CTA Tattler

I am a Rockwell rider. I hoofed it in the freezing cold to the Western Stop. I can not believe that I am going to be doing this for 6 months. See what happens when you move to be near the CTA.

Didn't the CTA say they'd be providing free shuttle buses from the closed stations to the open ones? Maybe you could catch one of those rather than walking all the way to Western.

Nope, the Lawrence shuttle buses will run only when the whole line west of Western closes -- which will happen the last weekend of Feb. and the first three weekends in March. And at least two other times TBA.

No info on how often it will run those weekends.

Otherwise, there is no alternative to catching the Brown Line except walking to the next open station.

I walked to Western this morning. I usually board at Rockwell. I'm pretty much equidistant, though, so I can't complain.

I will be walking over to Rockwell tonight to support the businesses that moved there after being promised that the station would not close.

Hey, Dan, you might want to wait until tomorrow to support our Rockwell Station businesses -- being that it's not only Monday but also Presidents' Day, a bunch of them are likely closed.

I, as you might glean, am a Rockwell Rider, but I'm about a half-mile from either Rockwell or Francisco, so it's about the same for me. What I really hate is that I have to go backwards in my commute -- walk west to Francsico only to travel east on the train. And I'm not looking forward to these weekend closures at all.

Aw, poor Mark, a whole extra 1320 feet more or 528 steps. Unless you have a handicap, tough!
I have to walk over half a mile to the L & I have bum legs!
Stop your whining yuppie scum!

Congrats Jeff. You have won. You have it the worst.

Yuppie Scum?!?! At Rockwell?!? It is not the Armitage stop for crying out loud. Let's try to keep the insults to a minimum. It is not like you know this guy or anything about him.

I feel sorry for people who live a long way from a station already and now have to walk further. I also feel sorry for the businesses because they WILL undoubtedly suffer. The city basically doesn't give a flying shit about small businesses. They make our neighborhoods walkable and safe at night. They're part of the reason Lincoln Square and Albany Park are great places to live. And the CTA screwed them. And Daley is silent on the issue because condos are going up on Wabash and he got his tourist park downtown. I used to live at Artesian and Leland in 1999 and I remember when G.R.O. and neighbors were trying really hard to get businesses along Rockwell. It took a while but they succeeded. Now the CTA has those ads on the Brown Line promoting the businesses on Kedzie and Rockwell. Gee thanks, I'll remember to keep going to that dry cleaner that's now out of the way. Shutting down transit creates a dead zone no matter how many neighbors vow to support the businesses and no matter how many Mardi Gras events the Chambers of Commerce organize. I guess this is what Carole Brown calls "mitigating."

As far as the issue of the extra walk goes, any able bodied person who still has less than a half-mile (4 blocks) walk shouldn't be complaining. And complaining about the cold in Chicago is, well, sorta telling.

I get on the train at Francisco, but I work Sunday-Thursday, so I get a preview of getting to work w/o a train station this week. I plan on getting my money's worth out of my Chicago Card Plus--take the 78 east to the lake, take the 146 downtown. I've tried this before on Sundays to see if it works and it doesn't even take any longer than the train ride, when you allow for those Sunday morning delays while folks are working on the tracks.

I use the rockwell station and I just walked down Montrose to Western and then to the western el stop. I think Wednesday I may just walk over to Fancisco just to guarantee a seat.

I don't mind the walk so much, but I did just move to this area and I live 2 mins. away from the rockwell station, so it is a bit of a obstacle, but oh well :)

Really, the only people I really feel sorry for are the business owners who only get by because of commuter traffic near their business.

Otherwise, the fact that you can reasonably walk to an El makes you luckier than the majority of Chicagoans who have to take a bus to connect with a train. Or even worse, take a bus to another bus (and then, sometimes, to another bus). You should also be glad that the CTA has seen fit to spend hundreds of millions for your benefit instead of using the money elsewhere. Yes, the Brown line needed renewal in order to remain fully functional, but much of the cost is associated with expanding capacity to make for a more comfortable commute for more riders.

Sure, the CTA massively fumbled during the planning stages of this project, resulting in delays, cost overruns, elimination of added value and aesthetic features, and unecessary closures. That speaks to their clear lack of management skills. However, the fact that people continue to whine about this horrible burden of having to walk or, horrors, take a free shuttle, speaks to their overriding sense of entitlement.

I got this from my neighborhood association:

http://www.northrivercommission.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=196=en

"It is not the Armitage stop for crying out loud. Let's try to keep the insults to a minimum."

Right, and insult people who use Armitage while doing so. Nice...

I have to laugh when evening Green Line riders at Clark/Lake passive-aggressively mutter about yuppies whenever the Brown Line pulls up (much more frequently than the Green). I transfer to the Red Line at Belmont and get off in my neighborhood at Thorndale. Everybody generalizes and stereotypes in Chicago. It's the "city of neighborhoods."

I have sympathy for those of you who are inconvenienced by the Brown Line work. But the next time you're walking to the nearest station, remember those of us whose el line was closed for TWO YEARS and consider yourselves fortunate. At least the CTA staggered your station closings and didn't shut the whole damn thing down like they did the Green Line in the 90s. Imagine the uproar if they tried that on the north side of Chicago.

Nicole, I totally agree with ya.

So far, me being stupid has been the inconvenience. One evening last week I was in a car with no loudspeaker announcing the stops. I was reading, not paying attention beyond counting the stops past Damen. You know, the train stops, I think "Western." The train goes down the hill, I think "Rockwell." The train stops again after that, I look up, thinking I'm at Francisco. I'm at Kimball, because of course the train did not stop at Rockwell and Kedzie.

Then last night I forgot about not having a train past Western and took the train home from work. I just walked from Western, it's not that far.

Kedzie and Rockwell riders - try walking to Montrose and take the Montrose bus across to the Brown line stop at Montrose or the Red line at Wilson (it makes the turn and heads north).

I live about halfway between Kedzie and Francisco and use that route on weekends.