CTA plans to ‘de-crowd’ routes
Tumbling into a fellow commuter’s arms or accidentally stomping another CTA train rider’s foot could become a bit less frequent by the end of the year.
The CTA says it’s proposing to run one to three more trains during the morning and evening rushhour commutes in a “de-crowding” plan that also includes cutting 12 bus routes with low ridership to add service to high-demand bus and train routes across the city.
The trains CTA riders pile into during rush hour rides sometimes wind up jammed with more than 90 people. The new goal is to lower that number between 70 and 75.
The plan must be approved by the CTA board after a public hearing on Sept. 4. If passed, the changes would begin as soon as Dec. 16.
The CTA plans to eliminate sparsely used routes that overlap with other CTA routes or Pace bus routes with the cuts to save the agency $16 million.
“The CTA’s goal is to provide a comfortable and efficient experience for customers, as well as accommodate growing ridership, which has risen for 16 consecutive months, adding 22 million new riders since June of 2011,” CTA President Forrest Claypool said in a statement. The CTA has experienced a 4 percent increase in bus ridership so far for the first six months of the year and a 6 percent boost in train ridership, a spokesman said.
The proposed plan would add service to 48 routes, described as the busiest and most crowded bus routes in the city.
In most of the 12 routes that would be discontinued, there is duplicate CTA bus or rail service or overlapping service by Pace.
The routes that would be eliminated under the plan also include: † X28 Stony Island Express † 64 Foster-Canfield † 69 Cumberland/East River † 122 Illinois Center/Oglivie Express
† 123 Illinois Center/Union Express † 129 West Loop/South Loop † 144 Marine/Michigan Express † 145 Wilson/Michigan Express For train riders, 17 rail trips will be added to six lines, mostly on the Blue, Red and Brown lines, the CTA’s busiest train routes. That accounts for an additional 10,000 rides on a weekday, officials said.
During weekday off-peak times, Red, Brown and Orange lines will increase by as much as 2½ minutes between trains. On weekends, service will be increased on the Red, Brown and Blue Lines. neared the end of a cross country bicycle trek only to learn that her family home in Blue Island had been gutted by fire.
Fernandez, on a fund-raising and memorial trip, was riding through Little Orleans, Md., on the Allegheny Trail, just 200 miles from the end of a planned 3,900-mile journey, when the call came Aug. 8.
“Your house is in flames,” the caller said.
“I didn’t know what to do,” said Fernandez, 20. “I wanted to go home but I felt I should stay.”
She and three friends, all graduates of Eisenhower High School, left San Francisco on June 1 on a 21⁄2-month odyssey that had them pushing it up mountains, sweating across deserts and eating ramen noodles around campfires. At one point, Fernandez suffered heatstroke.
David Henry, 19, organized the ride in memory of his mother and to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Antonia “Mom- ma” Henry died in November after a yearlong battle with lymphoma.
David decided a months-long trek from coast to coast would be a touching way to memorialize his mom while helping an organization that had been a big help to his family during her illness. The riders raised more than $10,000 for the cause.
Along the way, the group, which included Johnathon Henry, 21, and Carlos Salgado, 21, learned a lot about America and each other.
Just days before they were to reach their stopping point, Fernandez learned of the tragedy back home.
After long hours of waiting and a flurry of phone calls, Fernandez learned her family was OK and staying in a nearby motel.
Nevertheless, she made the decision to leave the group and head for home.
She rode the next day and a half alone, darting a hailstorm and spending the night at the home of a kind woman she’d met in a restaurant. Guadelupe Fernandez
She woke up the next morning at 4 o’clock and rode all the way to the campus of Georgetown University, where she is a student. From his apartment at Yale University, her older brother, Salvador, mapped her route and arranged her flight to Chicago.
Meanwhile, the guys pedaled on, reaching the final destination of York, Va., on Aug. 12.
Officials believe the fire, which broke out around lunchtime the previous Wednesday, was caused by faulty wiring in an air conditioning unit. No one was home at the time, but many of the family’s belongings were destroyed.
Though she regrets not being able to finish Momma Henry’s Trek Across America, she said making it all the way to Washington, D.C., will have to be good enough.