CTA Tattler

The new Montrose station is beautiful. I work by there and I have been watching the transformation for the last year. The entry is very well lit and nicely designed. And the platforms - oh those platforms. They are long and wide. Plenty of room to move and stand about.

Living and working off the Brown Line it's so refreshing to see the new stations. For all the flack the CTA gets, this "Countdown to a new brown" project is a big gold star in my book.

I went past there last night and it is gorgeous.

I was very happy to see the new Montrose station incorporated the original sunflower rosettes (and must have had a lot of replicas created) on the railings of the stairways. Keeping a bit of the old with the new is nice.

And oh yes, the station as a whole is just beee-autiful!

Where's the northside red line love?

I had to meet someone and got off at the new Sedgwick station on the brown/purple line and I had to boggle at the poor planning of the exit. You have 3 entrance/exit turnstiles on a busy station....when did common sense leave the building? Theres a big area with see through iron/steel grating and a flower bed of all things. Couldn't they have put some exit only gates instead of a freaking 12 ft flower bed?

Way to go CTA! decoration over function anyday! As long as its pretty, doesn't matter if its functional!

KevinB

uh...its probably crowded at sedgwick because the Hudson exit is temporarily closed. at least it was when i was there...after it opens up i assume that it will be a lot better...

on a side note, kevinb do you have anything positive to say about the cta? i would just like to know because after reading the tattler for quite a while, i don't remember reading a positive comment from you....not a criticism, just curious

i have been pretty pleased with the work on the brown line. even when they had a miscue (water drainage problems on the at-grade stations) they corrected the flaws pretty quickly

Isn't 3 entry/exit turnstiles pretty common on the residental-area elevated stations? I know there's only 4 or maybe 5 at Western, which was redone in the 80s. 3 sounds pretty typical. How many are at Armitage, which is busier than Sedgwick?

I've tried to find positive things to say about the CTA but its not like I have alot of things to choose from.

One of the positives is that Frank is gone.

You remodel a station at Sedgwick and this is the best you can come up with? 3 exit/entrance turnstyles and no exit only ones? I'm just really sure the 12 foot flower bed is necessary to make everyones commute more efficient. I don't care if they are going to add them on the other side of the station, it just makes no sense at all.

I'm happy the slow zone work on the red line at clark/division to Chicago is almost over.

I'd be even happier if the totally unnecessary work for the overhyped/unneeded block37 construction hadn't closed the Washington red line station for 2 plus years.

Its sort of like the robin hood joke...the sheriff only took all your money and food. At least he didn't kill you or cut your arm off.
Thats the way the CTA is...be happy with what you have, it could be worse..although that only works for so long.

I want good, efficient, economical transportation system. What we have is a joke that isn't funny any more and although the new guy has made some changes, he sings the same song while not really getting to the root of the problem.

It is a joke that the tattler has to provide a CTA alerts system when the combined resources of the CTA can't manage to come up with one despite many years of "study".

Its a joke when new stations aren't even really thought out before doing the construction.

Its a joke that employees are allowed to sleep on the job, steal credit card info, can't spell Belmont and still not get fired, sit in their gas guzzling SUVs all day to write down bus times when technology can do that....or have 5 people sitting behind tables in the CTA headquarters for no really good reason and not having all the stations where you actually help the public....

Its okay to waste the money you have cause you don't think its enough to help with your budget issues and its still ok not to call back customers who complain and want to know why things like rude drivers and train operators are allowed to keep their job.

I'm not asking for a perfect CTA, lord knows, but I'd like to see some concrete, positive changes and I'd like to have them stop whining about funding and just do their job.

KevinB

There's a major problem with the gas tax that is being overlooked:

While sales tax revenue would continue to grow indefinitely as the economy grows, gas tax revenue may well decline after a while as gas prices rise inevitably higher.

This is because the gas tax is not a percentage of the cost of gas but rather a flat $.20 (approximately) on a gallon of gas. That means that when gas hits $5/gallon in a few years and people start driving less, we'll still only be collecting $.20/gallon. So it's quite possible that the price of gas could at some point drive down funding for public transit precisely when the demand for public transit goes up.

