oakton/skokie yellow line station (coming soon)

[BusHunter]

Last week I noticed they are finally tearing down the auto garage on Searle Pkwy/Skokie Blvd. (cicero) that was abandoned most of the year. It looks as if Oakton station may be starting construction soon or they are just clearing the land for construction in the spring. The way I understand the project, the garage sits where they plan to have a driveway built off cicero (kind of like a drop off point) for a kiss n' ride type dropoff point. Don't know if there will be room for buses, perhaps it may be built similar to the terminal facilities at Halsted/Orange line. (only at grade) Skokie seems to have put a sign up at the south perimeter of the station area (they had one at the North End) So it seems that something is changing there.

[Busjack]

A Pioneer Press story, indicating that construction is starting, now that delays in getting the grants are apparently being surmounted. I remember also reading in the Pioneer Press, several years ago, that the garage property was condemned for the purpose you mentioned.

[trainman8119]

The death of the swift portion of the Skokie Swift !!!!

[BusHunter]

After the oakton/skokie station is built, I wonder if the #54A will still serve dempster or they'll just run it straight up cicero. It seems kind of redundant to serve the yellow line twice. Probably the #97 would remain as is. It would need to serve the line when it's not in operation. Probably in the long term, an oakton station may come in handy when they extend the yellow line to Old Orchard. The preliminary plans call for Dempster to be an elevated station, so there going to have to construct an incline north of Niles Center road. Most likely anything north of main st. would be inaccessible.

[Zol87]

After the Oakton/Skokie station is built, I wonder if the #54A will still serve dempster or they'll just run it straight up Cicero. It seems kind of redundant to serve the yellow line twice. Probably the #97 would remain as is. It would need to serve the line when it's not in operation. Probably in the long term, an Oakton station may come in handy when they extend the yellow line to Old Orchard. The preliminary plans call for Dempster to be an elevated station, so there going to have to construct an incline north of Niles Center road. Most likely anything north of main st. would be inaccessible.

I agree with you on the 54A. What about rerouting the 226 or 210 to serve the station via Niles Center, Oakton, Skokie, Searle, and back to Lincoln in order to also serve the station.

Also, what do you mean by anything north of Main Street would be inaccessible? I though all new train stations have to comply with ADA regulations.

[Busjack]

I agree with you on the 54A. What about rerouting the 226 or 210 to serve the station via Niles Center, Oakton, Skokie, Searle, and back to Lincoln in order to also serve the station.

Not that 210 has that much business, anyway, but that would take away the representation that it serves the Hartenstein campus.

Also, what do you mean by anything north of Main Street would be inaccessible? I though all new train stations have to comply with ADA regulations.

If we believe the Pioneer Press, it doesn't look like there is going to be any L extension. In any event, you are right that any new station would have to be ADA accessible, i.e. have an elevator.

[BusHunter]

I agree with you on the 54A. What about rerouting the 226 or 210 to serve the station via Niles Center, Oakton, Skokie, Searle, and back to Lincoln in order to also serve the station.

Also, what do you mean by anything north of Main Street would be inaccessible? I though all new train stations have to comply with ADA regulations.

The #226 sounds good, but with all the talks of cuts lately, they would probably want to terminate the bus there instead of Jeff. Pk. As far as the inaccessibility you misunderstood me. I mean't that with the construction of an incline, there would probably be a line cut at Oakton until the segment to Dempster was built far enough to at least let trains go that far.

[MetroShadow]

The #226 sounds good, but with all the talks of cuts lately, they would probably want to terminate the bus there instead of Jeff. Pk. As far as the inaccessibility you misunderstood me. I mean't that with the construction of an incline, there would probably be a line cut at Oakton until the segment to Dempster was built far enough to at least let trains go that far.

Terminating at the Yellow Line as opposed to the Jeff would leave a massive gap in service between the Jeff and Village Crossing (half of that service is covered by 85A to Edgebrook). Yes, it might force them to take 85A and then walk a longer distance (or take the 290 from Touhy/Lehigh), but the intention of the route (to my understanding) is getting people from Des Plaines to the Jeff, not necessarily the middle of Skokie.

[BusHunter]

Terminating at the Yellow Line as opposed to the Jeff would leave a massive gap in service between the Jeff and Village Crossing (half of that service is covered by 85A to Edgebrook). Yes, it might force them to take 85A and then walk a longer distance (or take the 290 from Touhy/Lehigh), but the intention of the route (to my understanding) is getting people from Des Plaines to the Jeff, not necessarily the middle of Skokie.

