CTA Tattler

>more than 50 comments apiece from you guys

And that's just counting KevinB, unindicted coconspirator and Rusty!

Actually I'm kinda disappointed finding out that the CTA folks read the Tattler.

You kinda think if they did, they would have addressed some of the issues we've brought up.

Now the pessimist in me(small as he is) thinks they just don't care.

KevinB

[You kinda think if they did, they would have addressed some of the issues we've brought up.]

Look, I'm new here, so I don't really know what's all been brought up in the past, but I suspect you may be confusing the terms "some of the issues" and "all of the issues."

It seems to me that a few customer-friendly initiatives have been put in place recently. Slow zones are a big topic of conversation around here, and they're in the process of being fixed. The bus trackers are being installed. There has recently been station improvements to several north side Red Line stations, including new canopy roofs at almost every station from Wilson to Jarvis. Bus bunching is being addressed, although to my mind we're not seeing the results just yet.

Is there still a long way to go? No question. These things are all just a start, the first mile in a marathon. And it's too early to tell how the long view looks at this point.

But the idea that no concerns are being addressed, or that "they just don't care," seems unfounded.

I second what Strannix says...

Also, they've added credit card terminals at some stations so you don't always need cash. They've announced an initiative to change signage at stations and bus stations which is already being used. And they've also announced that signs (essentially a train-tracker) will display at stations showing when the next train will arrive. This is on top of all the work being done at the Belmont and Fullerton stations. Oh and they've spruced up quite a few stations that have reopened to look much nicer.

They are getting things done. If they didn't care, they would not show up to work every day.

I applaud you for "sticking up for the little guy" as you say it, but I think your methods could be improved.

I can't believe that the CTA is rerouting Brown Line trains so that Diversey has no southbound service! How will those people get to Taste of Chicago? Just last week I was trying to use the Diversey station in this kind of situation and it was an absolute nightmare -- tantamount to genocide, really. It's like the CTA hates us all and just wants us to suffer.

[I know some of the readers here are a little bit "literal," so I'll clarify that that's a joke.]

Well, the slow zones are a particular thorn in my side...after all, how many times can they work on the same stretch of track?

We had all the underground work last year that was supposed to take care of the underground slow zones. I'm not the only one who thought that was it not going to be going on continuously, forever (maybe it just seems that way, but years for this particular stretch?)

I can't imagine after being able to go over the North to Clark tracks at a high speed last week and now, "suddenly this week" it became an issue that had to be fixed "right away".

We have more than enough disruptions to SB Redline service during the 3 track operation right now.

If they want to do it AFTER we go back to 4 tracks we probably can live with that, but its like taking all your blood at the same time...instead of stretching it out and minimizing the damage to an already nightmare daily commute.

They've been talking about the bus tracker for years and still not complete. They still don't have a CTA run alerts system in place, the cash/credit card kiosk at the stations thing is nice, but it's not impacting SERVICE. I have a chicago card plus. I don't use cash, I don't even refill it anymore as my work takes care of it every month automatically.

Like I said, when I can get On-Time, Clean, Safe and Friendly a majority of the time I'll shut the heck up.

Actually I could get by with On-Time and Clean...I don't think we'll ever see friendly and safe. Friendly is way out there and as long as you have bus drivers and operators who "can't do anything" about drunk, abusive, dangerous people, I don't think safe is in the equation either...

KevinB

KevinB

so, there is no work on the Blue Line this weekend? Good if so, 'cause I have to go out to Rosemont tomorrow & was wondering about the shuttle. RTA couldn't tell me over the phone last week, as they are not given that information until now, either.

And, yeah, we've been a mouthy bunch this week, haven't we? Good for us!!
As for CTA reading our comments, well at least they know our true feelings (sometimes unexpurgated!), even if they don't/can't/won't do anything about it every time or immediately. A valuable resource for them.

Slow zones are put in place because every other wood tie has to be removed before the forms for pouring the concrete replacement ties can be installed. Given that work has to happen on nights and weekends, it takes a few weeks for a given section of subway trackage to have its ties, tie plates, and third rail shoes fully replaced. It has nothing to do with "suddenly this week" becoming an issue. While the ties are being replaced, the train speed is limited because the rails are only affixed to half as many ties at a single time.

This is not rocket science. I am not a railroad construction expert by any means, but I try to take the time to understand something before I harshly criticize everyone involved and call them incompetent morons. The adage goes, "the less you know about something, the simpler it looks," and KevinB is perhaps the most extreme embodiment of this in all of the internets.

But please KevinB, continue being insufferably and belligerently ignorant.

"We had all the underground work last year that was supposed to take care of the underground slow zones."

Kevin B.,

You mentioined that before and people gave you specific quotes from the CTA from the time which clearly indicated that was not what they said. In fact, I think Kevin made an entire blog entry to state that you were wrong. And you were also given press releases from last year which stated that the CTA was going to be working on the rest of the red line subway this year. Do you pay attention to the answers people give you? Your act is really wearing thin.

