I've received a regular question or two on the possibility of Purple Line trains stopping at the Sheridan station during three tracking. Our Vice President for Planning provided me with the following response to the question:
"Only a very, very small portion of the boardings in the AM rush at Belmont and Fullerton (one to two percent) would shift their travel to use the Sheridan stop on the Purple Line--and there would be no significant benefit to customers at the crowded Belmont and Fullerton stations. Additionally, while some riders using the Sheridan stop might benefit by waiting for a Purple Line train, the Purple is running on a 15-minute headway, making it likely that most customers will choose to travel to Belmont to catch either a Brown or the first Purple Line train instead. Finally, a stop at Sheridan would delay the over 5,200 Purple Line through-travelers (who are the vast majority of Purple Line customers) and present them with even longer travel times in an already choked corridor with other inherent delays and slow-zones.
Given that the vast majority of passengers in the Brown Line corridor would not benefit from such a change, and the potential slow down in service for the majority of our customers, I do not recommend that CTA stop Purple Line trains at Sheridan during three track operations."
25 Comments:
Carole,
I think that was a great response. I may or may not agree with everything in it, but it's phenomenal to see a serious and repeated requests meet a serious, factual rebuttal, rather than just floating into the air.
Thanks.
As the oft-cited and beloved "bus tracker troll", I want to request a similar response when you get a chance -- Mr. Huberman said in a Trib interview a couple months ago that the tracker would be expanding in Febuary.
Since then, I've heard rumors that there may be a technical issue that pushes back the expansion date. I can understand that if true. But again, it would be phenomenal to have a coherent explanation of the situation, rather than having a date set by Huberman pass by the wayside with no reason given. I hope you or someone can offer an explanation before February is completely gone. Or even better, maybe there will be some expansion this month.
Thanks,
The Bus Tracker Troll
Why isn't the purple line returning to going clockwise around the loop? It would seem that having an option of going counterclockwise on the brown line or clockwise on the purple line would be helpful to people going south in the morning. Personally, I transfer from the brown line to the red line in the morning because going all the way around the loop on the brown/purple line to state and lake ads an extra 20 min. to my commute. If the purple line was switched, I could take either the red or purple lines. I would think that giving people more options to get into the loop in the morning would be beneficial.
Anon 12:14am-
Your numbers don't add up.
The purple line express only runs every 15 minutes, compared to the brown line running roughly every 4 minutes during most of rush hour. So waiting for a purple line train instead of taking a brown one will add an average of about 6 minutes to your commute.
It takes 10 minutes to travel from Merchandise Mart to State/Lake by going counter-clockwise around the Loop, versus 3 minutes to make that trip by going clockwise. So going clockwise saves you 7 minutes.
Putting all this together, if the purple line ran clockwise around the loop, you would shave about 1 minute off of your average commute to State/Lake by waiting for purple line train instead of taking the brown line train. If you're going to any point in the loop other than State/Lake or Clark/Lake, you'd actually add time to your average commute by waiting for the purple line train.
Now, taking the red line into account: You mentioned that you transfer to the red line instead, at times. During the peak of rush hour, the average wait for a red line train should be about 2-3 minutes (since headways are about 4-6 minutes). Since the red line trip from Fullerton to State/Lake is 13 minutes, versus the brown/purple line trip of 21 minutes for the same start/end points, taking the red line will reduce your average commute by 8 minutes. Subtracting the average wait for the red line transfer, this means transfering to the red line rather than riding the brown/purple line around the loop saves you an average of about 5-6 minutes (not 20).
Even if a clock-wise purple line express were made available to you as an additional option instead of the red line, it would not improve your average commute by more than a minute or two, since it only runs every 15 minutes and so most of the time a red line will come along first anyway. And in either case you will have added a transfer to your commute...
...unless your commute starts at Fullerton or Belmont, in which case you have more options than most people do already and should probably just be thankful!
Thank you for getting that response for us. It's good to see the consideration given and the reasoning behind it.
Perhaps after three tracking/Brown line expansion is finished a study could be done on the best way to provide service through this corridor, for instance, best train lines and frequency to service the North main from the State street subway, the Wabash side of the loop, the Wells side of the Loop, through routing, etc. that both enhance service and provide for more overall capacity on the Loop and North main line.
Ms. Brown -
I know that when Diversey reopens with a temporary station it won't have any of the new amenities yet because the rebuilt station isn't schedule to reopen for several months. However, when the station is completed - will it have elevators or ramps?
The ctabrownline.com web site says it will have elevators, but the giant sign in front of the old station says it will have ramps for accessibility. That's going to have to be one really long ramp to get up to platform level.
Can you shed some light? Thanks in advance.
Bus Tracker Troll -
Per Sheila Gregory in the RedEye, they plan to add some routes by end March.
There's a software upgrade in progress that's causing the current delay. Remember that this is the largest deployment ever of this particular system, so there's bound to be unexpected bugs and delays.
While the no stopping at Sheridan reasoning makes sense, why was it suggested that the Purple Line make permanent stops at Sheridan following the canceled service cuts? Seems like the same reasoning would apply.
So waiting for a purple line train instead of taking a brown one will add an average of about 6 minutes to your commute.
Unless, of course, you actually preplanned to get to the station at the time the Purple Line was scheduled to show up.
The ctabrownline.com web site says it will have elevators, but the giant sign in front of the old station says it will have ramps for accessibility.
I think that's just a generic description for the entire project or someone messed up the sign. The ramps apply to stations that are at street level like the ones at the end of the line.
