CTA Tattler

I'll just sit here and wait for Kevin B. to complain about this.

Whoo-hooo! That's awesome that they finished early.... way to get this done! (If only everything in Chicago worked that well...)

Nothing to complain about on this part...nice that they've got this done early...but the upshot is still that you can't get from one end of the system to the other end without massive delays. Finish one slow zone, create another...the sum total effect is that you still are delayed. Gee, that sounds like the situation on the Red line tunnel (Deja Vu?)

The cynical side of me says that one of their guys watched "Star Trek:TNG". There was an episode where Scotty (old star trek) met Geordi (new star trek) and there was some damage....the captain asked for a ETA on repairs and Geordi told him 10 hours...Scotty asks him how long it will really take and he says 10 hours...Scotty then chastises him for not inflating his repair times by 3, so that when he gets it done in half the time he looks like a wizard.

Cheers,

KevinB

You have to inflate your estimated completion date at least a little bit on projects like this to account for unforeseen delays, weather, etc.
Travel times have definitely improved on the entire O'Hare branch; I ride every day to Rosemont and my travel time has been cut in half since the repairs took place... and I'm only riding from Addison or Irving.
I'm really glad that somebody saw the light and decided to maintain the existing system before pouring almost the entire capital budget for the next several years into building the Circle Line, like Kruesi wanted to do.

And you still managed to complain about it, didn't you?

[Finish one slow zone, create another...the sum total effect is that you still are delayed.]

What exactly do you mean by "create" a slow zone? You do understand that slow zones are "created" by years of neglect, correct? That the CTA aren't throwing darts at a map and declaring arbitrary slow zones just to frustrate you? And that the nature of track work requires trains to go slowly while the work is being done?

This sounds suspiciously like pointless bitching to me, but I'm happy to hear you clarify what you mean.

Anybody know the status of the Red Line subway repairs from Clark/Division to Armitage? That stretch has been ass slow for years. The slow zone map says they're workin on it, but I'm suspicious.

John,
Yeah, it's being worked on. You can see that wood ties have been removed, and that concrete forms are in place for pouring the new ties. Give the work has to take place nights and weekends, and they can only pour the concrete during the weekend closures, it seems any given section of track takes about 2 months to be fully replaced, with a slow zone in place the entire time because half the ties have been removed.

Guess so.

I'm deciding if all CTA press releases should now be required to come with disclaimers like the car ads.

Typical CTA press release:

Soon you'll be able to zoom to O'Hare at 55 MPH *

*only selected portions will you actually be able to travel at this speed. In fact as soon as we finish improving this section, we'll close down another section and make another slow zone which will essentially negate any gains you might actually see from the repairs. This will go on for years and years and then when we're done, we'll start working on those same tracks over and over again. This is just a small part of our "Death of a Thousand Cuts" customer improvement program. We make your ride better by giving you low expectations, subject to change, your mileage may vary, but your speed definitely will. Please be aware that there is always the chance that an 80 year old woman on a bike will overtake most if not all of the trains traveling along this stretch of track. No little old ladies were harmed in this construction. Please see extensive powerpoint presentation for further restrictions and disclaimers and exclusions. There will be lots of them. It still just amazes all of us here at the CTA that people stand for this crap that we give them and they haven't tarred and feathered us yet. But you know what they say "You can fool some of the people....". Have a nice day and as always, Thanks for riding the CTA!

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I'm really glad that somebody saw the light and decided to maintain the existing system before pouring almost the entire capital budget for the next several years into building the Circle Line, like Kruesi wanted to do.
====

Maintenance comes out of operating funds, not capital funds.

When you don't maintain something, and it has to be rebuilt, that comes out of capital funds. But capital funds can't simply be redirected to maintenance by giving a maintenance project a different name. For capital funds to be used, it has to really be a capital project.

Yep, just pointless bitching then.

Regarding "creating" slow zones, I hope you recognize the extreme hyperbole there. In August, they'll start the last leg of Blue Line work, and when that's done, there won't be any significant slow zones on the O'Hare branch. It's not like there's gonna be a new dead stretch by the time they finish that work.

I predict that when these projects are done, we'll have years of limited slow zones throughout the L.

Yeah, sounds like griping just to gripe. After all, the slow zones aren't created by the repair work, the zones are already slow. Fixing one slow zone and moving to another doesn't create a slow zone. Sometime criticism is warranted, and sometimes it can be constructive. In this case it is neither.