This is just a recipe for another funding crisis in another 2-3 years. And then we're going to have to listen to the same ignorant crap about the RTA needing a "bailout" - all because the state implemented a tremendously short-sighted "solution" this time around.

In order for this proposal to have any hope of providing adequate funds for more than a couple years, the gas tax would have to be indexed in some way or converted into a percentage tax.

Another positive thing, written up in today's Red Eye, is that Huberman recently put a guy in charge of communicating with customers. Not all his initial efforts have worked perfectly, but the fact that someone is actually thinking about user-friendliness is huge! Didn't save the paper, but one item I recall was to put whiteboards up in stations and write information on it for people to see before they actually get to the platform.

We're talking about things that aren't all that difficult to do--it's a matter of having someone who's got permission from the boss to think of these things and get them done. Just one more thing that makes me suspect someone high up is actually reading the discussion on this blog.

I can't find whether the gas tax proposal is supposed to be permanent or a temporary diversion. If permanent, I don't quite see why UberMod calls it "just another short-term bailout". If it's permanent it may cause some other state services to need a bailout from some other source, but it would be a long-term (or at least middle-term) funding solution for public transportation, no? Since there doesn't seem to be info on the size of the fund or its duration it's pretty hard to know whether to cheer it on or continue to alternate between rage and despair.

As to the long-term gas-tax problem brought up by stillwaiting above, I don't see that changing the flat amount or switching to a percentage tax would be hugely difficult as the price of gas goes up. Doesn't see like a valid objection to the gas tax concept. The real issues will be in the details.

KevinB so you have some positive things to say about the cta... but it is clear that you (along with a good portion of Chicago)are so sick of the way the CTA is handled, any positives are quickly thrown away in order to point out where they went wrong.

i see what you definately mean...my whole life has centered around the CTA considering that i grew up using it exclusively (neither parents drive) so i know first hand how its frustrating it is. but that still doesn't keep me from sifting through the muck to find the positives.

i honestly think that CTA is on the right track...its a slow zone right now, but nevertheless its on the right track.

you see all of these things have gone on for years upon years. systems have been set up, attitudes are steadfast, problems covered up.... and i notice that people like to harp on Huberman's back for not changing it all within the, what 7 months he's been president. a lot of people want instant results

in regard to spending...didn't he cut $12 million worth of unnecessary positions
earlier this year? then what?....the financial crisis emerged that has springfield dragging its feet

what cuts do you think would save 300 Million dollars...sure you could find ways to cut a million here and there, but by the time you execute those measures to save 30-50 million (lets just say)its january and you STILL have to make massive layoffs.... now what more important RIGHT NOW? doing what you can to get the money from springfield/ preparing to deal with the potential layoffs or finding ways to save some money that ultimately won't be enough to counteract the cuts.

you see funding IS the root problem, other systems really do get more funding as compared to what they offer. sure there are other major promlems to deal with, but those problems take the time that we currently don't have...

with what CTA has been given, they have done some good with it. have they not within the last 15 years built/rebuilt/modernize a good 40-50 stations? honestly all of the southside stations are now updated

in light of all of this, i think that the CTA is in the process of correcting these problems and really trying to make the system up to date and user friendly. (the stepped up cleaning measures,the upcoming bustracker, and the train car order in the next couple of years come to mind) but it takes time and something tells me if cta got this permanent funding, things will get better.

say what you want about the past. its hasn't been pretty, but the cta is making great strides presently. you'll just have to give them time to really clean up shop without them worrying about how they will survive the next fiscal year...

ok rant over :)

Wow, never really looked at the station rehabs that way before... almost every station south of the Eisenhower has been rehabbed, The Pink line, the Orange line(built that way), the Red line(Roosevelt south to 95th), and the Green line. The ONLY station south of the Eisenhower/Congress not rehabbed is Harrison on the Red line. That's pretty amazing.

