Name your favorite express routes!

[Policeman]

Since we bring back this from 13 years later, guess I'll say mine.

 

6, 10, J14, 26, 146, 147

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

1 hour ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

146 135 134 143 6 are my faves they aren’t on lsd for too long and they actually cool

147 26 and J14 are the longest LSD routes

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

10 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

147 26 and J14 are the longest LSD routes

Ik but the shorter ones are cool as well

[monsieurmétro]

2, X9, 147 and 148 for me. Nice to not get stuck in traffic at Belmont or Irving Park (147 only) for Wrigley Field events and such.

The 136 is good too, but it tends to get stuck in traffic between Grand and Michigan on Lake Shore northbound (I haven't ridden it southbound due to its annoying service pattern where it's peak direction only).

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

5 hours ago, monsieurmétro said:

2, X9, 147 and 148 for me. Nice to not get stuck in traffic at Belmont or Irving Park (147 only) for Wrigley Field events and such.

The 136 is good too, but it tends to get stuck in traffic between Grand and Michigan on Lake Shore northbound (I haven't ridden it southbound due to its annoying service pattern where it's peak direction only).

yea there’s that one traffic light that screws it up right before the curve 

[NewFlyerMCI]

Guess I'll join. The old X3 & X4 were perfect alignment. Especially liked how the X4 used King Drive after 35th St and not Michigan/Indiana. I think I pretty much liked all the X routes, except the Stockton Express routes, who's expressway segment has always seemed fairly pointless to me.

[ChicagoNova]

I really think they should extend X49 as far south as 95th. It was like that before February 2010.

[Sam92]

41 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Guess I'll join. The old X3 & X4 were perfect alignment. Especially liked how the X4 used King Drive after 35th St and not Michigan/Indiana. I think I pretty much liked all the X routes, except the Stockton Express routes, who's expressway segment has always seemed fairly pointless to me.

You’d be surprised how many people are crammed between Fullerton and downtown for 151/156 to handle without them. Sometimes just putting people on separate buses that stop picking up after a certain point is more the goal than actual speed.

[Sam92]

2 minutes ago, ChicagoNova said:

I really think they should extend X49 as far south as 95th. It was like that before February 2010.

No place to layover with evergreen gone. Same reason 95 and 48 are at Damen 

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 minutes ago, ChicagoNova said:

I really think they should extend X49 as far south as 95th. It was like that before February 2010.

 

2 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

No place to layover with evergreen gone. Same reason 95 and 48 are at Damen 

Yeah, the question on that for a while is whether the need for that shopping center is so great that a one seat ride needs to be created for the X49 to end at 95th/Ashland (or the 95 go to Western/79th)

[NewFlyerMCI]

4 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

You’d be surprised how many people are crammed between Fullerton and downtown for 151/156 to handle without them. Sometimes just putting people on separate buses that stop picking up after a certain point is more the goal than actual speed.

I understand why they operate the way they do, I just don't like that they do ?

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

53 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Guess I'll join. The old X3 & X4 were perfect alignment. Especially liked how the X4 used King Drive after 35th St and not Michigan/Indiana. I think I pretty much liked all the X routes, except the Stockton Express routes, who's expressway segment has always seemed fairly pointless to me.

good ol X3 how packed it gets and how bus bunching is on the 3 right now i wouldn’t be suprised if CTA brings the X3 back soon i miss it 

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

11 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

good ol X3 how packed it gets and how bus bunching is on the 3 right now i wouldn’t be suprised if CTA brings the X3 back soon i miss it 

Maybe they should bring the x4 too, but I’m not sure how well more express routes will come in maybe they will maybe they won’t .

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

17 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Maybe they should bring the x4 too, but I’m not sure how well more express routes will come in maybe they will maybe they won’t .

it would be good bringing back express routes even if it’s just for rush hours only because ima 3 daily user and trust me you hop on a packed bus? your not gonna get any farther then next to the driver that’s how packed it gets even if there’s a follower behind it all are packed (southbound PM)and on top of that they stop at every single stop that’s also another reason how bus bunching starts also traffic @YoungBusLoverused to drive the 3 he knows how it’s like 

[BusHunter]

Id probably have to say I loved the #X54. Midway to Jeff Pk. I loved how the bus would just breeze through those streets. Plus it was a good north side to south side connection, something the northwest, west and southwest sides dont have. You know that kind of mimics the crosstown L that never happened. Too bad the city doesn't give transit the love it gives the bike lanes. You know if the bus ran in their own lanes and had traffic signal priority it would be a force like the I-55 lanes for the Pace express. Even if it ran on dedicated right of way like on the knox train structure that would be awesome and not cost too much. More and more people drive and that just congests the road and in the future there will be more cars. Then where will they be. Gridlock...

