CTA Tattler

I'll deal with any ill effects just to see some progress happening. It's good to see stations reopening, and overall, since I've been "leave early, leave early" my commute on the L has been unaffected.

This is great news, and I think a huge improvement for the CTA. The main reason for the Brown-line project has been to make the stations able to accommodate 3-car trains, and it looks like that will happen much sooner then any of us would have thought. Hopefully with the increased capacity commute on the Brown Line won't be as horrible as it has been. Also, this means that by March 30 the Armitage & Chicago stops will be complete, it will be nice to have full stations there again.

The northbound three-tracking wasn't so bad because people leave work at different times, or go out after work, go to dinner, whatever. The southbound will probably be much worse since most everyone starts work/classes somewhere between 8-9. As for the increase in bus service, I tried switching to the 147 when the three-tracking started last year. It worked great.....for 2 weeks, then the service went back to its normal sub-par frequency. I've learned to 'reverse commute' in the evening, taking the train further south in the loop, then heading back north. It adds 20 minutes to my commute, but at least I'm not mushed against a train door, or against the front window of a bus.

I agree that this will be worse. Evening commutes home are much more staggered than morning commutes. The Red Line was standing room only by Berwyn at 8:00 a.m. today and the train I got on at Thorndale was 2 minutes behind the previous one. Edgewater and Rogers Park residents have no better alternatives. The 136 would be a perfect bus to expand service for, but it's not on the list. And it'd be great to see a bus-only lane or even HOV-2 restrictions on LSD during rush hour, but that would be too innovative and would infringe on single-motorist commuters' right to gridlock LSD every morning and evening. So express bus riders stand on packed buses and crawl home at a snail's pace.

What will happen to the current morning rush hour Brown Line SB "sneaker trains" that start south of Southport and arrive at Belmont empty? Will they still operate after March 30th, or will the extra capacity of the 8 car trains replace them? Anyone know?

I agree with Rick and Mike.

When the three-track work started, the added 147 buses really didn't last more than a few weeks. And at my location, near the Tribune Tower, they're generally already packed to the point of, well, pointlessness. And that's why I do the same as Rick -- head south on the Red Line a few stops (from Grand in my case) to get past the crowd.

And many mornings, like today, I already have to head north from Bryn Mawr to get on a southbound Red Line; I was the one who sent out the alert about the delay at Fullerton this morning, but there were significant delays long before that -- an empty train sat north of Thorndale for quite a while this morning and then went express. Honestly, by the time we were in the tunnel, I've never seen the North & Clybourn and Clark & Division platforms so packed.

So while the three-track hell we anticipated with the first phase ended up being pretty smooth, I think we may be in for a rough time with the next phase.

I'm glad they're thinking just a touch out of the box on this one, but my only question is this: Why didn't anyone think of temporary stations before? If we're able to open a temporary station at Diversey 9 months into the 12 month closure, why wasn't this possible at all stations? My station was never closed, but I imagine people whose stations were closed would have appreciated that.

Can anyone tell me why the number of trains is being reduced on the Red Line only? Why isn't the Brown Line sharing the pain. This whole construction project is for the benefit of the Brown Line. It seems unfair, especially when they are now getting more capacity from the 8 car trains.

I might be wrong, but I think the number of trains was already reduced on the Brown Line for the NB 3-track, and Red wasn't (or not as much). So they're probably keeping it at that level, and now reducing Red to match capacity.

But I might be making that up.

wow what a great idea. I think I brought this up in this blog last year. How about this one! Why did they build the new stations at the same grade? By raising the tracks 5-10 feet going into stations and lower the tracks out of the station, the trains will conserve momentum. It is simple physics.

What exactly was the problem at Fullerton this morning, anyway? And what happened further north? At Granville, we were slowly bypassed by that "express" train, which then stopped just past the station and sat for a long time...so that the next inbound train couldn't proceed into our station and left us standing there with our ears freezing while the train sat, headlights shining, tantalizingly out of reach. For that, I think we all deserve some answers.

I will say that most of the extra #11 buses disappeared quite some time ago--even befre the Addison Brown line stop re-opened. I used to see the SB piled up by Addison in the morning, and NB ones in the evening that ended there as well.
They lasted than Bob S. says the 147s lasted, but not by much.

A few comments...