Yes I understand, but it's not like the yellow line doesn't connect with downtown through the purple line express or red line. It all depends on if those riders were mostly downtown commuters or local commuters. Something that would sound interesting to me would be to reroute the #85A instead of turning down Lehigh at the North end send it down Touhy so it could serve Village Crossing and Wal Mart better. Have it turn south at Central/Carpenter and serve the east side of Village Crossing. (I'm sure you could attract teens to the threater over there) Then just run it down Central until it intersects with it's normal routing. By doing that you would only have a gap in service between Oakton and Touhy. If that wasn't good enough the #226 could always terminate at Village Crossing. The riders who would lose service with Lehigh could either walk to Touhy or Caldwell if they were closer to Devon or if they wanted to save time walk to Central

[Busjack]

Something that would sound interesting to me would be to reroute the #85A instead of turning down Lehigh at the North end send it down Touhy so it could serve Village Crossing and Wal Mart better. ...

CTA used to run a #13 Southwest Skokie over essentially that route, and I believe that there was an RTA proposal to obtain grant funds for something like that, even though they recognized it overlapped 226.

If you want to get into real esoterica, the 2004 preliminary Pace North Shore restructuring that suggested the Skokie Valley BRT (quickly killed by the second round), basically suggested merging the Howard part of 215 with 226, resulting in a fairly straight route via Oakton, Crawford, and Howard, serving (I guess) the Oakton BRT station next to the Swift one.

I also brought up, with respect to Nabinut's video, that the passenger traffic he filmed on 226 was entirely in Chicago.

So, what you suggest has been considered, although I don't see it happening.

And if you want to consider the political ramifications of a city route going to a WalMart .

[Zol87]

Terminating at the Yellow Line as opposed to the Jeff would leave a massive gap in service between the Jeff and Village Crossing (half of that service is covered by 85A to Edgebrook). Yes, it might force them to take 85A and then walk a longer distance (or take the 290 from Touhy/Lehigh), but the intention of the route (to my understanding) is getting people from Des Plaines to the Jeff, not necessarily the middle of Skokie.

Yes, That is the intention of the 226. It also acts as a connector from the Yellow line zone to the Blue line zone like the 54A. I use it sometimes to get down to the Blue Line or Village Crossing from Skokie when the 54A is not running midday. If it was rerouted to also serve the new Yellow line station on the way to JP, people who live or work near the end of the 225 (Oakton/Harlem) would like being able to go straight across Oakton to the train. It would also be good for people who work at Niles West HS. I think that if the 226 used a route like the one I mentioned above, it could serve both the Yellow and the Blue.

[MetroShadow]

Yes, That is the intention of the 226. It also acts as a connector from the Yellow line zone to the Blue line zone like the 54A. I use it sometimes to get down to the Blue Line or Village Crossing from Skokie when the 54A is not running midday. If it was rerouted to also serve the new Yellow line station on the way to JP, people who live or work near the end of the 225 (Oakton/Harlem) would like being able to go straight across Oakton to the train. It would also be good for people who work at Niles West HS. I think that if the 226 used a route like the one I mentioned above, it could serve both the Yellow and the Blue.

I don't think there is anything wrong with allowing service to go through the Yellow Line (they did revamp the route to serve Des Plaines, after all), but just ending it there would eliminate the original intention of the route. I used to as a direct connection from Blue to Touhy (or the few times I would need it from the Jeff to Des Plaines).

Don't get me wrong, there would be some reroutes or adjustments should the station open, the question is to what extent will CTA or Pace make changes without losing the primary use of the markets being served?

[Amtrak41]

Why elevate Dempster - eliminate a future grade-crossing ?

Could Dempster itself be sent below the tracks or is that not feasible with access to the station parking lot ?

[Busjack]

Why elevate Dempster - eliminate a future grade-crossing ?

Could Dempster itself be sent below the tracks or is that not feasible with access to the station parking lot ?

Basically, that what was the result of the Alternatives Analysis. But, as previously mentioned, Skokie protested against it.

[Zol87]

Last week I noticed they are finally tearing down the auto garage on Searle Pkwy/Skokie Blvd. (cicero) that was abandoned most of the year. It looks as if Oakton station may be starting construction soon or they are just clearing the land for construction in the spring. The way I understand the project, the garage sits where they plan to have a driveway built off cicero (kind of like a drop off point) for a kiss n' ride type dropoff point. Don't know if there will be room for buses, perhaps it may be built similar to the terminal facilities at Halsted/Orange line. (only at grade) Skokie seems to have put a sign up at the south perimeter of the station area (they had one at the North End) So it seems that something is changing there.

Here is the Coming Soon Sign. It's at Skokie Blvd and Searle Pkwy just a block north of Oakton St.

