CTA Tattler

I was lied to by 2 CTA employees.

The reason they gave for the disruption was that it was due to CTA workers, see my post in the "share your crazy commuting stories" thread.

Thanks for clearing this up!

-Culhavoc

As usual, the CTA was completely disorganized during this event. At the brown line station at Clark and Lake I noticed there was a crowd of people around one CTA worker. (At the top of the stairs, just at the turnstyle- why do they always make us climb all the way up there?) I got there after she made her announcement and I asked, "Did you just say the brown line wasn't running?" And her response? "no". So I put my card in the slot and go to enter.

The worker heaved a deep sigh and asked me if I was deaf. "The brown line isn't running. Can't you hear?"

Ignoring her rudeness, she explained that I should go to the red line, or take a bus, or "wait to see if they get any shuttle service."

There were no announcements on the red line that there were any problems with the brown line. Not at Fullerton and not at Belmont, where I got off. The platform was overcrowded with people who said they'd been there for over 1/2 an hour waiting for a train.

Finally, after I'd been there about 10 minutes myself, a CTA worker told us that we had to go on the southbound platform to catch the brown line going north. He was kind, appologetic, and really frazzled.

I decided to amuse myself at Belmont for awhile, and left the station. On my way out, I asked the CTA worker at the bottom of the stairs if he knew about how long the outtage would be. His response was to ask ME what was going on. I told him what I knew, and then told him I was very disappointed with the CTA for apparent inability to communicate.

The worker? He looked really disgusted and responded that he was embarrased to be wearing a CTA uniform!

around 6:30 i was on a brown line train that had a driver who actually made announcements that the purple line was still stuck in the loop and that riders would be better off taking the red line. it's the first time i've ever seen a driver be helpful during a dealy. but alas, i have only been riding the CTA for five years.

As soon as I made it up to the Granville platform at about 5pm today, I knew something was wrong. While waiting for a southbound red, a very faint announcement came over the loud?speakers, which was inarticulate and lowly-recorded.

This was repeated about 3 times before my train arrived, but we still had no clue what was going on. (By the way, how freakin old are those speakers anyway?)

Once aboard our train, the motorman made the announcement, but again, could not hear him properly and it wasn't articulated well. (When will the frikkin CTA understand that there are so many people who live here who do not speak English as a first language, emphasizing the importantance of over-articulating and slowly making announcements?????)

By the time he made the third announcement and we spotted stalled brown and purple line trains near Belmont, we knew something was up.

All in all, the delay for us wasn't any more significant than the usual 978 slow zones we creep through anyway.

i was at washington and wells from 5:00-5:30, waiting for a purple line. no announcements were made on our platform. i heard some unintelligible static from the southbound platform speakers, but i figured they were brown line related because the southbound platform was getting packed and we heard no announcements on our side (the northbound side getting packed is typical due to orange line and rare purple line trains). then when a "not in service" train came by, i jumped on, hoping it was purple. the conductor explained that the train was just going back around the loop, and that we should transfer to the red line at state/lake. but we still have no idea why.

i stayed on, and luckily all trains were back in service as soon as my "not in service" train reached clark/lake. so it became a purple line train. it was still slow from there on out, but i'm sure i had it good compared to others.

they should make use of those currently useless marquee displays for this type of thing!

Has anyone heard any information regarding exactly what caused the fire? I was actually riding on the rear car of the Purple Line when it felt like we ran over something and within seconds there was smoke and flames. Has anyone heard anything?

Somehow the message was getting through to the Brown and Purple line riders in the Loop to use the Red line. I had to wait for about 10 trains northbound trains to pass before I could get on at Grand. The Red line didn't seem to be delayed as the trains were coming through frequently, it was just obvious that a lot more people were boarding the Red in the Loop than usual.

I did hear the announcements in the Grand station as I was waiting. They were barely audible, but I could decipher that there was a problem on the Brown/Purple lines. It was at least enough info that I could understand why the trains were so packed.

Northbound red line trains were also halted yesterday a little after 4:30pm yet I've heard no reason why. Anyone know why the NB red line trains weren't running either?

