CTA Tattler

Wanted: A CTA desktop widget like BART's

My post Tuesday about the expansion of the bus GPS program elicited a lot of interest and comments. More than 50 comments at this writing.

One commenter noted that Google Maps has CTA bus and train schedules loaded. If you zoom in on a bus stop or train station (signified with a blue "M"), you'll see schedules for the next arriving train or bus. It's a start, but not real-time info.

Now, San Francisco's BART system has some cool widgets riders can download and run on their desktop. The widget provides service advisories and news in an RSS feed. BART also provides regular news in an RSS feed.

Another Tattler commenter noted that London is just starting to get real-time bus arrival information delivered to LED signs at bus stops.

So, stuff is happening all over, and it's all happening here. Yeah, sure, we can sit back and whine, what took so long, etc. I'll just say thank God and keep monitoring the CTA's progress.

Hat tip to my brother Dan on this one.

Birthday greetings PS, take 2: Yesterday it was brother Dan's birthday, and he's had a few of those already. But today is very special, because my sister-in-law is celebrating her 10th birthday. Yes folks, Penny is a Leap Day Baby. So Happy Birthday to her! If you're a Leap Baby, let's hear from you.

Oops! Missed that switch

It was a Friday afternoon after a long work week, and good karma seemed to be on my side:

• The train arrived just as I reached the platform.
• I found a seat right away.
• The motorman was really motoring north on the Red Line.

These were all good omens for a great start to a fab weekend.

And then we stopped dead north of Wellington. Oh well, I thought, we'll have to wait for the Brown or Purple train at Belmont to pull out of the station since there's only one track at Belmont.

But we wait longer. And then I see another Brown Line train pass us. That makes me realize we're on Track 3, not Track 4.

Then the train lurches backward about 10 feet, and stops dead yet again for a few minutes. Finally, the motorman makes his way to the last car where I'm sitting.

He heads to the motorman compartment and moves the train backward by about 50 feet. That's when it finally dawned on me: he had missed the switch to Track 4. He had to back up so it could be thrown.

Then he walked the length of the train again and proceeded north, switching tracks to make it into Belmont station.

Birthday greeting PS: As a point of personal perogative, here's a birthday shout-out to my brother Dan, designer of this site.

Ban those annoying MP3-playing cell phones

I've written about this before, but it seems the problem has only worsened since then: Doofuses who insist on "treating" the whole train car or bus to their fave tune blaring from their cell phone.

Just stop. Please.

The headline here suggest that the CTA should ban that wretched activity. Well, they already do, actually, but not very proactively.

The CTA "bad behavior" ordinance explicitly states it's illegal to "use an entertainment appliance, radio, musical instrument or other sound-emitting device, which is clearly audible to others." This was passed in 1998, but I gotta hand it to those forward-thinking legislators because this ordinance certainly covers squawking phones used without headphones.

And the newest automated announcements ask us to "please be considerate when talking on the phone or listening to electronic devices so as not to disturb other passengers."

The problem with those announcements is they are too easy to tune out, because they are too kind and gentle.

So let's use some tough love. Arrest them all!

CTA planning gradual expansion of GPS bus tracking GPS

The CTA will expand the GPS bus-tracking system one bus garage at a time starting this spring, says CTA spokesperson Noelle Gaffney.

Staff is currently determining which bus garage would go first, and the subsequent sequencing of bringing other garages online with the system. The idea is to have all bus routes out of a garage totally equipped with the necessary tracking hardware, but the sequencing has not yet been finalized.

"The sequence is tied to fleet management issues," says Gaffney. "We are replacing older buses (16-17 years old) with new buses and obviously don't want  to go to the expense of installing the tracker technology on buses that are soon to be retired."

GPS is already on the buses, but additional communications equipment, such as a modem and router, also would have to be installed, Gaffney said. "In order to implement at a garage, all the buses at that garage have to have the system."

The CTA has been testing the bus tracker system since August 2006 on the No. 20 Madison bus line. An expansion of that test was originally promised for last summer but never happened. So it's good to see this is finally happening.

Boxing up your car exhaust pipe

I love it when I see someone carrying something strange onto the CTA, you know, like gumball machines, tires and swords. And I thought that this qualifies. The box was really too high up, but it sure looks like parts of a car exhaust pipe, doesn't it?

Why can't Purple Line stop at Sheridan? Carole Brown tells why

Ask Carole, the blog written by CTA Board Chair Carole Brown, was pretty much silent from September through mid-January, when the state Legislature finally coughed up some dough and solved the transit crisis. There were only nine posts in that 20-week span.

And frankly, who can blame her, since there wasn't much good news to talk about.

But there have been three posts since then, and her latest post is a good signal that she's listening to riders and responding.

Her post about three-tracking affecting the southbound commute got questions from riders about why the CTA doesn't stop the Purple Line Express at Sheridan to alleviate overcrowding. To her credit, she answered that question in her next post.

"Only a very, very small portion of the boardings in the AM rush at Belmont and Fullerton (one to two percent) would shift their travel to use the Sheridan stop on the Purple Line--and there would be no significant benefit to customers at the crowded Belmont and Fullerton stations."

The CTA needs to continue that kind of open communication with passengers.

Red Line subway southbound closed this weekend. Slow zone repairs this weekend will force closure of the Red Line subway southbound and send it "over the top" on the Brown Line tracks from 6 am Saturday till 6 pm Sunday. Details at the CTA site.

