Sunday service has been increased from seven round trips daily to nine, all nicely spaced two hours apart. Saturday service has the same schedule as Sunday, except for an additional round trip in the morning: ten round trips daily, same as before, but with the otherwise-consistent two-hour spacing.
Sunday service has also been restored to Maywood and Melrose Park, which lost their Sunday scoots during the last major schedule change.
New non-rush schedules are based on the same departure times from Chicago, with equipment going out to Elburn and returning 30-35 minutes later than before to Chicago (this in spite of the fact that most crews will originate in Elburn). The midday schedules are also slower than before, probably to accommodate bicycles (for example, the midday commute to Lombard, 20 miles from Chicago, will take an additional three minutes).
In a perhaps serendipitous move, one place where eastbound and westbound trains will meet is Elmhurst. This will give the dispatchers only one slightly-longer period per hour in which they can't send freights out of Proviso, instead of shorter periods half an hour apart. The times at Elmhurst are one minute apart for the eastbound and westbound trains; I suspect that there will often be times when a photograph of two trains at the platforms would be available.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
