CTA Tattler

CTA 2007 budget gap: $110 million

The CTA is gambling on the largesse of the state legislature -- $110 million large -- to balance its budget in 2007. Otherwise, the system "will have to shrink," says CTA President Frank Kruesi.

The state gave $54 million this year to avoid deep cuts in service. To its credit, the Civic Federation of Chicago "chastised the CTA for putting out a budget plan that is based on a $110 million contribution from the state that has not been pledged or guaranteed," reports the Tribune.

"We are surprised and disappointed. It is not fiscally responsible to propose a budget that lacks an identified revenue source for 10 percent of the spending planned over the coming year," said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation of Chicago.

Let the posturing begin.

Is it a Brown or Purple?

The growing crowd at Belmont anxiously peers south down the tracks for sight of a northbound Purple Line, per usual.

Four or five Browns had already come and gone when a sixth Brown Line train slithers around the sharp curve at the station entry point.

Or is it Purple Line train? The front sign on the train car says Brown. But then the Red Line motorman announces: "A Purple Line train is on the outside track." We passengers at the far south end of Belmont look up and spy a Purple train placard on the car in front of us. We start to board, but some already on board say it's a Brown. We exit like lemmings to the sea. Some on the platform ask: "Is it now a Brown?"

Well it always was a Brown, except for when the motorman said it was a Purple, and when the last car's placard said it was a Purple, and then. ...

Awww fuhgeddaboudit.

The black-shrouded lady

A 50ish woman sits sleeping on the Red Line going north on Friday night rush hour.

Her head and face are completely covered by a black scarf. The stark evening sun of fall was shining brightly on her wrinkled face.

If I didn't know better I might have thought she was dead. Just a little odd.

Wassup at Fullerton? Station entrance moved; track work proceeds

Work on the CTA Brown Line project kicked into a higher gear -- affecting more people -- on Sunday when the Fullerton station entrance was moved 80 feet to the east. CTA riders will use the temporary entrance for about 24 months while the existing historic station house is moved to the north side of the street, and a new accessible station is built on the south side.

"Additional work includes installing brighter lighting, tactile edging and accessible turnstiles, realigning tracks to allow for elevator installation, widening platforms and upgrading the public address system. "

Meanwhile, at the Fullerton track level,  work proceeds quickly on the new platforms and tracks. And both friends and strangers have been asking what exactly is going on there. Here's what I know, from the CTA:

"The reconstruction of the Belmont and Fullerton stations includes widening the northbound and southbound island platforms to accommodate more customers as well as to make room for elevators so that the stations will be accessible to customers with disabilities.

"Because the island platforms are each located in between two separate sets of tracks, widening the platforms requires that each set of tracks be moved farther apart. CTA will continue to provide service to the stations during track realignment by taking one set of tracks out of service at a time for construction, and maintaining service in the area on three tracks instead of four. Track realignment is scheduled at Belmont and at Fullerton late 2006 through 2008.

"Maneuvering on three tracks and keeping the Belmont and Fullerton stations open during construction will be possible because of the new crossovers and signals being installed between now and the end of the year."

The CTA is counting on those new crossovers to try and keep delays to a minimum as the CTA uses three tracks instead of four for three train lines. We'll see if that bet pays off or "bankrupts" CTA customers already threatening to fold their cards.

CTA chair "puts brakes" on premium service to airports; Kruesi "Dead Pool"

In both her blog and a Sun-Times report, CTA Board Chairwoman Carole Brown just says WHOA to the idea of premium train service to the airports mixed in with regular service. It's no done deal.

The Sun-Times story is a follow-up on the Trib's Page 1 piece. The Sun-Times slices and dices its Michigan Avenue competitor: "CTA Chairwoman Carole Brown put the brakes on talk that the CTA would move forward with premium rail service to the city's airports, saying there needs to be a solid plan for express service that would actually save travelers time."

And this is from Brown's own blog :

"I would support premium rail service only if it brought significant new operating dollars, capital funding, or other efficiencies to CTA. It is precisely because there is a real potential for those benefits that the concept is worth exploring. We need as much operating and capital funding as we can get for our current customers.