But even after a bunch of people already explained it, you still aren't getting it, KevB:

"In fact as soon as we finish improving this section, we'll close down another section and make another slow zone [...]"

*They aren't "making" slow zones.* They're *fixing* them. The *entire stretch* has *been* a slow zone. You have to *fix* it so it *isn't*.

You'll buy a lot of credibility when you start getting this stuff.

"Maintenance comes out of operating funds, not capital funds."

Not the way I understand it. Capital is used for all matters of infrastructure, whether it's the *purchase* of rolling stock, trackage, etc. Operating funds pay, speaking broadly, for fuel, operator and administrative pay, and any other costs connected with the operation of buses and trains. The only time I'm aware of operating funds being used for maintenance is for rolling stock- *not* infrastructure such as trackage repairs.

We can get into semantics, but this may clear it up: the $202.2 million spent this year on track & structure in the capital improvement plan:
http://yourcta.com/downloads/budget/cip2008.pdf

The "slow zones" on the Red line tunnel weren't "slow zones" until they made them "slow zones" due to the construction, so technically they were "created". Before the 3 track and the recent spate of repairs I was happily soaring away (especially on the weekends) at a very high rate of speed underground (and from Addison to Fullerton aboveground).

One week it's a "fast zone" the next week it's a "slow zone". Was it any less safe the week after it was a "fast zone" and before they started construction?

I would have appreciated (and I think other SB morning commuters would have too) if they had delayed the "slow zones" and subsequent repair work in the tunnels till after the 3 track work was finished in October, so instead of having one giant horrendous "slow zone" from Addison to Lake, we had the smaller "slow zones" after the belmont/fullerton track work is done.

Even nicer now, the "slow zone" that was originally from Armitage to Clark has now extended from Armitage to Chicago (maybe not officially, but based on the speed the trains have been going, it sure has).

This would have made me very happy. We'll, it would have made me less grumpy anyways.

I see the reasoning behind the total O'Hare closure and it's something if I traveled the blue line more, I could live with. I have a hard time swallowing the way things are now on the red line on the morning commute.

KevinB

Kevin B, I can't believe you haven't heard the annoucements, especially northbound leaving Clark/Division about the Red Line slow zone project. 4 out of 5 days the operator announces that trains are operating at reduced speed between Clark/Division and Armitage due to constuction. The work will be completed by October. Also, why don't you get off the Red line at North/Clybourn and see for yourself that the tracks are under heavy reconstruction. Better yet, look out the front window of the 1st car. You can see wood forms and half the ties gone for a LONG way in the tunnel where it is 15mph right now. Once this section is complete, the entire Red line subway will have had its tracks/ties replaced from Roosevelt to North/Clybourn. This is the last section being done right now. Geesh.

Also, same thing with Blue line. The last really bad section from Addison to Jeff Park is about to be reconstructed. Yes, more slow zones for that to occur, but when its done, it will be better. Does this mean there will be ZERO slow zones? Probably not, but its better than the slow zone hell the Blue line riders have put up with for the last 2 years!

Now, I do agree the slow zones North of Sheridan that still exist need to get scheduled ASAP as well. Trains creep NB near Loyola and SB near Wilson. I think all of the 15mph zones should go first.

Kevin you are crazy. You have some major issues if you can't see any improvements in the slow zones in the last year. I ride Red nearly everyday. Its slow due to 3-tracking in the morning! Once the Red line clears Fullerton its pretty fast until the tunnel. Then again after the Clark/Division curve its VERY fast all the way to Roosevelt. You are just unlucky if your train caught up with the one in front of it and had to slow down. There are no slow zones from that curve to Roosevelt now.

Also if the CTA was rated the most efficient transit company in the country with respect to using funding and it still didn't have enough to maintain and modernize the entire system...you would be one of those "NO MORE TAXES FOR TRANSIT" people! Then you would turn around and bitch your head off like no other how decrepit and slow the trains are.

The point is the system will never be completely slow zone free and fast until our elected idiots in Springfield stop playing games and pass capital funding finally. The CTA is going to be out of capital dollars very soon after the slow zone work currently under way. Kevin why don't you help lobby Springfield for a fix? Or the RTA board that supposedly has new oversight powers over the CTA.

[The "slow zones" on the Red line tunnel weren't "slow zones" until they made them "slow zones" due to the construction, so technically they were "created".]

