CTA Tattler

Can someone please explain why an outage down near Chinatown impacted all the red line to the north? Is it really on one giant circuit?

"Interestingly, this train did NOT stop at Sheridan as it usually does on Cubs game days."

Exactly. Why would anyone at the CTA have the common sense to stop the Purple at Addison and Sheridan during a situation like this? It would make *way* too much sense to alleviate the crowds at Fullerton and Belmont. And why would they bother to make announcements that Wrigley Field is a ten minute walk from Belmont -- again, that would make too much sense. Better to let the platforms overcrowd.

I was turned away at the Monroe subway entrance and got on the Brown, which was packed by Madison and Wabash (but it still, of course, stopped at every station for some reason). At Fullerton I gave up on trying to get on the Red so I took a Purple to Belmont -- as I feared, I had to get off when they said the next stop was Howard. Unbelievable. Reds were coming in one for every three Browns so the platform was getting packed. The reaction of every train operator was to yell at the people on the platform to move away from the edge, as if they had a choice. I probably experience this kind of mess once or twice a year. As I usually do, I just left the station. Belmont station attendants, were of course, kicking around life, shooting the shit, not telling anyone entering the station what was going on. I walked to Broadway (couldn't get the Clark bus due to Cubs game crush) where a group of us waited for 15 minutes to jam onto a packed 36. 45 minutes later, got to Thorndale. Total commute: 2 hours.

"Passengers were pushing, shoving, yelling and screaming, trying to worm their way onto the train filled to capacity."

That's disgusting. Who acts that way? It's not the end of the world to have a bad commute home on one day. I'm so annoyed with people who have no freaking patience whatsoever.

The train problems also impacted buses in the loop. The express buses that run down Michigan Ave. and then LSD were as crowded as the trains. People were at least ten deep and taking up the entire sidewalk at every bus stop along MI ave. I left work at 5:30 and seeing the state of the buses, decided to go to a bar to wait it out. By 8 pm, the bus situation seemed sorted out.

I managed to get a brown line at Clark&Lake. However there were still passengers refusing to move to the center and end of the cars. I had to worm my way to the forward end of the car and there was even a free seat plenty of standing room. I wish there were CTA Bouncers to order people to fill in the cars! Also -this is to the Cubs fans who get on at Belmont waiting for a red line to Addision- it's a nice and easy walk from Belmont to Addison!

My question is why is there not someone on the mangment staff that just drops everything to handle communication when soemthing like this happens. It doesn't have to be a full time person but someone that gets the second call and stops what they are doing to handle just communication.
Seems like that is what the problem is, no one point person that all they do is direct the station attendants on what to do.

@Colin: There aren't extra operators on duty at once to start running extra trains from 95th to Howard, and there's no way to turn a Red Line train around that wouldn't throw a monkey wrench into every other line's operation. Sad but true.

I didn't leave work until 5:45, so luckily I saw the announcement on the Trib homepage before I left, so I caught the brown line at Van Buren/Library. However, my commute was still about 90 minutes. Kudos to all of the passengers advising anyone(who was dressed like they were going to the cubs game) to exit at Belmont and walk up to Wrigley--many people offered to lead the way for the out-of-towners, or were at least giving precise walkign directions. I myself almost got out with them so I could walk to Addison and re-board the redline.

I got out of work at 6 and the bus stops along Michigan were still packed. There were people there who had been waiting to get on a bus since 5. I walked south a couple of stops--I was really looking for a cab, but I saw a not-full 145, so I got on. It took an hour to get to Belmont, where I had to change to a 136 that had its heat on, took that up to catch my westbound bus to the neighborhood. Total commute time: two hours.

I can't actually fault the CTA for that. I will say, however, they're still not communicating well. And why can't they add buses? I know they don't have a lot of rolling stock, but they could divert a few Streeterville buses in an emergency. It's not as if I've never encountered a bus driver that didn't know the route he was suddenly told to drive. It happens.

Fortunately, I missed this whole debacle because I had to drive into work yesterday. From what I've heard from friends, communication from the CTA was nonexistent. One friend suggested that the CTA should offer a day of free rides on the Red Line to make amends to commuters.

