CTA Tattler

I'm shocked nobody has commented on this yet....if they do strike next week, I hope it cripples the city and region more than anyone had ever imagined. Time to get the masses angry and hopefully they will direct it directly at Springfield.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/14842637/detail.html

If our rulers don't understand the point of public transportation, it's because they don't give a shit, not because they have no access to information. We don't need to try to inform those who don't care. We need to get rid of them.

The unions have voted to begin a strike Sunday night for period of 24 hours. If I were you, CTA rider or not, I'd start making arrangements to work from home on Monday, etc. Metra might even strike. Even if they don't, Metra will be severely overcrowded at in-city stations and may lead to delays on all trains. Expressways and downtown streets will be jammed. The thing that will be interesting to see is if the backups going into the city overflow onto suburban tollways and expressways, such as the Tri-State and Northwest Tollway. I hope its enough to make all those Naperville to Schaumburg commuter types that think Metra and CTA have no bearing on their commute REALLY suffer big time. Double their commutes!

Davey, these people are not my rulers. In fact, elected officials work for us. They're overdue for a review and a trip to HR for some re-training, but still, they're not my rulers.

Joel,
Wouldn't we all get the point across alot better if we didn't all stay home? If everyone stays home and the transport network functions fine......well, oops, there goes any hope for a solution.

where did Joel say anything about staying home? He simply said everyone should consider making arrangements for their Monday commutes. He *wants* us all to be out clogging up the streets & expressways.
Frankly, if there are no buses, I am so screwed. Or out approximately $45-50 for cab fare (round trip). I don't know if I could get to a Metra station, but if I can, my employer runs a shuttle from both the Clybourn stop & downtown. Will take longer, & will cost a bit more, but feasible. And not what I want to do on a regular basis.

Could we get that lady who sings at the Monroe Red Line stop to go on strike too? I can't stand hearing her bellow out her lousy versions of Christmas Songs.

We're talking about being closed Sunday, as people will be able to get here but might not be able to get home with the work stoppage. W00t! A free day off.

Probably two, as there's just no way I can get to work Monday w/o the CTA. My boss will just have to deal with it.

Can northern Illinois secede from the rest of the state? I propose we become the 51st state known as Chicagoland!

We certainly have the tax base to be self sustaining, and by shedding the anti-big city bozos maybe we can take care of some business. This obvious anti-Chicago bias for anything that happens here is nuts. Maybe it's time to abandon the rest of this state and fend for ourselves.

Good luck to Springfield and the rest of the down-staters.

Jimbo,

You are so right. I wish this six-county area would secede from Illinois. The tax money we generate here would stay here! Let's see how long those redneck whiners in bumpkinland would survive without Chicago taxes!

On previous posts, I've talked about how me and some of my co-workers would form a van-pool if the Lake Shore Drive buses were eliminated.

We're ready to go Monday!

Jimbo, I've proposed that here several times. The only difference is, I'd limit it to Cook and Lake. Dupage and the rest of the collar are part of the problem. Let them fend for themselves and see what happens. With just Cook and Lake we'd still have a bigger population than Wisconsin, among others.

Cheryl sez: "these people are not my rulers. In fact, elected officials work for us."

If they work for us, how come they don't do what we want? Not even the ones from Chicago? Strange kind of employees, dontcha think?

Well, obviously we need to re-write the rules so we can fire them and not have to wait 4 years to get rid of them Davey.

Good luck with vanpools, driving or Metra Monday. Lake Shore Drive and every major street will be gridlocked with traffic similar to when there is a major snowstorm. Then once you do get downtown, parking garages will be full very early in the day, good luck finding a place to park. Metra is going to be VERY VERY full. Especially the UP North Line, all the Evanston Purple line riders will be on Metra. Same goes with Blue line riders taking the UP Northwest Line, Red line/bus riders going over to the Rock Island or the Metra Electric. There are many 2-3 Metra line with only a couple stations in the city that will not be affected much.

We are talking 1.6 MILLION people here! Even if 1/3 of CTA riders stay home Monday, we are STILL talking 1 million people getting into cars, taking Metra, etc. Its going to be very ugly any way you put it. Most of you on this board are either not old enough or have not lived in Chicago long enough to remember the CTA strikes of decades ago. The city ground to a halt. You either stayed home or you spent nearly 1/2 your day stuck in traffic. No lie.

