CTA Tattler

Run the purple line under...that way, despite the 6-car trains going to roosevelt or further south, you have service supported either way.

I wonder if a return to the A/B stops that used to be the norm on the Red Line would help move commuters faster. There wouldn't have to be a bottleneck at Belmont/Fullerton if that could happen, because more trains could run, some passing one or the other stop. Also stop the "security" checks at Grand or Chicago (it's Grand this week). They don't accomplish anything that I can tell and only delay things more.

You know how/why they got the Kimball station done "early"? Because they pulled every worker off of the Francisco stop reconstruction for the past 2-3 weeks. We haven't seen a soul lift a finger over at our stop for eons.

So they opened Kimball ontime/a few days early. Wow, big deal, considering the weather has practically been balmy this winter, for Chicago. What would it have been like if had actually been a normal Chicago winter? Or was it too much to hope for that they would finish WEEKS early, considering the relatively good weather?

Sorry to be cranky, but it is just hard to look out on the Francisco stop day after day and see NO CHANGE as the days/weeks pass.

Beth-

Do you go to Kedzie or Rockwell instead of Francisco? I'm a Francisco-ite as well. I'm not sure if we're looking at the same Francisco stop..

I ride past it from Kedzie every morning and evening. There's been someone working on our stop almost everyday since Thanksgiving. The progress is much more advanced than Rockwell was at this point in it's closure. Basically all they have left to do is finish the ramp in front and complete the Station structure. The foundation, platform, wiring, and smaller exit station are complete. They were even laying out the blue, bumpy strips for the edges of the platform yesterday.

I'm impatient for it's completion too, but let's not get overly dramatic here..

First of all, I'm almost certain that train operators can't simply choose how many doors they open--it's either all the right doors or all the left doors. So, the idea of stopping 8-car trains at 6-car platforms is completely out of the question due to lack of technology and safety concerns (doors opening to nowhere).

Second, Beth: Is there any possible way the CTA can win in your book? Damn them for closing stations, damn them for opening them back up ahead of schedule. It's a lose-lose situation.

Though it would affect me as a North sider, I'd love to have seen the CTA entirely shut down the brown line during construction the way the green line was years ago. Then you'd POSSIBLY have reason to complain, people.

Additionally, I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe no one besides me predicted three-track operations between Armitage and Addison well before construction even began. How else would they be able to build the new Fullerton and Belmont stations? It'd be simply impossible.

On that same note, am I the only one who doesn't feel completely gloom and doom about this all? Yes, I take the train at rush hour, and yes I understand capacity will be reduced, but I don't think service will be changed THAT much unless some unexpected switching/track problems occur.

I don't want to sound like a total CTA booster--I don't think they handled the "other options" for this service change very well--but I think it's completely unfair how people are responding to this. If you don't like it, quit screaming about how you're not going to take the train any longer, and go drive/bike/whatever to your destination--it'll open more room for the rest of us.

Well played, Neal! You make some great points. They are doing what they can with what they have.

I wrote in today's Red Eye (in an editorial, page 23) about how people should just stop complaining and crying about this. We've had long enough notice to change our routing, and in order to "benefit" from this, we have to endure a little hell and high water to get to it.

With that being said, despite the fact that I am a north sider myself, I'm not really worried about it to be honest. But you all better be happy that the brown line isn't completely shut down like the green line in '94. This situation, above all else, can be much much worse than it can be.

One of the keys to keeping this transportation situation humane is to prevent all the commuter traffic from pouring into Edgewater and sitting there. Alderman Smith should sit down with Alderman Stone and Alderman O'Connor and work out a joint strategy. Tens of thousands of bus riders pour into Edgewater and transfer to the RED Line at Berwyn and Bryn Mawr. They need to be served during these repairs. Let's take a substantial number of these riders and provide them with alternatives such as turning some of the Peterson buses into express, ala the 147. Let them follow their route but continue past the Bryn Mawr station to the loop. Also, some Lincoln and Peterson buses should be rerouted to the Metra.

Do the same with the Foster Route. Our stations are not large enough to hold all the people who will be waiting and waiting. How about some of the Foster buses going to the Brown line? The principle of this suggestion is to disperse the masses coming from the west in ways that will be convenient and comfortable for the riders.

I am not going to get detailed because we have experts for that.
But there are lots of possibilities for dispersement.

