CTA Tattler

Chicago wins congestion-relief funding from feds

New York's loss is Chicago's gain -- Chicago will get $153 million in federal funds for congestion-relief efforts. Those funds had been earmarked for New York until it missed a deadline to apply.

The congestion-relief efforts are two-pronged: a network of express bus routes, and a peak-period pricing system for both garage and metered parking, and for building loading zones that clog streets.
The streets for express bus routes have not been identified yet. But the Tribune reports that Lake Shore Drive could be one. (We should only hope.)

The Trib also reports:

In addition, buses will make fewer stops—four to five blocks apart. Kiosks will be installed at the bus stops to enable passengers to pre-pay their fares and board quickly once the bus arrives.

Technology will be added to some traffic signals to extend green lights for buses running behind schedule, much like the signal-priority equipment that gives the green to ambulances and fire trucks, officials said. Pace has experimented with the technology on Harlem Avenue in the suburbs.

CTA Tattler and readers have often suggested cutting out the number of stops, so that could be a winning idea. And the idea of pre-paying fares is very intriguing.

Here is Crain's report. And the CTA's press release.

UPDATED: Where are the CTA performance metrics?

Last year in my interviews with CTA President Ron Huberman just after he took over his new job, he boasted about how he was tracking CTA performance on key metrics, such as performance against schedule, safety and cleanliness.

At that time, the CTA Web site had listings of current performance indicators. The last post was June 29, 2007. There have been none since.

The Chi-Town Daily News wanted to know why, especially since the CTA's performance has come under fire since the latest Blue Line evacuation.

In their story, the Daily News reports that the CTA is evaluating what is the best information for its customers to have. I think it's fine to evaluate, but continue to post the metrics until you figure it out.

UPDATE: I heard from a CTA spokesperson today on this issue. Her comments:

"Ron Huberman is planning to report on performance metrics to the May board.  With the original metrics, he was not confident that they were all the right ones to be measuring.  He has weekly performance management meetings and has been using those to develop metrics, build data bases so that he can gauge progress (or lack of progress).  He also has wanted time to be sure of the integrity of the data and that is it reported consistently."

Update on CTA wireless alerts

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of great information shared by riders and the CTA on CTA Alerts, the SMS alerts group my brother Dan created.

There's also been some discussion and anger that not all the alerts were necessary. Read this comments thread starting here.

Finally Dan reached out to ChicagoAnchorman and lazynbcfivejunkie to ask them to chill out a bit. Here's his comment:

To Bob S, UPOC Subscriber, et. al: both of the ChicagoAnchorman and lazynbcfivejunkie users are now listed as Inactive on UPOC. I corresponded with these users and each interaction led to the user bailing from UPOC voluntarily (whilst tossing a final epithet my way).

My basic message was that the user(s) obviously had quality information, and I wanted them to stay, but that I would boot them if they continued to argue with others and post too much information.

Apparently neither user was down with those ideas. I am going to forgo new users for a while and see if things cool out.

Fare hike may be necessary this year

Soaring fuel costs and cost of providing free rides for seniors may force the CTA to increase fares this year, despite passage of a huge bailout -- or maybe I should say -- partly because of it.

CTA President Ron Huberman said, ""We're going to attempt to hold the line on any fare increase because certainly we don't want to turn to our customers and their pocket book when it's already tough. But we'll have to wait and see how the year shapes out." He was interviewed on WBBM News Radio 780's "At Issue" program. You can hear it here. Tribune story here.

Disgust. I mean, discuss.

Condolences and prayers for victims of Red Line accident

I think I can speak for all CTA Tattler readers in extending deep condolences and prayers to the families of the two victims of the accident at the Cermak-Chinatown stop, and to the 21 people who were injured.

The Tribune published a heart-wrenching story in today's paper about the two victims.

Weekend CTA update

This weekend the Red Line will be closed in both directions in the subway. More slow zone work.

Wanna drive a bus? Go to Saturday's job fair.

And Blue Line service is suspended between Jefferson Park and Cumberland.

Meanwhile, CTA Tattler will be on the air Friday at 6 pm at WLUW 88.7-FM. My friends at Outside the Loop radio chatted with me about the Blue Line nonsense last week, among other topics. You can check out the podcast later here.

Have a great weekend. And Happy Birthday to my loving wife, Susan.

CTA roundup: CTA pulls video game ad; another CTA photo blog; NYC crush site

Here's a quick roundup on some news and notes that don't merit a full post, but which you may find interesting.

• The CTA last week pulled ads for Grand Theft Auto IV under pressure from Fox News. I find it amusing that Fox News is now the arbiter of good taste. Gimme a break. CTA Tattler commenters are already discussing this here.
• Here's yet another CTA photo blog: R.O.C.K. on the C.T.A .
• And here's a cool blog that has discovered the abandoned CTA.
• The U.S. Public Interest Research Group announces a video contest. "We want you to create your most persuasive video about why we need more and better public transportation. What’s your vision of a 21st century transportation system?"
• Here's the New York transit system's version of Missed Connections: Subway Crush.
• Get some cool L stop buttons here.
• And finally, check out these sneakers that represent all the train lines.

El groping is common problem nationwide; "recidivist transit grinder" arrested in NYC

The arrest early last week of a serial transit groper reminds me that the problem is certainly not just a local one.

Freddie Johnson has been arrested 53 times, mostly for groping or rubbing against women on the New York city subways. Plainclothes police recognized him from a description they had.

So ladies, please report these incidents to the CTA and 911, with detailed descriptions. And use your cell phones to get photos.

Here's a story out of Boston with a cell phone photo of a groper.

And here's a link to a few CTA Tattler stories about flashers, wankers and gropers.

Lessons learned: More training for rail operators

Mayor Daley Monday changed his tune on how well the CTA responded to Tuesday's Blue Line disruption and passenger self-evacuation.

Last Thursday, Daley had kind words for the CTA and the city's response to the Blue Line shutdown:  "I think they responded very well, really," Daley said then. "Ron Huberman was on board. Fire. Police Department. CTA responded."

But yesterday, Daley said the "biggest mistake was the CTA's failure to notify emergency personnel of the stalled subway trains for almost an hour," the Tribune reports.

One immediate response is to create "a mandatory 1-day training program for rail employees that focuses specifically on emergency communications; adding cell phones to standard subway operating equipment to increase communications options; and updating emergency materials for customers," according to a CTA press release.

I'm pleased that the CTA has taken a critical look at how it can improve situations such as these and is acting accordingly.

Happy First Anniversary to CTA Wedding Couple

I recently heard from a woman who loves the CTA so much that she took it to her wedding reception. And today is her first wedding anniversary, so congrats to Jim and Krista. Here's a photo and her story below.

"I am a CTA geek through and through and so when Jim and I decided to get married I always planned to use the CTA.  In fact, I would only hire a photographer that would go on the CTA with us.  We walked two blocks from the church to the Kedzie-Homan blue line stop and took the CTA with about half our guests (10-15) onto the Pink Line at Clark and back to Polk – and walked to Taylor St where our reception was.  This was all on April 21, 2007.

"Our wedding pictures are here; the CTA photos start about 75% down the pages.  They are the best pictures from our wedding."

-- Krista