead of being centered as before). The second detail is the side sign stays permanently set on the bus's destination and no longer flips between route name and destination. Some updated displays on I've seen on the front of buses are:

7 HARRISON <flip> 7 TO IDA B WELLS/MICHIGAN (across two lines similar to how shown for SB 147. This one just started today. Up until yesterday it was still the old destination setup for this route.

12 ROOSEVELT <flip> 12 TO INDIANA/15TH instead of the prior 12 TO 15TH/INDIANA

12 ROOSEVELT <flip> 12 TO CENTRAL/HARRISON now on just one line instead of two

124 TO NAVY PIER VIA LOOP LINK all on two lines in place of the 124 NAVY PIER <flip> 124 VIA LOOP LINK

126 JACKSON <flip> 126 TO IDA B WELLS/MICHIGAN just like for the 7

130 TO MUSEUM CAMPUS displayed on two lines

134 STOCKTON/LASALLE EXPRESS (displayed on two lines now) <flip> 134 TO SHERIDAN/BELMONT. So basically a simplification from the previous flipping between three displays 

.

[chgofan78]

It also looks like with this pick that Kedzie garage is no longer running any weekday trips on the 151 Sheridan.   They are still helping on the weekends.   All trips weekdays are out of North Park.  The short turns to Belmont are also very limited on weekdays now. 

[alphabetlore1044]

6 minutes ago, chgofan78 said:

It also looks like with this pick that Kedzie garage is no longer running any trips on the 151 Sheridan.   All trips are out of North Park.  The short turns to Belmont are also very limited now. 

10-4

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, chgofan78 said:

It also looks like with this pick that Kedzie garage is no longer running any weekday trips on the 151 Sheridan.   They are still helping on the weekends.   All trips weekdays are out of North Park.  The short turns to Belmont are also very limited on weekdays now. 

In the CTA Winter 23 thread this was discussed already.  This happened in the winter pick

 

[jajuan]

On 6/12/2023 at 5:22 PM, chgofan78 said:

It also looks like with this pick that Kedzie garage is no longer running any weekday trips on the 151 Sheridan.   They are still helping on the weekends.   All trips weekdays are out of North Park.  The short turns to Belmont are also very limited on weekdays now. 

 

On 6/12/2023 at 8:25 PM, artthouwill said:

In the CTA Winter 23 thread this was discussed already.  This happened in the winter pick

 

Yeah this was done back in January as part of the initial increase in headway intervals systemwide to match CTA not having enough drivers to operate the runs of the previous schedules with smaller wait times. CTA still doesn't have enough drivers to go back to those smaller headways so they kept the service slim down. In fact, some routes saw further headway time increases. For example, PM service on 136 has now gone to headways of 15 to 20 minutes, up from the January change of 12 to 15 minutes. Before January it was 8 to 12 minutes.

[TGranzow29]

Something I found interesting from studying the #56 Milwaukee schedule this pick is that it has less service on Saturdays than it does Sundays/Holidays. One would think it'd be the opposite. Very interesting.

[ajm522]

@YoungBusLover I might of missed this. Why is the 4 relief point at 11th street? Is it because of construction at 71st? 

[YoungBusLover]

4 hours ago, ajm522 said:

@YoungBusLover I might of missed this. Why is the 4 relief point at 11th street? Is it because of construction at 71st? 

The ongoing battle of safety over the relief point the past several years on Cottage had been such a circus. We've gone from 79th to 95th and State, 71st to now 11th street. All because of safety concerns for our fall back and overall comfort level getting to and from the relief point. Now you'll see more service than you've ever seen going NB/SB since everyone is getting relieved downtown. The one drawback to that is getting there in a timely manor especially with how bad the Red Line is along with the 29. I've always wanted either 95th and State to be the relief point or just have everyone pull in and pull out from the garage. The trips to 115th may have to be shifted over to the X4 and just be consolidated into the pull in/pull out runs.

[ajm522]

41 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

The ongoing battle of safety over the relief point the past several years on Cottage had been such a circus. We've gone from 79th to 95th and State, 71st to now 11th street. All because of safety concerns for our fall back and overall comfort level getting to and from the relief point. Now you'll see more service than you've ever seen going NB/SB since everyone is getting relieved downtown. The one drawback to that is getting there in a timely manor especially with how bad the Red Line is along with the 29. I've always wanted either 95th and State to be the relief point or just have everyone pull in and pull out from the garage. The trips to 115th may have to be shifted over to the X4 and just be consolidated into the pull in/pull out runs.

Ahh okay that makes sense. I’m sure it’s nicer to be down there though. Is the Columbus/Randolph relief weekdays still in effect or does 11th/Michigan take that over 24/7? 4 service has been more consistent so that’s nice. I feel like there’s more 4s than 3s. 

[YoungBusLover]

2 hours ago, ajm522 said:

Ahh okay that makes sense. I’m sure it’s nicer to be down there though. Is the Columbus/Randolph relief weekdays still in effect or does 11th/Michigan take that over 24/7? 4 service has been more consistent so that’s nice. I feel like there’s more 4s than 3s. 