Looking at the future, AFTER the Brown line rehab/expansion, that means the oldest stations are some loop stations, California & Damen on the Blue, and the most of the Red & Purple lines from Sheridan to Linden. Of course, many stations on the State street and Dearborn subways need to be redone, but we have seen successful remodels of some of those already. We'll even see the correct interpretation of "This is Grand" in just a few years.

Not bad for a 100 year old system. Or is Huberman going to get that all done in the next 7 months, too.

We can all keep wishing, and asking. Wasn't it the serious threat of closing down the Douglas branch(now Pink line), that quickly got all of those stations rehabbed?

With 4 tracks to work with, lots of currently closely spaced stations, and with an eye on future 10 cars on the red line, those stations could be rehabbed with a minimal amount of disruption.

O.K. I'm done with my all new train stations vision.

John T

Neither tax is a fix, although the gasoline tax is certainly preferable in the short term.

The only fix is to revise the funding formula so that Chicago's transit funding is on a par with that of other cities. No tax accomplishes that.

I guess I didn't make the point clearly.

I don't care if everyone thinks Ron is doing a great job.

When I see waste on a daily basis that could be cut and that could lessen the shortfall and how much money they have to ask for, thats one of the places that just irks the heck out of me.

It makes me not want to support any funding issue at the state level before they get their own house in order.

Ron has said that people and benefits and pensions are the main expense. If you got rid of the 5 people I mentioned at you'd probably save 300,000 or so by the time you figured in retirement, benefits and salary. Is 300K not worth saving? I can't believe that they are the only people that could be let go that are "vital to rail and bus operation" as he has said before.

Also, the time spent out in the SUVS by managers could be put to better use...like calling back customers who have problems with bus routes (like the horrible 22 Clark) or solving the problems themselves.

When Ron has expenses cut to the bone, I'll be outside Madigans and Jones houses with a sign.

He hasn't got there yet. When he fixes the things he can fix, with the resources he already has, I'll become a Huberman fanboy.

When I get a call back, when I email or call the CTA help line, I'll become a fanboy.

When things he's doing start showing up on my daily commute, I'll become a fanboy.

When I don't see clear, monogrammed trashbags, I'll become a fanboy.

Until that happens, I'll be how I am, someone who tells it like it is, no matter how many Huberman fanboys tell me how much better it is under the new guy. I look at it like this, he'd have to be better, cause it would be very difficult to be worse than the previous guy..

KevinB

Kevin. The trains are much cleaner. Somewhat faster. Significantly more timely. At least they are on the Red Line. And the Pink. And the Blue. And I see fewer broken down buses around town. And my one recent email to the CTA was responded to within hours. Sorry, not directly familiar with anything else.

But we know there are fewer people in admin doing more work. And we also know that more than half of Kruesi's $110 million deficit for the year was found from within the CTA, rather than the governor's "bailouts".

I'd say that's pretty good going for six months on the job for Huberman. Especially when his sales-tax-based subsidy went up by only one-tenth the rate of inflation.

Do you actually use the CTA? Just asking, based on your comments, which suggest that you haven't been on board for a while.

As for the gas tax thing -- I believe what the Republicans are proposing to transfer to the CTA is part of the gas SALES tax that this state almost uniquely levies. In other words, something that moves with the price of gas, rather than its consumption. That promises to be quite the revenue stream, with much more growth potential than general sales tax, though admittedly with more short-term twists and turns than the stock market.

KevinB,
Have you ever had a real job? Run any sort of operation or organization? What do you do for a living?

Seriously. Your posts suggest to me that you have absolutely no experience whatsoever in the real world of managing any organization; no concept of human resource decisions, no concept of project phasing, no concept of the differentiation in revenue sources, no concept of politics, no concept of law...

...so I hope others reading this blog take your posts as unseriously as I do.

KevinB is okay in my book.

I like how people get criticized for their opinions on here. Who gives a flying f*** if someone is complaining about Ron, hobo corner, or the CTA in general. They have every right to vent, especially when it comes to wasteful spending and horrible service.

Granted it has improved under Ronnie, but there is still a ways to go.