If we get inundated with new drivers, maybe we should consider limiting Ridge and Hollywood traffic to cars with two or more passengers.

Who knows. Some of these ideas might work well enough to become permanent after the repairs are finished.

Sheli Lulkin, president ASCO

Recently read Ald.Joe Moore's little "resolution" concerning perceived service deficiencies on the Red Line, and I can't believe the sheer stupidity and mendacity of it.

Does Joe, and do the rest of us, really believe that the rebuild of a heavily-travelled train line will entail no pain?

Come on, people. This is a massive project and the only way the reconstruction of this line could be accomplished without delays and hassles is to either shut the line down completely while it is being rebuilt, which would cause unspeakable misery in that there is completely no replacement for it; or to build a complete new line either alongside it or overhead it, which everyone knows is financially unfeasible.

Would we rather just let this ancient line with its tragically inadequate and decrepit stations and signals and track continue to decrepitate so that we don't have to suffer the inevitable disruptions, until the line has to be shut down because it is no longer possible to operate on it?

What really amazes me is Moore's criticism of "slow zones", which shows that he has not bothered to inform himself about the basic conditions and necessities of operating a railroad. Slow zones are necessary during construction, not only in order to protect workers on the tracks but because the track is compromised during construction and operating at normal speeds can cause derailments and other accidents. The placement of these zones is not arbitrary- basic safety mandates it.

The reconstruction of our old rail lines is way overdue and needs to be permitted to proceed without undue obstruction from an ignorant politician who is desperately trying to deflect attention from his sorry record as an alderman. Joe Moore would so much rather attack the CTA than explain why he lied on behalf of his slumlord contributor, Jay Johnson, or explain the continuing problems with violent crime in the 49th ward, that he has done nothing to abate in the 16 years he has been in office.

I don't know how feasible this would be...but why can't we:

Suspend 24 hour service on the red line, and end brown line at 1:00. Shuffle bus inventory as needed to ensure capacity. Work through the night. Obviously there will still be closures, but in this way, we could avoid daytime construction.

Other cities are able to maintain their lines much better because they do not run 24 hours.

I'm a Franciscoite also, but I haven't been on a train since they closed both Francisco and the Montrose station. I was taking the 78 over to the Montrose stop, but now I'm taking it to where I can pick up a 144/45/48. It doesn't take much longer than taking the Brown to Belmont and tranferring to the Red line--actually, with the three-tracking, it won't take as long as the trains would to get back and forth from work.

Cheryl,

I'm with you. As soon as construction started ramping up at Clark Junction last year I started walking the two blocks north from Montrose to Ravenswood/Wilson where the 145/148 lines begin.

Even without this doubling of transit times, those buses are still often faster than the comparable brown line rides, especially if you work near Michigan Ave.

CoolHand - Well, they must be working when / where I can't see them. Our condo directly overlooks the platform and the same boards have been laying out on the platform for weeks and I've seen NO ONE out there. My hubby is a stay at home dad and he also has reported that the only people he's seen were security-type guards, no one doing work.

OK, so you're saying they ARE working, but if I've missed 'em and I've been LOOKING, they can't be working very long hours!

The thing is, they tore the whole thing down in one weekend with about 30 people working. Why can't they staff up and get this thing done faster? Is that a fair question to ask?

And AM I overeacting? I can just imagine the CTA blaming weather if they got done late, but I can't expect them to get done a bit early with the weather being so good? They couldn't / shouldn't have counted on such good weather when making their construction schedule, figuring some "typical" Chicago winter weather in.

0)Priority item. REIMPLEMENT CONDUCTORS ON ALL NORTH SIDE TRAINS...Express, Red, Brown. This will help with communications and in getting train operations moving faster at stations.

0.1) REIMPLEMENT supervisors and add platform attendents to Belmont and Fullerton for each platform.
0.2) Add color code lights to indicate arrival of trains at stations to facilitate loading.
0.3) create expanded temporary waiting rooms at Belmont and Fullerton. This way, you can reduce the number of people on the platform at a given time.
0.4) Use supervisors to allow time to queue waiting room customers to reach platforms.
0.5)
0.6) Run Red line trains EVERY 4 minutes. On minutes 2(Ravenswood), and 6(express when in operation).
0.7) Terminate Express at Wilson. Reactivate Eastbound platform for passenger transfers.
0.8) Couple Yellow and Purple line trains at Howard. Runthrough to Wilson(or beyond) as one train).

