CTA Tattler

Forgot to add: I'm sending one to him & Blagoytoy, as they are currently id'd as the 2 major blocks to getting the funding. For different reasons, of course!

John T:

CTA employees strike? Don't make me laugh. Then they wouldn't get paid to stand around and complain.

People, don't be taken-in by the media's
" doomsday " senario. If you take a look at
the thirty-nine bus routes that are being
eliminated they are routes that duplicate
existing routes as express or routes that
serve railroad stations, museums, or special
locations within the loop, or other such
places. Your regular bus will show-up but
maybe not as frequently as before and you'll
have to dig down for an extra quarter or
fifty cents. The damn busses and trains will
still be there. Think about it, can the powers that really afford to let the CTA
collapse completely and expect people who need to get to their jobs, doctor visits,
school, and other destinations ? I don't think so. Even Mayor Daley's cohones aren't
that big, neither is Ron Huberman's. Think of
the repercussions and the voter backlash.

I hope You'll forgive me for not proofreading my last post I was typing and watching the Bears/Chargers game. It should have read "
Can the powers that be really afford to let
the CTA collapes completely and expect people
who depend upon it to get to their jobs,
doctor visits, schools, and other destinations to stand-by and wring their hands in fustration and weep I don't think so. "

Mario: not all are duplicated bus lines--yes, a lot of the expresses are (& won't that be fun, watching the 11,000+ people from the Western Express trying to cram on the regular one--Red Eye stats, 9/10/07). One being cut by me, the 86, is not an express, does not have a cross bus every 1/4 mile (Armitage doesn't come that far west, for example), and there is no bus to the west for a mile (Harlem). I thank God I didn't get that job south on Narragansett b/c I wouldn't be able to get to work next week! That'll probably cut some business to the retail down that way as well...

OK, I read all of the comments here about making sure to spend as much energy contacting our legislators. If you go to the Illinois House GOP web page, they will ask you to sign a petition for a Gas Tax Holiday. ?!?!?!

I was talking to a acquaintance of mine who
is a bus operator that works out of Kedzie Garage and she told me that her first run of the day is at 3:50 A.M. when she pulls the 1st Roosevelt Road bus of the day out of the garage and
heads east to pick-up riders along the route and deposit them
at the Red Line and other points east.
But she says that run has been changed.
She will now pull the 1st bus out and instead head
west towards Cicero and Monitor which is the
end of the line. Why the switch ?
Is there a deliberate ploy afloat by the CTA
to piss-off riders hoping they will in turn
light fires under the Springfield Social Club that masquerades as the Illinois General Assembly ?

an add-on to Susie's comment:

a while back, I sent a passionate letter to our elected officials, using one of those forms you can personalize. The only answer I got was from Tom Cross, who actually sounded encouraging at the time. After that, I got the GOP newsletters in my inbox. I canceled it after about 3 of them, b/c it was all "it's the Democrats' fault for blocking us"-nothing about alternatives, just blame the other party (to be honest, I'm sure the Dems' newsletter probably says much the same.) Not at all helpful. And of course, he is one of those blocking the funding. Go fig.