CTA south restructuring

[Guest metralink]

Does anyone have information on what the CTA has up it's sleeve for their south restructuring? The website is short on details.

[rmadisonwi]

Instead of trying to implement whatever the CTA had "up its sleeve," the authority has been trying to gain public input through a series of community meetings. Unfortunately, for the south side restructuring, turnout has been extremely poor (the first meeting, about a week or two ago, only had about six people show up).

There was another one last night, but I haven't yet heard how that one went. CTA's plans will depend, in part, on what comes out of these meetings, which is why it's important for anyone with a stake in the service to register their comments.

[Busjack]

So the big demand for CTA to go down to 159th Street, as indicated by the scope of the survey as indicated in the Press Release isn't there? The Auditor General said that such studies should be done on a regional basis.

[rmadisonwi]

Just because the study can extend that far south doesn't mean service will go down there.

But, regardless, the poor turnout doesn't mean that demand isn't there. If it did, the entire southeast side (south of 79th and east of Western) could be covered by a couple of buses a day. It just shows that, unfortunately, most people don't feel like taking the effort to go out and take advantage of opportunities to get their opinions heard.

It's kind of like voting. Everybody has an opinion on how their city/town/county/state/country should be run, but most people couldn't be bothered to take an hour or two out of their day once every few years to let someone know their opinion.

[Busjack]

It also shows that the study area was poorly conceived. Basically, east of State was covered by the South Lake Shore study, which in addition to the express routes, also dealt with 1, X4, 15, and 71 (formerly 27); as well as 47 and 51 east of Wells. If CTA were compliant with the Auditor General's recommendations, it would cooperate with Pace on a regional basis (as Pace has an ongoing study in the same area). It is a shame that CTA doesn't understand that. Also, undoubtedly this is a situation similar to where both CTA and Pace had studies that affected routes outside the study area (i.e. the Pace North Shore study was for Evanston, Skokie, Lincolnwood and Wilmette, but ended up primarily affecting routes in Des Plaines, Northbrook, and Glenview; the CTA west side study messed with Gladstone Park).

The boundaries of the CTA South study should have been State, 59th, the west extent of its territory (roughly Harlem; Cicero south of 63rd, Pulaski south of 87th), and 138th.

Also the fallacy in the argument in the preceding post is that demand on current routes can be determined from the farebox or laser at the door; we know from CTA productivity reports that people are riding 79. However, if the purpose of the survey is to assess untapped demand, that can only be manifested by customer outreach efforts. Pace, in doing its survey, sought out employers, preachers, etc., and is holding the forums. Apparently no one is aggrieved enough to be demanding additional service into Pace territory by CTA.

[Guest metralink]

any news on the CTA south restructuring? it's been really quiet

[Guest metralink]

any news on the CTA south restructuring? it's been really quiet

Is the restructuring dead based on the budget issues? the website is useless