CTA Tattler

True Confessions: The behavior I try to hide on the CTA

I don't have a shrink, so today it's your turn, dear readers, to help me understand why I do a certain behavior once a week while riding on the CTA.

Ripped from the pages of True Confessions: I try to hide the fact that I'm reading Savage Love.

OK, so I accomplished the first step in some new 12 Step program by admitting that I have a CTA-related problem.

But hey, maybe you try to hide it too?

Like the other day, a nice-looking older lady, maybe 70-something, sat next to me as I tried to read Dan Savage's sex advice column in the Chicago Reader.

And I found myself covering with my left hand this pull-out teaser line for the column blaring in 30-point type:

"Regarding that letter about a dog eating that Nutella off a woman's pu**y . . . "

I just can't bear to think about someone who could be my mother looking over my shoulder at that kind of reading material. So call me a twisted puritan.

But why should I be embarrassed? After all, we are all sexual creatures, right? And some of my friends have told me the only reason they pick up the Reader is to read Savage Love.

So, dear readers, what am I to do? Should I feel bad about letting my CTA neighbors know I read Savage Love?

And do you do the same, hiding some reading or other behavior? About what? 

Facebook butt fails to seal the deal

I'm sitting next to two very pretty young women talking about a mutual acquaintance, riding south on the Red Line.

She had been involved with a man they both knew who "wasn't into her."

"And she went so far as to put a picture of her butt on Facebook with the caption: 'Do you miss this? It misses you.'

"Man, if I had any self-respect, I would never do that -- puttin' my butt on Facebook for a man who didn't love me."

Doomsday cuts: A solid hit to middle- and upper-income riders

The newest Doomsday budget released Friday by the CTA is really starting to hit home and hurt middle- to upper-income commuters.

• More than half of all CTA bus routes are targeted, including every Lake Shore Drive express bus serving the more-moneyed commuters on the North Side.
• Peak-hour cash fares on trains would increase more than 61% to $3.25.
• Monthly passes would increase 25% to $94.

Richard Harnish of the Transit Riders Alliance stressed in his Tribune column a week ago the "new reality" that "transit is not just for poor people without cars":

"More important than the growing number of transit riders is their demographic composition: Transit riding has become a middle-class activity again, and not just for the daily work trip. After work, and particularly on weekends, CTA trains and buses are surging with middle-class teenagers and twentysomethings bound for an evening of clubbing, concerts or movies, and midday trains and buses carry a large volume of middle-class parents toting babies and pushing strollers."

I have said before that the first round of cuts and fare hikes, set to go into effect on Nov. 4, would hit the poor and working poor the most. Now that equation has changed with the Jan. 6 cuts and fare increases.

At the same time, we start to see riders looking for a way to express their anger toward legislators. Would you participate in a march or rally? I think up till now we've just been complacent, figuring the Legislature would work this out. Now I have my doubts. 

Read it and weep, Part 2 -- what's the cut, and what's the fare?

Handy resources to chronicle the Doomsday pain if the Legislature shirks its responsibilities:

• PDF file of proposed Jan. 6, 2008, fare structure.
• PDF file of proposed Jan. 6, 2008, bus routes cut. Only 72 would still be operating. And 82 would be eliminated, including 39 set to be cut Nov. 4.
• And answers to Frequently Asked Questions about this mess from the CTA.

On the FAQ, I love the restraint the CTA shows in not lambasting the state Legislature in response to this question: "Why is the CTA funding crisis happening now?"

Misplaced priorities: Prayer over transit dollars

Gotta wonder about the priorities of the Illinois State Legislature when they can find the time and votes to override a veto and mandate a "moment of silence" (aka prayer) in Illinois schools, yet they aren't yet able to agree on funding for mass transit in the Chicago area.

I guess it's easier to foist religion on school kids than to come together to avert the gutting of CTA bus service as we know it.

Read it and weep: Huberman letter to customers

Letter from CTA President Ron Huberman

Dear CTA Customer:

Today, I unveiled the CTA's proposed 2008 budget that lays out a series of painful service cuts, fare increases and lay-offs that will happen on January 6, 2008. These actions are required to meet our legal obligation to submit a balanced budget and are in addition to those service cuts and fare increases that will take effect on November 4th.

All of us at the CTA understand that these service cuts and fare increases will cause you a tremendous hardship. We know that you will face fewer travel options, less frequent service and more crowded buses and trains. To make matters worse, the drastic measures described in the 2008 budget are in addition to the service cuts, fare increases and lay-offs that will take place on November 4th if the Illinois Legislature does not enact fundamental funding reforms.

It is important for our customers to know that all of us at the CTA do not want to see this budget become reality. We remain hopeful that the Illinois General Assembly will pass a long-term funding solution.

