CTA Express Service

[Tadman]

Occasionally I ride to Skokie for meetings and I love riding the express train up north. On the way back downtown around lunch, only the red all-stop trains are available, and a ten minute ride turns into an hour ride. I understand that it wouldn't make sense to run frequent express trains outside of rush hour, but I'm curious about the feasibility of something like hourly express trains to from Howard to downtown. That would be a nice way to contain the cost but still offer a premium service.

[MACTRAXX]

Tad: That would be interesting-more Evanston Express and maybe some thru Skokie Swift trains running down to the Loop...

Evanston Express trains have had good ridership in the past-even with an added surcharge that it once had...

With the removal of the catenary on the Skokie Swift perhaps a limited amount of thru trains can be scheduled...
That line no longer needs dedicated equipment and that should add options for those riders...

MACTRAXX

[doepack]

Occasionally I ride to Skokie for meetings and I love riding the express train up north. On the way back downtown around lunch, only the red all-stop trains are available, and a ten minute ride turns into an hour ride. I understand that it wouldn't make sense to run frequent express trains outside of rush hour, but I'm curious about the feasibility of something like hourly express trains to from Howard to downtown. That would be a nice way to contain the cost but still offer a premium service.

I think there's capacity for it, perhaps even for 30 minute headways. And as an added bonus, you could adjust Yellow line service for timely connections to and/or from the expresses from Howard (which should still run in and out of Evanston IMO; I think Yellow line express trains may a bit more difficult logistically). But first things first: Get the four-track ROW between Wilson and Loyola into a good state of repair so that it can support consistent 55mph running, and eliminate the associated slow zones.

And while we're at it: The expresses should also be an entity unto themselves, and shouldn't augment Brown line service south of Clark junction. Belmont and Fullerton perhaps, but no other stops 'til the Mart...

[Tadman]

No kidding RE the four track main - north of Wilson there are some really slow spots.

I'm curious if a four track main is really needed - with modern CTC and 2-3 tracks, could express service be run? I understand that the north side main is pretty packed given three lines sharing a path, but what about lines like the O'Hare or Forest Park line?

[doepack]

No doubt, the service levels south of Clark junction definitely justifies the need for a four track ROW, but I think the only real reason it's needed north of there is because the express trains run in both directions during rush; if it were a peak-direction service only, it could be feasibly operated with three tracks, or even two, with a third "passing" track added at certain locations. Speaking of which, this setup would likely be adopted for the Blue line O'hare "express" trains (if that ever happens), but it's probably not necessary on the Forest Park branch; it's an arrow straight 8-mile run down 290 from downtown to Desplaines Ave., and the stations are spaced far enough apart to keep things moving...

[M&Eman]

Reconstruction of the North Side El is on the Horizon in the near future. Several of the alternatives evaluated by the CTA involve having express service all day after the reconstruction is over. Personally, I think the rush-hour only status of the Evanston expresses is a waste of infrastructure given the fact that there is a full four-track ROW. New York and Philadelphia can do expresses all day, why can't the CTA?

[Tadman]

If the traffic warrants all-day express service, I say go for it. I'd just hate to see us waste money on a broke system if the traffic doesn't warrant such. That's why I suggested hourly or half-hourly express - people who want to go downtown from places like Evanston plan their travel, so they can plan around a hourly service.

[F40CFan]

On the lines that have only two tracks, they should return to the skip-stop A-B service. That moved the trains along.

[buddah]

I love riding the express train up north. On the way back downtown around lunch, only the red all-stop trains are available, and a ten minute ride turns into an hour ride. I understand that it wouldn't make sense to run frequent express trains outside of rush hour, but I'm curious about the feasibility of something like hourly express trains to from Howard to downtown..

YES Tadman I feel your pain as Ive had this encounter numerous times and that was in the late 80s early 90s. Well I see the CTA is consistent with one thing over the decades the limited service of the purple line. I agree it is a bit of a disadvantage to a potential market of customers. However one every hour IMO is to low of a frequency for the service as Metra runs hourly to the loop as there would be too much competition there for that slot. It is a shame theres a 4 track ROW not being used to its fullest potential. Id suggest one every 20 or (like doepack) every 30 min intervals ( 12:00/12:30/1:00 or 12:00/12:20/12:40/1:00). Now as we here are a bit more creative with our idea than the CTA I'd also suggest a possible run through with the Orange line. Midday 4 car trains from Midway run every 10 mins so 1 out of 2 or 3 could bypass running the loop and continue north then back south from linden as the midday purple express. This would be my idea of compromise for an express daytime purple line. I know we have talked about a run through brown/orange before but that seems dead in the water unless its run as a night train option.