I'm surprised at how little patience people have with Ron. It's not like things can happen overnight. You'll just have to put up with some things until they are resolved. Kevin seems to think things miraculously happen when he demands them. He's got the patience of a sugared-up 5 year old. Sorry...there's no instant gratification here.

I haven't seen the flowerbed at Sedgwick, but my guess is that's the public art that was made mandatory as part of the rehab budget. Every station is getting something.

it's NOT the GAS Tax that is to be diverted under the Blago/Cross plan (and right there, we already know this plan is a pile of steaming poo) that Madigan reluctantly endorsed,

It's the SALES TAX ON GAS that is to be redirected. The Gas Tax has to be used for road repairs and construction by law. The Sales Tax on Gas goes into the State's general funds, and can be used for general purposes (gas tax is earmarked, sales tax is not).

So, the State is somehow going to have to come up with a way to replace almost $400 million in general revenues. And this is indirectly asks downstate to pay for regional transit.

The Hamos Plan is still about a million times better than this boondoggle.

The Governor is still a steaming pile of stupid.

Just to clarify, it's only the sales taxes on gas in the metro region (Cook and Collars), but since there would be a $400 million hole in the general revenues in Springfield, some kind of revenue replacement will have to be found, which may very well end up hitting downstate taxpayers, who will pitch a fit.

And they're already pitching a fit, despite the bailout on their electricity bills that chicagoland legislators gave them earlier this year.

I don't have a car anymore. I use the CTA lot.

I use the CTA red line every day to and from work 5 days a week. I've seen things get worse. The commute from Addison which should take 20 minutes, takes 40 minutes to an hour and the latest slow zones at Clark/Chicago have made it worse. I leave Addison at 8:00-8:15 hoping to get to work by 9am. The trains that are supposed to run every 4 minutes during rush hours don't. There are delays that shouldn't happen. Like the train stopping 100 feet from the lake street station and the operator having to leave the car to poke something with a wood stick. Happened to me 5 times in a week and a half period. sat there for 5-15 minutes each time.

I tried switching to the purple line during the slow zone work, and until the reversal, it was a viable alternative, but I end up taking much more time because I have to go through 2 switches downtown.

I don't see the trains any cleaner. The urine smell is still there. People eat and litter and do all the other things because they can get away with it...

The 22 Clark is a joke. I use it evenings and weekends to get around, along with the Addison bus which is just as bad. Schedules are not kept, buses continue to show up 2,3,4,5 in a bunch and the managers in SUVs that acutally could help the bunching sit in their SUVS and write down bus times. I've waited 30-60 minutes for a bus thats supposed to run every 8-12 minutes with no traffic.

For years now, CTA has promised a real time alerts system along with bus arrival times. Its not about them getting the technology, its about them being held accountable for not keeping the buses on time.

I do have a real job. I have been in management, just not at the moment. I've implemented policies that worked well in several jobs and guess what, they all revolve about being accountable. They've worked well.
No perfect, but accountable. We all have things that don't get done for one reason or another, and if its a good reason, those are the breaks, if not, then after a couple, you start looking for new people. After one or two people get the axe for not being accountable, the word gets around and suddenly people start being more accountable.

I've read alot on here, papers, etc about the funding issues, capital vs operating, etc. It really doesn't matter what pocket it comes out of, if you don't spend it wisely and I know that funds have been moved from Capital to Operations many times over the last couple years. I'm a reasonably smart guy or so I've been told.

I also favor having either a Citizens Review Board or I know this is outside the realm of good sense, actually having a rider or two (i.e., someone who uses the CTA daily to go to their "real job") on the CTA board. Ron uses the CTA, but he doesn't have to account to anyone when he's late cause someone had to poke a signal with a stick).

I can tell you if that ever happened, we'd hear a lot more about that accountability. But what we do have is "reverend" board members appointed by political clout who get people jobs who then steal credit card numbers and then try to get them at the police station and then we get the cops calling Ron to get them out of the station or they are going to call a press conference. See http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com if you don't believe me. We have Ron telling them not to do anything as it will impede his efforts to get additional funding.

