[PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?

Mon Aug 4 20:53:55 EDT 2008

The Metra stations have a lot of parking - generally.  When we would visit mother-in-law in Indiana, I'd drive over to the ICG, park the car, and get a weekend pass.  But in 2008, would not be surprised if parking has become impossible at many stations.  

I'm more familiar with Chicago, having spent two summers driving buses for the CTA many years ago.  Most places in the city are within a half mile of a transit line.  There is heavy transfering between bus/rapid and bus/bus.  Even at night, the policy headway was every 30 minutes.  Archer was 20 minutes.  The rapid was 30 min. or less.

So how did I get to/from work in Chicago?  I didn't have a car.  Would take the north-south el to Foster St. and ride the 92 bus to North Park garage.  Not a problem.  Never had to wait more then about 15 minutes, and usually only about five min.  And this included runs that might start around 5-6 in the morning.

And if I had to make a street relief, just hop aboard a 92 bus back to Kedzie, Western, Broadway, Clark or Sheridan Rd.  

I remember Broadway and Clark during the rush hour.  The 22 Clark would depart Howard St. on a three minute headway, and we would get a leader at Devon.  That's a 90 second headway and we were probably within a mile of north-south el.  Almost all the housing was apartments.  Today that is called transit oriented development.

To get back to Pittsburgh, there is a vague recollection of PRC/PAT motormen deadheading inbound from Tunnel to make a street relief on Third/Fourth after Glenwood was closed and 55/58 moved to Tunnel.

Today people seem to insist that it is their right to drive a car - the bigger the better - anywhere they want.  There are far too many instances where I do not have any sympathy with complaints about gas prices.  

John, long term transit user, and also amazed that I still remember some CTA route numbers

> From: macmarka at netzero.net> Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 23:50:02 +0000> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?> > Speaking of Chicago, John, I just got back yesterday. My thoughts are if I lived there and worked in the city, no way would I drive. The traffic is absolutely horrendous. We drove into the city on a Sunday to walk around a bit. The traffic was not bad, but the parking charges were out of this world. We parked in a garage and 4 hours later the charge was $27. So on a weekday, if I were to drive and brave the traffic, probably leaving the house an hour or so before a normal day(is there such a thing in Chicago?), I would then be faced with a parking bill off the charts. Yes, people probably pay their parking monthly, but it still has to be rediculous. And with gas prices the way they are, I'd be very much inclined to take the Metra or CTA. I didn't pay much attention, but I'm sure they have "Park and Ride" lots all over the place. The question is how much do they charge to park? If you have a Metra line near your home in Chicago, consider yourself lucky. That way you can walk!> to the line and take the train into town watching all the stagnant, bumper-to-bumper traffic on your way. > I didn't ride CTA or the Metra, but I did get to finally ride on the South Shore line. My sis and I had to drop my other sis off at Midway airport, so after we did that we drove near the University Of Chicago, found free parking, and hopped on the SS line at 57th St. Station. Never rode it all the way to the end of the line, but I'm regretting that decision as I'm told the interurban train really opens up after Michigan City and we got off at Beverly Shores. But the beach was really nice there. I was very impressed with the smooth ride and the condition of the track and overhead. My ramble is over. Carry on.> > Mark> > -- John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:> > Steering column guide lines??? Been around for decades. We had them in Chicago to help the drivers get a 40 ft. bus under the el structures, such as the Lincoln-Wells route. Suspect they were also at right hand turns to help driver avoid ramming the rear tires into the curb. > > J> > > > From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?> Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 18:47:23 -0400> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > Wouldn't that make a wonderful college prank to go out in the middle > of the night and repaint the line on the street?> > On Aug 4, 2008, at 5:45 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:> > > I liked the "railfan" remark I received from a friend a few weeks ago> > concerning the French Civis trolley buses. It reflected a comment I > > made> > over a year ago:> >> > "Milwaukee wishes to reintroduce trackless trolleys. However, these > > will be> > steered by "reading" a painted line upon the street surface.> >> > "The Marmon-Herringtons and Pullman-Standards tossed upon the scrap > > heap in> > 1965 seemed to get along very well with their 'primitive' steering > > wheels."> >> > K.> >> > ----- Original Message -----> > From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>> > To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>> > Sent: Monday, Augus!> t 04, 2008 2:14 PM> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]End of a Street car line?> >> >> Machinery evolves over time, doesn't it. (Retorical.) We have gone> >> from breaker point ignition systems to solid station ignition in cars> >> and from carburetors to fuel injection but they are still gasoline> >> burning behemoths. Our trolley cars have gone from field weakening> >> control to series-parallel control to series-parallel with field> >> weakening for higher speeds to thrystor control to AC propulsion> >> schemes but they are still trolley cars on steel wheels on steel> >> rails.> >> >> > > _________________________________________________________________> Your PC, mobile phone, and online services work together like never before.> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/108587394/direct/01/> > ____________________________________________________________> Protecting your belongings! Affordable Renters Insurance. Click here.> http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/fc/Ioyw6i4tEwUTDiWfqiVme1HXRHxRjjXotydlSyeLSddScfYG4abBfy/> > 
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