Yeah, it is but it's just getting there is the problem, and all hell will break loose once the winter months roll around. Sadly, the pandemic axed that along with Randolph storage for 77th. I'm sure after construction is done down there, they'll bring it back for us, I hope. So, 11th and Michigan will be the place for us now.

[jajuan]

On 6/18/2023 at 7:22 PM, YoungBusLover said:

The ongoing battle of safety over the relief point the past several years on Cottage had been such a circus. We've gone from 79th to 95th and State, 71st to now 11th street. All because of safety concerns for our fall back and overall comfort level getting to and from the relief point. Now you'll see more service than you've ever seen going NB/SB since everyone is getting relieved downtown. The one drawback to that is getting there in a timely manor especially with how bad the Red Line is along with the 29. I've always wanted either 95th and State to be the relief point or just have everyone pull in and pull out from the garage. The trips to 115th may have to be shifted over to the X4 and just be consolidated into the pull in/pull out runs.

And it's not like you guys have a good alternative to the 29 or Red Line because once you're as far south as your home garage, the 6 and J14 are too far east to be good alternatives especially when you factor in detours because of summer events downtown and delays that come with winter weather.

[YoungBusLover]

17 minutes ago, jajuan said:

And it's not like you guys have a good alternative to the 29 or Red Line because once you're as far south as your home garage, the 6 and J14 are too far east to be good alternatives especially when you factor in detours because of summer events downtown and delays that come with winter weather.

Most definitely, the only other option I can think of is the 24 during the weekday if all else fails. Another option is taking King Drive but then you'll still have to take 79th street to and from the garage. Then of course there is taking 79th over to Cottage and taking it all the way downtown. 

[jajuan]

Looks like the update in bus destination signs this pick that I mentioned a couple weeks ago is going system-wide. Kedzie was the first garage. The update hit North Park buses midweek last week. Chicago and Forest Glen were earlier this week. Now buses on the 9 Ashland this morning are showing the update has hit 74th. To recap, the update is making better use of the fact that CTA bus destination signs are no longer limited to 15 characters. The destinations in some cases are tweaked to be a bit more precise. For example, Ashland local buses display '9 TO VINCENNES/104TH'. And displays are simplified just enough so that three flips displays we were seeing for some routes have gone bye bye. Also the side signs on buses remain permanently set to the terminus for that particular trip and no longer flip to the route name as front displays still do. 

[YoungBusLover]

6 hours ago, jajuan said:

Looks like the update in bus destination signs this pick that I mentioned a couple weeks ago is going system-wide. Kedzie was the first garage. The update hit North Park buses midweek last week. Chicago and Forest Glen were earlier this week. Now buses on the 9 Ashland this morning are showing the update has hit 74th. To recap, the update is making better use of the fact that CTA bus destination signs are no longer limited to 15 characters. The destinations in some cases are tweaked to be a bit more precise. For example, Ashland local buses display '9 TO VINCENNES/104TH'. And displays are simplified just enough so that three flips displays we were seeing for some routes have gone bye bye. Also the side signs on buses remain permanently set to the terminus for that particular trip and no longer flip to the route name as front displays still do. 

Yeah the old on the left being the 26 and the new on the right with the 126 needs an adjustment so the display itself isn't so far over towards the route number. That's my only pet peeve about this software update.

[jajuan]

4 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

Yeah the old on the left being the 26 and the new on the right with the 126 needs an adjustment so the display itself isn't is so far over towards the route number. That's my only pet peeve about this software update.

Yes it's been a pet peeve of mine too. It looks even weirder on the routes that have shorter route names as the 126 example shows. But as the the bus on the 26 shows, the route name being so close to the route number is a visual clue that that bus has had the software update. And apparently it's not hitting buses all at once because I've still been seeing stragglers from NP that haven't been updated yet. 

[Busjack]

24 minutes ago, jajuan said:

Yes it's been a pet peeve of mine too. It looks even weirder on the routes that have shorter route names as the 126 example shows. But as the the bus on the 26 shows, the route name being so close to the route number is a visual clue that that bus has had the software update. And apparently it's not hitting buses all at once because I've still been seeing stragglers from NP that haven't been updated yet. 

I saw a 97 SKOKIE that was similar (only one space between the number and word).

Reminds me of the MAN Americanas.

[Tcmetro]

On 6/17/2023 at 11:46 PM, TGranzow29 said:

Something I found interesting from studying the #56 Milwaukee schedule this pick is that it has less service on Saturdays than it does Sundays/Holidays. One would think it'd be the opposite. Very interesting.

Based on my review of the GTFS the routes that had major weekday schedule reductions were 15, 21, 24, 26, 28, 35, 49B, 52, 52A, 55, 65, 70, 71, 73, 75, 85, 91, 95, 120, 121, 126, and 155. The routes with major Saturday schedule reductions were 56, 77, 78, 80, 81, 84, 152, and 201.