"I can't imagine after being able to go over the North to Clark tracks at a high speed last week and now, "suddenly this week" it became an issue that had to be fixed "right away"."

And who the hell is saying that it was? They announced LAST YEAR that they were going to be replacing this track. Do you think they should always wait until there are 15 mph slow zones for them to start working on the area? If they did, you would (and you have, in fact) be complaining about that. And there were slow zones in that area several months ago. I'm sure they fixed some of the most problamatic parts of the track before they started the major work. That doesn't mean it wasn't neccessary.

I will say that Ron Huberman should probably explain to the employee who writes these customer alerts what the meaning of A.M. and P.M. are and the difference between mornings and evenings. The alert currently states:

"11 p.m. nightly until 9 p.m. the next morning,
Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28, 2008"

[They still don't have a CTA run alerts system in place, the cash/credit card kiosk at the stations thing is nice, but it's not impacting SERVICE. I have a chicago card plus. I don't use cash, I don't even refill it anymore as my work takes care of it every month automatically. ]

It is affecting SERVICE if you're someone who uses them. That you do not is neither here nor there; other people do, and it's helpful to them.

I'd also just like to say that construction naturally leads to service delays. But the work has to be done! And when it is, your stated target time will be easily attained.

[...as long as you have bus drivers and operators who "can't do anything" about drunk, abusive, dangerous people, I don't think safe is in the equation either...]

I'll start out by saying that I agree increased security should be a goal. I haven't had any major problems myself, and wouldn't call the system "unsafe." But I also see that if something does happen, I'm likely left to fend for myself, especially on the trains. And I imagine it's tougher in general for women than it is for me.

That said, I have no idea what you'd have the operators actually DO. They're not law enforcement officers, and I don't think it makes much sense to train them as such. And on the trains especially, the operators are ill-equipped to even play bouncer.

In short, I think your problem is at least in part outside the scope of the CTA.

I have to admit that my reaction to this slow zone was "Wait... I thought they finished all the tunnel slow zone work last year." But before I wrote that as a reply this morning I went to yourcta.com and flipped through the press release archive, and saw that it indeed had not been done last year; last year's work only reached as far north as Clark & Division.

It doesn't really matter too much to me personally -- I've gotten to be pretty good at avoiding "rapid" transit. (Zing!)

(Really I'm only replying in the hopes that we can send this thread over 50 posts too.)

==
I will say that Ron Huberman should probably explain to the employee who writes these customer alerts what the meaning of A.M. and P.M. are and the difference between mornings and evenings.
==

Whoever is writing these alerts obviously has no training as a technical writer, and they must have free reign to post them without so much as a proofreeding, let alone review by a trained editor.

It's one thing to see that kind of writing here in these posts where we're slamming out and posting first drafts in the small gaps between our real work. It's another thing to see even worse writing presented as the official word of a huge agency.

What's worse about it is that such sloppiness (like including clip art of a bus with it's doors on the left side in the President's Report) is that it implies that such sloppiness is a cultural given through-out the CTA. (Which could explain why red signals are run, and TO's back up trains on in-service revenue tracks without getting permission first.)

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. It's not the vehicles that need cleaning. Sloppiness is coming to light all over the agency, and that gaffe in the President's Report shows it starts at the top.

Quoting MK: "You mentioined that before and people gave you specific quotes from the CTA from the time which clearly indicated that was not what they said. In fact, I think Kevin made an entire blog entry to state that you were wrong."

Hear hear! IIRC, the CTA did promise that all of the slow zone work in the BLUE LINE's subway would be completed by the end of 2007, which did indeed happen. The only part of the red line that was being worked on at all in 2007 was Grand to Clark/Division. Later press releases stated that the rest of the red line's subway, north and south of those two stations, would begin track work this year.

I'm really pleased that there's been so much activity on this site this week, too, but I wish that most posts were of a more meaningful nature like: is Sedgwick decorated with flowers? Are they opening an auxiliary exit at Harrison? Will the red line run normally during the Taste of Chicago? What's the best way to get to O'Hare from Rogers Park? As it stands, more than half of the posts in the last week have been the same seven or eight people (fairness alert: myself included) arguing with KevinB and Unindicted Co-Conspirator over minutiae and (sometimes extremely) wild speculations.

I would *love* to see KevinB and UC-c get into an argument. I imagine it would be a lot like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter getting into a heated debate about whether vertically or horizontally mowing the lawn would be the best way to permanently get rid of the dandelions :D

But in all seriousness - I was very disappointed to see today that KevinB posted to yesterday's thread chronicling how long it took him to get to work this morning, and that after all the impatient whining he's done, his commute was ONLY twelve minutes longer than it would have been had there been no Brown Line work and no slow-zone work. I think that 30-35 minutes Addison-Lake through TWO different construction zones is still extraordinarily fast. And all that work will be done in the next two years, and that commute will go down to 20 or so minutes again.