@jenny: Your solution makes complete sense. I'd much rather wait things out in a bar than wait for a 147 for over an hour and still not be able to get on!

I attempted to board a northbound red line at 5:45 at 35th. (I should have been tipped off by the WGN tv crew interviewing people on the street.) The attendant at the station just said that no trains were running in either direction. She didn;t offer any more information, but I didn't really ask. So I walked over to the green line. There were a ton of attendants at the Bronzeville station - out on the street, in the station, up on the platform. The Red line was actually stopping there and letting everyone out, where southbound riders had to get on a shuttle bus to get to 47th. It seems like this station was the exception rather than the norm, but I was impressed by the communication.

My commute wasn't too bad, actually. I managed to get on a purple line at Library, got off at Belmont, and walked the last 1.25 miles home. It took an extra 1/2 hour. Beyond that, the driver of the train I was on communicated well. Here is what I just sent to CTA customer feed back:

"Because of yesterday's incident on the Red Line in Chinatown, I took the Purple Line from the Library stop to Belmont. I want to commend the driver of purple line run 510 for the excellent job he did in communicating with the passengers on the train and on the platform. He spoke clearly (not an easy thing to do over the train speaker system), informed riders of the situation with the Red Line, and gave passengers on the platform times for the following trains. He was very reassuring in the midst of a chaotic situation."

It is unfortunate that they couldn't switch the red line trains to run over the loop right away, but that obviously still wouldn't have allow through traffic given that they cut power all the way down to 47th street. Anyone know why they had to cut power to such a long stretch of track?

John's suggestion that there be a HQ point person to direct emergency communications makes sense. And I'll further suggest that this person be charged with thinking about the situation from the passenger's perspective. Everything he or she does should be an answer to the question "if I were a passenger stuck on that train [or whatever the situation is], what would be my biggest problems and what would I most want to know?"

A Cubs game certainly made things worse for last night's commute north. I waited 1+ hours at Fullerton for a Red Line train with any standing room. Evidently only southbound Purple trains stop at Sheridan on Cubs gamedays. Why not stop northbound Purple trains at Sheridan? I could have taken a Purple to Sheridan and then switched to Red -- after Red had disembarked all the Cubs fans. Finally, I just took a Purple to Howard and doubled back to Berwyn on a Red Line.
...of course by then (7:10 pm), Red Line trains were plenteous and empty -- natch!

I was just talking to a co-worker who was on a SB Red line train at the time of the accident. They were just coming out of the tunnel when the train shut down w/ no announcement. She said they waited 45 minutes before self-evacuating. She didn't find out what happened until she got home hours later.

Also another coworker said someone had a seizure on one of the overcrowded Brown Line trains, which slowed them down too because this person had to taken off a train somewhere ahead of him, but his train operator told people about the reason for that delay.

Everyone take the cue from Jenny, the smart one: Next time CTA chaos ensues, make a beeline to the nearest bar!

I don't think any Purple Line trains should ever stop at Addison. The point of letting people off at Sheridan is that it's convenient because trains don't have to switch tracks. Back when the CTA was too stupid to use Sheridan for this, it *did* have trains switch tracks to stop at Addison, and this was an awful mess that slowed down all of rush hour along that stretch. (Which, let's be clear, is the entire Red and Purple lines, because the Red needs to keep those trains at the minimum headway, and the Purple interferes with that.)

I don't see much point to having northbound Purple trains stop at Sheridan, although in an emergency situation like yesterday Chichi's suggestion makes some sense. But on a regular basis, it doesn't; Cubs fans would be taking the train from Belmont to Sheridan and then backtracking half a mile. Better to just get them out at Belmont or Addison.

The real solution is to move the Cubs out to the burbs where their fans are anyway, of course.

As for yesterday's events, I happened to take a vacation day yesterday and missed the whole thing. Yay me.

With derailments, bodies on the tracks and mechanical malfunctions becoming an almost daily occurrence, it's amazing the same problems with communication and logistics keep cropping up. Does anyone at CTA stop to think how they would like it if they were treated the way they treat their passengers?I'm sure it's a huge undertaking to coordinate emergency service notification, evacuation, assembling shuttles, disseminating information to employees, but it doesn't seem impossible, especially with the enormous amount of real-life practice CTA has gotten in the last two months. I've stopped trying to convince people to take transit more often. It's getting too embarrassing to have to keep apologizing for CTA like it's some drunken family member being obnoxious at Thanksgiving dinner.

