I asked for stats so we could carry on this conversation with a little more input from what is actually happening. Just to broaden the discussion with actual facts and figures.

I take the Brownline to Madison/Wells daily so I know that only having two stations on that side works. Hopefully it will happen before 2016. I personally don't see why the Van Buren Station has to be left open. It was shut a few years ago and i think it should be torn down.

The stats request came because a few years ago I found them, but wanted updated ones and have had a hard time finding them online, plus I was thinking this discussion might be tied back to the discussion we had about station placement a few pages back. Would like to see all the station stats. I like stuff like that.

But by cutting that station, won't you run the risk of overcrowding the stations before (Randolph/Wabash) & after it (Clark/Lake) from all of the displaced State/Lake riders?

It seems more than a little silly to me to be talking of dropping some of the most heavily-used stations in the system just because they're close together. Part of the reason you have more stations in the Loop area is that during high-demand times, there isn't platform space for people.

At rush hour, I'd be surprised if eliminating a stop actually saved any time, as any stopping time would be offset by increased unload-load time at the stations nearest the eliminated one.

Building a new station would allow you to design one that helps to mitigate that with wider platforms, etc.

All that said, if anything, I think there should be stations added downtown.

What's the operational break-even point for a station, in riders per week?

Clark/Lake 18,945
State/Lake 9,585
Adams/Wabash 8,867
RANDOLPH/WABASH 7,654
Quincy/Wells 7,332
Washington/Wells 6,683
Madison/Wabash 5,722
Library 4,280
LaSalle/Van Buren 3,253

Loop Totals
East Loop 22,243
North Loop 28,528
South Loop 7,533
West Loop 14,015

I am thinking now I see why CTA hasn't pushed the east side loop consolidation. An argument could be we need to eliminate the southside loop (they can take the Blue or Red lines) if we are going to be going by volume.

If we are that worried about slowness let's get rid of the Pink and Purple lines. Have people from Evanston transefer at Belmont. Have Pink Line people transfer out west.

http://www.yourcta.com/downloads/rid...rts/200805.pdf

WEEKDAY ENTRANCE COUNTS May 2008

Has the CTA and Metra ridership gone up due to high fuel prices? I heard on WABC radio last month that NYC's ridership has increased because of it. Just wondering

If the CTA is ever going to serve as more than a commuter transit system, we need more stations, not less. I'll gladly add a few minutes to a trip for the satisfaction of knowing that 40 lazy people were taking the train because the stop was right next to their destination.

Speaking of making the CTA less of a commuter system: what are the most high-traffic routes that are poorly served by transit? I'm wondering about both routes to downtown and routes between neighborhoods. This could simply mean routes that aren't served by the el (e.g., Beverly to the Red Line), or routes that are served by the el but only in a circuitous way (e.g., Logan Square to Lincoln Park), or routes that have bus service, but the service is slow or inadequate (UIC to U of C, maybe). Of course I realize that you can't identify logical system extensions just by considering the demand for the service without taking cost and logistics into consideration, I'm just curious where the biggest current shortfalls are.

Over 7000 lazy people daily....lol.

This is a tricky chicken-and-egg question, because housing/employment location choices are partially based on transportation services, which in turn are based on housing/employment location.

Journey-to-work data from the Census might give some insight into this, by looking at origin-destination pairs that have both very high travel volume and very low transit mode share. My intuition tells me that most of these are in the suburbs. It's also a question of scale/magnitude: for example, are you asking which routes currently served by bus might be better served by rail? Or, which routes currently lack adequate transit service in terms of capacity, speed, and convenience, relative to demand for that route?

And in the mean time lose 4000 in-a-hurry-to-get-somewhere people to the car because it takes an hour to travel 7 miles on the "rapid transit".

Ironic how that may actually contribute even more to it being a commuter system, since rush hour is already the only possible time when the CTA can compete with the car in terms of time.

If/when slow zones are repaired, this is really only true on the lines in expressway medians. Try driving down State Street, Milwaukee, Sheffield... there's no way you'll beat the train. I'm not sure if you're a rush hour commuter, but things are moving pretty fast lately, with the exception of the Red Line between Clark/Division and North/Clybourn where the track ties are still being replaced.

As an anecdote backing up Marcu's point, my wife and I do exactly this when we go downtown from Oak Park. So, July 3rd, I took the train to Streeterville to meet my wife so we could proceed to some festivities whereas this weekend, we opted to drive to meet friends in Streeterville to watch the Dark Knight. It saved us time this Saturday. It would have been suicide to drive on July 3rd.

That is currently my biggest problem with the transit system, time. The speed and frequency of trains both need to be increased. Of course we could use some more lines too.

.oh good !! ....that was my question ! .....so the CTA has finally eliminated all the slow zones (except clark to north?) on all the lines ??! ..or am I being too optimistic?!

I'm not sure I understand. Both the Green and Blue Lines (especially Green) are actually really fast between downtown and Oak Park, some of the most problem-free track in the city. The Green Line takes 20-25 minutes!

yes. Both have increased. Metra 5% and CTA up 4%. Pace is up but I'm not sure by how much.

Walking, biking and crawling trips have also increased.

..

Well assuming of course they take LSD or at the very least Western or Ashland. Edgewater to the Loop area is still 20-30 min by car via Ashland on a Saturday. They don't have to drive parallel to the el.

Some improvement have indeed been made and the CTA should be commended for it, but Uptown, Edgewater, Rogers Park to the Loop is 40-60 minutes during rush. The threshold question is what does one do if they oversleep for work? Even during rush hour, the answer is for most people to take a cab or drive since that's still going to be faster than the train. Until the answer is a toss up, we really should not focus on adding even more stops to the el to appeal to a few potentially underserved people.

I think a comparison should be made when CTA completes the Fullerton and Belmont trackage and the tie work in the subway. During the brief time earlier this year when there was no construction or slow zones in the subway until after Lake and all 4 tracks were open at Fullerton the Red Line would routinely make the trip from Belmont to Lake in about 10 minutes.

The southbound Red Line tracks will be mostly clear of slow zones except for some around Granville/Thorndale and Sheridan (where trains must slow anyway to negotiate the curves) all the way to Roosevelt once construction is done.

Doesn't focusing only on time ignore a large chunk of the equation? I don't take mass transit downtown to save raw time but to not have to find and pay for parking in the city, pay for gas, and just not drive in the loop.
I'll gladly take an extra 15 minutes on the train to hit the ground running at the station and not have to worry about the car.

Going into the city, particularly during the day, you're right, it's not so bad, especially if our destination is on State St. like the Chicago Theatre for instance. Really, it's coming home in the evening that's annoying. Sometime we wait 20-30 minutes for a Greenline train while watching half a dozen brownline trains pass by. Add in the fact we likely took a Redline train to State and Lake, then that can add up to more than an hour and change to get home. But, that just reiterates the point I was trying to make, during peak driving hours, the train is the way to go, during off hours, driving is the quickest and easiest way. When Columbus is open though, we can get back to Oak Park in about 20 minutes.

I also want security cameras on all trains now. My wife has witnessed her share of purse nappings on the Greenline.