Well, "rapid transit" may not be the best word for it
Chicago Times columnist Jon Hilkevitch floats the idea that the CTA should go back to skip-stop service on the El's Red Line to speed up service during renovations:
Trains are required to travel as slow as 15 m.p.h. on almost half of the north branch of the Red Line.
The CTA is in the final phase of a $283 million renovation of the Dan Ryan Red Line branch that is expected to result in faster and more reliable service.
A reasonably healthy person can get to downtown Chicago from the North Side more quickly riding a bicycle than taking the Red Line, which often takes more than an hour.
Ask yourself this: if you had the choice during a -5 degree morning, would you rather spend more time on an exposed elevated platform watching trains pass by, or do you want to be in a heated train, even if it does crawl down the tracks?
Post Author:
rj3 | 10:54 PM |
Link
|
TrackBacks
The latter.
I loved Hilkie's comment that "even if some of the smaller Red Line stations lost frequency of service due to the skip-stop pattern, comfort and safety would be enhanced because rail platforms would be less crowded." Enhanced for whom? Not the hypothetical riders at, say, Jarvis who'll have to wait 15 minutes for a train instead of 7.
And less crowded platforms how? People are still waiting on the same platforms for trains that would come half as frequently. Sounds to me like platforms would be more crowded.
Moreover, skip-stop service won't erase the delays that will be generated at Belmont and Fullerton when those stations squeeze down to two tracks instead of four during the reconstruction work. So your north side wait would be doubled by skip-stop service, and then to add insult to injury, your finally arriving train would still be delayed squeezing through the construction zone.
The Trib should tell Hilkevitch to leave the service planning to the service planners. In this instance, his generally good sense has truly left the station.