It takes a lot of nerve to then wonder why all the work isn't already done already.
You know what makes me impatient? The CTA won't fast track the red line extension to 130th street. There are people on the far south side who will spend 45 minutes on a bus BEFORE they transfer to the red line to downtown, often near the end of the line. And most, if not all of those people, have no other options than public transportation and can't afford to move. The north side is obnoxiously well-served by public transit in comparison, especially if you live in-between the red line and Lake Shore Drive. Anybody who can afford to live near Addison-on-the-Red-Line (myself included) can afford a cheap, old used car to either supplement or completely replace their public transit patronage - far south siders with 60-90 minute commutes usually don't have that option.

The CTA is a public utility, not a private livery service. We can no more expect or demand (as KevinB says) fast, clean, friendly, efficient, no-problem service from it any more than we can from ComEd, People's Gas, or anyone who sits behind a counter at City Hall. The measly $2.00 we pay and the gross under-investment in transit from our tax money has created a monster, and we are all Dr. Frankenstein. Blaming the CTA and calling its administration incompetent is like yelling at your child for failing to fix your broken bicycle when you've given him a hammer and a screwdriver, but no wrench.

Has anyone else noticed that there are an increasing number of trains that will run express when they are severally off schedule? I've always thought that was a great way to deal with "train bunching," and in the past 3 weeks or so, I've really noticed on the red line that occasionally the operator will say, "This delayed red line train will run express from x to y. Another train will be right behind us." Is this a real chance in policy, or just a coincidence that I've been on three trains in as many weeks that did this?

I live where I can easily see and hear the Red line. Yes, the last few months I've noticed I've been hearing the "express train horn" going off a lot more and then looking out to see trains not stopping at Berwyn. I'm a big fan of running trains express to unbunch the line quickly after a delay. Its awful to be stuck on a packed red line when its stop and go for miles due to bunched up trains. At rush hour when things back up really quick, there really is no other option to get the line unblocked quickly.

Yeah, there's no treat like getting on a train as soon as you get to the station, and then hearing the operator saying you're running express from Loyola to Wilson. I've had that happen to me twice in the last couple months and it's awesome.

Of course, it's less awesome to wait for half an hour first (or if I need to get off at, say, Bryn Mawr), but on those rare occasions that you happen to time it just right, it's great.

When I used to live near Sheridan a couple years ago, it made my day when the Red Line would occasionally express from Addison to Chicago. Those were glorious days, making me wish I lived in New York and could do this every day.

"There are people on the far south side who will spend 45 minutes on a bus BEFORE they transfer to the red line to downtown, often near the end of the line."

This area is already well served the the METRA Electric. However, there are currently 2 problems which need to be corrected:

1. You cannot transfer from the METRA to the CTA. Now that RTA has received increased authority to coordinate service in its 3 components, it needs to establish transfers between METRA and the CTA. This should be relatively easy to do.

2. The METRA service is operated like suburban commuter service with infrequent service except during rush hour, rather than as rapid transit. The parts of METRA electric in the city and the Blue Island branch needs to be converted to rapid transit operted jointly by the CTA and METRA as proposed in the Gray Line conversion plan. See the following site:

http://community-2.webtv.net/GLRTS/GRAYLINECONVERSION/

Ugh - I hate that express Red line run from loyola or bryn mawr to wilson. I see it skip Berwyn in the AM at least once a week.

That Gray Line idea actually seems to make a lot of sense.

Adding CTA service on the Metra Electric would not only dramatically expand the reach of transit on the South Side, it would also bring service to most of the Olympics venues that you can't reach by El. http://razetheladder.blogspot.com/2008/06/gray-line-for-chicago.html This would be, by far, the best and most cost-effective expansion to the CTA, yet it's not even on the agenda. Does anyone know why Daley and the CTA are ignoring this?

In addition to the Gray Line, the Red Line extension, and the bus-only lanes (two of the initial ones will be on the South Side), the most important expansion of transit to the South Side is a new El line on the Mid-City Transitway route. http://razetheladder.blogspot.com/2007/02/paving-over-mid-city-transitway.html The MCT would run from O'Hare to Midway to the Red Line at 87th. It would extend service to a number of poorly served and fairly dense low-income neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, provide a desperately needed north-south rail line for the western parts of the city connecting the Blue, Green, Pink, Orange, and Red Lines, and provide an easy link between the airports.

Unfortunately, the MCT is far down on the list of priorities - and in danger of being built as a bus line instead of an El line. It's well behind the expansion of service to well-served neighborhoods and well-off people represented by the Circle Line and airport express.

The uses of scarce expansion funds doesn't get much public debate, at CTA Tattler or anywhere else, and that needs to change if we're going to support the most cost-effective expansion of service to the neighborhoods that need it most. I think Huberman has done a good job overall, but his failure to revise the CTA's expansion priorities is a huge problem.