CTA will continue to evaluate service on 31st between Ashland Orange Line and 33rd/King Drive
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) said today it will continue to offer pilot bus service on 31st Street between Ashland Orange Line and 33rd/King Drive for another six months to further evaluate bus service demand and collect more community feedback and ridership data from the route extension.
The Chicago Transit Board today approved the CTA’s recommendation to extend the pilot service to September 2017. CTA launched the pilot service last fall to test new east-west transit connections along the eastern portion of the 31st Street corridor.
The pilot is among a series of improvements that have been implemented by CTA President Dorval R. Carter Jr. to improve CTA bus service system wide, including the expansion of bus service on the South Side, the restoration of express service on Ashland and Western avenues, launch of Loop Link, and a pilot of extended service on the #11 Lincoln route.
#31 buses operate every 30 minutes between the Ashland Orange Line station and the Lake Meadows Shopping Center at 33rd Place and King Drive. The route operates on weekdays from 10 a.m. until about 7 p.m. and offers the surrounding community additional transit connections, with service stops at the Sox-35th Red Line and 35th-Bronzeville-IIT Green Line stations.
CTA will continue to study ridership levels and feedback solicited from riders and the community to analyze the effectiveness of the pilot service. At the conclusion of the pilot, CTA will determine whether to end the pilot, extend it or make the service permanent.
CTA has worked closely with the community to develop the pilot, including determining the locations of the 50 bus stops along the route. The hours of service were selected to serve the kind of trips the community desired, such as service to schools, multiple shopping centers and entertainment, including Guaranteed Rate Field.
While similar to the route discontinued nearly 20 years ago, the new #31 pilot bus route has increased frequency of service by 100 percent or double the frequency and key transit connections with the Orange, Red and Green lines, several north-south bus routes and the adjacent #35 31st/35th route.
The 31st Street pilot follows the expansion of CTA service on the #35 31st/35th route in 2013, when CTA extended the route and added weekend service to the 31st Street beach during the summer months. For more information about the #31, please visit: transitchicago.com/31pilot/.
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