I think there's capacity for it, perhaps even for 30 minute headways. And as an added bonus, you could adjust Yellow line service for timely connections to and/or from the expresses from Howard .
And while we're at it: The expresses should also be an entity unto themselves, and shouldn't augment Brown line service south of Clark junction. Belmont and Fullerton perhaps, but no other stops 'til the Mart...

I believe your on the right track about the every 30 min intervals, possibly even every 20. As an old school CTA lover I also remember back in the 80s that there were times when Ive seen the S. Swift line trains (ether 1 or 2 cars) were connected to purple line 4 car trains right at the Howard platform, this is when Howard was a wooden platform station and 1-50 and 6000 cars were running the route in the 80s .That train then become the Evenston express towards downtown, and was ran as a 5 or 6 car train. Those were the good old days, I miss those blinker doors and small windows. Also If the new express is to be a real run through ( nonstop between Fullerton and M.Mart) and not augment brown line service since the 4 track main is now non existent between Armitage and Chicago there may be a need to add the outside trackage back to Sedgwick and convert it to a bypass (run around) station for purples to pass local brown line.

[MACTRAXX]

Buddah: Interesting thought about through-routing some Midway trains to Evanston as off-hour Expresses...

That is one routing that even I did not think of...

I previously thought about connecting some Midway trains to run on the Ravenswood Line to Kimball...

I say to the CTA that if the ridership is potentially there why not try these routings?

MACTRAXX

[doepack]

As much as I liked the skip-stop service, it wasn't always applied evenly to all routes. Pulling out a map from 1981, I noticed that the sum of A and B stations on the Ravenswood and Lake/Dan Ryan routes resulted in an an odd number, meaning that one group of trains was actually slightly faster than the other since it skipped an extra stop. But it seemed to work best on routes with densely packed stations, with somewhat negligible results (in terms of actual time savings) on routes within expressway medians...

[F40CFan]

As much as I liked the skip-stop service, it wasn't always applied evenly to all routes. Pulling out a map from 1981, I noticed that the sum of A and B stations on the Ravenswood and Lake/Dan Ryan routes resulted in an an odd number, meaning that one group of trains was actually slightly faster than the other since it skipped an extra stop. But it seemed to work best on routes with densely packed stations, with somewhat negligible results (in terms of actual time savings) on routes within expressway medians...

I agree. If they returned to it, they would need to apply it so that the trains moved smoothly. They would also need to see how much traffic there was between intermediate stops as to limit as much as possible passengers having to change trains. However, on lines that have only two tracks, it would work better than express trains where you would have to schedule a large gap between the all stop train and the express. Otherwise the following express would be crawling, looking at approach and stop signals.

The Eisenhower expressway actually has room in the median for a third track which could be used for express service. I read that it was designed that way in case the C.A.&E. wanted to run downtown, but they couldn't get to a terminal without using a subway and they had many wooden cars which weren't allowed in subways.

[Pacific 2-3-1]

On the North Side Red Line, WILSON (Uptown) and LOYOLA are projected to be rebuilt with two "transfer" platforms each, so I can see the possibility of a future all-day Express run from Howard south, on the outer tracks north of Belmont.

One would have to consider the traffic patterns in whatever future year was involved, but if I were running things at the CTA, I think I would switch these Express trains south of Belmont to the the Red Line INNER TRACKS, for a fast run down the State Street Subway!

Make every third South Side Red Line train to/from 95th a HOWARD EXPRESS SUBWAY train and have the other two make all the quarter- and half-mile stops on the inner track from Addison northward. If the Red Line were to use 10-car trains by then, these Expresses would need to terminate at Howard. Alternately, you could run the Howard Express trains to Midway Airport, if the switching at 18th Street could be worked out.

You could still run the Purple Line Express rush hour trains from LInden to the Loop elevated via the Brown Line outer tracks south of Belmont.

[erie910]

It's been awhile since I've ridden the Chicago El system, but I recall that the elevated structure from the Loop north was a 4-track structure with 2 tracks in service. I contacted the CTA and suggested that it would make sense to rehabilitate the other two tracks so that the Evanston express trains weren't limited to the speed of the Ravenswood trains to the point where the Howard St. subway line joins the elevated line. The response implied that I lived on another planet. Yes, it's expensive to rehabilitate 2 tracks that have been taken out of service, but wouldn't that speed up the Evanston express trains?

[Chicagopcclcars]

You say the response implied you "lived on another planet." That was funny. Evidence shows that to be the case however....Here in Chicago we don't use the term "El." There is no "Evanston Express" anymore. Those two tracks have been out of service for almost 50 years!!!!.