As the CTA moves cautiously toward picking its next-generation rail cars, a study published in a national research journal presents a painstakingly detailed account of how the transit agency went off the tracks when it selected the aisle-facing seat design on what’s known as the 5000 Series rail cars.
The study titled, “Is This Seat Taken?” was conducted by two CTA planning and market research employees. They questioned CTA estimates and assumptions that longitudinal aisle-facing seating would increase passenger capacity on each car.
As many riders will attest, a common scene on the new 5000 Series cars is that hardly anybody uses the seat between two seated passengers on the aisle-facing seats, because riders would be uncomfortably squeezed shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh. Another complaint is that the sight line outside the window on the opposite side of the car is often blocked by standing passengers, whose midsections are eye-level to seated passengers.
The 5000 Series cars have been phased in since 2011, under decisions set in motion by Frank Kruesi, who was CTA president for 91/2 years during the administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley. The aisle-facing longitudinal scoop seats, which represent about 90 percent of the 38 seats in each 5000 Series car, broke the modern-day CTA tradition of having mostly forward- and- rear-facing seats. The strategy was to cram more riders onto each rail car, reduce the amount of time that trains are stopped at stations and operate more peak-hour train runs through the Loop “L” structure.
None of those goals has been achieved, according to the CTA study by Tara O’Malley, CTA coordinator of market research, and Maulik Vaishnav, a CTA resource planner. Their study was published earlier this year by the Washington-based Transportation Research Board, which promotes innovation in transportation through research and also provides advice on transportation policy.
During a series of counts made on CTA trains, the maximum passenger loading observed averaged 101 passengers on a 5000 Series rail car, lower than a projection of 106 to 134 passengers per car, the study found.
Meanwhile, the maximum passenger loading observed fell on the high end of expectations on two earlier models of CTA rail cars, the 2400/2600 Series and the roughly 20-year-old 3200 Series, the latter of which is being overhauled and is scheduled to remain in service on the Brown and Orange lines until at least the early 2020s.
The 2400s have been retired and 559 of the 2600 cars, which date to the mid-1980s and operate mostly on the Blue Line, remain in service. The CTA board last week approved a plan to sell 200 of the 2600s for scrap. The rest will be replaced by what’s know as the 7000 Series, which were supposed to arrive in Chicago by next year, but has been delayed until 2019, officials said.
The CTA study found no evidence that the more standing room available on the 5000 Series cars increased car capacity, O’Malley and Vaishnav wrote.
“The wider aisle in this (5000 Series) layout was compromised by the varied leg lengths of the seated customers and therefore created spots in which no one chose to stand,” the study said.
It recommended that the 3200 Series be used as a starting point for customizing the seating design on the 7000 Series procurement. It said the 3200s feel “less crowded and more accommodating” even at maximum passenger loads, thanks to the staggered pattern of traverse (combination of forward- and- rear-facing) seats that offered more standing room in the center aisle and a better mix of grab bars for standees.
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CTA President Forrest Claypool, who is leaving the agency to become Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s chief of staff, has said the 7000 Series’ seat design will be a hybrid, based on customer feedback and the CTA’s evaluation. The cars will have asymmetrical seating, mixing single and paired seats in the center of the rail car. Companies that will submit bids to manufacture the new cars were instructed to include some longitudinal, center-facing seats on each side at the front of the car.
The agency left it up to bidders to produce final designs that are functional and aesthetically pleasing, but the 7000s are expected to have about 37 seats, staggered like the 3200 Series cars, officials said.
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