CTA Tattler

Weekend Loop El work again -- and Red Line subway closed

OK folks, sorry, I messed up. I didn't see the customer alert noting that the Red Line subway would be closed this weekend. So the Red Line will indeed be sharing tracks with the Orange, Brown, Pink and Green lines this weekend.

Weekend Loop El work again -- but Red Line stays in the subway -- or does it?

The Lake and Wabash branches of the Loop El tracks will be closed again this weekend, but train traffic won't be a bad as last weekend because there will be no Red Line slow zone work forcing it to the elevated tracks. UPDATE: Or maybe there will be?

Commenter John says he got a Red Line alert that it will be going over the top this weekend, but I can't find it on the CTA's Web site. So I really don't know!

Last weekend the same area in the Loop El was closed, but the Red line shared limited track space due to subway slow zone work.

Go here to read about all the weekend services changes.

And have a good weekend. Next week I'll report on the return of performance metrics to the CTA Web site and planned improvements to the public address address system.

CTA accelerates three-track work; now targets completion by Christmas

The CTA plans a nice Christmas gift for North Side El riders -- an early end to the three-tracking project -- six months early.

CTA President Ron Huberman announced Wednesday the CTA plans to invest an additional $1.6 million to accelerate the construction project, finishing it around Christmas. The extra cost will be offset by $1 million in projected ridership gains and $800,000 in operational savings.

"“Accelerating the construction schedule will cost $1.6 million that will come out of capital funds for the Brown Line project budget," said Huberman. "But it will reduce our operating costs since we are currently providing supplemental bus service and have additional staff deployed to the corridor to support three-track operation. Most importantly it will restore normal service for our customers sooner than expected.”

I give Huberman credit for finding ways to leverage funds to finish projects early that really affect travel times -- for instance, the slow zone projects.

Tattler tidbits: Huberman told us over coffee in March that he wanted to finish the three-tracking project by the end of the year, but he asked me not to report it at the time. I suspect he was still trying to figure out how to pay for it.

Express buses and those unclear on the concept

I derive some sort of evil joy when I'm riding an express bus, and some folks on board are unclear on the concept that they don't stop at every block. And it's wicked fun to see their reactions when the bus doesn't stop where they want it to stop. Such as:

• Angrily yanking on the cord for the driver to stop.

• Yelling at the driver.

Once, my wife helpfully pointed out that they were riding an express bus that stops every half mile. The guy gave her a bewildered and furious look, and heatedly snapped: "He will stop at THIS corner for ME!"

She calmly replied: "It's an express bus, he won't stop till we get to Pulaski."

The rider shrugged and retorted: "Who the fuck asked you?"

Just goes to prove that no good turn goes unpunished.

A heated encounter on the Irving Park bus

My wife was on the 80X Irving Park heading east one night last week. She saw a 40-ish guy across the aisle, wearing a UPS uniform, totally engrossed in his phone, texting away, minding his own business.

A guy boarded at Western wearing a white windbreaker and Cubs cap -- a big guy all around. As he was barreling down the aisle, his leg brushed against the foot of UPS man. He turned and shouted, "Excuse you too, mother fucker!" The UPS guy looked up from the phone and said incredulously, "Excuse me? What did you just say to me?"

The big guy said, "Yeah you heard me, you piece of shit!" The UPS guy said, "Well I said excuse me. Happy now?"

The guy shouted back: "Fuck you, you piece of shit!" The UPS guy said: "That's nice. You gotta real problem pal."

The big guys said: "Do you want to get off this bus and deal with my problem? You're all talk, you white mother fucker."

My wife has heard enough. She turned to the big guy and said, "Stop it right now!" He ignored her and continued to hurl verbal abuse at the UPS guy, who was giving back as good as he got.

Finally, at Irving and Ashland, my wife complained to the driver, who stopped the bus, got off and whistled for a cop. The officer arrived a couple of seconds later. Meanwhile, the passengers are getting pissed because they are now being delayed. And, both the idiots walked out the back door and left.

Then a young woman on the bus looked at my wife and said: "I rode the Metra with that UPS guy all the way from Palatine. And he was fighting with somebody on the phone during the entire train ride. He must have been in a really bad mood."