[Busjack]

Pace jut announced that 210 would be rerouted via Oakton and Skokie Blvd. to serve the main entrance of the Oakton station (effective 8/20). The last trip that used to go to the Dempster-Skokie station now goes to the Oakton one.

Apparently, there wasn't enough demand from the Oakton Community College Hartenstein campus, since 210 will now be bypassing it.

Although 226 has schedule revisions, not a comparable one taking it to the station.

[mkohut]

Pace jut announced that 210 would be rerouted via Oakton and Skokie Blvd. to serve the main entrance of the Oakton station (effective 8/20). The last trip that used to go to the Dempster-Skokie station now goes to the Oakton one.

Apparently, there wasn't enough demand from the Oakton Community College Hartenstein campus, since 210 will now be bypassing it.

Although 226 has schedule revisions, not a comparable one taking it to the station.

While the rerouted sounds good.But,look at the frequently of the route.That needs to improve.

[Busjack]

While the rerouted sounds good.But,look at the frequently of the route.That needs to improve.

Considering that was a route that was threatened with discontinuance on several occasions, where are your ridership statistics to support that?

BTW, that's better than the once an hour on many north Cook routes.

[mkohut]

Considering that was a route that was threatened with discontinuance on several occasions, where are your ridership statistics to support that?

BTW, that's better than the once an hour on many north Cook routes.

This route has been change a couple of times.At one point it went downtown during rush hour.

To my knowledge there wasn't a public hearing on the change.

The question is where did they get the feedback to where people wanted this change.

The best way would have been public hearing.The route change does make sense.

[Busjack]

This route has been change a couple of times.At one point it went downtown during rush hour.

To my knowledge there wasn't a public hearing on the change.

The question is where did they get the feedback to where people wanted this change.

The best way would have been public hearing.The route change does make sense.

You don't explain where you are going with this.

If you are referring to hearings with regard to the previous cutbacks, there were workshops and public hearings with respect to the 2005 North Shore restructuring* and hearings with respect to the 2010 budget.**

You say that this route change makes sense, so you are contradictory if you are saying it needed public hearings.

Pace says the IBS gives them statistics per trip. You didn't respond to the question what statistics you have to support your assertion that this line needs more frequency, and I am sure you don't have any, or even any observation of the route in action.

____________

*Original proposal: run only a rush hour shuttle between Glenbrook Hospital and Glenview Metra. Result: Cut back to Berwyn L.

**Original proposal: eliminate. Result: No longer goes southeast of McCormick.

[Amtrak41]

The 210 and 11 don't connect too well. During the day, the 210 runs hourly, the 11 every 20 minutes, but they miss at Lincoln/McCormick by a couple of minutes, though I happened to catch one with 2 minutes to spare last week. Couldn't some 5 minute tweaking fix that ?

Somewhere along the way, the 11 changed drivers before Western. With the cutback to Western, will that procedure stop ?

[2200SeriesFan]

I agree with you on the 54A. What about rerouting the 226 or 210 to serve the station via Niles Center, Oakton, Skokie, Searle, and back to Lincoln in order to also serve the station.

Also, what do you mean by anything north of Main Street would be inaccessible? I though all new train stations have to comply with ADA regulations.

Belated reply(since I actually noticed this a few weeks back), but I recall seeing an updated 210 bus timetable that showed it had been rerouted between Niles Center/Oakton and Lincoln/Skokie Blvd(Cicero) for SB runs to go east on Oakton, south on Skokie Hwy, then resume their regular route(and vice versa for NB runs). I guess Pace thought Oakton students using the Skokie campus could walk the block or 2 between Skokie Blvd/Lincoln, up to the college? Also on this updated schedule, I noticed the final southbound 210 bus run of the day now ends at the Oakton Yellow Line stop, and no longer goes all the way south to Lincoln/McCormick. For bus #226, Pace hasn't done any schedule changes(or street running changes to the blocks this bus runs on) to that route, since the Oakton stop opened. And if you ask me about the latter, it's just as well nothing was changed. For one, I agree with Zol that there is no other bus that connects the downtown Skokie area with the Village Crossing area and the Jeff Park terminal. Two, it is only a 11/2 block walk from Niles Center/Oakton to the Oakton stop.

Now if only the 210 and 226 had Saturday service, even if they didn't run on Sunday(at the very least, I'd be happy with Saturday service being added to both routes). Probably would be a tough sell for Pace to implement for either of these 2 routes, since they eliminated 210 Saturday service years ago(forget if 226 ever had Saturday service or not), and 423 Saturday service was eliminated only a year or 2 ago.