CTA Tattler

AHEAD? I got this "release" via email at 10:30 (!) last night, warning that we'd see possibly inclement weather that afternoon and evening. Yeah, CTA, thanks for the timely heads-up...

Beth is right. The CTA gets credit for TRYING to inform us yesterday. As I noted in the updated post here, a friend got her email at 2:06 pm, but I didn't get notice at a second email account until 10:21 pm.

I wrote the CTA last night and asked them to comment on the poor performance of their email vendor -- the eight-hour lag between one email delivery and another. If I get a reply today I will post it.

Got mine at 8 p.m. I laughed.

So who's your ISP?

E-mail is great for sending messages to a few people at a time. Maybe even a few hundred people at a time. However, if you suddenly dump tens of thousands of messages on an ISP at one time, there are problems.

It isn't like this is an intra-company e-mail. The CTA doesn't get to choose how the e-mail is handled once it passes their Internet gateway.

This isn't the kind of thing that the Internet e-mail system was designed to handle.

Best example I can think of is to imagine a sell-out Cub's game ending at 5pm on a Thursday afternoon during the week of the Olympics, while a convention the size of the Consumer Electronics Show is in town, and there are construction projects simultaneously happening on every major road in the region. I don't care how much the Cubs tweak their handling of the crowds leaving the game, there will still be some people who won't get home until dawn.

I got my storm notification at 12:17am this morning! I was waiting for the brown line at Quincy around 5:30pm, when the sky opened up and it hailed like crazy. The noise of the hail on the metal platform roof was LOUD!

I got that email too! I got mine at 2:05 PM. I thought it was sort of entertaining, for the CTA to now be in the business of weather forecasting. Still, as noted above, they do get brownie points for trying to be proactive.

I read mine this morning as it wasn't posted at my email until 11:22 PM last night!

I don't want it at all. If the CTA wants to send out alerts on things that have really happened via the UPOC CTA Alerts group, more power to them. But this is inappropriate.

I work near the Wrigley Building, stayed in the area after work for an early class, and took the 147 to Edgewater about 7:30; as far as I could tell, there was a light shower in the area when I left the Gleacher Center and no other precipitation anywhere. And, you know, if you were looking at the radar on just about any news site at all yesterday afternoon, you could tell that was what was going to happen.

If the CTA wants to offer this service as an opt-in for the pathologically worried, that's fine. But I absolutely don't want them to email me until I've opted in.

FWIW, I got the email before 4 PM. I also got emails from our building management and from the neighborhood business association (how did they even get my email address? I'm just a drone at this company) in mid-afternoon, and it turned out to be a freakin' light rain. And, you know, even if something had happened? Getting those emails wasn't going to get me home any sooner.

I got my e-mail at 2:06 PM. While I thought it was a little odd, it's obviously in response to the constant cries that the CTA never keeps their warnings timely or up to date. And, honestly, if they're making strides towards being proactive in situations like yesterday, that's a *positive* thing.

First off, please read Rusty's post. The CTA sent out the email in a timely manner; their email vendor MAY have been part of the delay, but the main delay was likely the fact that, as Rusty said, your internet service provider isn't set up to take a large amount of anything like that all at once, on top of all of the normal/regular traffic/mail transfers at that time. There really isn't anyone to blame, the internet is simply not set up for massive transfers all at the same time on top of the already massive load going on. A situation like this is somewhat similar to a denial of service attack.

Second, if you have access to email at work (or wherever you were when you "should" have gotten your email), you very likely have access to a weather website. If you cannot read a website, see that there will be bad weather and foresee problems on your own, without the CTA coaching you along, you have some issues. Additionally, I'm pretty sure most everyone has a television set. It's not hard to turn it on in the morning and have a quick check of the weather on the news.

Let's see how much more we can blame the already down-trodden CTA for everything.

Man, I hate to complain about this but Tattler is just about the only place to do so. I'm thrilled that we're eliminating red line slow zones, as I live near Roosevelt and take the red line frequently (often on my way to Evanston, where I am in grad school at NU). But this red line over-the-top is driving us insane. We're renting an apartment next to that stretch of green/orange line between Roosevelt and the loop, so of course we have been expecting and have gotten used to train noise. But the red line (someone back me up here?) is SO LOUD compared to the others that my wife & I can hardly hear each other speak when the red line goes by. And of course it goes by all night (as opposed to orange & green, which stop a bit after midnight).