HaHa (ala Nelson from the Simpsons)

This block 37 thing has been a royal fiasco from the start.

I'll give Ron credit for not pouring more money into a hole on this project...

I just want to know if the Washington St Redline station is going to open anytime soon (before September when all ths stuff was supposed to be complete).

KevinB

ooopss....forgot the trib link:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta-block37-webjun12,0,3643712.story

I ride the Brown, but when the weather warms I'm very lucky to be able to bike to work. If this option is open to ANY of you, I strongly suggest it. I cannot express to you the relief I feel not taking a train the days I bike in!

I just take the bus in the morning and run home at night.

Let's get to the root of yesterday's problem.
An idiot died when he got under a train.
When anyone falls under a train, first determine if they're dead or alive.
If alive, shut off the power & get them out.
If dead, run the train over the body & then shut the power off for the two minutes it takes to drag the corpse off the tracks.
Then turn the power back on & get the system moving again!

I don't give a shit about dead bodies, they're dead, they're already mangled really bad from the train.

Stop this worshipful treatment of these bodies & treat them as what they really are, a hunk of meat!

Thousands of other people are more important than one DEAD BODY!

Did I miss it, or was nothing posted on this site about the body on the tracks/Brown Line stoppage Monday morning? I'm just curious.

I find it funny how people whine when people use public transit for a different purpose than them. I use the train to go to and from work, and when there are night games I get off at Addison to go the game. I don't complain about Cubs fans because I am one. I don't complain about rush hour worker bees because I am one. The importance of you getting home is no lesser or greater than the importance of me getting to the ballpark.
I like to watch batting practice and try to get a ball or 2 so I am usually on more of a time crunch but I don't jump in front of the line when a train pulls up or smoosh my way in to a full train. Have some patience people and stop worrying about people going to a different destination than you.
If you think all of the Cubs fans are worried about missing valuable drinking time (most aren't) than would you rather have them driving to the ball park?

My commute wasn't that bad. Luckily for me, I found out about the incident on the CTA's web site before I left work. I ended up taking the Metra UP-North to Rogers Park. Even accounting for the 1.5 mile walk from the Metra to my apartment on the lake, it only took me an hour to get home. The Red Line to Loyola takes about 45 minutes on a normal day, so I kinda lucked out.

Can't blame the CTA on this one. They did the best they could given the circumstances. Besides, the idiot robber who got hit by the Red Line ought to be a shoo-in for the Darwin Award.

"Did I miss it, or was nothing posted on this site about the body on the tracks/Brown Line stoppage Monday morning? I'm just curious."

Yes. About that. And yesterday. Chicago, could we not throw bodies -- dead or alive, ours or others, intentional or accidental -- into the CTA tracks or in front of buses or trains? Seriously?

And if you must, after morning and evening rush hours?

Thanks, Chicago. Pretty sure most of us will appreciate it.

On the brighter side, maybe there's a new revenue stream...executions...then there's the soylent green and medical school tie-in for even more revenue-enhancing opportunities.

KevinB

Foudn out before I left work, took the Grand bus (packed to the gills) to the Blue at Milwaukee, took that up to western and the 49 up. The blue line was EMPTY, lots of empty seats, weird, the 49 bus is a disaster.

I finally got on the second train that came through North/Clybourn after work. It was full of Cubs fans, but everyone was pretty cool on the train, understanding that, hey, sometimes messes just happen.

However, once we got to Fullerton, a few of us who were in the doorways stepped off the train so that people could get off. But people on the platform, which was very full, didn't understand the very basic rule that you don't try to push your way on before the people who stepped off the train get back on it. This seems to happen a lot when trains are packed and I don't get it. I blocked them from getting on with my arm, which elicited some very nasty looks and comments, but hello? Common courtesy, anyone?

@Andrew: Sure there is. The old Howard-Englewood-Jackson Park incline south of Roosevelt. That would, in fact, have been a perfect place to turn Red Line trains ahead of the outage. Alternately, have the Reds loop around the Loop then return back to Howard.

