orange line cta (Chicago, Rockford: home, school, taxes)

[wpcp]

i use the orange to go to school. from midway to roosevelt. in the afternoon at roosevelt i have been noticing A LOT more people on the train most heading to midway, with suitcases. like everyone theres like 5-7 people with a suitcase going to midway and on holidays its like 3/4 of the people. also i have noticed that the orange line isnt running as much anymore, like 10-12 minutes im waiting for the train and who knows how long the last train left before i got there.

last year it was like one maybe two people that had suitcases, but mostly there were none, and like half the people had suitcases on holidays. i think i experience maybe 4 times when the train was jammed pack, but this year its everyday, has anybody else noticed this too, espicially if you take the orange. first trains arent running as much, then to top it off more and more people are riding the trains, man i like it better when there used to be seats available to sit down in, but now then are always taken.

[soulful]

I'll just bet the stocks of major suitcase makers are at 52 week highs

[Drover]

Interesting about the uptick in "suitcase" riders. A couple years ago I used to ride the Orange Line back and forth when I didn't have enough time to go home between classes but had enough time on my hands that I would find other distractions rather than study if I didn't find a way to reduce said distractions. Considering it's an airport line, I was surprised to see so few suitcases; whereas I live on the Blue Line and use it to get to and from school and suitcase riders are a common sight, much to the chagrin of rush hour commuters who trip over the suitcases trying to squeeze in and out of the train..

[Avengerfire]

More than likely more people are reading this forum and using the recommendations to fly in and out of Midway and take the Orange Line.

[Drover]

^^Heh... the power of C-D

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by wpcp

i use the orange to go to school. from midway to roosevelt. in the afternoon at roosevelt i have been noticing A LOT more people on the train most heading to midway, with suitcases. like everyone theres like 5-7 people with a suitcase going to midway and on holidays its like 3/4 of the people.

Maybe they are tired of paying the outrageous parking fees at the two Chicago airports. Personally, I am scheduling more flights out of Milwaukee (as fares are down substantially this year at MKE) and Rockford.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Maybe they are tired of paying the outrageous parking fees at the two Chicago airports...

I am sure that is part of it.

[prairiestate]

The Orange Line is consistently overcrowded. They need to run longer trains. And nobody had better say they don't have the money. Just divert some funds from the city's corruption fund!

[Drover]

Are you serious?

[prairiestate]

About what? I ride the Orange Line regularly, so I can attest to the overcrowding much of the time. As for the corruption fund, I don't mean that literally of course. However, the money that is spent on corruption certainly has a major impact on the ability to provide services. That's why I don't ever want to hear anyone say the money isn't available or that we need to raise taxes until the corruption is cleaned up. Then we can have an honest assessment of our financial situation in the Chicago, Cook County and Illinois.