CTA picks four heavily used routes for bus-only lanes

Wasting no time after an announcement late last month, the CTA Friday announced that bus-only lanes will be built on parts of Halsted, Chicago, 79th and Jeffrey by 2010.

Here are some features of the plan:

• Prepayment locations along along the bus routes to allow speedier front and back boarding.
• Traffic lights that automatically turn green when they detect the hybrid buses approaching.
• Bus stops about a half-mile apart.
• Increased parking fees in downtown garages.

The city and the  CTA must implement the pilot bus-only routes by April 30, 2010, or lose the $153 million in federal funding.

I like it.

Cable fire creates a Saturday night mess for Loop El trains

It was bad enough that four train lines had to share less than half the El tracks in the Loop this weekend due to Red line slow zone work and work on the east of the elevated structure.

But to make matters worse, service in the Loop was shut down for about seven hours overnight Saturday into Sunday morning due to a cable fire close to the El tracks.

Once again, passengers complained about the lack of communication from the CTA. I think the CTA dodged a bullet since this happened at just about the slowest time.

Read xica's account of the confusion over at LiveJournal.

No El service this weekend on east side of the Loop

Work on the Wabash and Lake portions of the Loop elevated structure this weekend will tighten up El traffic and have Brown Line trains turning into Orange Line trains, and vice versa.

Crews will be replacing signal and train control systems, a project that is scheduled for completion in 2009.

With Wabash and Lake closed to traffic, Brown Line trains heading south into the Loop will turn into Orange Line trains, and Orange trains heading north will become Brown.

And to further confuse riders, Red Line trains will share the tracks as slow zone work continues in the tunnel.

And of course, Blue Line service will be suspended between Harlem and  Rosemont.

So that means that six of the eight rail lines will have service disruptions this weekend. Frankly, this isn't too smart -- to have the Red Line reroute to a track that already will have to deal with reroutes. I understand the CTA has to do this work, but they should do these reroutes on the same weekend. As Chicago Carless Mike wrote in an email to me: "The entire eastern half of River North and the Loop is becoming a transit desert this weekend."

Have fun, folks. I think I'm staying away from the Loop this weekend.

The inside scoop on train run numbers

I've sometimes wondered what's the story on CTA train run numbers, especially since they've been announced more frequently for the last few years with the advent of automated stop announcements.

So whenever I need the scoop on anything related to the CTA El lines, I always go to Chicago-L.org.

So, here is their detailed account of what a run number is and how they are assigned. While you're over there, browse their vast collection of knowledge.

Problems, failures by Huberman in his first year

Just as in the Led Zeppelin song, for Ron Huberman in his first year at the helm: "Communication breakdown, it's always the same."

And it's quite ironic, because Huberman has put a lot of work into improving passenger communications, but chronic CTA problems on that front have caused him the biggest headaches during his first year.

The biggest head ouchie occurred last month when a stuck train in the Blue Line subway and bad passenger communications led to the evacuation of 1,000 people. The next week, Huberman got a public scolding by Da Mayor in front of his peers.

Huberman needs to get back in the good graces of Daley. The Sun-Times' Michael Sneed, legendary for her many sources deep inside City's Hall Fifth Floor, opined last week (among other things) that "Huberman was one of Mayor Daley's favorites -- until 1,000 CTA passengers were trapped last month for nearly an hour in the Blue Line subway before CTA officials called emergency rescue workers."

First, operating funds, now capital cash: For months, the state Legislature was polarized over the issue of how to provide more operating cash for the CTA. That forced Huberman to slash his budget and threaten fare hikes and massive service cuts. While not his fault, this scenario certainly had to be about the last thing Ron wanted to see in his first months.

Fortunately, the state came through with the cash. Unfortunately, they demanded that the CTA to give free rides to seniors, forcing Huberman to once again threaten fare hikes. And still Huberman is spending more time than he really wants to in Springfield with his hat in hand, begging for capital funding to buy more new buses and rail cars.

Other stuff, certainly not all Huberman's fault, but they happened on his watch:

May 2007:

Fire on the tracks

June:

CTA public meeting no waltz in the park

July:

Huberman's plan to improve communications with CTA riders, safety -- still looking for payback on this promise.

