Douglas Branch Blue Line Service Being Eliminated (Aurora, Naperville: real estate, limo)

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Drover

I fail to see how this cuts costs at all if they're simply adding additional runs on the Forest Park line to make up the difference.

People who live along the Pink Line made clear their displeasure with the reconfiguration. Ask them if they'd rather see their line go through the subway or up on the loop, they'll tell you they want it on the subway line. Seems to me like the fix has been in all along.

Finally someone who gets it! A trip from 54/Cermak on the Pink Line to the east part of the Loop takes about 10 minutes longer than it used to on the Blue Line. As someone with easy access to the Douglas line, I'm disappointed by this change. I should be thankful we still have service but still, it isn't all roses. The CTA kind of F'd us to some extent. And I don't know how additional runs on the Forest Park line are supposed to help me, exactly.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Finally someone who gets it! A trip from 54/Cermak on the Pink Line to the east part of the Loop takes about 10 minutes longer than it used to on the Blue Line. As someone with easy access to the Douglas line, I'm disappointed by this change. I should be thankful we still have service but still, it isn't all roses. The CTA kind of F'd us to some extent. And I don't know how additional runs on the Forest Park line are supposed to help me, exactly.

Well the additional runs on the Forest Park branch aren't really supposed to help you... they're supposed to help maintain current service levels on the O'Hare branch which has the highest demand of any part of the Blue Line by far. Eliminating Douglas Branch runs also means eliminating 18 O'Hare branch runs during peak times. So they're making up the difference by adding those runs back but not sending them on the Douglas branch. It's just that, well, those trains still have to come from and go to somewhere before and after they service the O'Hare branch, so it's basically just a matter of convenience that the Forest Park branch gets extra runs.

They do have some Blue Line runs in mid-afternoon that originate somewhere along the Blue Line (Jeff Park I think?) and terminate at UIC and then head back, but I don't think they can do that during rush hour. The extra time taken up by the track switching would gum up the works too much.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Finally someone who gets it! A trip from 54/Cermak on the Pink Line to the east part of the Loop takes about 10 minutes longer than it used to on the Blue Line. As someone with easy access to the Douglas line, I'm disappointed by this change. I should be thankful we still have service but still, it isn't all roses. The CTA kind of F'd us to some extent. And I don't know how additional runs on the Forest Park line are supposed to help me, exactly.

Hey, that's what you get for moving out of Oak Park.

[Avengerfire]

Even though this is slightly off topic, the CTA really needs to build a station near the United Center on the "Pink Line." I mean WTF is the hold up? I know the Medical Center stop on the Blue Line is somewhat close, but a stop on the Pink Line would put sports fans and concert goers within 2 blocks of the United Center.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Drover

After giving it some more thought, I think I figured out what the CTA's motivation is: a substantial imbalance of ridership on the Douglas branch and the O'Hare branch. Pink Line trains run at 4 cars most of the day whereas the Blue Line runs 8. So they were wasting capacity on the Douglas Branch in order to provide adequate capacity on the O'Hare branch. So creating the Pink Line that only goes to downtown and back is a way of addressing that capacity-requirement imbalance. It also allows them to create more frequent runs on both branches without tying their frequency to each other and wasting even more capacity.

Yep, this is the reason. They want to run eight car trains out to Forest Park and to O'Hare, but not on the under-used Douglas branch. With the Pink Line, they only have to run four-car trains on the former Douglas Branch.

Has anyone noticed more congestion on the Loop above-ground track structure since the Pink Line was instituted? It was pretty crowded before the Pink Line, so I imagine that it would only be worse now.

[Drover]

Platform crowding in the Loop isn't substantially worse than it was before. It's actually pretty managable; some train or another comes by quite frequently to whisk at least some of the passengers away.

[Chicago60614]

^ Yeah, I was expecting it to be MUCH worse, but it really isn't too bad.

One factor is that they took the Purple Line off the clockwise loop, and put it on the counter-clockwise loop with the Brown Line. This had nothing to do with the Pink Line though, it's just a temp. re-route due to all the construction on the Brown Line. They wanted to try and keep the Brown and Purple trains evenly spaced so they didn't have random and unwanted bunching of trains and create havoc near Fullerton and Belmont where it's down to one track instead of two.

It's helped to get people boarded quicker since the trains all run the same direction and enter/exit the loop more smoothly, but I really miss those Purple Line trains that would pick me up at Washington/Wells on their way out of the loop at night!!


And on the Blue Line elimination, with only 10 people per car, it just wasn't efficient at all to run those trains on the Douglas Branch as opposed to the Forest Park Branch (which has higher ridership). The only reason they kept those few rush hour trains open was because people were yelling and screaming that they wanted to go through the subway as opposed to the loop. The CTA caved in and said - fine - if you really want them we'll give you 4-6 or whatever trains at morning and evening rush for 6 months and see what happens. Of course now the statistics are in and a vast majority of people living in that area are just taking the Pink Line that comes every few minutes, instead of the Blue Line trains that you have to get on time, or sit there another 30 minutes. I'm sure the CTA knew what they were doing, and that realistically the Blue Line trains wouldn't keep running along the Douglas Branch. I think it's just more efficient, the 8 car trains and the 4 car trains can be split up as the ridership demands, and the increase in service along the Forest Park Branch can only be a good thing. History shows that once you establish a good service frequency, every 5 minutes or less, people usually WILL start to use it more often. The Forest Park Branch and the Douglas Branch have each seen a large increase in service levels since the Pink Line was introduced, and the ridership is up quite a bit, especially on the Pink Line. Of course the old Douglas Blue Line was SO SLOW, that hardly anyone bothered with it...

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Even though this is slightly off topic, the CTA really needs to build a station near the United Center on the "Pink Line." I mean WTF is the hold up? I know the Medical Center stop on the Blue Line is somewhat close, but a stop on the Pink Line would put sports fans and concert goers within 2 blocks of the United Center.

I agree, although if you look at history, it takes a million years to do anything in Illinois, especially right now, and especially with public transit.

There are plans in the future to add a Morgan stop on the Pink Line, since after Clinton you have to go all the way to Ashland. They're also planning a Madison stop by the United Center, but of course these might be years off.

The only good thing is the Chicago Department of Transportation is looking into these stations, instead of just the RTA/CTA, so maybe the city can get the process moving faster than going through the state agencies.

I know the people in the West Loop have a lot of cash, and all these new residents really want another stop along the Green Line. It is pretty stupid to have that huge a gap from Clinton to Ashland...

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

of cash, and all these new residents really want another stop along the Green Line. It is pretty stupid to have that huge a gap from Clinton to Ashland...

... and then another one from Ashland to California. Especially with all those spiffy new condos and townhouses going up in between the two. I can see a Damen or Western stop going in too. I think there would have to be a lot more infill in the area, but some day...

There's an awful lot of abandoned platforms on the Congress branch of the Blue Line. If the Garfield Park area ever takes off like people keep saying it will, I can see some of those stations being brought back online.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

Hey, that's what you get for moving out of Oak Park.

Heh, sure, and I can afford to take a stretch limo downtown every day with all the money I saved All kidding aside, we still have the Metra BNSF line near where I live, and that's like 15 minutes to downtown for me. And at least ridership on the Pink Line is up. As long as the line's still there, it can be expanded or modified when/if demand increases to the point where such is warranted. In this day and age with the CTA, you have to be thankful for small favors!