Please know that we sought to minimize the impact of our budget deficit wherever we could. For example, we reduced our costs by over $38 million this year alone - without impacting service. The CTA and its unions have also agreed to an unprecedented five-year contract, contingent on legislative action, which would enable the CTA to reduce costs and manage itself more like a business. The Illinois Legislature, however, has yet to pass the bill that would give the CTA authority to put these reforms in place. This inaction is costing the CTA more than $11 million each month.

So, while the CTA continues to look for every opportunity to cut costs, there is simply no way we can manage our way out of a $158 million deficit in 2008.

The CTA continues to fight for sufficient transit funding and we need your help. Please contact the Governor and your state legislators and tell them how important mass transit funding is to you. In addition to calling or writing your legislators, you can go to www.transitchicago.com where a link will allow you to easily send a message.

With your support, we are hopeful that we will finally get a long-term solution to the CTA's funding shortfalls and put future "doomsdays" to rest. If the State enacts pending legislation before November 4th, these service cuts and fare increases will not go into effect.

Sincerely yours,

Ron Huberman
President

Weekend CTA work update

Plan your CTA weekend trips around the usual slow zone work  and other stuff, including:

• Red Line "over the top" for subway slow zone work.
• Saturday daytime reroute at Fullerton on the Brown and Red Lines.
• Single track on O'Hare Blue Line.
• Single track on Brown Line.

Part 2 on Boston transit: Clean, easy to buy passes

Before we get to the second installment of Bluebummer's account of his Boston visit, I have to note that many Bostonians didn't necessarily agree with his first take.

Bad Transit blog.

MBTA passengers "self-evacuate" after a long delay.

And a big welcome to all you Universal Hub Boston readers who have been stopping by lately.

Bottom line: There's good and bad in all transit systems, as this blog has found. But the bad is usually more interesting than the good.

Still, we can learn from the good in other transit systems. So here's Bluebummer/Justin's second look at the MBTA:

While riding the "T" I also noticed how amazingly clean their rail cars were. There was a sign across the aisle from us that read “your tax dollars help keep this train clean, please help us by doing your part and take your personal belongings with you.” I didn’t see any eating or drinking happening aboard the trains and only one incident of someone had spilled a few pretzels and they were stepped on. Also I noticed the scent on the trains, it was almost a sterile smell you have in hospitals, in fact it was that smell.

The trains were constantly running. I would say we didn’t wait more than 5 minutes at any one time, and the fares were much easier on the pocket book than they are here in Chicago.

Although a day pass in Boston was a whopping $9, a 7-day pass was a very nice $15. We were only in town for 3 days but we bought the 7-day pass because it truly was a bargain.

The doomiest of Doomsdays: Scary, severe, nervous-making

"Wholesale closings" of bus terminals and garages.

"Certain rail lines" threatened with closings.

Threatened cuts in the doomiest Doomsday budget to be released Friday will:

"Make our riders nervous."

Be "very severe."

"Scare a lot of people."

It's Halloween season after all, but these quotes from CTA President Ron Huberman are no spooky fantasy. They represent a real and near present danger if the Legislature doesn't step up and do its job.

I wish I didn't have to keep writing that. This nonsense is all so tiresome.

Budget machinations and angst

The CTA is not quite ready after all to release its revised (ie., worse) 2008 Doomsday budget Wednesday as originally planned, Crain's is reporting.

Mayor Daley has his own bad news to tell all Chicagoans early Wednesday, says Crain's, when he presents the city's budget and a potpourri of various tax hikes.

So the idea of the CTA sharing its bad news on the same day is unthinkable at City Hall. Or is the CTA really not ready yet with the budget? So a Friday release gives more time to sharpen those pencils and cut those routes, perhaps? We may never know the truth there.

But what I do know is we have no one to blame for the latest Doomsday budget but the governor and the state Legislature. The CTA -- a publicly-funded agency -- is required by state law to present a balanced budget calculated with available resources. And I know that those resources so far have not been given to the CTA by our representatives who are elected to fund that public agency -- the state Legislature.

For shame.

Huberman speaks -- again. The RedEye's Kyra Kyles had a lengthy interview with CTA president Ron Huberman Tuesday. It covered much of the same ground that the CTA Tattler chats with him did, including the famous CTA War Room and new train and bus cleaning methods. But there were a couple other interesting nuggets, especially the story about him removing drunks from the train. "The cop in me is still very much alive," Huberman told Kyles.

And I LOVE the RedEye illustration of Huberman by Jessica Randklev, shamelessly stolen and republished here.

Obeying the speed limit in Red Line tunnel. I just noticed on my Tuesday that motormen/women are now announcing the sloooow speed between Chicago and Clark/Division. It is officially 6 (six) miles per hour.

But why does it seem even slower?

And don't get me wrong. I am all in favor of more communication from the CTA, since I've criticized them enough in the past for lack of it. But I was amused at 5:30 pm yesterday when the canned announcement told us we were experiencing a delay because workers were on the track.

I don't think so. But that's OK, because who knew in 2006 when the new announcements were unveiled that CTA was repairing slow zones? So that announcement wasn't in the script.