 

[Sam92]

39 minutes ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

it would be good bringing back express routes even if it’s just for rush hours only because ima 3 daily user and trust me you hop on a packed bus? your not gonna get any farther then next to the driver that’s how packed it gets even if there’s a follower behind it all are packed (southbound PM)and on top of that they stop at every single stop that’s also another reason how bus bunching starts also traffic @YoungBusLoverused to drive the 3 he knows how it’s like 

Id bring back X4 before X3. 3 is basically closer to the green line. X4 would run the same way to 35th which is where the crowds are coming from but then it swings and hits some spots the green doesn’t go far enough east to

[NewFlyerMCI]

Every X route (except maybe the X21, but that survived after the Douglas rehab) should come back. It's no coincidence a lot of the busy routes and/or the routes where artics got sent during the pandemic were also routes that had X "variants" (hehe)

[Sam92]

2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Every X route (except maybe the X21, but that survived after the Douglas rehab) should come back. It's no coincidence a lot of the busy routes and/or the routes where artics got sent during the pandemic were also routes that had X "variants" (hehe)

Only reason why they never got artics is cause economics only allow artics where you can pick up a load of people and then dump them somewhere else along with them dropping the ball on Fisk. I’m with you; 4, 8, 12, 54, 63, 66, 72, 79 and 80 should have artics but you’d need a replacement for archer  cause all those routes are either at a garage where they can’t move anything to make space or at a a garage that never will be able to due to layout; and you definitely need to move a LOOT of stuff when you consider even reducing headways like other artic routes such as 12, 22 and 14, you’d still need a sheer amount of buses along with the 1.5 space the artics take which is why service at 77th sucks @$$ now; the drivers are overworked and the buses themselves can’t get proper maintenance . That’s probably why the other 50-150 artics that were on the table to come with the Novas got switched to another batch of novas. On paper they need it but space wise where could we put them.

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

Only reason why they never got artics is cause economics only allow artics where you can pick up a load of people and then dump them somewhere else along with them dropping the ball on Fisk. I’m with you; 4, 8, 12, 54, 63, 66, 72, 79 and 80 should have artics but you’d need a replacement for archer  cause all those routes are either at a garage where they can’t move anything to make space or at a a garage that never will be able to due to layout. That’s probably why the other 50-150 artics that were on the table to come with the Novas got switched to another batch of novas. On paper they need it but space wise where could we put them.

I've long thought it was a missed opportunity for CTA to not have acquired that parcel of land next to Western Orange Line and now the Park District has snapped it up. Garage expansion/addition is only going to get more complicated soon. Chicago is pretty much the only garage with any room to expand.

[artthouwill]

15 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I've long thought it was a missed opportunity for CTA to not have acquired that parcel of land next to Western Orange Line and now the Park District has snapped it up. Garage expansion/addition is only going to get more complicated soon. Chicago is pretty much the only garage with any room to expand.

It won't happen,  but I think one site still left is the former LeClair Courts site just south of the Stevenson on Cicero.   Other than the residential area to the west  it is an ideal site.

[YoungBusLover]

5 hours ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

it would be good bringing back express routes even if it’s just for rush hours only because ima 3 daily user and trust me you hop on a packed bus? your not gonna get any farther then next to the driver that’s how packed it gets even if there’s a follower behind it all are packed (southbound PM)and on top of that they stop at every single stop that’s also another reason how bus bunching starts also traffic @YoungBusLoverused to drive the 3 he knows how it’s like 

The thing about the 3 and 4 is you'll have three scenarios play out. 

1.) Too many buses not enough bodies to operate them as of right now.

2.) Mulitple operators riding behind one bus thats doing all the work and passing them by the mid to southern end of the route. 

3.) Layover space at the northern terminals. 

[artthouwill]

4 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

The thing about the 3 and 4 is you'll have three scenarios play out. 

1.) Too many buses not enough bodies to operate them as of right now.

2.) Mulitple operators riding behind one bus thats doing all the work and passing them by the mid to southern end of the route. 

3.) Layover space at the northern terminals. 

I still don't think every single 3 doesn't have to operate the entire length of the route.   Some 3s can easily terminate at 79th or 81st.  

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

15 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I still don't think every single 3 doesn't have to operate the entire length of the route.   Some 3s can easily terminate at 79th or 81st.  

i had a few buses actually terminate at 79th i had one on friday and then bus went back northbound due to 3 buses playing duck duck goose to 95th 

[NewFlyerMCI]

55 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I still don't think every single 3 doesn't have to operate the entire length of the route.   Some 3s can easily terminate at 79th or 81st.  

Probably not wise to do that while CSU is in session. Besides, that didn't play all that well when the 4 was ending at 94th for a while, there was a stink about that for a minute and that was one block away. Moreover, with the big square loop buses would have to take going out of service at 79th and returning, a regular bus would've made it to 91st, if not 93rd, and by then the time saved is negligible, especially if the driver still has to break. If anything, not every 3 trip needs to go down the Mag Mile (or even to Michigan/Chicago, cut where the 2/157 do)

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1 hour ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

i had a few buses actually terminate at 79th i had one on friday and then bus went back northbound due to 3 buses playing duck duck goose to 95th 

never saw any 79th termianls so far each time i rode the 3