The bus is way fast and more reliable than light rail which is just sad Rtd joke is reason to drive

@@jasongreif7867 The current system is a sad state of affairs to be sure

@@cyynthia1676 Hammond Gateway Station, 4530 Sheffield Ave, Hammond, IN 46327

@@Kameezy Automating Line 1 in Paris cost €600 million, of which about 400 mil was the cost of new trains, which Chicago will need anyway. ~$200 million for an automation project is a bargain, and it has SO many benefits. Heating, cooling, noise reduction, safety, higher-speed and more-reliable trips, and reduced operating costs, which lead to higher frequencies and long-term efficiency within the agency. Automation is a no-brainer in 2024, especially for an agency struggling to find enough drivers to operate basic service.

@@thehouseoftransit2719 Thank you for the more in depth explanation!

@@ThornappleRiverRailSeries always good to hear!

@@MrCateagle when did that close?

@thehouseoftransit2719 I'm not totally certain. I know it was.open onto the Sixties but don't know beyond as ww moved out of the area.

The old station closed around 1997 or so when the next station was built. It's crazy that one barely lasted 25 years!

Exactly, denser urban areas should have more service due to them being denser than the suburbs.

@ There are however cases where expresses can skip some dense stations. That's however talking about service levels like Tokyos suburban lines not north american ones. Even local only stops on suburban lines in central Tokyo frequently see 12+ trains per hour per direction even outside of peak hour.

@@KeyserTheRedBeard happy to hear you enjoyed the video! Admittedly I’m not super familiar with the area, but given the spotty bus service in Northern Indiana as a whole I would imagine this will make commutes into central Chicago viable for many more people living near the line and beyond!

@@dylanwinn3 From what I can tell there actually isn’t signal priority, which is unusual because plenty of other Metro routes *do* have it in some form

You bring up a valid point. I think with much better mainline rail service on the Providence/Stoughton/Franklin Lines Hyde Park can probably do just fine without an Orange Line extension.

@@Max-ns8lc under construction as we speak!

@@XOXFilmStudio agreed, hopefully this new train service will help stimulate more appealing development

Drove through Decatur Illinois and that blows nwi out of the water when it comes to being depressing. Might’ve been the most depressing town ive ever seen

@justinanderson181 most areas of Illinois are just as depressing as NW Indiana. The area up by Galena is quite nice tho

@@justinanderson181 Central & Southern Illinois are the worst.

@@Daniel-hj8el Evan is from the DMV so that can probably be arranged

@@jon9103 yeah but their definition kinda sucks

@@sjd3l4l59 Red Line schedule has the room *today*, but running trains more frequently is definitely a bigger priority than making the Purple Line a full express. Truly express trips from Evanston can be made on Metra. There’s a lot you could do to adjust service on the loop, but I’d generally say keep it at what it’s best at: being a loop. Brownage means trains serve certain stations exclusively northbound and others exclusively southbound, which is inconvenient and confusing for riders

@@thehouseoftransit2719 Ah, sorry, I didn't specify I'm imagining an all-day Purple, which would precisely be about adding off-peak frequency/capacity to the Red corridor with available equipment, with two bonuses: (1) express service, (2) giving the mainline and Metra a direct connection. Have you ridden on the Brownge before? In my experience, people handled it decently well despite the fact that no one even knew that was a thing and it was unmapped and unmarked. But completely agree it's not an ideal solution, I really only mention it because the CTA has been doing this so long it's the minimum-change option. My concern with turning the Pink back to a Blue branch is that you'd be left with 10-minute peak headways for Ashland/Morgan/Clinton which are fairly important stops. In the Purple Express option, the stops losing service would be retaining 5-minute peak headways.

@@sjd3l4l59 aye but removing Pink from the loop enables you to run the Green more frequently to make up for that lost service

@@thehouseoftransit2719Apologies for going on, but I know I was really surprised when I dug into it: the headline ridership numbers don't tell the real story. You need to split the two Green branches to properly compare to Pink, Orange, etc, and then the totals give Ashland/Morgan/Clinton entirely to the Green Line (those 3 stops alone are 8k daily). Lake St L west of Ashland (10k daily for 11 stops) is comparably weak to the Pink (12k daily for 11 stops). South L's ridership is just 6.5k daily over 11 stops. At the very least the CTA ought to keep the 10-minute headways all-day for the Green, and they should run clockface on the South L branches (each branch gets 24-minute headways mid-day, pretty much unusable without clockface), but AFAICT the Green has a weak case for peak frequency additions. Edit: forgot to include the branch stops in South L.

@@airik-vlogs excited for the upcoming Link extension??

@@maxwellsmith9988 agreed, BRT is best as an upgraded bus and not a rail substitute!

@@BobaBuwan surely explains why he helped create such an incredible city

@@tedbellWRV fully agree about the importance of ADA, but with low floor buses that board at level platforms I’m unclear on what your concern is? Also, I would think these internal bike racks would make it easier to load a large e-bike?

@@thehouseoftransit2719 First of all, I very much appreciate your video. And yes, depending on the particular configuration, the low floor buses can help to get INTO the bus. However, once in the bus, the seating too often requires climbing up and down steps or steep ramps. The articulated flooring is not much better. All this presents a challenge for the millions of us with bad knees, etc. that are unsteady standing or going up and down levels. (Even though people like me are certified as disabled, we are not in wheelchairs.) Part of the issue, is that often the "main" level area of a low floor bus (or on a street car or light rail, for that matter) is set up for standing or in the case of your video, bicycles (or wheelchairs). I'm very pro bike on bus, as I was using KC Metro buses to commute into Pioneer Square going back 30 years. That said the bike storage you showed is for a lightweight, non-e-bike. Personally, I can lift my e-bike up - but many e-bikers are age 50 to 75 year old and especially smaller riders cannot lift an e-bike that weighs 75 to 80 lbs. Also, the U-shaped "hook" used to secure the top of the front wheel will conflict with the front fender, front rack and light often found on commuting bikes. The BRTs are alienating a rider group the transit agencies don't seem to recognize exists. There are millions of age 50 to 75 year olds forging a second car and are riding e-bikes to get around. This group would love to use transit to go Downtown and avoid parking, etc. Even without a bike, the "lame knee" crowd would love to ride transit to go to doctor appointments, entertainment, events, etc. My dream is the transit people that are seemingly hell-bent on BRT, figure out the challenges they are ignoring and find solutions.

@@ninaschenk4039 yeahhh pretty big oversight

@@vette1 Canadian suburbs are built different I’m genuinely lost on how they perform so well

Vancouver's rapidbus network is an express overlay to the existing frequent local bus corridors (4 trips an hour minimum), which is very different based on what I experienced taking the A-line for a few stops. As a result, ridership blows RapidRide out of the water.