CTA: I JUST CAN NOT GET USED TO THE COLOR NAMES

JamesT4 wrote:Robert Paniagua wrote:

Purple Line: Line #1


There is a purple line shuttle and a purple line express that runs downtown during weekday rush hour.

The number suggestion is good but the purple line can be numbered with (1) for shuttle between Howard & Linden and <1> diamond for the purple line express to downtown.

Even better: The shuttle between Howard and Linden really should be (S) if you want to really apply the New York style.

There you go!

I think that's agood idea, and how about the Skokie Swift? I think it should get the Shuttle brandig as well, since it serves just Skokie, similar to the NYCTA Rockaway Shuttle.

Silverliner II wrote:

JamesT4 wrote:Robert Paniagua wrote:

Purple Line: Line #1


There is a purple line shuttle and a purple line express that runs downtown during weekday rush hour.

The number suggestion is good but the purple line can be numbered with (1) for shuttle between Howard & Linden and <1> diamond for the purple line express to downtown.

Even better: The shuttle between Howard and Linden really should be (S) if you want to really apply the New York style.

Hey the (S) for the purple line shuttle is good and the express can still be (1) regular, or <1> express

I hate the color names I will never refer to the lines by their color just their old name. They should go back to the old names but I know that won't happen.

Metra 47 607 wrote:I hate the color names I will never refer to the lines by their color just their old name. They should go back to the old names but I know that won't happen.

AMEN!!!. Although that numbering gobblygoop in the above posts with the parens () and greater than/less than <> characters ranks right up there with major confusion. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

F40CFan wrote:AMEN!!!. Although that numbering gobblygoop in the above posts with the parens () and greater than/less than <> characters ranks right up there with major confusion. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

LOL....we're getting a bit too New York-ish for you, eh?

Now that you mention it....................

Apparently the colors are too Bostonish/Washingtonish though...

(I'm not counting Philly because that seems to be one place where the color names have been a flop.)

octr202 wrote:Apparently the colors are too Bostonish/Washingtonish though...

(I'm not counting Philly because that seems to be one place where the color names have been a flop.)

Well....SEPTA didn't "force" the issue by changing all the signage permenantly to "Blue" and "Orange" Lines....just put it in parenthesis after the line name, and on the schedules only for one change.

If SEPTA really wanted to force the name change, they would have used the Boston approach and changed everything in one swoop, and that was that.

Silverliner II wrote:

octr202 wrote:Apparently the colors are too Bostonish/Washingtonish though...

(I'm not counting Philly because that seems to be one place where the color names have been a flop.)

Well....SEPTA didn't "force" the issue by changing all the signage permenantly to "Blue" and "Orange" Lines....just put it in parenthesis after the line name, and on the schedules only for one change.

If SEPTA really wanted to force the name change, they would have used the Boston approach and changed everything in one swoop, and that was that.

SEPTA's attempt to use colors to identify the subway lines was started when David Gunn came from the MBTA in 1979. The Broad St and Market-Frankford lines kept their original colors [Broad St-Orange, MFSE-Blue], but the Subway-Surface was changed from Purple to Green, and the Regional Rails were changed from Green to Silver, and the Norristown line was originally Brown like the Media-Sharon Hill lines, and that line's color was changed to Purple.

If you could find a map of the SEPTA system pre-1980, it would explain what I was talking about. In fact, there are a few of the old maps in the concourse under S. Penn Square near the employee entrance of the Ritz-Carlton.

Whose bright idea was it to rename the routes by colors? I guess CTA must cater to the least common denominator. I read in Mass Transit many years ago how CTA was giving lessons to illiterates and school dropouts on how to use a bus and a train. Public transit should not be a social service. It is a public service, so said the late Chris Knapton of METRA. He and George Krambles are turning over in their graves.

MikeF wrote:

octr202 wrote:Isn't Metra sort of color coded too? I got some time tables back in January when I was in town -- are those consistant colors used on each line?

Metra timetables are color-coded by line, but it is simply an artistic device, and the lines are not referred to by their colors, nor are the colors used anywhere except the timetables. The colors come from history:

UP North Line -- Flambeau Green (C&NW)
Milwaukee District North Line -- Hiawatha Orange (CMStP&P)
North Central Service -- Don't know the history, but it's purple (Maybe WC?)
UP Northwest Line -- Viking Yellow (C&NW)
Milwaukee District West Line -- Arrow Yellow (CMStP&P)
UP West Line -- Kate Shelley Rose (C&NW)
BNSF -- Kelly Green (BN)
Heritage Corridor -- Alton Maroon (C&A/GM&O)
SouthWest Service -- Banner Blue (Wabash)
Rock Island District -- Rocket Red (CRI&P)
Metra Electric -- Panama Orange (IC)

A color coding system is also used for the zone tickets, but I don't think those colors have any special meaning.

The North Centrral service could be Soo Line? At least it was the Old Soo

I think I speak for a lot of Chicagoans when I say I don't like the color names, and I sure as heck don't want NYCTA style malarky. Tell me where the train goes. The old names were good, like North-South, otherwise called Jackson-Howard. Also, Evanston Express or Skokie Swift was descriptive. Yellow? Purple? what does that mean?

Tadman wrote:I think I speak for a lot of Chicagoans when I say I don't like the color names, and I sure as heck don't want NYCTA style malarky. Tell me where the train goes. The old names were good, like North-South, otherwise called Jackson-Howard. Also, Evanston Express or Skokie Swift was descriptive. Yellow? Purple? what does that mean?

AMEN!!! I still use the old names myself.

It's funny when I have to give directions to friends I went to college with, and we've all lived near the brown line at some time post-college. I tell them "okay, take the ravenswood train to XYZ and transfer to the Howard train". They give me funny looks, because Ravenswood not only isnt' a line, it's not even a stop on that line anymore. Since these people didn't live here before 1994, they have no idea what I'm talking about. I have to correct myself.