52A to Western

[westing]

Recently I rode the 52A again for the first time in a few years. I noticed now the CTA has a few runs that go to Western and 95th. I remember some runs would end at 111th. This is interesting because it's confusing to customers and brings up issues with service duplication between Pace's 381. The schedule's map says some service begins/ends there but the destination signs say the bus only goes as far as 95th, and it was only as far as the driver permitted. I can understand why the bus would deadhead one mile to Evergreen Plaza, there are no ares to turn around at 95th and Kedzie. It seems like a waste to just run the bus 1 mile when passengers could ride it, as I did see about 5 other passengers continue east as well on foot. I guess this would duplicate Pace's service though.

The schedule is what is confusing. For southbound they say. "% trip begins at Western/95th 5 minutes later than time shown" First of all, this is a southbound bus, it would end not start at Western. True, that bus then continues to go back to the Orange line but this is confusing to see "% begins" twice in the schedule. They should have said the trip ends at Western/95th. More importantly, why list this information if the bus doesn't go there in-service? Unless the bus goes there no customer would need to know this information. I think its very deceptive and confusing.

CTA 52A Schedule

[CircleSeven]

First off, I didn't even know that the 52A would go to the Plaza in the mornings. I guess for this would either for the people who would get better access to the Plaza from the Kedzie Corridor or the kids would take the bus on 95th Street to go to the high school on Kedzie? Either way that is kind of shock. As what I stated on a previous post, if that bus is going to 95th & Western from the Kedzie Corridor and that bus is not officially 'NOT IN SERVICE', then you should ride on it. For the passengers that want to go east should stay on the bus. Unless the driver is officially not in service, then the driver should not force to discharge any passengers at 95th & Kedzie when passenger would want to go east. Now Archer should make a new destination sign to '95th & Kedzie' so people wouldn't be so confused with just '95th' thinking that the last stop of the route would be 95th & Kedzie. I think the CTA is really making a good descripted detail where the buses go when they're on route even when their off route on their deviations and shorter terminus during the times of operation. Once again, I'm pretty shocked that the 52A would go to the Plaza and that they need that much service from 95th to 49th in the mornings. As for the duplication of service, In my POV, it shouldn't really matter which bus comes if its either CTA or Pace. Now I understand some of you that Pace should only pick up the suburbanites and CTA should pick up the city folk, but if a route from either one shows a product of need, for example if the people need that bus from the Kedzie Corridor to go to the plaza in the morning then that would be perfect. But if there's no product, then why would you have a bus going one mile to the Plaza. To me if that driver would've sayed that would say "I'm going east to Western", then the passengers would've stayed on and they wouldn't have to walk that far from where they had to go. It's like the same way when the 3 King Drive goes far north to La Salle Drive & Inner Drive in the mornings and the sign says 'Mich/Walton'. This is because they are already too many buses parked at Fairbainks & Ontario that are going southbound. It's confusing when passengers don't know where the buses are going when runs are doing some deviations where they are going to a different terminus on another street. But they should get a CTA Bus schedule to see where the buses are going instead of being confused.

[rmadisonwi]

I'm not sure if you're looking at the same schedule that I am, but when I clicked the link you provided, the footnote under northbound was

"% trip begins at Western/95th 5 minutes earlier than time shown"

The footnote under southbound reads

"% trip ends at Western/95th 5 minutes later than time shown"

[westing]

I'm not sure if you're looking at the same schedule that I am, but when I clicked the link you provided, the footnote under northbound was

"% trip begins at Western/95th 5 minutes earlier than time shown"

The footnote under southbound reads

"% trip ends at Western/95th 5 minutes later than time shown"

That was fast Just a week ago I noticed the mistake when I printed the schedule out. Someone must have have fixed it.