Funding is important, but changing the culture is even more important. I don't care if they are swimming in money, if they waste it, they will be right back where they are now in a few years. I've worked in both Federal (DOD and regular govt. ) as well as some fortune 500 companies and even small companies. None of these are perfect.

No one is blameless. Daley hasn't done what he should, neither has Madigan, Jones or Blago, or even Carole Brown. Carole let Frank get away with poor management, period. She could have spoke out, she could have done much more to keep the CTA from where it is today.

I went to several CTA board meetings, spoke at a couple, and was disgusted with the way that they listened (or didn't listen) to the riders.

It gets down to lack of accountability. Employees are not held accountable for their actions. Period. I sent in 3 complaints over the phone in the last year. I've sent 1 by email. I know the person read the email since I got a return receipt.

When I followed up on the calls that we never followed up on, I was told that someone left a voicemail and I never called back.

Bull&*&#.

I have voicemail on my cellphone along with a careful management of my cellphone bill. No calls from the CTA, no voicemails from the CTA and closed out tickets.

The one time I did get a call back, I got a voicemail saying they would call back the next day and nothing. I later found out they left the CTA. So much for followup.

I even gave my card to Ron Huberman himself. He did have someone call me back the next business day to his , they got some information from me so that they could look up calls and said they would get back to me. Thats been about a month. No calls back. They had TWO separate numbers (cell and work ) to call me back and nada.

Sounds like a lack of accountability to me.

In my real job here, I know that if I don't get back to people, if I don't follow up, if I don't solve problems, then I won't have a job soon. Sounds like a real job to me.

Waste is waste is waste. If it's five people sitting behind card tables doing their nails in CTA headquarters or Managers sitting in SUVs relaxing or clear monogrammed trash bags its all taxpayer/rider money that could be spent on things like cleaning drains in subways, adding exit turnstiles, fixing signage, making sure bus electronic displays work, alert and bus arrival systems and the myriad other better things that the wasted money could be spent on.

You can tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, but I live this every day.

So, you can whine and spend all your time worrying about funding or you can put your organization in fighting trim so that when you do get funding you can use it most effectively.

If the CTA got every bit of money they wanted, they still be where they are today. My grandpa said, you can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig. Same goes for the CTA. It has a culture of incompetence and lack of accountability and for all his words about accountability, you still can't get a call back.

KevinB

okedoke. KevinB. very valid points...but its seems that you have missed MY point.

i got yours, but i urge you to put this in the perspective of TIME. even you realize that issues in management are organized in
a)importance
b)urgency
c)timeliness
d)effectiveness

you have not accounted for how Huberman has focused on certain aspects based on TIME. there is an urgency to get funding right now, because it a)needs to be addressed immediately and b) can be implemented rather quickly to be useful

accoutability / service is a not as urgent as compared to our current situation and cannot...i repeat cannot be fully remedied in a short time period. sure you can do things here and there...but a major overhaul require much more time and FOCUS.
since you have management experience.. tell me how long did it take to get those accountability issues sorted out? and how difficult was it? was that your MAIN focus during the time? did you not have to study different factors that contributed to it and fix those as well? compare that to the CTA with a plethora of issues...

time requires that funding be addressed currently, and there is strong indication that these accountibiltity issues WILL BE ADDRESSED when they are able to focus on it.

In my experience, accountability starts the ball rolling..once people know they are accountable for time, money, etc that permeates the organization and makes things run much smoother.

Also, when you put your hat in hand asking for money, you can either say:

"We've made our organization accountable and efficient and cut expenses to the bone. Can we have some more money, we really need it?"

or

"Hi, we need more money. We promise that we'll make our people more accountable and we know we haven't spent the money we had wisely, but you can trust us, we won't screw it up. After all, just look at the kind of people we hire, people who can't spell Belmont and ones who steal credit card numbers from our customers. We can probably do that if you give us a couple years and alot of money"

I work for a place that is very picky about driving practices. I know that if I get a ticket or god forbid a DUI, I won't have a job very long. I rarely speed, I'm a careful driver and I absolutely NEVER drink and drive. When I leave this job, I'd probably go back to some bad habits like going a few miles faster than the speed limit allows.

