JimInOhio

I’m not the one who asked but I’ll be hopefully using the ATS before 10:30 AM in mid-April.

ords

I believe it's a target of May 1st for a 24/7 operation. I'm hearing there's another expansion of hours, just not sure when.

The decision to restart the TTB is also a topic of recent discussion.

GUWonder

Let's just hope there are no "May Day, May Day" calls for buses to come to the rescue of those who want to use the ATS around the clock around then.

bluedemon211

March 3

twsteeves

Have you heard a date of the restart of the TTB?

ords

I see what you did there.

The decision is being based on projected schedules and passenger loads. I do know it won't be prior to March 27th, which is the first day of the airlines summer season. I can say this, the location of the bus drop off and pick up point was moved from M1 adjacent to M15. This would make using CP11 much more efficient and time saving than the previous spot. The final bus dock below the new headhouse expansion won't be ready for a few more months.

ords

Unofficially, it looks like February 23rd the ATS will be starting at 0500 or 0530 and operating until 2200 daily.*

*busses weren't mentioned nor discussed and the start time wasn't finalized.

ords

Date (23Feb) and time (0500-2230 daily) confirmed...Busses will also run concurrently.

goodeats21

Great news! Thanks as always for the updates.

threeoh

I can understand running buses overnight if they want to shut down the whole system for continued work, but what's the logic of running buses concurrently during the day? Is the ATS system not up to full capacity (longer headways)?

legalalien

I'd also be interested in a "semi-official" reply from ords but my personal view is that after a very long testing phase, they are still not convinced of the system's reliability. So, if/when ATS has to be shut down for whatever reason, it is easier to direct passengers to already-running busses than to roll bus operation out.

Does seem wasteful, though, both financially and environmentally.

DELee

Wait, there's no wastefulness in ORD or CHI, right?

David

ords

I wouldn't say it's related to reliability. But there was a planned staggered approach to ensure when it goes 24/7 the O&M contractor is prepared. The airlines and CDA have agreed it's prudent to have both busses and the trains operational. I would say late April/May is the next target date. The delaying of the TTB restart was tied to the ATS expanded hours. Expect that to resume around the same time.

lincolnjkc

Having been stuck with light and heat off on the ATS this for 15+ minutes or so morning (a couple hundred yards outbound of the abandoned-looking station after the MMF towards T5 -- I am not convinced of the system's reliability. The delay message repeating every 30 seconds or so (that then turned into two minutes of "Th...the...th....the...th..." while the cars rebooted when power was restored) doesn't really instill confidence and I think my car was going to self-evacuate if we had been stuck much longer. The non-automated "don't self evacuate" announcement, aside from having a ton of background noise making it a little hard to understand, mentioned using the intercom --- I didn't go searching for one but it wasn't immediately obvious unlike the door open handles. It also didn't provide any useful information, e.g. cause or expected duration of delay.

Granted that's only one of 6 rides in the past month but some of the less frequent travelers amongst us were particularly spooked.

Putnik

That's about the same as waiting 25+ minutes for the bus at Lot G and having to run thru the airport to not miss a flight, which happened to me last week.