CHICAGO: Transit Developments
 

Score. The south lakeshore is a long-neglected part of the metro area.

Only 15 more passengers??? Maybe they should just buy a couple more standard cars and increase the headway or attach them to the existing trains. I bet a double decker costs alot more than a single.

This is great news. More variety the better. It might never be like the days of interurban lines and coach lines crisscrossing the midwest again, not to mention the multitude of mainline passenger trains, but this is a start. Any ground transportation options, in addition to rail, that make it easier to travel without a car between cities I applaud. This express bus will be particularly useful for young students and travelers, like is so common in Europe.

This idea is pretty cool, and awesome that it's coming over from the UK to Chicago. I really hope it does well, and if it does they'll introduce double deckers which will be fun to look at.

Images from website
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/224...sengers5lf.jpg
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/461...usfront7jy.jpg http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/589...busback4lb.jpg
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/425...themove7hl.jpg

Excellent news for both the South Shore and MegaBus!

As for why the South Shore doesn't just add rail cars... On some of their Indiana stops, the trains are already too long. You'll sometimes hear an announcement saying you have to move to the front or back cars if you want to get off at a certain stop.

i was just checking out megabus' website, and it looks like if you book early enough, you can get a one-way ticket to milwaukee for a buck! that means a daytrip up to milwaukee will set you back 2 measely friggin dollars, how sweet is that? take that amtrak, and your obscene 40 dollar chicago-milwaukee roundtrip train ticket.

when this service starts up, we're gonna have to set-up a chicago invasion forum meet up in brew city. shit, for two bucks, i'm gonna be making daytrips up there once a month.

I love the idea of the Megabus but I was looking at their time tables and man they are slowwww. Not any slower then Greyhound I am sure but they sure as heck ain't doing 75mph with those times. They go right through and dont make stops right? I can't understand why it would take 3h45m to get to Indy. The 1h45m ride to Milwaukee seems pretty reasonable though.

one word: TRAFFIC

they've got to factor traffic into their scheduling. sure, if they made all their runs at 3 in the morning, it'd be no sweat to get to indy faster, but sometimes just getting out of chicagoland takes a shitload of time.

Dude this megabus thing is so fucking cool! I saw the ads on the blue line last night. I will surley be using this for weekend trips to other cities, St. Louis and Cleveland are both on my must see to do list. They just need to add a route up to Rockford for my moma visits and I'll be living on cloud 9. Living in Chicago without a car just got easier! :banana:

If theyre going after the college crowd, they should consider weekend/seasonal service to places like Champaign, Bloomington (IL and IN), Madison, Iowa, Ann Arbor as well.

^YES. That's a great idea (especially Champaign and Bloomington) which will definitely be used by college kids with luggage who can then board the CTA or Metra to get home once in Chicago.

That's true. Right now between ISU(Bloomington,IL), I think Peoria Charter Coach and a thing called Suburban Express cover most of the "college kids taking the bus home" scene. I don't think either of them go downtown though. I think they go to Scumburg and O'Hare and Midway Airports.

I'll bet the 133-passenger capacity of existing cars is based on the trailers with 3-2 seating and no restrooms. Those were a bad idea; you can board a train that is full of standees, and in those cars almost all the middle seats (about 26) will be unoccupied. Just look at one of those seats, and you'll get a look from the people on either side that lets you know you could die for just thinking about it. I suppose it's because the seats are narrow.

If the double-deckers provide better-quality seating they'd probably be utilized better, allowing more passengers to sit rather than stand. That would be a plus. The existing cars with 3-2 seating should be refitted with more comfortable 2-2 seating.

South Shore has added a lot of double track west of Dune Park. It might be a good idea to add some express service during peak hours; say, Randoph, Van Buren, Hammond, East Chicago, Dune Park, Michigan City, with alternate expresses stopping at Hegewisch instead of Hammond and Ogden Dunes instead of Dune Park.

I think they'd benefit, too, by installing 4-quadrant crossing gates along the long straightaway west of Michigan City and raising speeds. The cars are capable of 80 - 90 mph (I've seen 90 on the speed indicator in the cab), and much of the track is good for that kind of speed, but typical running speeds are in the 70 mph range. They need to provide better right-of-way protection between Bendix and the South Bend airport so they can make decent speeds between the airport station and the main line. Now, they crawl at car-traffic speeds or slower on that stretch.

And as part of the TRAFFIC, surely they are taking the Dan Ryan reconstruction for the next two years into account. That alone is probably adding 45 minutes to an hour to every trip southeast of Chicago.

I think its a cool and good Idea. id like to see the dubble deckers more around hear.

Chicago has partnered with a research firm to survey West Loop residents about the proposed Carrol Ave light rail line. They are sliding surveys under doors all over the West Loop...

Anyway... The survey includes a map with the proposed line.

I don't have a scanner, so I made a Google map of it:
http://www.brianbauer.org/maps/Proposal.html

The one you made is probably better than just a fixed map :)

Whoa. Now that would be something. Can you imagine all the tourists going from the West Loop transportation centers to Navy Pier/Michigan Ave?

The South Shore needs the development, not to mention a supertall. Does this Megabus really cost a dollar??? It sounds similar to the Chinatown bus in the NE.

Michigan Ave Line Really
 

From the looks of the skematic the old freight bridge by the Mart will be reused. I can't imagine how often that thing would have to raised and lowered in the summer (damn architecture tours ;) ).

But I'm guessing that bridge was fixed years ago, so a new one would be in order. Geez that just sounds like a billion dollars not to mention another loop flood.

But getting from the train stations to the Mag Mile via light rail would be much better than that silly trolley currently in use.