First, haven't we been through this already? We find out that there will be three-tracking, then suddenly all the pessimists come out of the woodwork and complain that it's going to be miserable and that they already have the worst commute in the whole city and that they don't deserve to be treated like this and oh God, it's going to be terrible. Then, when things go smoothly they all disappear. This time around, can't we save some of the pessimism for if things really DO go poorly? I mean, give the CTA some credit, guys. They did pretty damn well with phase one.

@Kev: I'm with you. The "sneaker" train outside Southport doesn't help me a whole lot but I'd be interested to see if they'll still be using it.

@rich: Lol, seriously?

Sorry Neal. I'm pessimistic because I've lived here 10 years and remember what it was like when the Red Line went 50 mph. I've seen things mismanaged and allowed to fall into disrepair. Since at least 2003, I've lost countless hours due to slow zones like the monster between Sheridan and Wilson. When three-tracking began last April and work in the tunnels coincided, I started dealing with up to 90 minute commutes home at least once a week, for several months. This morning it took me 70 minutes to get to work. I see leadership that assumes automobile traffic on LSD must be accomodated and sees no connection between that and how it affects transit. Worst of all, once this is all over with in 2009, I will still live off the Red Line north of the Sheridan stop, a section that is largely ignored. The viaduct is crumbling and there are lots of slow zones. I honestly wonder if they'll just close it entirely for renovation, like they did with the Green Line. Neal, I'm cynical because the CTA that I enjoyed when I moved here is gone and I fear it won't return for years. The Brown Line project is worth the hassle, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But I'm still scared. As someone said earlier, we don't have to be home on time. I'd hate to have tobudget 90 minutes to be at work on time. I hope I'm wrong.

Rick and Mike are right: Census data show that morning rush hour is way more focused than the evening. I'm glad that there's some plan to add seats back.

An HOV-2 lane on LSD? That makes too much sense, and wouldn't even need IDOT's approval since LSD is city-owned. Even Aspen has HOV lanes, but not Chicago.

And speaking of lagging behind our peers, even the mayor of LA takes transit to work once a week; see " Ride Metro with the Mayor" at metro.net.

Folks, where will these 8-car magic trains be kept? There's no space at the Kimball yard.

Didn't anyone from CTA tell you that? They'd still need another $91M to store the cars somewhere to run 8-car train capacity AND condemn some property, as well.

I was wondering about the extra trains as well. I would guess that, since there will be less Red Line train heading through, the CTA will send out extra cars from Howard early in the morning. They would run empty straight to Belmont, then be put in service as Brown Line trains until lunch. At least, that's how I would do it.

Err, the Brown Line IS losing runs, but is keeping the same amount of CARS, due to the 8 car length. Take out 4 six-car runs, you're left with 24 extra cars, which can be added to 12 eight-car runs. There's a net loss of zero capacity, but the wait will be slightly longer for a train.

While I agree that building the stations higher would be a good idea, trains wouldnt conserve momentum. They would take advantage of the conservation of energy. Approach to the station would take kinetic energy and transfer it to potential, which would later be used to produce some kinetic energy. Momentum is not helping anything here.

Capturing the trains' kinetic energy with something akin to the technology used in hybrid cars would probably be less expensive and less disruptive than changing the height of the tracks. (If you're not familiar: when you apply the brake in a regular car - or on the train - it's simply using friction to slow the vehicle down, which turns the kinetic energy into heat, which is generally just lost energy. When you apply the brake on a hybrid, it slows the car down, in part, by applying the motion of the car to an electric generator which charges a battery, thus preserving some of the energy.)

I don't know enough about the engineering of trains to know if "regenerative braking" is feasible (or maybe already used?) in new trains. But it's probably an easier thing to do than changing the grade of the tracks.

What the heck is a temporary station and how are they going to put one up at Diversity in six weeks??

Coollead got it. Both Red and Brown are losing 4 trains, just Brown has a 0 net capacity loss because of the 2 extra cars on each train. Here is the quote from the CTA press release:

"Huberman said that during peak morning rush period there will be four fewer Red Line trains traveling inbound from Howard to Downtown (from 19 to 15) but that additional southbound trains will be staged south of Fullerton for use as needed. Four fewer Brown Line trains (16 to 12) will operate during the peak, however, due to the longer trains, capacity on the Brown Line will be the same as it is today."

Oh, and tree, the next batch of cars on order right now will have regenerative braking capability. I believe that some other systems currently utilize this already. Something to do with using AC or DC power on the trains (CTA currently uses DC, new cars use AC).