Behavior has consequences most places, but not it seems at the CTA based on the rudeness, inattention to duty and downright lack of (dare I say it again?) accountability or fiscal responsibility.

I'll give you a good example of how I worked.
I transferred to a new fed govt agency to the mgr/lead admin for a agency moving from sperry systems to UNIX. First thing I did was introduce myself to the purchasing people. I found out that they got a bonus based on the difference between the price I gave them for an item and what they actually purchased it for. They also had to go out and get 3 bids and they were strongly encouraged to use small or minority businesses.

When I wanted to purchase something, I used the list price, got 3 vendors(with at least one minority/small vendor) and wrote generic enough specs that any one of the 3 could meet them so I'd get what I wanted.

I sent that over and at the end of the year, the purchasing lady got a nice bonus based mostly on my requests. From then on, my requests went to the top of the stack.

I also made up all my purchases for the year complete with all the documentation, haded them to my boss in priorty order and told him that whatever he could get through budget to buy and return the rest to me. I put them in a drawer for the inevitable "We've got to spend money by the end of the year or its taken out of our budget next year" end of fiscal year madness. I had seen warehouses of furniture purchased that would never be used just so this wouldn't happen. So when the call went out, I pulled those unfunded purchases out of my drawer, handed them to the purchasing people complete with justification and said, "buy what you can and return the rest to me" and they went back in the drawer. You use the resources you have, you work the system and prioritize your needs based on what resources you have. You don't always get what you want, when you want, but if people trust that you are going to use your resources wisely then you build the trust you need to do your job.

Am I perfect? Nope. Is Ron? Nope. Do I think he could do a better job making his employees more accountable (and not just his managers)?
Yep. Has he done better than Frank? Yep. Could a carbon rod have done better than Frank? Yep! Can he and should he do more to make the CTA lean and mean? Aboslutely. Can he do it and still work on funding issues? Sure. Is he doing all he can to that end? I don't know, but if he was I think I'd be seeing signs after 7 months. If whiteboards are the most visible sign then I think the answer is no.

My personal opinion is thats part of why they've had so much trouble getting funding. The legislators think its a monetary black hole. I don't think its going to make anything better, but maybe I'm just pessimistic.

KevinB

okedoke. KevinB. very valid points...but its seems that you have missed MY point.

i got yours, but i urge you to put this in the perspective of TIME. even you realize that issues in management are organized in
a)importance
b)urgency
c)timeliness
d)effectiveness

you have not accounted for how Huberman has focused on certain aspects based on TIME. there is an urgency to get funding right now, because it a)needs to be addressed immediately and b) can be implemented rather quickly to be useful

accoutability / service is a not as urgent as compared to our current situation and cannot...i repeat cannot be fully remedied in a short time period. sure you can do things here and there...but a major overhaul require much more time and FOCUS.
since you have management experience.. tell me how long did it take to get those accountability issues sorted out? and how difficult was it? was that your MAIN focus during the time? did you not have to study different factors that contributed to it and fix those as well? compare that to the CTA with a plethora of issues...

time requires that funding be addressed currently, and there is strong indication that these accountibiltity issues WILL BE ADDRESSED when they are able to focus on it.

hah oops...^ double entry

People keep going on about the monogrammed garbage bags. A lot of these suppliers will monogram bags for free if the order is large enough. Jeez, it's a small thing but I've seen this criticism about twenty times over the course of my reading this blog.
Yes things have gotten better, yes they can improve. I have seen an Improvement in the Red Line and I ride from Howard to Roosevelt. Springfield really needs to get its act together here.

Why doesn't the House just pass this bill (which apparently the Governor would sign), effective 6/1/08, so that it only needs a simple majority vote.

Then at least long-term funding would be secure.

Then the issue is just how to fix the problem from January-May 2008. Bad, yeah -- but not catastrophic, like the current situation.

This idea that 40% of either house of the legislature can block legislation depending on the time of the year is just bizarre and is warping this whole issue.