CTA Tattler

See http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/roster/6000.html, under High Performance Cars.

See http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/roster/6000.html under High Performance Cars. Sorry about the comma in the first link.

I'd rather walk than go 70 on the L.

I was thinking the same thing. That kind of freaks me out a bit. I can imagine the train taking a corner at 70 MPH and the train just soaring off the track. I'd settle for just getting rid of the slow zones today.

I'd like to see a train go 70 mph on the brown line. That should go for a great amusement park ride!

Ha!! The brown line now cracks 30 mph between belmont and paulina (since southport is closed) it is almost shocking to go that fast again on the L.

But this is some sad and indisputable proof that the Mayor and his appointees have run the CTA into the ground.

Here's the best part of this.
For many years, Cars 1,2,3,4, ran only on the Ravenswood Line & then only in the rush hour. So they barely moved at anything like their top speed.
They had that great red paint job with the lightning bolt on the side.
Later they were given a regular paint CTA paint job, roof boards & the pan trolley & moved to the Skokie Swift, along with cars 51,52,53,54 which had been built in the late 1940's & were the only articulated cars the CTA ever had.

Or, perhaps it's sad and indisputable proof that a 100-year old infrastructure cannot handle high speeds even if trains can, or indisputable proof that the trains speeds are capped so that maintenance costs are lower, or perhaps it's sad that trains never actually ran that quickly in service, besides on the Swift where there were no stops and it was a long, straight, reconstructed run. The green line goes pretty fast, and it's all reconstructed, but it's not going 70. People take every opportunity to jab at the CTA regardless of if they have a clue what they're talking about.

The L does occasionally get close to 70. I peeked in the front cab on a few purple line express runs and saw the speedo just shy of 70. On the green line between 35th and Roosevelt, I've seen the speedo touch 45 or 50 for a few seconds. Lots of rises and falls on that stretch though.

I see no reason why the blue, south side red, and orange lines can't operate at consistently high speeds. (Assuming we get the deadwood ties fixed and the deadwood management ousted.)

Do a little more research and you will come up with a Chicago Transit Authority study considering using the 1-4 cars (and additional to the same plan) on a rapid transit service as far as Clavey Road or possibly Lake Bluff. That was some early thinking about using the soon-to-be-abandoned North Shore Line as a rapid transit line. The study also showed that most of the commuter boardings were at Dempster Street, hence the Skokie Swift.

I notice that the speed test was done between Wilson and Loyola; once you're around a curve at Leland, just before the Lawrence station, the test course is a relative (and pretty safe) straightaway. I kinda doubt they'd've tried any such thing on the Ravenswood or Evanston routes.