I was being lazy again yesterday and decided to take the blue line from washington to Clark and Lake Green Line. When I went down to the blue line, there was a CTA employee right before the turnstile anouncing there was no brown line service. I kinda laughed cause I had a feeling there was going to be some chaos like two weeks ago. When I got to the green line platform I saw a green line pass but there were a platform full of people. My guess since the green line left, they were waiting for the Brown Line. I don't think anybody told all those people (at least 100) that there was no brown line service. Great Job CTA!

First time poster, long time reader. I was on the burning purple line train yesterday. The firefighter response was great as was the response of the conductor on our train. That's kind of where the compliments end though. They evacuated us onto a southbound brown line train that happened to be stopped next to us and frankly I would have preferred climbing down a ladder to the street. Once we were on the brown line train we were stuck. And heading in the wrong direction. I realize the power had to stay off until things were safe but, yeah, it took me almost two and a half hours to get home. Oh and also, no power = no air and no air = stinky, cranky people.

another banner chance for the CTA to communicate with riders, missed!

I got a heads-up from a coworker at 5:00 (who took her info from the CTA site) that a track fire north of Sedgewick had shut down the brown and purple lines up to Belmont. I walked to the Red Line at Chicago at about 5:30 and waited. And waited. And waited. And then I got on a train that sat in the station while an equipment problem was addressed. Go fig. When we reached Belmont, the platform was too full to accomidate my waiting self too, it seemed, and as we'd not passed a single purple or brown line train headed north since we came out of the ground, I changed my plan and rode the red line to Lawrence and took the bus to Western. Round-about and marginally effective. Home at 7:00.

I rode my bike today.

I got a heads up from a co-worker also. I took a 144 north, then transferred to a westbound bus. It took maybe 10 minutes longer than my normal train ride, but I got lucky with the westbound bus--that driver was in a hurry!

I was on the Blue Line in the Loop last night during the Brown/Purple line delay, and our conductor made very frequent, clear announcements that those two lines were not running "due to an emergency situation" and that if you were planning to transfer to those lines, you should take the Red instead.

I was very impressed for once!

Was anyone on the Red Line train this a.m. with the four 90-plus-degree cars (that took forty-five minutes to get from Thorndale to Lake for no discernible reason)? It was fun! I especially liked how the driver explained that half the train was hot because it had just come "from the Howard yard." It was entertaining to watch passengers run from car to car at each stop (myself included) - - the Red Line has trained us well! I'm doing something downtown tonight after work, so I will unfortunately miss this evening's inevitable rush hour fiasco.

deepkid,

Word. Especially about the slow zones. WTF?

The Granville station is newer and marginally less decrepit overall, and one would hope that relative quality would extend to the speakers too. Apparently not.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a catastrophe (i.e. a viaduct collapsing or something) to get the current CTA management to pay attention to the north branch of the Red Line. Kruesi seems much more interested in his pet Circle Line. I'm all in favor of that project, as well as the proposed Yellow and Orange Line extensions, etc. etc.--but not until the CTA shows that it can properly maintain the lines and stations it already has.

I "asked Carole" today (see link) about the slow zones. Sometimes the trains will fly and other times they go at a snail's pace. I understand slowdowns at big curves, and backups at the Clark junction. I understand rush hour logjams. But they can't all account for the all of the times I have been on unbelievably slow trains. What I don't understand is waiting ten minutes for a Red Line that then tinkers along south from Thorndale all the way to at least Addison. I've been on trains that have screamed down the stretch between Fullerton and Belmont but mostly it seems they are defaulted to running slow (ever counted all the "slow" signs?) unless told otherwise. Are they synching the Reds to the Browns (which run about twice as often)? Usually a Red and Brown exiting Fullerton at the same time will meet up at Belmont even though the Brown stopped twice. This slow travelling also happened for about two years or so on the Brown between the Mart and Sedgwick but it seems to have gotten much better recently. God, I wish I wish I wish there were express tracks with real express trains. As the city grows and expands, this will only get worse.

My Ask Carole post:

Carole,

Please post on this blog the loacations of all the slow zones along the Red and Brown lines. Please also explain what a slow zone is, why a slow zone exists in the first place, and what is being done to eliminnate slow zones. My ride from Thorndale to Lake can take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes, without any delaying factors other than an unbelievably slow train, (with no train in front of it).

