CTA Tattler

I usually take Ardmore to the lake on my evening bike ride but I had to take a detour because of all the fire trucks. It was insane. Ardmore from Broadway east to Winthrop was filled with fire trucks, but I didn't stop to rubberneck. I've been on a train before that went out of service due to a fire, but yesterday's must have been different because there was a lot of activity. Once I got to the lake, I saw more ambulances and fire trucks screaming up LSD, but I don't know if it was related. The evening news gave this the usual kitten-stuck-in-a-tree treatment and I can find no mention of this at all in the Trib or Sun Times.

Okay, okay, okay....this is all news to me. Fire, ambulance, CTA...I watched the news and I saw nada. I would sign up for your messaging system but (knock on wood) almost nothing ever happens on the green line. If ever anything does happen, I have plan A, B, C and call-everybody-in-my-phonebook. So just let me know if they do another Red Line Devil's Train around the loop and all's good.

Question, when did the CTA_HQ send their first message? Did they send the initial message stating trains were out of service and gave alt. routes? Just stating that trains are moving seems pointless to me. I think when you get to the platform and see the train moving that's a good sign all's clear.

I know the red line has some kind of problem just about every weekend. Last weekend a burning smell, like burning insulation, came out from under the red line at the Clark & Dearborn stop.

Are stoppages a regular thing on weekends? It seems so to me. Probably a consequence of relaxed maintenance over the weekends.

Did they really run the Evanston trains express to Kimball at one point? If I were trying to get to Evanston, I would have been pissed.

This caused a complete breakdown on the Purple Line. There was no notice of any trouble until after one had paid one's fare and gone up to the platform (I was at Davis Street). Up there, you heard the same recorded announcement over and over, alerting you to the fact that there was a fire, the fire department had been called, and that you should take alternate bus routes.

Helpfully, all the alternate bus routes were only available from Howard Street or below.

The Davis St. station attendant, of course, had no information about anything at all.

Around 6, an announcement was played once stating that the fire was out and service was being restored. It stated that "a train will be at your station momentarily." Half an hour later, no trains at Davis in either direction. The station attendant (surprise) had no information and didn't think the trains were running at all. She couldn't call anybody, and nobody would call her. She didn't know where the Purple Line trains were. She said they might not run all night, far as she knew.

My father can pinpoint his Toyota to within 7 feet using a portable GPS from Radio Shack, but the CTA can't tell station attendants where an entire train is located, even approximately. And apparently the station attendants have no means to contact the CTA, either.

It burns me to think that part of the CTA budget goes to paying that woman to apparently do nothing but say she knows nothing. Hell, she can barely walk - if she had to actually leave the vicinity of the booth to assist a customer it would probably give her a heart attack.

cmama, you said that nothing ever happens on the green line...so this is for you

I was riding the green line in to the city this morning (8/25) and the train was stopped and delayed around Cicero at around 9:45 AM for a medical emergency. All we were told was that someone had requested medical assistance and we were wating for that. We waited for a while and then moved a couple of stops where we waited again (here I am suspecting that the rider was let off the train and asisstance was given, but I cant verify) we were then on our merry

So things do happen on the green line....just not very interesting ones :)

Just a quick comment/suggestion about the SMS alerts - How about developing separate lists that customers can sign up on? ie: loop trains only, rush hour alerts only, etc.

People would not have to turn alerts on/off daily to avoid afternoon messages. Plus, the volume of messages in the last couple days is too large and is the main reason why I haven't signed up yet, however, it will be a great tool if it is used a little more sparingly (and correctly).

Am I totally off on this one?

Shar, you might want to do what I did--I signed up to have the alerts sent to me as email rather than text. I check my mail before leaving work to see if anything is up with the Brown line. It's not foolproof--obviously, if I'm on the train and something happens, I'm SOL. But it's better than nothing.

To set the record straight, it was a northbound purple line train that caught fire, not a red line (though the fire stopped all purple and red line traffic). I was on the train (already posted about this in another section of this site), and it was pretty intense for a bit. We on the train barely got any more info than those of you waiting on platforms. Even while smoke was billowing around the cars and that nasty stench was in the air - nothing on the PA system from the driver. Not a "sit tight, we're working on it" not a "everybody out of the train" - no indication what the real level of danger was.