September:

Again, a little more communication, please, on route changes

January 2008:

Cold wreaks havoc on CTA trains, buses; more info needed

April

Where are the CTA performance metrics?

Welcoming little "Dude" into the world

Overheard one night on the Red Line at about 8:30. It was part of a more far-flung conversation, but this was the part I loved.

Member of the rock band Dude Man Bro:

"My kid's going to be born in a week, and I'm going to name him "Dude." This is not even kidding. The doctor said if she doesn't start labor in a week, we're going have him induced.

Other passenger:

"Ha ha. My wife's grandfather was named "Dude."

The latest Bus Tracker routes; CTA sued for pulling video game ads

The CTA Monday announced 18 new bus routes will begin using the CTA's Bus Tracker service starting May 19.  Most of them originate out of the 74th St. Garage. They are:

• #9 Ashland
• #X9 Ashland Express
• #X20 Washington/Madison Express
• #21 Cermak
• #44 Wallace/Racine
• #47 47th
• #48 South Damen
• #50 Damen
• #51 51st
• #52A South Kedzie
• #53A South Pulaski
• #55 Garfield
• #X55 Garfield Express
• #59 59th/61st
• #60 Blue Island/26th
• #63 63rd
• #67 67th/69th/71st
• #75 74th/75th

The CTA now tracks a total of 32 buses with Bus Tracker. It has promised to add more buses each month this year, by bus garage. Previous Tattler Bus Tracker coverage.

CTA sued for pulling video game ads. The maker of Grand Theft Auto IV has sued the CTA for yanking its ads from buses and trains. The Tribune reports:

Take Two says in papers filed in U.S. court in Manhattan that the CTA and its sales agent, Titan Outdoor LLC, violated a $300,000 deal that was to keep the ads up till June on the sides of buses and in displays throughout the CTA train system, according to Reuters.

More on Huberman problems later. Monday, on the one-year anniversary of Ron Huberman at the CTA helm, I promised to write today about some problems he ran into and some things that still need work. That post it not quite ready yet. Look for it later this week.

A year in review: Huberman's first year at the helm

CTA President Ron Huberman has now been on the job for a year. Here is a partial list of his accomplishments. Tuesday I will publish some problems he ran into and some things that still need work.

May 2007

• Within weeks of his appointment, he introduced a series of belt-tightening measures to control administrative costs.
• Established a Performance Management Initiative at the CTA that has set standards for every CTA employee and holds managers strictly accountable for the performance of their departments.
• Added Brown Line trains back into service following successful performance of three-track operation.
• Locked in low pricing for 400 additional New Flyer Buses.  The timing helped reduce the capital expense of purchasing new buses.

June

• In June, through an expedited arbitration process, the CTA and its unions agreed on historic pension and health care reforms.  Such reforms had been demanded by the General Assembly and were critical to securing legislative support for CTA funding.   

July

• Announced plans to install and test Drive Cam  - a technology designed to monitor, evaluate and identify driving behavior of CTA bus operators as a means to prevent accidents, increase safety and reduce the cost of repairs and accident claims.
• Belt-Tightening measures began to show results.  Financial results for May showed a budget surplus of $1.9 million as a result of administrative efficiencies and performance management systems implemented.  Overtime costs were reduced by 25%. The total labor expense for the month of May was $4.1 million below budget.
• Major Slow Zone elimination plan announced for Red and Blue Lines.

August

• Launch of Rail Cleaning pilot.

September

• Subway improvements. Reported on subway track repairs, lighting and signage improvements, reorganization of track inspection and maintenance departments and technological enhancements.
• Conducted weekend emergency drills with Chicago Fire Department in CTA subway.
• Work to eliminate slow zones in the Blue Line subway is completed ahead of schedule.
• Launched pilot Bus Clean initiative at 74th Garage.
• Launch a pilot to test methods to eliminate bus bunching.

October

• Most of October was devoted to planning CTA’s 2008 budget and contingency plans if funding was not approved.  Developed a Back to Basics budget to focus limited resources on service.