1) Keep in mind that the CTA does NOT do maintenance...no money in that, it lets things fall apart to where it requires CAPITAL REPLACEMENT.

2) The shoddy Northside service should be reason enough for a revolt with alderman, the mayor, and the CTA board for being negligent in their public duties. IMPEACH THEM!

3) This nightmare could have been avoided years ago. The CTA should have purchased real estate sufficient for relocating the entire North Main line between Belmont and Fullerton...or to have built a temporarily structure on Shuffield.

4) Given that they backed themselves into a wall for ADA compliance, I have a few alternatives for you to consider.
a)Run all Ravenswood trains as 8 cars south of Belmont.
b) For 6 car trains, build temporarily platform to connect to Belmont. Do not switch train into Belmont.
c) Build temporary transfer station north of belmont between Ravenswood and North side main line. Stop all ravenswood service between Belmont and Fullerton.
d) Stop Northside main line trains at Wellington and Diversey.
d) Optimize schedule based on direction.
e) Run southbound service in morning as two tracks south in morning. Switchover to two tracks north in afternoon.
f) For southbound runs, middle track is express track for Express and Red line trains. Outer trackers for Ravenswood trains. Express trains do not stop at Wellington or Diversey southbound direction mornings or northbound direction afternoons.
g) Offer reverse commuters express bus alternatives...no local stops..express bus to certain stations
h) Consider running the ravenswood and the express as through trains through the loop. For example, run Ravenswood through to Orange Line. Run express through to Pink Line or Green Line. If it was done right, it would reduce the number of trains on the Loop elevated.

On weekends,
close wellington and Diversey in one direction. Use other direction for weekend work on two tracks and accelerate the project schedule.
Consider closing Ravenswood service south of temp station at Belmont to facilitate accelerated schedule.

Re deploy A/B service north of Belmont and south of Armitage to facilitate faster run throughs.

Other alternatives
Run pink line trains as blue line trains during rush hours to reduce loop traffic.

Reactivate tracks 1 and 4 south of Armitage. Quad track to the Mart.

Temporarily add two tracks between Ravenswood branch line down shuffield. Reconnect south of Armitage.

I could be wrong, but the whole 'open doors on only 6 out of 8 cars' idea is actually possible - depending on which model of cars are in use. If you look at the door controls on some cars - there is one lever in the box, on other there are 2, marked left and right. If there are 2, the left lever opens doors on cars to the operator's left when looking out the window, and the right handle, obviously, to the right. SO... IF there was a conductor in car #6, and IF that car was one of the ones with the dual levers, then if he/she hit the lever for the doors toward the front of the train (whether thats left or right), then that would make the idea feasible. (Note: this info based on what an operator explained to me a while back about the controls.)

Just on the 8-car thing, it was standard practice long ago to do things like having a tail car or two not open at certain stations. But today, while most Brown Line trains do have door controls designed for a mid-train conductor position, it's just not practical. The money isn't available to CTA to hire the (I'm guessing) 20 or so people to run as conductors, not to mention it'd only benefit those going to certain stations, and create a situation where a lot of confused people would regularly end up on the wrong cars.

Brown also utilizes other series of cars (some runs come daily from Purple, for example), and thus it'd create a situation where people standing at the far end of the platform, hoping for one of those extra cars, might randomly have to run when only a 6 shows up. And, to help with capacity concerns, since both Purple and Brown will run Outer Loop thru this, there will be an even bigger mix of train types serving the same riders.

It'd be more trouble than it's worth, I'd say.

You mean customers might have to run like when, despite an eight car train stopping at Jackson on Thursday night at 11:30pm, a four car train pulls in on a Friday night at 10:25pm? Or when the Purple line pulls all the way to the end of the platform at Howard when beginning a run, causing a throng of people to go scrambling. Usually half the riders wind up on the last car. This is despite markings that are supposed to indicate where the train will settle in the station.

I mean, I think it would be a terrible idea to add more complexity (Anything involving more people physically transferring between trains, more switching, etc.) and therefore more potential delays, to the system for a dubious benefit. However, it's not like the CTA seems to be very consistent at considering how customers distribute themselves on the platforms. I don't know why it's possible for trains on every other system I've ever ridden to stop in a predictable, marked location (On some systems, the trains stop WITHIN AN INCH of the marked zone every time.) yet CTA trains often seem to stop wherever the motorman damn well pleases.