Good luck getting a substantive response from Carole Brown.

Except for one topic a few weeks ago regarding bus bunching to which she provided links to a scholarly study addressing a point one poster brought up, she virtually never responds directly to specific complaints with anything more than "Please call/e-mail with a detailed account of your complaint".

Conveniently, this approach disconnects interested third parties who are reading along from finding out whether the complaint was addressed and how.

Essentially, her blog is pointless because everything is always hunky dorey in Carolesville. It really should be renamed 'CTA's Excuse of the Week'. It's particularly laughable when someone outlines a complaint and she feigns concern, pleading with the person to contact her with more details. Then she starts to paint with her 'We need to investigate this situation because it gives a bad name to the thousands of CTA employees who work hard under difficult circumstances every day' brush. Right, it's all just 'a few bad apples', just like there's only 'a few drops' of urine pooled in the corner of your average El stairwell...

She primarily replies to the most inconsequential questions, such as when a reader asked her to define 'false identities' when she stated that she would delete posts by people with 'obvious false identities'. She shot back an answer right away, but didn't address any of the weightier concerns brought up in the thread. As with everything CTA, it's a farce.

Maybe she's been scared to respond because of the determined, ongoing hectoring she's received from a certain poster concerning suspect real estate deals transacted by the CTA on her watch. ("Contact our FoIA officer for information..." - Classic Carole Brown!)

It's a shame because a lot of people who post there seem genuinely grateful for her attempt to connect with riders. Nevermind that she could connect with them so much better by actually riding the system every now and then. Unfortunately, anyone with a cynical bone in their body is going to realize that the blog is less an outlet for dialogue with concerned riders and more a podium from which she can dribble nonsense. Nonsense like pointing at the oppressive, cruel state congress as the source of all of the agency's problems.

Her response:
"Unmikely and John F: You both raised good questions above. I've asked CTA staff for details concerning communication issues and slow zones and I'll share what I learn asap."

..............

Hmmm ... I hope I actually get an informative response. It's frustrating when an extra 20-30 minutes is added to my round trip every day for mysterious reasons. I'm convinced they purposefully run the Red Line slow in order to stick to a schedule, sort of like watering down a beer. Last night (10 p.m.), I waited 10 minutes for a northbound Red Line at Fullerton. It arrived and crawled at a snail's pace to Belmont, then to Addison. I didn't see any workers on the tracks and we weren't trailing another train. Day in and day out this becomes very frustrating.

She must have thought that the 'ASAP' commitment was too decisive because now the message reads...

" Kevin and M:

I'm looking into the questions you raise regarding fareboxes, signage and communication breakdowns now and will share the info I get from CTA staff soon. I appreciate your interest and concern."

More noncommital BS from the talking heads at the CTA. Same as it ever was...

That must be a different thread. Her response to my question is unaltered:

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12211207&postID=111523421122185676

(Link in my name too.)

Regarding the Red Line slow zones, there is a lot of work taking place on the North Main portion of the tracks. Just because you don't see workers on the tracks doesn't mean anything isn't happening. Cable installation, flange angle replacement, etc. all take place below the tracks yet slow train speeds are still required. Work is more or less halted during the rush just to keep the trains moving but slow downs during off-peak hours are fairly common to allow work to continue.

"Due to cable installation, flange angle replacement, and urine and excrement abatement, the Red Line will run very slowly between Fullerton and Howard from May 1, 2000 to September 30, 2012."

m -

Yes, you're right. I had assumed that you were referring to the response to post you entered under the "Capital $$: One down, one to go" thread. The response I pasted was from that topic.

So apologies to Carole on that note! At least some of us can admit our errors...

In any event, if CTA contacts you with any real explanations or promises of remedies, I hope you'll post them here so everyone knows what's going on.

Don't know if this is the best place to post this but the CTA has recently revealed a map of the CTA slow zones. Hopefully, this came about as a result of comments here on CTA Tattler!

http://www.yourcta.com/news/motion/board/slzn7b2005.pdf