November

• Leveraged more than $2 million in pro bono consulting services to assist with CTA transformation.
• Management efficiencies resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of buses put into service each day. By developing a system to catch up on preventive maintenance, the CTA was able to reduce by 89 percent the average number of daily runs cancelled due to defective equipment. By training managers on absenteeism and demanding more accountability, the number of daily runs cancelled due to manpower shortages decreased by 34 percent in the same time period.
• Construction complete at the Sedgwick station on the Brown Line.
• Montrose Station reopens ahead of schedule.
• Slow Zone progress.  More than 60,000 feet of slow zones eliminated by year end.

December

• Newly renovated Addison Brown Line station reopens.
• Red Line trains resume normal speeds as work to eliminate 8,400 feet of slow zones from Grand to Clark/Division is completed.
• Plans announced for future purchase of 150 hybrid buses.  CTA estimates that the hybrid technology will save the agency more than $900,000 annually in fuel costs and nearly $7 million annually in maintenance, parts and labor costs over buses currently in service.
• Slow zone work from Jefferson Park to Harlem completed; 22,500 feet of slow zones were removed.
• Reported on signage improvement plans.

January 2008

• Transit Funding Legislation  Illinois General Assembly approved transit funding legislation, putting the CTA’s operating budget on stable financial footing for the first time in decades.
• Increased ridership in 2007: Combined bus and rail ridership increased by 4.7 million rides, a gain of one percent over 2006 ridership, for a total of 499.5 million rides. It is the highest ridership level since 1992.
• Slow Zones Update.  CTA removed nearly 20 percent of slow zones since announcing the slow zone elimination plan in June 2007.
• CTA makes technology enhancements to 5000-Series rail cars. Adds wireless connectivity and cellular modems to  railcars that will allow the CTA’s Control Center to communicate directly with customers in real-time via audio and text messages using speakers and six visual displays in each car.
• Three Track update. Northbound Red Line trains resume operating on the inner northbound track at Fullerton.

February

• Announces plans for eight car service to begin on Brown Line nearly 18 months earlier than originally planned.
• Adds weekend service on Yellow Line and enhances bus service on #43 and #65.
• CTA announces a $200 million capital program with federal funding to improve the safety and reliability of the system.

March

• Introduced new Express Farecard vending machines for credit cards.
• Expands Mystery Shopper program.
• Issued $250 million in Capital Grant Receipt Revenue Bonds to accelerate funding of capital improvement projects, including the purchase of buses and rail cars, and slow zone elimination.
• Takes action to stem rising fuel costs. CTA accelerates the purchase of hybrid buses and redesigns other buses to reduce their weight and improve their fuel economy. Combined, the CTA expects that these steps will save $91.5 million over the 12-year average life of the buses compared to the costs to operate the current fleet of buses.
• Expands Bus Tracker  – 13 Additional Routes Provide Customers with Bus Arrival Times, All Bus Routes to Be Live within 12 Months.
• Reopened Southport Brown Line station.
• Implemented  Free Rides for Seniors program.

April

• Partners with Google to provide mapping and directions for CTA bus and rail services in 11 languages on the Google Transit web site.  Increases CTA’s reach to a broader audience and introduces them to the convenience of public transit at no cost to the agency.
• Solicits electricity supply proposals from authorized suppliers in an effort to lower the annual cost of supplying electricity to CTA trains and facilities.
• Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools collaborate to test smart cards for high school students who take public transportation.
• More slow zone work planned along the north end of the Red Line and sections of the Brown Line.
• A new digital advertising and communications initiative that will provide next train arrival information and notify customers of service changes. Will provide the CTA with more than $100 million in revenue.
• Adds Blue Line service on O’Hare and Forest Park branches.

Red and Blue this weekend: the usual mess

Expect the usual delays this weekend as the CTA steps up slow zone work on the Red and Blue lines.

The northbound Red Line will operate on elevated tracks instead of the subway from noon Saturday till 3 am Monday.

Blue Line service between Harlem and Rosemont will be suspended from 9 pm Friday till 3 am Monday.

I'm going to try out the trolley service this weekend in New Orleans at the Jazz Festival. Peace.

"Crank dat CTA" and "I Hate the CTA"

A reader shares this fabulous CTA mashup from You Tube.

Also, "I Hate the CTA," which someone dedicated to KevinB this week.