Late evening Purple Line express trial

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/blog/cta ... ss-service

http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/redey ... story.html

I'm not too sure how useful it is to me, but I'm sure it will be useful for people along that line and of interest here.

Fair use quote:

After years of riders asking to extend Purple Line Express service beyond morning and evening rush hours, the CTA will be testing a late-night train this summer, the transit agency officials said this week.

If this experiment works, I wonder if CTA may add an additional train or two or three.

I think the experiment could attract more potential riders if the train were to operate like the service did over a decade ago; i.e., stopping only at Belmont and Fullerton between Howard and the Loop. Leaving Linden at 8pm, it should be easier to find a slot for that stopping pattern at that time of day when Brown line traffic isn't quite as heavy, but evidently, it's going to run like the rest of the current service. I don't really see the point, other than just one more late evening train to/from the Loop; basically running as another Brown line train between the Loop and Belmont.

OTOH, northbound Red line passengers heading to Rogers Park, Evanston, or Skokie who happen to be lucky enough to meet this train either at Fullerton or Belmont will benefit the most, but it's hard for me to see how Evanston passengers boarding this train downtown will really benefit in terms of convenience. In most cases, Metra UP/N service is faster anyway, especially for Wilmette passengers.

I hope the Purple line slow zones in Evanston are at least significantly reduced, if not totally eliminated, in the weeks and months ahead. Otherwise, this experiment could be doomed to failure...

DP and Everyone:

I believe that the market for expanded Evanston Express trains has always been there and this is good news from
the CTA...How much will any work or other slow zones affect this new service?

I agree that it should have limited stops and if for reasons that these new services do not work out there is always
METRA's UP-North Line offering limited stop service to this same area...

With the current fare collection or new Ventra smart card would there be any practical way of collecting a higher
fare or surcharge for what would be a premium service similar to what the CTA at one time collected from riders
of the Evanston Express service?

MACTRAXX

doepack wrote:I think the experiment could attract more potential riders if the train were to operate like the service did over a decade ago; i.e., stopping only at Belmont and Fullerton between Howard and the Loop. Leaving Linden at 8pm, it should be easier to find a slot for that stopping pattern at that time of day when Brown line traffic isn't quite as heavy, but evidently, it's going to run like the rest of the current service. I don't really see the point, other than just one more late evening train to/from the Loop; basically running as another Brown line train between the Loop and Belmont.

OTOH, northbound Red line passengers heading to Rogers Park, Evanston, or Skokie who happen to be lucky enough to meet this train either at Fullerton or Belmont will benefit the most, but it's hard for me to see how Evanston passengers boarding this train downtown will really benefit in terms of convenience. In most cases, Metra UP/N service is faster anyway, especially for Wilmette passengers.

I hope the Purple line slow zones in Evanston are at least significantly reduced, if not totally eliminated, in the weeks and months ahead. Otherwise, this experiment could be doomed to failure...

If they can hew to the schedule they've posted, Loop at 8:50, Linden just before 10:00, they can catch savvy Evanstonians who want to leave downtown between trains of the Metra 1-hour evening frequency. And it's always a little better for anyone who lives quite close to Dempster, Foster, Noyes or Central or Linden, since Metra isn't very close to those stations.

The trick is that a single train may not make the mental map. It's hardly worth trying to keep such a train in mind unless you have a job that has you leaving downtown at 8:45 regularly. I think they should at least consider a 7:50 train, to say "if you' miss Metra, we'll get you home before the next UP train heads north."

The six week experiment is over, and has flopped, for all intents and purposes. Lo and behold, according to the CTA, "a lack of demand" doomed the project...