Most people opted to stay on, though one guy pushed his way through the car to the rear (I was in the last car on the train), and just hopped out onto the tracks on his own. No idea where he went to. After the firefighters got up onto the tracks, we were told to evacuate the car, but they only evac'ed the rear half of the train. We all went down the tracks to the red line train behind us and climbed onto it, and about 30 minutes later it started moving. The people in the front half of the burned train were still there! Sucked to be them, I imagine.

Still weird how I didn't see anything on the news about it. We saw news copters up overhead, and I know it can't be cheap to send those things out if you don't know whether you'll run the story or not. Whatever.

One more thing - I recall reading somewhere that this exact same thing happened to a purple line train back a few weeks ago (fire around a car's wheels). Is this true? Should I just throw in the towel on this whole purple line thing before my life is really in danger?

The CTA staff never have a lot to say. Even though they're all union and well paid, they act like they're not too happy to be there. And the last thing they want to do is talk to you.

And god help you if you need any kind of directions. The bus drivers especially. I was trying to get to an address on the street the bus was driving up & down all day. The ads over the windows make watching for the address difficult. (and businesses don't like putting street numbers on the front of their buildings!) The driver wouldn't help, and I had to get off somewhere close and call for a cab.

I remember when most folks didn't even use tokens, and had to cue up to get on the train. The cta people in the cubicle were the worst, I'm so glad the card readers made them unnecessary.

I was the one who posted about the Purple line train being diverted express to Kimball. That's what the conductor told us over the PA, but did they do it? Dunno. The conductor on the next Purple line train to reach Belmont said the same thing, and added that it was to keep Brown line traffic moving as the Purple line traffic couldn't go any farther north.

I wish CTA_HQ had helped out during the situation, rather than long after it.

I'm really, really glad to be moving back into the city next week, as the Purple line is really the one way into and out of Evanston, unless you live and work close enough to Metra stations to make that worthwhile, and it sucks.

Oh, and for anyone who's bugged by the volume of messages: Rather than signing up for the service, just read the group's page on upoc.com; the last 20 or so messages are visible there. Yes, you'll need to remember to adjust the time back an hour to Central, but if you can do that, you'll probably be much happier.

Yeah, this isn't NEARLY as newsworthy as "ghetto fries" (which was only up on that marquee sign for a YEAR before anyone noticed...)

:::bangs head against desk:::

cmama asks: "When did the CTA_HQ send their first message? Did they send the initial message stating trains were out of service and gave alt. routes?"

CTA_HQ sent its one and only alert when the fire was out and trains were running again. It was other riders who sent the other alerts.

Obviously, that's a problem. But I think the CTA is just feeling its way through all this like the rest of us are. I suspect they don't yet have all the procedures in place to do 24-hour alerts, though I could be wrong.

They seem to be great at sending them during 9-5 work hours, but not so much after that. So they need to work on that, obviously.

Shar suggests: "How about developing separate lists that customers can sign up on? ie: loop trains only, rush hour alerts only, etc."

This is certainly a possibility down the line for our own alerts system. But for now, I think we'd like to see how it shakes out with the general alerts for the whole system. Certainly this fire affected readers on the Brown, Purple and Red lines, and probably some buses that were full as a result.

Part of the shakeout period is to get riders to use alerts correctly as Shar points out. I do think Cheryl has a good suggestion to sign up now for email only and see how that works for you.

Has anyone had any luck getting Alerts through Virgin Mobile?

Before my first trip to London (UK), I envisioned the Underground station employees as crisply uniformed, attentive, and friendly in a formal way. I discovered that they, too, have their surly moments, especially with visitors who are fumbling with weird money, unfamiliar with the routes, and not always grasping what's being said quickly through an intercom or ticket window. They do, however, have nice uniforms, and things are kept a bit tidier than in our system. And their signage is unparalleled, but then the Underground is famous for that...http://tinyurl.com/azv96

Virgin blocks all messages from upoc.

CTA employees are nothing but shiftless wastes of space.