Tag Archives: bus

New bus routes coming to the south side over the Labor Day weekend

By Jen DeSalvo, WLS-AM 890 Transportation

(CHICAGO) Access to neighborhoods on the south side will become more convenient this weekend as CTA service expands along six bus routes.

According to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the increase in bus service will mean greater access to jobs, education and opportunities for residents of the south side.

The following improvements will go into effect Sunday, September 4:
· New route: The #95 95th combines the former #95E 93rd/95th and #95W West 95th routes for a continuous, one-seat ride between 92nd/Buffalo on the east to 87th/Damen on the west. More frequent service will be provided west of 95th/State on weekdays and weekends
· #4 Cottage Grove: Some trips will be extended south of 95th to 115th Street/Cottage Grove to provide connections across 95th Street for customers along Cottage Grove
· #71 71st/South Shore: Route will offer more frequent bus service south of 73rd/South Shore to 112th/Torrence weekdays and weekends

The following improvements will go into effect Tuesday, September 6:
· #34 South Michigan: More frequent weekday midday and evening service
· #119 Michigan/119th: More frequent weekday midday and evening service
· #26 South Shore Express: Route will be extended to 103rd/Stony Island

 

CTA to provide extra service for weekend events across Chicago

(CHICAGO) The CTA will be providing additional services to accommodate customers going to Riot Fest, the Zac Brown Band concert and the Chicago Bears game this weekend.

Riot Fest at Douglas Park runs Friday through Sunday and is located off the California Pink Line station, about two blocks from the festival’s east entrance.

Longer Pink Line trains will operate during the evenings and begin to run more frequently around 6:30 p.m. until 11 p.m.

Extra bus services will also be available for routes Nos. 18, 16th/18th, 52, Kedzie/California, and No. 49, Western routes beginning about 5 p.m. and concluding around one hour after each night’s festival ends.

Zac Brown Band concert-goers will be provided with additional bus services for routes No. 80, Irving Park and No. 152 Friday night.

The routes will be running from about 5:30 p.m. until one hour after the concert ends at Wrigley Field.

The CTA will operate bus route No. 128 Solider Field Express between Union Station, Ogilvie and Solider Field, for the Chicago Bears 2015 season opener versus the Green Bay Packers Sunday at noon.

Also available Sunday will be an additional bus route, No. 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express.

Additional service will begin around 9 a.m. and continue until one hour after the game concludes.

The CTA urges customers going to and from events this weekend to purchase tickets ahead of time to avoid long lines at rail line and CTA vending machines.

UPDATE: Cops say bus driver ran red light in deadly CTA bus crash

(CHICAGO) A woman was killed Tuesday when a CTA bus ran a red light and drove onto a crowded sidewalk near Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in the evening rush hour, leaving the bus driver and seven others injured, officials said.

About 5:50 p.m., the No. 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus was heading eastbound on Lake Street when it crashed at Michigan Avenue, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.

The bus was initially stopped at a red light, but then proceeded through the light, striking two pedestrians and at least three other vehicles before jumping the curb, Chicago Police said. The accordion-style bus came to rest on the sidewalk on the north side of Lake Street, east of Michigan.

Nine people, including the 48-year-old man driving the bus and two pedestrians, were injured in the crash. No one except for the driver was on the CTA bus at the time, authorities said.

One pedestrian, 51-year-old Aimee Coath, of the 2600 block of Central Drive in Flossmoor, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Everyone else injured in the crash suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The driver was issued citations for failure to stop at a red light and failure to exercise due care, police said. He has been with the CTA for less than a year, Steele said, adding that it was not known how long he had been driving the No. 148 route.

Evanston resident Julie Larkin works in the Michigan Plaza building near the site of the crash, and said she was in a first-floor CVS when she heard a scream and then “a horrible thuddy crash.”

She ran outside to see the bus driver with his eyes closed, apparently unconscious. Several good Samaritans got on the bus to check on him while she called 911.

“I’ll never forget that scream,” Larkin said.

Investigators are analyzing video footage from a camera on board that shows the interior of the bus, Steele said.

The police Major Accident Investigation Unit is also looking into the crash.

Parts of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street were closed to traffic for several hours Tuesday evening as emergency crews responded.

The CTA rerouted several buses around the crash scene Tuesday night, but normal service has resumed as of about 9:15 p.m.

UPDATE: 1 dead, 8 hurt in CTA bus crash near Michigan Avenue downtown

(CHICAGO) A woman was killed Tuesday when a CTA bus ran a red light and drove onto a crowded sidewalk near Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in the evening rush hour, leaving the bus driver and seven others injured, officials said.

About 5:50 p.m., the No. 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus was heading eastbound on Lake Street when it crashed at Michigan Avenue, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.

The bus was initially stopped at a red light, but then proceeded through the light, striking two pedestrians and at least three other vehicles before jumping the curb, Chicago Police said. The accordion-style bus bus came to rest on the sidewalk on the north side of Lake Street, east of Michigan.

Nine people, including the 48-year-old man driving the bus and two pedestrians, were injured in the crash. No one except for the driver was on the CTA bus at the time, authorities said.

One pedestrian, a 51-year-old woman, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she later died, police said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the fatality, but did not immediately release additional details.

Everyone else injured in the crash suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The driver was issued citations for failure to stop at a red light and failure to exercise due care, police said.

Evanston resident Julie Larkin works in the Michigan Plaza building near the site of the crash, and said she was in a first-floor CVS when she heard a scream and then “a horrible thuddy crash.”

She ran outside to see the bus driver with his eyes closed, apparently unconscious. Several good Samaritans got on the bus to check on him while she called 911.

“I’ll never forget that scream,” Larkin said.

Investigators are analyzing video footage from a camera on board that shows the interior of the bus, Steele said.

