2024 Democratic Convention--CTA Impacts

[Busjack]

At the Secret Service briefing, it was stated that there will be zones where vehicle and pedestrian access will be restricted and CTA buses will have to be rerouted. From the maps, it looks like off Madison and King Dr. CTA Customer Alerts  will be posted.

Details so far at https://www.chicago.gov/oemc, and click the convention button. Internal link is https://www.chicago.gov/content/city/en/depts/oem/supp_info/democratic-national-convention-public-safety.html .

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

 

...  If CTA plans to showcase these buses, that probably means either NP and 74th aren't participating in the DNC Shuttle or CTA will shuffle some to NP before thee DNC begins in two weeks. ...

Aside from art's FG will or won't do DNC work, how is it scheduled? Especially with the driver shortage, is there a call for volunteers to take overtime?

UPDATE: ABC7 said at 4:30 that CTA anticipates assigning 250 buses. Maybe addressing @artthouwill's original [oint, that's an additional garage worth of buses. Obviously, K and 74 don't have room for them, bur, as I noted, FG now does.

[YoungBusLover]

4 hours ago, Busjack said:

Aside from art's FG will or won't do DNC work, how is it scheduled? Especially with the driver shortage, is there a call for volunteers to take overtime?

UPDATE: ABC7 said at 4:30 that CTA anticipates assigning 250 buses. Maybe addressing @artthouwill's original [oint, that's an additional garage worth of buses. Obviously, K and 74 don't have room for them, bur, as I noted, FG now does.

Quote

Aside from art's FG will or won't do DNC work, how is it scheduled? Especially with the driver shortage, is there a call for volunteers to take overtime?

As far as having enough operators, we were given a two week notice about signing up for the DNC shuttles and selection of those who passed the background screening process will be given out soon. From what I saw from the bulletin was that they wanted operators working the DNC shuttle to work there days off to ensure efficiency during the duration of it. Which is part of the reason why I didn't sign up due to my days off not aligning with it. All in all the final rosters will be showcased around the system so hopefully there is at least 45 operators per garage that have signed up for it. Probably will see a lot of operators on the Extra Board get shuffled to it now that I think about it.

[renardo870]

With up to 250 buses being designated for the Democratic National Convention, will any of the older New Flyer 1000/4000/4300 series be available since most have been OOS or LTH or are the more recent Nova 7900/8350 series be the equipment of choice to serve the conventioneers?

And how are the shuttles being used to and from the UC and McCormick Place? 

[Sam92]

3 hours ago, renardo870 said:

With up to 250 buses being designated for the Democratic National Convention, will any of the older New Flyer 1000/4000/4300 series be available since most have been OOS or LTH or are the more recent Nova 7900/8350 series be the equipment of choice to serve the conventioneers?

And how are the shuttles being used to and from the UC and McCormick Place? 

McCormick shuttles would probably be like the auto show shuttles. For UC I'd do union/ogilvie to UC via Adams 

[jajuan]

Well it will be interesting to see how regular service from the new Damen station on the Green Line will work given Damen Avenue will be closed within the reported perimeter surrounding the United Center for the entirety of the Convention from what I remember reading in news alerts. And of course that means the 50 Damen will be detoured. 

As for the DNC shuttles, from what I recall of the '96 DNC convention virtually all the bus models of the time made an appearance on the shuttle routes. Well all except the fishbowls, which were practically almost all gone by then despite 1997 being the year they were reported all officially retired.I remember a good chunk of the buses being 4400s and 5300s, which I think had some to do with the 4000s, 7100s and 9800s/1600s not being equipped with wheelchair lifts, the 6000s still being very new and still in a state of delivery, and the 5800s being only a small fraction of the fleet at only 65 total buses in the fleet. I also remember that buses from just about every garage in the system got used. They may be able to do similar this time around, though I do see a heavy lean towards Novas and some artics due to 1000s being in a state of retirement towards the 400 they want to rehab a second time and hiccups with the 600s along with their being designated mainly for the 63 and 66 so far.

[YoungBusLover]

On 8/8/2024 at 6:24 PM, jajuan said:

Well it will be interesting to see how regular service from the new Damen station on the Green Line will work given Damen Avenue will be closed within the reported perimeter surrounding the United Center for the entirety of the Convention from what I remember reading in news alerts. And of course that means the 50 Damen will be detoured. 