@BorgHunter: You are obviously a Northsider! People take the Red Line South and taking the red down to 35th on the Green to shuttle buses to take them over to 47th (the south cut) just makes plain sense.
@Co-conspirator: You are just sick. There is of course a need for a police investigation, and safety. I heard they brought the body out through Sox-35, hence why they probably needed to keep that station closed. Have some respect for the dead, even the criminally stupid and also some decency. Else people would complain about the lack of sensitivity.
@LG: Agreed.

No, I will never have any respect for a dead idiot criminal!
Good fucking riddance to him!
What if someone had a heart attack or collapsed on a stuck train without A/C because of this moron crook?

You need to have respect for the living!

Robbery suspect. Not robber. What kind of justice system are you after?

I can’t speak for the Red Line incident, but I was on the Brown Line during the stoppage on Monday morning, and we had a great conductor (engineer?—I’m never sure which they’re called). I go in early and leave early, so I was before the actually morning rush. I got to Western and they were putting up tape to keep people from going up to the inbound platform, and were directing us up to the outbound platform. When I got to the top I saw that a train was in the station, so I went down to the end and hopped on, thinking we’d be pulling out shortly (this was before I knew what was going on). Once I was seated I realized that there was no power (I know, really unobservant, but in my defense I hadn’t had any caffeine yet). I asked the woman next to me if she knew what was going on, and she filled me in. The conductor kept us posted, let us know when he got a time frame for moving, and left the doors opened so we could get some air. Luckily nobody in my car was crabby about it, which definitely helped the situation, and it was early so it wasn’t a crowded train, so people just read their papers and what not like a normal commute.

After a long while we did start moving, but lost power again after a minute. I was right up front and when we lost power, I could hear the conductor say, “Oh, man!” and that sort of made people smile. Again, he would periodically come on and apologize and say that he hoped that we would be moving soon and that they were working on it. While we were waiting he came through and started to open up windows so we could get a little fresh air, and that was when the power came back on. When we got to Montrose he apologized to the people on the platform and let them know that another train had turned around and was coming behind us. The train filled so much that we ended up running express after Addison.

Oh, and on a side note, when I was walking from the Merchandise Mart I ended up passing the film crew setting up to film the Johnny Depp movie! All in all, it was quite a way to start the work week!

@A: They're motormen.

Well, damn I guess I'll have to "check out the [transitchicago.com] website" every single night before I log off after work is done so I'll be fortunate enough to avoid the confusion and chaos that is the evening rush. If I had a crystal ball and psychic insight, perhaps I would have thought about doing this on Tuesday....

EXcuse mY bitterness, but my java buzZ wore off after waiting for the Redline behind Cubs fans for an hour....

I didn't see anything posted about this (147 bus+early commuters), so adding for the record:

There seemed to be a problem with the 147 (but not the other 140s), I assume because it's the best option for those who can't get home on the brown/purple when the red is out of service.

I left work around 415/420 and walked to State/Madison to catch a bus. Seeing none I headed for the red line. A moderate crowd was forming on the platform, and after about five minutes they announced via PA trains were not moving and updates will follow soon. Back at State/Madison 151s and a few 140s stopped but a substantial crowd was forming for the absent 147. An older woman next to me had been waiting for 45 minutes at around 445. A few minutes later a short 147 arrived, already nearly fully packed. Maybe another 5-10 minutes later a long 147 arrived, and it was completely full two or three stops after State/Madison. We stopped at Chestnut to let off a rider, skipping most of the stops north of Wacker, and the crowd outside the bus yelled at the driver because they couldn't get on (I think? Hard to tell from the back of a crowded bus).

Matt,

What's your point?

MK, in a thread filled with anecdotes about how people coped with their commute that day, I don't see any reason to call out Matt for his.

Note that half of the 147s are scheduled to begin their route at Randolph and Michigan every 10 minutes. (Also note that I say "are scheduled to.") I walk to that corner from well up into the Mag Mile to take advantage of that; if you're anywhere in the Loop area and you think the 147s that start farther south might be too crowded to get on, it's always better to go to Randolph & Michigan and wait for an empty one.