"I should note that I’m not at all interested in non-express “direct” service absent a viable plan to do real express service. I have no intention of recommending that CTA buy expensive upscale railcars just to wait behind regular Blue and Orange Line trains."

Bravo, Carole. I've always liked her.

Meanwhile, this comment left here Thursday says that our friends at Chicagoist "have started a Frank Kruesi Dead Pool.... Feel free to leave the date you think he'll be fired or "transferred" in comments. You might win a t-shirt. Woo!"

The smile, then wave

We pull into Belmont on the Red Line heading south on a dark, threatening morning. I look across the tracks and see her. Or is it her?

No, not some long-ago love lost, but that nice lady from the local fruit market. I've seen her for years ringing up and bagging my groceries, always with an easy smile but just a quick hello, because she doesn't speak much English and I don't speak any Spanish.

But is it her? I'm not used to seeing her without her grocery store smock. We both smile tentatively at each other, and then as the trains exits the station, she gives a big wave and bigger smile.

Yep, it's her.

That's just one small reason why I like living in the small town of the big city.

Crain's: Fire Kruesi; airport express trains shelved

Crain's Chicago Business takes a double shot at the CTA this week: First, an editorial Monday calling for CTA President Frank Kruesi's head. Then a report Tuesday that the CTA "is shelving plans for express train service from the Loop to O’Hare and Midway airports—at least for now—in favor of pared-back, non-stop service that would be privately run."

In the editorial, Crain's notes: "No great city of Chicago's size can thrive for long with such a sub-par transit system. Efficient, reliable public transportation is the linchpin of urban living. Cities like New York and Washington, D.C., manage to provide it. If Chicago can't, we'll lose people and jobs to cities that can."

The editorial then places blame squarely on Kruesi, and calls for Mayor Daley to replace him:

"The agency's president spins out grandiose visions of a new Circle Line and below-grade busways but can't make the trains run on time. Meanwhile, he blows hundreds of millions on an ill-conceived "super station" at Block 37 and tries to sneak through secret pension sweeteners for himself and other top brass.

"Clearly, this is not the crew to take the extraordinary action needed. An outsider with proven expertise in repairing broken transit systems must be brought in with authority to overhaul the CTA from top to bottom, both financially and operationally. Only Mayor Daley can make that happen. Don't delay, Mayor Daley."

Strong words, solid argument.

In the express train report, Crain's notes the "proposal stops well short of the 20-to-25 minute express service the CTA had envisioned in earlier planning documents. Instead, to save as much as $1.5 billion in projected capital costs, the private firm would run airport-only trains in between regular service on the Blue Line to O’Hare and Orange Line to Midway.

"That means riders would get to the airports in the same time they do now, roughly 45 minutes to O’Hare and 30 minutes to Midway. But, it would be considerably cheaper than taking a taxicab to either airport."

And considerably MORE than the $2 us regular schmoes pay for regular service. But the CTA has to justify the cost of the $200 super-station beneath Block 37.

Show Mom a little respect, please

As soon as we leave the Red Line tunnel, a petulant, spoiled, overprotected man-boy of about 19 starts yelling at his mom on the phone. He's pale, thin and agitated, and biting his nails like a Rhesus monkey.

"Well, the reason I couldn't talk to you is because we were in the tunnel. Mother listen, this is what you are going to do for me: You are going to pick me up at Howard and then drive me to Hyde Park.

"Sorry, but I don't want to get involved in your family drama right now. No, I don't know how many stops to Howard because there are no maps on this train car."

Then he starts wandering the car looking for a map as other riders shake their head and cluck at how could someone treat their mom like that. But then, we haven't had to live with her for 19 years now, have we? Not sure who is worse off....

Trackside interview: You fill in the blanks

Scene: I'm on a Red Line train on Saturday, headed south. Going is slow, with lots of workers swarming the tracks.

Just south of Fullerton I spy two CTA workers standing on the Brown Line tracks as we slowly drift past them. One stands holding an imaginary microphone under the mouth of the other.

What was he asking asking and what was the reply?