Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Are you planning your alternatives to the Red Line starting May 19th?

If you check out the Red Line South project website, you will see that there will be "ambassadors" who will be at the affected locations through May 16th. You may want to talk to them about all the details regarding the alternatives as the Dan Ryan line is shut down for five months. As a matter of fact on May 1, you may have had the chance to talk to an ambassador at 95th Street who just so happens to be Forrest Claypool President of the CTA which is what you see in the photo below.
Courtesy of @RedLineSouth
Anyway, in spite of that brief intro, we're here to discuss this recent article from the Sun-Times about how Red Line riders are planning to cope with this project. Some apparently are still unaware of the alternatives, discounts, and service levels that will be provided by CTA during the next 5 months. Also add to that the shuttles that will be used in lieu of the trains are free!
Four shuttles will provide free, nonstop service to the Garfield station — from the Red Line’s closed 95th, 87th, 79th and 69th street stations. They’ll start at 4 a.m. and end at 1 a.m.

One shuttle will provide a free bus service making five stops only — at the 95th, 87th, 79th, 69th and 63rd street stations. It also will run 4 a.m. - 1 a.m.

An Owl Shuttle between the hours of 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. will provide a free bus service with six stops — at the Red Line’s 95th, 87th, 79th, 69th and 63rd street stations, with the sixth stop at the Garfield Green Line station.

A final shuttle will provide free, nonstop bus service between the Red Line’s Roosevelt Road and Cermak-Chinatown stations. It will run 24 hours.

Riders boarding south of 63rd will get a 50-cent discount on 17 bus routes. Those include the #3 King Drive; #4 Cottage Grove; #6 Jackson Park Express; #8 Halsted; #9 Ashland; #14 Jeffery Jump; #15 Jeffery Local; #24 Wentworth; #26 South Shore Express; #28 Stony Island; #29 State; #44 Wallace/Racine; #48 South Damen; #49 Western; #94 South California; #52A South Kedzie; and the #53A South Pulaski.

And on 19 South Side bus routes, riders will get the 50-cent discount no matter where they board. These include the #5 South Shore Night Bus; #30 South Chicago; #34 South Michigan; #67 67th/69th/71st; #71 71st/South Shore; #75 74th/75th; #79 79th; #87 87th Street; #100 Jeffery Manor Express; #103 West 103rd; #106 East 103rd; #108 Halsted/95th; #111 111th/King Drive; #112 Vincennes/111th; #115 Pullman/115th; #119 Michigan/119th; #8A South Halsted; #95E 93rd/95th; and the #95W West 95th.

There’s a caveat, however. The 50-cent discount only applies to full-fare customers using cash, Transit Cards or Chicago Cards. It won’t work with any discounted fare or multiple-day passes.
Also if you're electing to use Metra trains for your commute:
CTA and Metra are offering a special combination package during the upcoming Red Line reconstruction, but riders will have to weigh dollars and cents — as well as pros and cons — before deciding which commute is best.

For displaced riders at the southernmost end of the Red Line, the package features a 10-ride ticket on the Metra Electric or Rock Island line combined with a five-day CTA pass. The bundle was created just for the five-month Red Line shutdown that starts May 19.

Is it a deal?

It’s complicated.

Metra officials concede that the price of the special 10-ride ticket in Zones B, C and D is unchanged, ranging from $30 to $74, depending on a station’s distance from downtown. What’s new is that CTA riders can buy that Metra ticket at certain CTA retail outlets, such as Walgreens and Jewel, where they usually buy their CTA fares.

The Metra portion of the package is “simply a convenience’’ to make it easier for Red Line riders to purchase if they have to take Metra trains, Metra officials say.

Once they board, former CTA riders might like Metra’s more heavily upholstered seats and the one or two “quiet cars’’ per train for “people who want peace and quiet,’’ Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said.
Hopefully this will help out finanically and timewise when we consider how we're going to get back and forth between home and work.

No comments:

Post a Comment

PLEASE READ FIRST!!!! Comment Moderating and Anonymous Comment Policy

While anonymous comments are not prohibited we do encourage you to help readers identify you so that other commenters may respond to you. Either read the moderating policy for how or leave an identifier (which could be a nickname for example) at the end of the comment.

Also note that this blog is NOT associated with any public or political officials including Alderman Roderick T. Sawyer!