CTA Tattler

If your motorman has this info, how hard would it be for station agents to have it and announce it? Nothing's worse than waiting for a train without knowing if it's going to come in 2 minutes or in 20 minutes. Blah.

Or even have an electronic message board that displayed this info at the stops. Man that would be almost professional.

I'm glad they got the graffiti artist. I have a question about it. For all who take the L through the Loop, check out the west wall of the inside building between Washington-Wells and Clark-Lake. That graffiti has been there for some time and no attempt has been made to remove it. I noticed something else. On the far left end of the scaffolding, THERE ARE SPRAY PAINT CANS! With a world of DNA testing, did we forget about our fingerprint database? I don't know who else has seen it, but be on the lookout on your next ride.

You can report Graffiti by calling 311 and Streets and Sanitation will come out for free and clean it up. They usually are out within 2 or 3 days if not too backlogged.

That's how I keep the walls by my Bryn Mawr stop clean. Taggers were tagging the buildings there at least once a week. They actually stopped for like 2 months, because their "artwork" was getting erased so quickly. Just call and report it.

Now if they could just get all that paid and ugly graffiti off the Pace bus windows.

On another note, I think the slow zone on the red line between Wilson and Sheridan has been fixed...judging from this morning's swift trip through that stretch. Did anyone else notice, or did I just get lucky?

The Southbound slow zone has been partially lifted between Wilson and Sheridan. Its still slow from Wilson until just South of Montrose, then it speeds up to 25-35 mph. Yes, better, but its still slow and the 15mph slow zone South of Sheridan station is still a long one. The Northbound slow zone between Sheridan and Wilson has gotten a LOT slower and longer now. Its 15mph from Sheridan all the way to Wilson. Last week it was 25mph from Sheridan to about Buena, then it sped up again at Montrose to Wilson. The old travel time was 4 minutes, not its almost 5. Its maddening they fix one section and others get slower and longer.

Also, the new track section in the Red line subway doesn't make sense. Its VERY fast Southbound past the Clark/Division curve to Chicago, but Northbound has a lot of speed restrictions still. The trains are forced to slow down a couple hundred feet south of the Clark/Division curve. I'd say Southbound in this area trains hit near 55mph, Northbound lucky if 35mph for only a few blocks and then maybe 25mph. Both North and Southbound has the same curves, so why is one direction so much faster than the other???

Ed,
A few thoughts on both those issues (though I don't the "official/actual" explanations).

If the northbound slow zone suddenly worsened, it's probably because the repairs are in progress. While the ties/spikes are being replaced and the rail straightened, you keep the trains slow to keep it safe, and when the work is done you do a full inspection of all the work to remove the speed restruction.

re: the Clark/Division curve, I've noticed this behavior too. My guess is that it has to do with the location of the signal blocks; perhaps the signal block containing the curve (probably speed limited to 25 or 35mph) starts a couple hundred yards south of the curve, so trains still have to slow down even though they haven't yet reached the curve. There's a similar quirk headed southbound on the Green Line on the curve at 40th Street.

773 - So YOU'RE the one that always has me worried that I'm going to get "fresh paint" all over myself? Haha!

And I was totally surprised at how fast we were going between Wilson and Sheridan. I'm so used to going so slow to "mourn the dead" that I thought we might just fly off the tracks, heh.

Speed on Red is a joke for the most part. If you want to really fly on the L take a spin on the Orange or Green line/Lake Branch.

Note my earlier observations on the northbound slow zone between Sheridan and Wilson at

http://www.ctatattler.com/2007/11/slow-zone-post-.html#comment-89763640

I'm not at all taking credit for the decision to extend that slow zone, but it's a *good* thing. People with shopping bags, bookbags, and small children, and often more than one of those, get up early to get to the door near the south stairwell at Wilson, and it's dangerous to have that slow zone end just as that seventh car is at the bend just over Montrose. You can get your 45 seconds a day back in any number of ways, I'm sure.

yes i under stand its vandalism but to me its a way to express youself its a form of art not to promote gang activity just purely how one feels