As a native New Yorker, I enjoy your history about the origin of the Chicago Transportation Authority rapid transit lines. It is thorough and comprehensive. I just subscribed to your channel. I am a subway buff.
I actually had the opportunity to tour the Lawrence to Bryn Mawr Modernization site about a year or so back. I got a couple shots then and use them frequently in my videos now, as that definitely afforded me the opportunity for some very unique clips.
I'm thinking the oldest steel on the network may be in a yard somewhere. Some place that has low speeds, so they can last a long time. love your videos!
I was hoping to find out why the line from Belmont to Howard is "inside out", with locals stopping at island platforms between the two center tracks. Whose bright idea was it, and what was the reason? Also, you said skip-stop service was discontinued because "it had outlived its usefulness". This implies that some external change in the environment triggered the change. What exactly happened to warrant this?
Those are both great questions! I'll do my best to answer both: 1) Your question about the local/express service is a very interesting one that just underscores how much interesting history there is to get into. The more I tried to type out an answer for this, the more I realized I should probably answer that with a video at some point in the future, instead of trying to fully explain it here. To give the short answer, it has to do with the line to the north of Wilson, being built at a different time from the line to the south, and then the two we're kind of streamlined together under the CTA, in the 40s. The part between Wilson and Belmont is kind of an outlier which has its own interesting history as to how it is the way it is now. 2) Yes, my comment about skip-stop service was a bit quick, as that's also a somewhat complicated thing to get into in an already relatively long video. The A/B skip-stop system was somewhat flawed to begin with. It was essentially the CTA's best effort to introduce some form of express service on lines with no infrastructure for it. For instance, some trains end up being faster than others and have no means to pass. Some things that did change over time were the wider spacing of stations, as well as the fact that service has become less frequent. With the population moving further out into suburban areas, higher prevalence of cars, and overall decrease in profitability of public transit, service inevitably has been run less frequently over the years. By the 1990s it was not uncommon to find service running every 6-8 minutes on some routes, even during rush-hour, meaning that if each train only stopped at every other station, a passenger who just missed a train could have to wait 12-16 minutes for the next vehicle, which was considered unacceptable (at least for the time of day). As such, the A/B skip-stop service was gradually cut back as stops were further and further spaced and service was run less frequently. It would become, sometimes, restricted only to the busiest parts of the day when service ran the most frequently, and eventually it was just seen as too complicated for so little benefit. Thus, by 1995, it had been eliminated system-wide.
As a native New Yorker, I enjoy your history about the origin of the Chicago Transportation Authority rapid transit lines. It is thorough and comprehensive. I just subscribed to your channel. I am a subway buff.
Cool series idea dude
Thanks! I'm looking forward to the rest of it!
Loved the video man. I’d be cool to see your ideas for a potential future for cta train lines, such as line extensions or upgrades to the stations.
An interesting idea to be sure! I am considering doing one or two things something like this in the future.
4:18 How did you get footage from up there? Did you have a construction worker record it for you?
I actually had the opportunity to tour the Lawrence to Bryn Mawr Modernization site about a year or so back. I got a couple shots then and use them frequently in my videos now, as that definitely afforded me the opportunity for some very unique clips.
You're the man
I'm thinking the oldest steel on the network may be in a yard somewhere. Some place that has low speeds, so they can last a long time.
love your videos!
I was hoping to find out why the line from Belmont to Howard is "inside out", with locals stopping at island platforms between the two center tracks. Whose bright idea was it, and what was the reason?
Also, you said skip-stop service was discontinued because "it had outlived its usefulness". This implies that some external change in the environment triggered the change. What exactly happened to warrant this?
Those are both great questions! I'll do my best to answer both:
1) Your question about the local/express service is a very interesting one that just underscores how much interesting history there is to get into. The more I tried to type out an answer for this, the more I realized I should probably answer that with a video at some point in the future, instead of trying to fully explain it here. To give the short answer, it has to do with the line to the north of Wilson, being built at a different time from the line to the south, and then the two we're kind of streamlined together under the CTA, in the 40s. The part between Wilson and Belmont is kind of an outlier which has its own interesting history as to how it is the way it is now.
2) Yes, my comment about skip-stop service was a bit quick, as that's also a somewhat complicated thing to get into in an already relatively long video. The A/B skip-stop system was somewhat flawed to begin with. It was essentially the CTA's best effort to introduce some form of express service on lines with no infrastructure for it. For instance, some trains end up being faster than others and have no means to pass. Some things that did change over time were the wider spacing of stations, as well as the fact that service has become less frequent. With the population moving further out into suburban areas, higher prevalence of cars, and overall decrease in profitability of public transit, service inevitably has been run less frequently over the years. By the 1990s it was not uncommon to find service running every 6-8 minutes on some routes, even during rush-hour, meaning that if each train only stopped at every other station, a passenger who just missed a train could have to wait 12-16 minutes for the next vehicle, which was considered unacceptable (at least for the time of day). As such, the A/B skip-stop service was gradually cut back as stops were further and further spaced and service was run less frequently. It would become, sometimes, restricted only to the busiest parts of the day when service ran the most frequently, and eventually it was just seen as too complicated for so little benefit. Thus, by 1995, it had been eliminated system-wide.