As for the DNC shuttles, from what I recall of the '96 DNC convention virtually all the bus models of the time made an appearance on the shuttle routes. Well all except the fishbowls, which were practically almost all gone by then despite 1997 being the year they were reported all officially retired.I remember a good chunk of the buses being 4400s and 5300s, which I think had some to do with the 4000s, 7100s and 9800s/1600s not being equipped with wheelchair lifts, the 6000s still being very new and still in a state of delivery, and the 5800s being only a small fraction of the fleet at only 65 total buses in the fleet. I also remember that buses from just about every garage in the system got used. They may be able to do similar this time around, though I do see a heavy lean towards Novas and some artics due to 1000s being in a state of retirement towards the 400 they want to rehab a second time and hiccups with the 600s along with their being designated mainly for the 63 and 66 so far.

Yeah you're pretty much right on that. It's amazing how much diversity there was among equipment used back in 1996.

[Sam92]

Alerts with details of reroutes now in upcoming alerts. 1,3 and 4 routed onto state near McCormick place. 21 terminates at state. For United Center; 20 and 126 are rerouted to Harrison between Western and Ashland. 50 sent to western 

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Alerts with details of reroutes now in upcoming alerts. 1,3 and 4 routed onto state near McCormick place. 21 terminates at state. For United Center; 20 and 126 are rerouted to Harrison between Western and Ashland. 50 sent to western 

As @artthouwill indicated, the Damen detour(alert) s between Harrison and Grand, so the Green Line station is missed (looks like a half mile walk from there to a bus).

[jajuan]

On 8/12/2024 at 3:46 PM, Busjack said:

As @artthouwill indicated, the Damen detour(alert) s between Harrison and Grand, so the Green Line station is missed (looks like a half mile walk from there to a bus).

That pretty much sums up my earlier comment up the thread that CTA and city officials have been touting the new Damen Green Line station as a means of travel both for the community and convention attendees during the convention, yet the usual direct bus connection is now currently detoured as of last night through the day after the convention ends.

[Sam92]

On 8/12/2024 at 3:46 PM, Busjack said:

As @artthouwill indicated, the Damen detour(alert) s between Harrison and Grand, so the Green Line station is missed (looks like a half mile walk from there to a bus).

 

11 hours ago, jajuan said:

That pretty much sums up my earlier comment up the thread that CTA and city officials have been touting the new Damen Green Line station as a means of travel both for the community and convention attendees during the convention, yet the usual direct bus connection is now currently detoured as of last night through the day after the convention ends.

Well on the plus side the UC is on Wood so Ashland is close enough in the meantime. Outside of UC events I see this station mainly serving Fulton market workers and downtown commuters in the area

[dailycommuter62]

I wonder of the 250 buses needed if that includes buses that will be commandeered to shuttle police around. I doubt there will be much care to put brand spanking new buses for that duty either.

[jajuan]

On 8/17/2024 at 8:44 AM, Sam92 said:

 

Well on the plus side the UC is on Wood so Ashland is close enough in the meantime. Outside of UC events I see this station mainly serving Fulton market workers and downtown commuters in the area

True. The Fulton Market commuters are at least within walking distance. Those downtown commuters not within some walking distance of the station are seeing the 50 moved to Western and the two bus alternatives into downtown, the 20 and 126, moved to Harrison. I do note and grant that there is the Blue Line. But let's also remember that not everyone riding the Green Line would be going into downtown. There are those who would be transferring from the Green Line to the bus to get to points along Damen as well as those traveling on bus from along Damen to points further west of those beyond downtown and further south in the city. 

[strictures]

On 8/16/2024 at 8:43 PM, jajuan said:

That pretty much sums up my earlier comment up the thread that CTA and city officials have been touting the new Damen Green Line station as a means of travel both for the community and convention attendees during the convention, yet the usual direct bus connection is now currently detoured as of last night through the day after the convention ends.

I'm baffled as to why they didn't use Lake St. for the detour, as Lake isn't in the security perimeter & in this area, Lake doesn't have the L pillars in the street, so buses can pass each other without a problem.

