How Would You Make It Work ?

[trainman8119]

Here is your chance to be a planner. Take a few minutes (or hours, days, weeks, etc.)

and come up with a way to make the 3 track (or any other project or assignment) work.

Our top level execs still don't get it (after all, the majority don't use the system). So many

times we rant and rant, but don't have any credible solutions. If you were in charge for

a week, what would you do to make your system better. Try to give some justification

as to why your idea would work...don't just say run 99 buses or trains or build a garage

in the middle of Millenium Park with showing how or why. I think this could be a fun and

informative topic. We have a number of people who work in transit, some who

have a genuine knowledge of the workings of the system and others who are learning

as we go.

So give it a shot...let's see what we get. Maybe we can save the world....or at least

public transit as we know it.

[trainman8119]

Here is my plan for the "3 track".

Since this is hypothetical, I will look at this as though I was starting at the begininng, with a plan

and not going with what is already in place. Perhaps that is cheating a bit, but overall, things should

have been considered from the outset.

First and formost, I believe that at worst you should maintain what you have. There is no way

you should be losing as much service as is currently suggested. With the volume at the Fullerton

and Belmont stations, closing these stations, although it should be considered, it is probably

not a real option. I believe you have to look at the situation as what do we have to work with, not

what are we losing. I think the true solution is to use the center track as a reverse flow express

track and put as many trains on that track as possible. One thing I think I might really consider would be to have Red Line and Purple Line trains totally bypass Belmont and use Fullerton as the transfer points between Brown and Red Lines (at least until Belmont is completed). Brown Line trains would be the local service along that stretch. Keep in mind Clark junction is the real problem point here and the more you can keep things moving in that area, the better off you would be. The information campaign would be for those traveling north of Belmont to use the Red Line and those traveling south to use the Brown (at least in a northward direction). I would think that the number of people getting off at Wellington and Diversey from the Red would be minimal. If you would need to get to Belmont from the north, have a few Optima buses standing by at Addison St for shuttle service to Belmont.

The fly in the ointment here is what to do with the added equipment in the reverse direction of the rush. You will only have one track available in one direction at a given point of the day. Here is where

you would reduce your service...and that service, really would be the local service between Belmont and Armitage on the Brown. Again, Belmont is out of the loop on the Red and Purple. Fullerton would be the change point. To get trains out of the way, you would keep them moving between Fullerton and Belmont. Red Line and Purple line trains would not stop at Belmont. Only a limited number (say every 2 or 3 trains) would be designated as Brown Line local and the rest would express to Armitage and Southport. The idea here is to keep a flow, maintain a resonable level of service and inconvienence the least amount of people. Would it be confusing....yes, without a doubt. But again, only to a select few people. Those who normally board at Belmont might be a little po'ed too, but yet there are alternatives, such as using the shuttle or getting on a train at Southport or Addison. Am I worried if there is a hiccup (as Frank says). Sure, it is going to happen. What happens when his plan for buses is derailed by a water main break of a fire.

I do believe this would work and provide much better service that what is being currently proposed.

Adding buses is not going to help travel times. You will spend as much time on the bus and the bus

is going to be jammed. People who ride the L religiously ride the L because they don't care for the bus anyway. This is also going to create storage and cost problems getting buses in place...and that is if you can keep enough buses running....where are they going to come from. Will you be sacrificing service elsewhere ??? Is this a perfect solution...no. I do believe though, that the more you can keep running, the better off you will be...the better chance you have of keeping some of those riders you are going to lose. If you lose them, there is always the chance they won't be coming back. And that, my friends, is why the system is going downhill, because lost riders are not coming back !!!!

[Busjack]

People have been debating this on Ask Carole. I'm not a transit engineer, but don't see why a reversible track wouldn't work. Apparently, though, part of the problem is that the big load is at Belmont, and you can't really bypass that station while it is under construction. Some people suggested a "Pink Line" solution for a couple of months of shutting down a portion of the line and cutting out a piece of old track, replacing it with the new, but since part of the job is to move the tracks east to make the platforms wide enough for ADA access, I can't see stopping service between Armitage and Addison.

I do agree that lost riders are not coming back (or at least not for a long time). Didn't it take about 10 years to regain ridership on the Lake portion of the Green Line? I suspect that part of this is to reduce the load on the Red Line, so that cars become available for the Brown Line project. With the bidding process set back at least a year due to redoing the specifications, and the first production cars not being available until 2010, this may be necessary. Combine this with the slow zones north of Belmont and there is a transit disaster in the making (and a new market for Metra). Whether it was avoidable, I don't know.

Apparently we were told the source of the additional buses--5300s not being replaced. What is the source of the drivers--massive overtime or all of the sudden that many new hires? What happens if the legislature doesn't cough up the $226 million in Moving Beyond Congestion money or impose new taxes in that amount?

[Guest metralink]

CTA should focus on their core business instead of trying to knock off Pace in the suburbs. Focus on your own stuff, it needs attention.

Improve their main arterials with express buses and BRT type corridors

create a downtown distribution system from the commuter rail stations and not depend on the thru buses coming from the North, west and south. There needs to be a dedicated network otherwise its not dependable and 1st timers are afraid of ending up somewhere they don't want to go or shouldn't be going in the first place.

Bus Supervisors should not be union, too much looking the other way.

Bus lanes downtown

CDOT needs to build the westside transit terminal at Union Station.

Run express trains from Howard St to loop during the day

provide a better security force to keep the bums off the trains

Fix the darn tracks

Bring back skip stop operations on Blue Line, Red line

Take credit cards for fare passes