CTA Tattler

Where it should be! I'll tell you where the train should be dag-nabbit, it should be where ever I'm going, I am the most important person on this thing, right?

Anyway, I never understood why the signaling works the way it does. It seems like the track circuits at the platforms should be a kind of "soft circuit", like it should allow the train to fully dock with the platform, even if the train in front is still slightly in the same track circuit (If my theory makes no technical sense whatsoever, someone should correct me).

Your theory makes sense, but I am sure that there is a reason why they do not do it...most likely because of the accidents that have occurred in the past (see previous posts alluding to that). But I am certainly not an expert.

What line were you on? Yes, was it NB?

Red: It was on the track it was supposed to be on.
Brown: It was on the wrong track, but a simple announcement, and a turn ahead of Belmont from track 3 towards Southport anyway.
Purple: It was on the wrong track, but a simple announcement and a switch ahead of Belmont to track 4 (to Howard) takes care of it.

Did they really move the train backwards and over to track 4(if it wasn't Red)?
Please excuse me if I'm not getting the joke here.

I think this might be a "had to be there" moment. I don't quite get it, in any event. Trains pull up short all the time - so what?

Right. It's very simple: the train pulled up short of the station. As huh says, it happens all the time. But usually the motorman says: "The train is not all the way into the station, pleas stand by."

So it was the first time I ever heard: "This train is not where it should be . . ."

And my fellow commuters and I laughed at that line.

Sounds to me like it was probably on the right track, but the TO stopped either too far forward, or too far back.

You never want a moving train in the same block as a stopped train if there are passengers on either train. Even a slight bump can result in plenty of injuries, and/or derailment.

If you still can't grasp how much of a safety issue this really is, and you can only think in terms of how it delays your commute, imagine how much even the slightest accident would delay your commute.

Trains are kept seperate for very good reasons. Individual operators are not allowed to routinely override the signals for very good reasons. While it may appear to some people that they are keeping the trains separated more than necessary, they are not. You are just under estimating the power of those trains, the damage that can be done by even the slightest contact, and the chance of that kind of contact happening if signals were allowed to be ignored.

This is an issue where it is important to strive for 100% safety. 99% is simply not good enough.

Another motorman ad lib right up there with "you do not have protection" from a few weeks ago. "This train is not where it should be:" sounds like the motorman is having himself a little existential crisis at the controls. Maybe he thinks the train should be somewhere that Spring has a chance of arriving before mid-May.

Maybe the train was being driven by Magritte.

"This train is not where it should be and this is not a pipe...

This is not a pipe.