Nick-
There is a schedule for the purple line express in theory (as there is for all other CTA trains), but all that really tells you is the average headway for the train at a particular time of day. The train's exact arrival time is, in practice, unrelated to the posted schedule.
Hmm. That doesn't seem to be the case in my experience. Whenever I use the Purple Line I'll follow the schedule from the CTA website, and the train usually shows up within a minute or two, if not exactly when it should.
Thanks for the update, anonymous.
- the bus tracker troll
Carole, when are the recurring problems at Tower 18 (Lake/Wells) going to be fixed? Again this morning the switches failed and required them to be thrown manually. This led to a 20+ minute delay on the Brown line. I think its unacceptable how often these problems happen, especially since it impacts so many lines and thousands of CTA customers. Why isn't Tower 18 listed in the capital program recently announced? There is also clearly a major problem at Howard with switches as well. Yesterday morning rush hour, in the subzero windchills, hundreds of Red line riders waited and waited. Finally two express trains went through from Granville to Wilson. After a total of 20 minutes waiting for a train, a very overcrowded one finally arrived. When are the major switching problems at Howard yard going to be addressed? It even had a star symbol on the slow zone map lately indicating it was the source of major delays in the previous two weeks.
Anonymous 9:20 -
There's already a Loop signals project in progress with an expected completion of Summer 2009. This includes rebuilding Tower 18.
Today's Tribune: The RTA is considering a plan to extend CTA train service into DuPage County.
I know its important to think about the future but don't you think the focus should be to get the existing CTA working at full capacity before spending more bad money?
I believe New Starts money is totally separate from capital funds for maintenance or upgrade-type projects...if you don't apply for them, you'll never get them. So the RTA/CTA needs to keep planning for New Starts projects, even if they're struggling to maintain the existing system, if for no other reason than: since the funding mechanisms aren't related, you might as well not lose out on the money.
Anonymous 9:30am,
While the CTA doesn't always inspire confidence, if public transit is going to meet our dramatically increasing needs for regional mobility in the next decade or two, the CTA is simply going to have to walk and chew gum at the same time.
We'd be shooting ourselves in the foot -- economically, environmentally -- not to engage in long-term planning for system expansions at the same time as we press for improvements to existing service.
We need more *and* better transit.
Carole, you should link to this and everyone who cares about transit should read it regularly.
greatergreaterwashington.org
A suggestion for brown/purple line operations in the Loop:
In the morning, nearly half the people exiting these trains on the at Washington/Wells leave the platform using the exits at the far south end of the platform. The other exit is approximately in the middle of the platform.
However, the train usually stops closer to the northern end of the platform, with the front car stopping a few hundred feet short of the southern end of the platform. This means that the vast majority of people exiting the train end up walking forward as much as 100-200 feet forward to get to whichever exit they use.
It would be better if the train pulled as far into the station as possible, with the front car stopping at the extreme southern end of the platform. This would give the average passenger about a 100 foot head start towards his or her exit.
I'm sure this doesn't sound like a big deal, but since upwards of half the passengers on the A.M. brown/purple line trains exit at Washington/Wells, this would actually affect quite a few people - effectively shaving 30 seconds off the morning commute for a large portion of brown/purple line riders, at no cost to the CTA.
I got on a North Ave bus today, and I saw that another bus was right behind it. I was about 3 miles west of the Red Line. The driver told me, and everyone who boarded after that, that she would not be going past the Red Line.
Great stuff! I assume that a supervisor was able to see the bunching on the tracker, decide what to do to keep the bunching from getting worse by turning the first bus at Clybourn, inform the driver, and then she successfully notified customers of what would happen.
Communication generally seems to have improved. I've noticed this in a couple different spots on the system in recent months. I hope you can keep up the improvement. It helps.
If the Purple Line is already going at sub-5mph on that curve, why in the world would it not take the 20-30 seconds to stop at Sheridan?
Even if it only helps 3% of the purple line express riders, it still seems logical to stop there.
Nick, you're beating a dead horse. The very post you're "responding" to answers the question you posed.
I'm simply saying the delay she describes to the purple line passengers won't be nearly as big of a deal as the post makes it out to be
I think the purple line should just travel slowly with its doors open at all times, so people can hop on and off as they please, including at Sheridan.
Anon 2/21, here is what CTA's Director of Power & Way Maintenance, Construction & Engineering had to say in response to your Tower 18 concerns:
"Tower 18 is included in the CTA’s capital program. A project is currently underway to update and replace the signal and train control systems along the Loop elevated tracks, including Tower 18, which is the junction at Lake and Wells. The new systems will help to improve the reliability of service by regulating train movement, speed and intervals at junctions.
Signals act as traffic lights along the rail routes directing rail operators to proceed, slow down or stop. They also give the operator information regarding track conditions and speed limits, so updating them will improve train traffic efficiency into and out of the Loop.
At Howard, a major station renovation project is nearing completion. In conjunction with that project, CTA track and signal crews have been making improvements to the signal system in this area."
Washington/Wells Rider, here is a response to your suggestion on moving the location where CTA trains berth from CTA's VP of Transit Operations:
"CTA train berthing complies with the ADA for proximity to the point of accessibility--in this case the elevator. While doing so requires passengers to walk to the south exit, this actually allows the train to empty faster while passengers queue to the rotogates. As a side note, this practice will go away for Brown Line trains when we start 8-car service as trains will berth 100 feet further south."
thank you for providing this communication
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