[jajuan]

4 hours ago, strictures said:

I'm baffled as to why they didn't use Lake St. for the detour, as Lake isn't in the security perimeter & in this area, Lake doesn't have the L pillars in the street, so buses can pass each other without a problem.

I would guess that it's very like due to the designated area for protesters being very close to Lake Street immediately to the east of Damen, and the protest organizers had not said whether they would stay within the boundaries. Grand provides more of a buffer. 

[jajuan]

Well apparently as I suspected would be the case, the protests and rallies didn't stay combined in designated boundaries. The 9 and X9 are under last detours onto Halsted between Grand and Van Buren for SB buses and between Jackson and Grand for NB buses due to protest activities. And traffic on Ashland has become a virtual parking lot immediately north of Jackson.

[artthouwill]

10 minutes ago, jajuan said:

Well apparently as I suspected would be the case, the protests and rallies didn't stay combined in designated boundaries. The 9 and X9 are under last detours onto Halsted between Grand and Van Buren for SB buses and between Jackson and Grand for NB buses due to protest activities. And traffic on Ashland has become a virtual parking lot immediately north of Jackson.

They probably need to extend the detour from Jackson to at least Harrison,  maybe even Roosevelt. 

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

They probably need to extend the detour from Jackson to at least Harrison,  maybe even Roosevelt. 

Well with the way that Halsted has no left turn lanes at Grand, and the intersection includes Milwaukee Avenue and not just Grand, the operator of the X9 I was on turned on to Milwaukee instead of Grand and used that to get back to Ashland. And most of us know that Milwaukee crosses Ashland immediately north of Division. That definitely put him before the 9 local bus that was in front of him, since that bus stayed on Ashland and looked like it was trying to get to Madison.

[Busjack]

Other recent postings are that

• 66: Chicago Ave. is closed between Michigan and State (hotel security zone), buses on Ohio or Ontario
• 152: Sidewalk in front of Wrigley Field closed (brunch event?)

[Busjack]

On 8/17/2024 at 5:04 PM, dailycommuter62 said:

I wonder of the 250 buses needed if that includes buses that will be commandeered to shuttle police around. I doubt there will be much care to put brand spanking new buses for that duty either.

Answer is yes. NBC5 just reported that several CTA buses were lined up ouyside Ogilvie Station containing police officers in preparation for a demonstration.

[renardo870]

How did CTA perform in regards to the DNC? Were there enough buses available for the delegates for the UC and McCormick Place? And how did regular bus service perform?

[jajuan]

On 8/24/2024 at 6:38 PM, renardo870 said:

How did CTA perform in regards to the DNC? Were there enough buses available for the delegates for the UC and McCormick Place? And how did regular bus service perform?

From what I saw of buses staging at Wacker to the east of Michigan during the couple of times I did ride through downtown during convention week, the delegates going to UC had a decent amount of shuttle buses available. I can't really speak on the McCormick Place end of things.

Regular bus service was okay considering the circumstances. The biggest thing was having to ride during last minute detours added to those already posted and outlined on the DNC reroute page due to protests causing unforeseen street closures. Travel times in those instances were significantly higher. The last minute detour of the 9/X9 along Halsted between Jackson NB/Van Buren SB and Grand (NB buses actually turned on Milwaukee instead of Grand) during the first day of convention due to protesters breaking through a security barrier, for example, caused travel times between those points to be at least double the usual time. SB riders at Jackson had issues though because there were no CTA supervisory personnel out to explain that they should be actually be waiting at Harrison instead. One last mentioned to the X9 I was on that riders had been waiting for a bus for at least an hour or more because there was no clear communication of where to wait for SB buses. Things were better the second day of that particular detour, things were far smoother and quicker because CTA operators were better prepared for and cognizant of the detour. By Wednesday morning, buses were back on Ashland. There were also popup detours in the downtown area affecting the Washington/Madison corridors and the Jackson/Adams corridors in the downtown area during the evening following the PM rush on the second night of the convention as I recall. If I remember correctly, additional downtown detours popped up at one point effecting Michigan Avenue. Outside that regular service on both regular routed service and the pre-announced DNC reroutes ran pretty close to normal bus service patterns. Those buses temporarily moved to fill in for those used on the shuttle work did as intended in helping keep things moving.