I love how much the Governor cares about our concerns. I just called both the Chicago and Springfield offices of the Governor, saying "I'd like to know what the Governor plans to do about the CTA walk-out being planned for Monday." The Chicago office transferred me to three people before someone would admit they didn't know what I was talking about and offered to call me back once they knew (after I told them to check the Trib web site). The Springfield office transferred me to Legislative Affairs, who knew nothing about it.

Chicago (I think) just called me back while I was typing this. "The Governor is doing everything he can to avert it [the walkout]." So I asked, "How?" He says "Um, that's the quote I got... I just read it verbatim."

So, folks -- quit your worrying! G-Rod is on the case. Our bacon is officially saved -- he's trying to avert it!

"Good luck with vanpools, driving or Metra Monday"

We start work at 7:30am. But we are going to leave as if we were starting at 6am! We'll see how it goes.

Ironically, I'll be in Springfield on Monday, so I'll miss all the fun.

You'all have fun now.

KevinB

"We start work at 7:30am. But we are going to leave as if we were starting at 6am! We'll see how it goes.

Posted by: Catherine D"

You're willing to go into work an hour and a half early? I just told my boss if I can get here Sunday, I'll come in but he's paying my cab fare home if the job action starts while I'm at work. And if it continues Monday, I won't be in.

I find this ridiculously hilarious.

I guess I'm not going to work. No car, no bike, work is 7.5 miles away, and cab fare would be just ridiculous. I'll just have to warn my boss about it.

(And before everyone gets all "well must be nice to have a job like that blah blah", you all do realize that employers aren't going to practice mass firings Tuesday morning.)

I'm curious what the schools are going to do? I pass three high schools on Addison...

I'll just spend monday repeatedly calling Springfield.

It'd be best if Metra and Pace got in the game too.

Oh yeah, Metra and Pace will end up getting impacted. Even my UP West line, once had a 30 min delay and the train was PACKED trying to get just Oak Park customers on, so even with one or two CTA shared stops, this will severely impact Metra, also the downtown CTA bus lines that drive droves of Metra customers to their jobs.

Upwards of 50% of Pace customers transfer to CTA services. Kinda hard to transfer if the service isn't there. Or for reverse commuting, perhaps there's no one for Pace to bring to their jobs in the morning.

We all get impacted regionally, and yes, I a person from DuPage understands this, too, Davey. We are all in this together, and I for one am ready to throw everyone causing this out of office.

All I can say is if the leaders that have brought us to the brink of doomsdays for the last 3-4 years and now a potential strike are reelected, it will be more than enough proof to me that the general population is either more stupid than I ever imagined or the people that would most benefit from showing up at the polls still are ignorant about their civic obligation in voting.

I hope that they do strike and it causes mass transportation chaos, schools end up closing, major downtown employers have so few people that show up for work they end up calling it a day as well, delays on Metra due to severe overcrowding, no parking left downtown by 7am and especially clog up the expressways to the point they impact suburb to suburb commuters. If the economic impact is great enough, the business community, who I believe would be the loudest voice in this, would be awaken to seriousness of this issue and would be in an uproar over the sillyness in Springfield. Then, in another week if Springfield still hasn't passed AT LEAST the pension/healthcare reforms, strike again. I think a repeat strike or threat thereof would be the only thing that will really get action. One day, one-shot, is not going to scare anyone much. But if it does indeed cause widespread meltdown a serious threat to do it again would probably get taken very seriously.

Good luck with Metra; the transit union is trying to get them in on the job action as well as Pace.

I'm definitely driving to work Monday. And I may just find a route that keeps me on the road a little longer than I strictly need to. I might even get a really early start, and go slow, just to get the congestion going.

Eagle Man--according to the Trib article, even job actions are illegal for Metra (& I gather, all railroads). Not very likely, I'm afraid.
But I know for a fact that if they join in, I'm staying home, too. I'd rather be a part of the mess, struggling along, but I honestly have no other way to get around short of a cab. That's a little pricy, round trip.