CTA Tattler

Deepkid's report on board meeting

I meet frequent Tattler commenter Deepkid at the CTA board meeting yesterday. He posted the following comment aobut the meeting, and I'm making it a post for all to see. (Great to meet you, Deepkid!)

Hey all,

I attended today's meeting (my first time, hopefully not last) and my impression is that the board grilled CTA staff repeatedly about customer concerns and clearly let them know that their necks are on the line if the ball is dropped with this project.

I heard Carole present most of the questions we've asked here over the months, but I can't say that I'm satisfied with a lot of the answers from the CTA staff that spearheaded the 3track effort.

One gentleman's comments were inaudible most of the time and sounded like he was addressing the person next to him -- not the board, media or the rest of us in attendance. And it was frustrating because they were critical questions that needed to be addressed.

However as Kevin noted, Frank Kruesi basically took ownership of this plan and said he'd be in deep caca if it doesn't bode well.

The board UNANIMOUSLY approved the 3tracking project, though asked how could it have been approached differently, say if money wasn't an object.

When Carole asked the group to address why it did not include Sheridan as a purple line stop, they answered that only 4,300 or so riders use the station daily. However, they plan to use it instead of Addison for Cubs games. It doesn't make sense to me that Sheridan won't be used regularly and agree that the CTA is just asking for overcrowded platforms at Belmont going south.

Since the trains will probably be parked at Sheridan during this mess, why not go ahead and open the Purple doors and let people on and off? What about the CTA "alternating" and letting the purple customers have Sheridan as an option?

The CTA saw fit to NOT alter red line frequency. The group said that the current schedule of red line rush hour trains every 3 minutes is sufficient. I don't know about you, but I've NEVER seen the red line run that frequently, EVER ... unless trains were backed up and then had to run express.

Though not my favorite plan, I better understand why the CTA chose to beef up existing bus routes to help out, but for the life of me do not understand why the 36 Broadway bus will not receive additional runs. The line runs very close to the red line tracks -- more than the 22 Clark!

I didn't sense a lot of confidence about how the peak rush hour crowds will be handled. There was a mention of closing off stations that were overcrowded and redirecting customers to the nearest buses that will receive additoinal runs.

Excuse me? So if Thorndale red line station is overcrowded, you'll ask people to walk several blocks east to stand with the horde of 147 Express riders or potentially a taxi ride west to Clark for to get to work? The 147 has historically struggled to accomodate riders without a major project like this progress ... what in the world will happen next week?

I guess we'll find out sooner than later.

-- Deepkid