Lots of GREAT CTA news. Not!
It's been another busy couple of days in the news for the CTA. And mostly bad news:
- A Brown Line train "made contact" with a car just as it was leaving the Kedzie station around 5:40 p.m Thursday night.
- The Red Line will traverse the elevated tracks during portions of the weekend due to to construction work in the subway.
- And for the small percentage of you CTA riders who didn't see the RedEye Thursday, there's big news -- the CTA trains actually rock and sway and rattle -- especially for Blue Line riders! Read all about it!
- The CTA board approved a budget Wednesday that is $110 million short of being balanced. But if you read the CTA press release on the subject, you won't learn that till the third paragraph. No worries, eh?
How the hell am I supposed to get to work this weekend if the El isn't going to my freaking stop? Goddammit.
Posted by: Kimberli | November 17, 2006 at 08:54 AM
Well, as they advise only one way of the Redline is supposed to be on the elevated tracks at once. So they tell you to go all the way to Fullerton or to Rosevelt, depending on which way is on the elevated tracks or not, then go and get on (after waiting a substantial amount of time) a Red Line train going the other way which is in the tunnel and making all stops.
They don't have a better plan then that? And this was forseen. They are slowly going to kill Chicago like cancer.
Posted by: Joe | November 17, 2006 at 09:39 AM
The second paragraph, if you know how to do math.
Posted by: Math | November 17, 2006 at 09:50 AM
Is there some kind of law that the Red Eye has to have a front-page story about the CTA every three days? It seems like people getting on the train would want to read about something other than the train itself.
Posted by: Adam Kotsko | November 17, 2006 at 11:21 AM
The elevated stops are only a few blocks out of the way from the subway stops downtown; I don't see the big deal of walking an extra block or two for one weekend. There really isn't another option, besides doing work on the subway while trains are running through it, which would s t r e t c h the duration of construction out dramatically, I would think.
Posted by: Fool for the CTA | November 17, 2006 at 12:30 PM
A+B = A balanced budget with a $110 million shortfall...... doesn't make sense. We need more money to improve the tracks to run slower.... doesn't make sense. No eating or sleeping on the trains, but the station attendants can snore with their chest littered with pringles...... doesn't make sense.
Posted by: cmama | November 17, 2006 at 01:05 PM
I'm glad to get the scoop (link to Trib story) about the incident last night at Kedzie. All I could hear at Fullerton (where we sat and sat) was something garbled about a "police matter" somewhere on the line and shuttle buses. We did a lot of sitting between stops as (I suspect) it took awhile to get the trains moving again.
Posted by: Maureen | November 17, 2006 at 05:54 PM
i LOVE how the el whips around and jumps and hops. my favorite parts ... the hop up as we come out from the tunnel/subway part at the top of the incline right after north/clybourn headed for fullerton. wheee!
the stretch between north/clybourn and clark/division ... that can get positively cacophonous and crazy ... totally dark and fast and it just makes me feel a little wild and dangerous.
even more so, now that i live south are the even faster feeling runs between roosevelt and cermak/chinatown and the mini connecting tunnel from cermak/chinatown to sox/35th. they get mega fast and super whip-py. kind of that side-to-side motion you sometimes get on a rollercoaster. that's just what i think: a rollercoaster! wheee!
the only thing that i hate and can really fk me up is when for some reason, they have to slam on the brakes reallllly hard. that suuucks. cause even holding on hard, you sometimes end up flying around.
Posted by: jocelyn | November 18, 2006 at 04:45 AM
the #147 Express goes pretty fast down Lake Shore Drive, and its VERY bumpy.. so much that when it hits the bumps especially between Irving Park and Foster, people in the back go flying up out of our seats. Im not kidding. But one evening as I was slightly leaning against the back window - its one of those huge windows, as we were flying down Lake Shore Drive, the window popped open and I almost fell out,, fortunately I had some flattned out empty cardboard boxes that I was taking home between my knees and that window, or else I would have landed on Lake Shore Drive. This happened this summer and now I know better not to lean on that big window.
Posted by: MARY T | November 20, 2006 at 12:16 AM
I wonder, did they do testing during rush-hour on the Purple Line? If so, they would have noticed that heading south from Howard, after about 5 minutes it feels like the train is ready to bounce right off the tracks. I've actually been afraid a couple of times.
Posted by: Eric B. | November 20, 2006 at 09:18 AM
You can also play Crack the Whip on a southbound Red Line train between Wilson and Sheridan, a right around Montrose, I think. Being in the last car helps. I've lost my footing a couple times when not prepared for it.
Posted by: bopo | November 20, 2006 at 04:34 PM
Hey why are our names messed up per the above topics. I am MaryT and I wrote the story about the #147 but it says Jocelyn under my topic. Then my name is under the Purple Line topic.... ok please affix the correct names to the correct topics!
Posted by: MARY T | November 20, 2006 at 06:18 PM
Mary T: Your name appears AFTER your post, not ABOVE your post. So all is well.
Posted by: Kevin | November 20, 2006 at 09:20 PM