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CTA to discontinue late Purple Line express trains
The value of the PLX is directly dependent on sufficiently high track speed and low transit time. PLX ridership is down at all schedules for this reason. The later schedule pilot therefore only makes sense after the track work is completed.
I’m not sure I understand the “round-trip” statistics being presented here. I thought that the whole purpose was to get to or from one location to another faster.
Maybe they could try Blue line express trains to and from Ohare next.
The previous Trains news item on this CTA Purple Line express train pilot indicated the (later) evening train departed Linden at 8:00PM and returned from the Loop at approximately 9:00PM (9:00pm departure in downtown at Madison & Wells?). How did the CTA determine this would be the optimal time for serving unmet ridership demand for the Purple Line Express service? (Riders survey, ridership trend analysis, other forecasting methods?).
Perhaps it might have been more of a successful pilot in terms of ridership if they had added one (or two) additional services after the last train (out of Linden Avenue) at 6:30PM?
Yes the “passengers per train - roundtrip” figure cited here is somewhat confusing. It sounds like this is the average ridership figure for the train on its roundtrip operation at any given time, rather than the “roundtrip” ridership from point-to-point (e.g. from the Linden terminal to the downtown Loop and/or back)? Can anyone clarify what this ridership figure really means?