I know there's nothing to be done: "temporary inconvenience" & all that. I guess I'm grumbling just to grumble. I should be happy something is going on in the way of improvement.

Brent, Brent, welcome to our world for those of us that live up North near the Red line. My building has centralized air conditioning, which has now been turned off due to the arrival of fall. I have had to sleep with my bedroom window open a couple nights this week and let me tell you the Red line is LOUD!! They were also working on the tracks overnight and using the air horns to warn the track workers of approaching trains. At least you get your peace and quiet back once the slow zones are fixed in the subway, I never will unless I move.

The reason the Red line trains are so much louder than Orange or Brown is because they are much older. Just like old cars get loud, so do older trains. They should have been replaced 5 years ago, but they will have to use duct tape fixes to try and hold them together for another 10-12 years minimum since the great state of Illinois will not take part in funding public transportation needs. Its all about the roads!

Also, just read that Blagojevich, Jones and Cross refuse to even look at a "transit bailout bill" until the capital casino plan passes. It is looking more and more bleak folks.

Actually the reason that the Red Line is much louder when it passes by is because the trains are generally 8 cars long, not 4 or 6 like is typical on the lesser-used lines. The Red Line uses some of the newer cars in the system, built in 1986. The only newer set of cars was built in 1993 and runs on the Orange and Brown Lines. The oldest cars in the system are those ones on the Blue and Pink Lines with the bus-style "blinker" doors which came into service in 1969. (Supposedly, 'L' cars have a 25-year life expectancy...but, um, guess not...) The next set of cars is set to be delivered in 2010 if the CTA has the money it needs to pay for them, which is somewhat dependent on the outcome of this transit crisis - after all, each car costs over $1 million.

Actually, the purchase of new rail cars and the operating funds crisis are unrelated. The purchase of rail cars will be made with capital funds, with a good chunk coming from Federal grant(s). There are no Federal grants available for operating expenses.

It's a theoretical possiblity that the grants might fall through if the CTA can't afford to operate the trains once they've been bought, but that's not going to happen. The rail cars will be purchased even if their fate will be to be permanently parked in the yards.

As for the noise, the age and condition of the cars really isn't significantly different. There may be differences in the truck designs, but the greatest factor is the length of the trains. Add in a touch of preceptional readiness to be bothered by the extra trains, and I'm sure they seem significantly louder beyond any real differences, too.

I disagree, the Red line trains are MUCH louder, as is the Purple, Green and Pink. The newer Orange and Brown line cars are significantly quieter. I've lived and worked right by the L for years. I've been at work on weekends recently and without looking down I can tell you if its a Red (while going over the top) Green or Pink, OR if its a Brown or Orange. Its very easy. I think the newer cars have a much better design. Also, ever notice how much better the A/C is on the Brown or Orange line? Clearly the cars were built with more powerful ventiliation and A/C systems, so why would it be so far-fetched that they were designed with superior and quieter wheels, etc??

Another factor is they grind the flat spots off the wheels, which elminates that banging sound that can be very loud. The Brown/Orange trains have always been amazingly clean, but I also think they seem to get better overall maintenance as well than the other lines.

Wish I had a camera passing the Harlen station in the Eastbound lanes on the Kennedy this morning about 11:30am. The line of people were stretched across the bus bridge, not moving, waiting for their inbound Blue Line bus to take them to Jefferson Park. I truly felt sorry for them and wondered how many knew about the track closure before getting to their boardig station today. Although, it was neat seeing four car trains running Harlem to O'Hare midday.

I agree with the statement about the actual delivery of the e-mail not being the cause of the CTA vendor. I didn't get that e-mail until 7 or 8 PM, but it had a time on it of 2 PM. I guess it just somehow got delayed in the internet ethos.

No way, Red Line trains are louder, period. A 6-car Red Line is louder than a 6-car Brown. It's the cars, not the length. I've never heard a Brown Line make that awful rattly-metal-grindy noise as it pulls through...and damn near every Red Line train does. It's clear as day when you're at Belmont or Fullerton and they pull in together (before the new tracks, which are quieter themselves).