The police Major Accident Investigation Unit is also looking into the crash.

Parts of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street were closed to traffic for several hours Tuesday evening as emergency crews responded.

The CTA rerouted several buses around the crash scene Tuesday night, but normal service has resumed as of about 9:15 p.m.

Police: Man fatally struck by CTA bus in Canaryville

A man was struck and killed by a CTA bus in the Canaryville neighborhood on the South Side Monday night, police said.

About 9:06 p.m., the 62-year-old was in the 4300 block of South Halsted when he “possibly tripped off the sidewalk” and was hit by a CTA bus traveling north, said police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines.

The man was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Gaines added. The Cook County medical examiner’s office could not confirm the death Monday night.

The police Major Accidents Investigations Unit is handling the case, Gaines said.

CTA unveils new bus-tracking system to fix ‘bunching,’ gaps

(CHICAGO) The Chicago Transportation Authority on Monday unveiled its new $8.8 million computerized Bus Transit Management System designed to solve the biggest challenges to its bus service: “bunching” and long waits.

The modern system will provide real-time monitoring of all of the CTA’s 1,800 buses, with two-way communications between their drivers and the agency’s main control center, allowing buses to more quickly adapt to changing traffic conditions, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

More than 818,000 riders depend on CTA buses on any given weekday, and most of their 19,000 bus trips go smoothly, but the buses are vulnerable to any manner of incidents that can occur on the city’s busy streets, outgoing CTA President Forrest Claypool said.

“Delays sometimes occur. The culprits include everything from stalled cars and construction work to regular rush-hour congestion, and even police and fire department activity,” said Claypool, who’s heading to City Hall to serve as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s next chief of staff.

“By communicating street conditions to our drivers and taking into account the location of other buses and traffic flows, we can coordinate service centrally in a way we could not do before,” he said. “The result will not be an end to all bus bunching or gapping, but it will produce significant improvements.”

Bunching occurs when more than one bus arrives at the same stop at nearly the exact same time. Gaps — elongated wait times between buses — occur as a result.

With the new system, if the control center detects a source of service delay, it can inform of bus drivers to slow down, skip stops or reroute if necessary, almost instantaneously, to keep the buses running on time.

Currently, when problems develop on bus routes, the agency dispatches its 100 bus service managers by car to communicate with the drivers. The new system has shown success on nine busy South Side bus routes out of the 77th Street and 103rd Street garages — reducing bunching and gapping by 40 percent, according to officials.

About 80 percent of the buses have been equipped with the federally funded monitoring system, and the remaining 20 percent should be equipped by mid-June, officials said.

A February 2015 report on a survey of CTA customer satisfaction by RSG Inc. identified the top three drivers of customer satisfaction: getting to a destination on time; service when a customer needs it; and bus stop or rail station appearance.

“This system is just the latest example of how the CTA has used technology to provide a better customer experience,” Claypool said, pointing to the expansion over the past four years of its bus and train tracker services carrying up-to-the-minute arrival time information to riders, and expansion of its security camera network.

— Chicago Sun-Times

CTA increasing train service for NFL Draft, Polish parade downtown

(CHICAGO) The CTA is increasing train service through Saturday for NFL Draft 2015 festivities and the Polish Constitution Day Parade downtown.

More than 100,000 fans are expected to head downtown starting Thursday for the three-day event at the Auditorium Theatre and at the free, interactive Draft Town event in Grant Park, according to the Sun-Times.

The 124th Polish Constitution Day Parade will also draw large crowds Saturday along its route on Dearborn from Lake to Van Buren, according to the organizer’s website. The parade steps off at 11:30 a.m.

Because of these two events, the CTA will operate longer trains on the Blue, Brown, Green and Orange Line trains from 4 p.m. to midnight both Thursday and Friday, the transit agency said in a release. Longer trains will run all day Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Riders should keep in mind that Brown Line trains will be rerouted to the Red Line subway all weekend starting at 8 p.m. Friday because of an ongoing construction project, the CTA said.

Brown Line trains will operate normally between Kimball and Fullerton. Riders affected by the construction should allow extra time to get downtown, the CTA said.

Street closures for this weekend’s events will also affect CTA bus service on 21 different downtown routes.

NFL Draft activities will temporarily close Congress Plaza and relocate or detour buses along Michigan Avenue along Grant Park starting Thursday afternoon, the CTA said. Buses will also be rerouted from Dearborn and near the intersection of State and Wacker for the parade Saturday.

Passengers should check the CTA’s website for detailed travel information on each route. Affected routes include:

  • No. 1 Bronzeville/Union Station
  • No. 3 King Drive
  • No. 4 Cottage Grove
  • No. 6 Jackson Park Express
  • No. 7 Harrison
  • No. J14 Jeffery Jump
  • No. 20 Madison
  • No. 22 Clark
  • No. 24 Wentworth
  • No. 26 South Shore Express
  • No. 28 Stony Island
  • No. 36 Broaday
  • No. 56 Milwaukee
  • No. 60 Blue Island/26th
  • NO. 62 Archer
  • No. 124 Navy Pier
  • No. 126 Jackson
  • No. 132 Goose Island Express
  • No. 143 Stockton/Michigan Express
  • No. 147 Outer Drive Express
  • No. 151 Sheridan

At least 7 injured when CTA bus is rear-ended on West Side

(CHICAGO) At least seven people were hurt when a CTA bus was rear-ended by another vehicle Tuesday afternoon in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.

The northbound No. 52 Kedzie/California bus was stopped at Kedzie and Jackson a few minutes before 1 p.m. when it was rear-ended by another vehicle, according to CTA officials.

The bus driver and six passengers were taken to hospitals with minor injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening, according to the CTA.

The intersection was closed after the crash, but had reopened by 2 p.m.

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