Also:

• Daytime Single Track in Effect on Brown Line This Weekend
• Northbound Red Line Trains Temporarily Reroute at Sheridan

Details here.

The straight dope on CTA pension and retiree health care reform

We all know that the Chicago property transfer tax increased by 40% to help bolster the underfunded CTA pension and retiree health care costs. But let's now look at what CTA employees will have to pay now under provisions of the Mass Transit Funding and Reform Bill that passed in January.

Here are some of the pension reforms for CTA employees:

• The employee contribution to the pension plan increases from 3% to 6%.
• The pension fund must stay above 60% funded through 2039 and reach 90% funded by 2060. If additional contributions are necessary to meet these levels they are made 2/3 by the CTA and 1/3 by employees.
• For employees hired on or after the effective date of the bill, reduced pensions are now available at age 55 and 10 year of services. Previously, only three years of services were required.
• For new employees, full pensions are now available at age 64 (previously age 55) and 25 years of service.
• For new employees, CTA executive pensions are eliminated.

Here are the retiree health care reforms for employees:

• Active employees must now contribute at least 3% of compensation on a pre-tax basis. Currently they contribute nothing.
• Retirees and their dependents would contribute up to 45% of the cost of coverage (currently retirees contribute nothing and dependents pay approximately 20% of the costs of coverage).
• Health care benefits are now available to employees at age 55 and 10 years of services. Previously just three years of service were required.
• Retiree benefits would be no greater than 90% in network, 70% out of network (currently benefits include 100% indemnity coverage option).

I think these provisions move the CTA and its employees closer to what a "normal" business would expect its employees to pay for a pension and retirement health care benefits.

More creatures of habit

I've written in the past about how we're all creatures of habit -- boarding the same train or bus at the same time, picking the same car (near the platform exit door), and seeing the same people.

But yesterday was unusual in that I saw the same person riding to and from work, and on different Red Line cars.

And I noticed this person because she is REALLY pregnant. And yes, I give her my seat even though I was about two seats away from her. Other ingrates were closer, but whatever. She got her seat. And I probably shouldn't start that argument again.

I've seen her board a few times at Addison inbound in the past. Fourth car, rear door. But yesterday was the first time I saw her on the return trip. Seventh car, rear door. And she had a seat, so that's good. I think these kinds of habits seem to make us feel safer in our environment.

Seeking permanent prison break

Over the last two weeks, I've seen one persistent beggar four times on the ride home from work.

He enters through the door connecting train cars. He tells us his name is Jevon Dyer, and he just got out of prison after spending five years at Stateville.

That admission certainly gets people's attention, as some clutch their bags tighter, while for others, jaws drop as riders listen to his plaintive pleas and honest life assessment.

He tells us he's looking for a job, and has a few resumes if we'd like to see one. He explains he's also in desperate need of deodorant, soap, socks, underwear, food , and if you don't mind, he could use some spare change for a 7-day CTA pass. "That would be great."

I took a resume. He's got lots of experience as a fork-lift driver, in case any of you know of a job opening in that field.

There's hope in CTA's $227 million capital plan

I wrote Friday about Daley's $227 million plan to fix up the CTA. Reprinted below are key parts of the press release from the CTA's Web site. Obviously, this is the CTA's spin on it, but read it closely and you'll see key major elements present here that we've been agitating for for a long time:

Accountability - Spending cuts - Creative financing - Leveraging technology, especially GPS - Better training for employees - Emphasis on safety - Cleanliness.

Straight from the release:

"Daley identified several ideas and approaches he thinks the CTA should use to guide its thinking and make sure the system continues to improve.

• In the next few months, publicly detail its plans to improve the system and continue to hold itself accountable to riders and taxpayers. Then, keep the city’s neighborhoods informed regarding the implementation of plans.
• To continue to get the most from every tax dollar, he challenged the CTA to manage even better and further cut spending so more funds can be reinvested in service delivery. The CTA needs to develop a management system which demands that buses be on time.
• The CTA needs to think about how to creatively finance improved service delivery. It needs to look for additional ways to partner with the private sector to do things such as finance station improvements and make it easier for passengers to buy tickets and get schedule information.
• Continue its focus on a system that provides quality services, using the latest innovations and technology, such as continuing to install GPS technology throughout the system to eliminate bunching and reliably track buses and trains. The CTA also needs to develop a management system which demands that buses be on time.
• Provide more and better information to riders regarding delays, provide electronic signs at stations giving real time information on the next train arrival, provide e-mail alerts, especially to regular passengers of the system and improve its online information capability.
• Make sure all CTA employees who deal with the public are trained to do so.
• Invest in system safety. This includes: installing more safety cameras on buses, trains and at stations and stops throughout the system; enhancing maintenance practices for buses and trains – better inspections of brakes and doors, for example; stepping up efforts to monitor train tracks. They need to make sure their monitoring standards are as rigorous as possible.
• Continue efforts to make sure stations, buses and trains are clean and up-to-date. There are still 1,000 trains and buses in the system that are over 25 years old. Perhaps there is a creative financing tool they can use to update the rest.

"Now is also the time they need to consider building new stations with improved amenities, consider partnering with the private sector to provide retail services at key station and consider installing more express vending machines that accept credit and debit cards to make it easier and faster to get tickets."

This is actually quite encouraging to me. Go here to view a PDF of the presentation called "Improving the Customre Experience."