The only part of the subway that was full speed before this work, as I recall, was the SB section from North/Clybourn station to the interlock between N/C and Clark/Division. But yes, they've decided to rebuild that, too, while they're at it. Besides making an extreme amount of sense, it ensures that they don't have to come back and do it, say, next year, when you would gripe about it all over again.

[I would have appreciated (and I think other SB morning commuters would have too) if they had delayed the "slow zones" and subsequent repair work in the tunnels till after the 3 track work was finished in October, so instead of having one giant horrendous "slow zone" from Addison to Lake, we had the smaller "slow zones" after the belmont/fullerton track work is done.]

OK, so let me get this straight.

You're been bitching about how long the slow zones are taking to repair.

But you would have been happy if they would have dragged the process out even longer?

That's fine, I guess, but don't speak for all the other morning commuters. I'm sure they'll be just fine come fall and they don't have to worry about this stuff anymore.

KevinB said: "The "slow zones" on the Red line tunnel weren't "slow zones" until they made them "slow zones" due to the construction, so technically they were "created". Before the 3 track and the recent spate of repairs I was happily soaring away (especially on the weekends) at a very high rate of speed underground (and from Addison to Fullerton aboveground)."

That is not correct. After the blue line derailment in July of '06, the CTA made its policy regarding slow zones more stringent, took a look at the entire L system, and put many parts that were not already under slow zone restrictions under them, including most of the red line's subway. The area between North/Clyborn and Clark/Division WAS a slow zone before construction started (20/25mph instead of 55mph), but it doesn't seem so now because the construction has slowed trains down so much more than before (5/10 mph instead of 20/25mph).

So no, the CTA did not create a slow zone where there was none before.

Feel free to continue griping about construction delays - everyone does, just talk to anyone who commutes on the Edens, oi.
There will always be some part of the L that's undergoing some kind of construction, reconstruction, or major maintenance that drags on for months or years, just like the highways and just like building construction. But everyone has the right to voice their frustrations. Harmless venting never hurt anyone.

But making spurious accusations and saying things that are patently untrue in order to camplain about it and call people incompetent is inexcusably unfair. If you're going to make outrageous claims, you're going to need to link to something that'll back you up, otherwise you're just making it up so you don't have to admit that you've been wrong or simply mistaken.

Captial improvements aren't maintenance, and maintenance isn't a capital improvement.

Whether it's an oil change on a bus, or trackbed maintenance on the rail right-of-way, or cleaning the windows at HQ, maintenance comes out of operating funds, not capital improvement funds.

The point at which something is no longer a maintenance job, and becomes a capital improvement job is a bit of a grey area. If the work results in added utility, it can generally be considered a capital improvement. But if the infrastructure in question has not been fully depreciated, and the work doesn't result in improved utility, or reset the date of full depreciation, it is probably not a capital improvement.

Maintenance is definately an operating expense, not a capital expenditure. That's an Accounting 101 concept. I think you'd give an auditor a heart attack if they found someone capitalizing things that are clearly maintenance expenses!

Like I said, there is a grey area, but there are things that clearly fall outside those grey areas, and into the black or the white. And when you push the limits of that grey area so far that all your maintenance projects are suddenly appearing as capital projects, that's when ugly words like misappropriation and indictment start popping up, and Federal prosecuters start blocking-out time in their day planners to deal with the issue.

It seems that by the end of the year, we will have a radically improved CTA -- still some problems, obviously, but radically improved. In particular, the stretch from, say, Addison to Roosevelt on the Red Line will be smooth sailing. It sucks that they're doing so many things at once on the Red Line now, but Machiavelli tells us that you have to get all the bad stuff out of the way at once whenever possible.

One weird thing I notice on the slow zone map: a majority of the slow zones on the Howard branch are actually on the express tracks. What is the obstacle to maintaining those tracks? They're used like five hours a day.

I can only go by observation. After the slow zone fixes last year (that I evidently mistook for being finished from Addison to Lake), there were NO slow SB zones until the 3 tracking and then then underground construction started. I could (and did) ride a train from Addison to Lake with little or no delay. Then the SB 3 track started, then the underground slow zone from clark/division to lake started, then went away for a couple weeks , then the armitage to clark/division started and is still there. If there was a clear and present danger on the tracks then everything underground would have been a "slow zone" since the blue line derail a couple years ago.

I'm sticking to my guns that these are construction related "artificial slow zones" that with a little planning and concern for SB commuters could have been better scheduled/planned around the SB 3 tracking.

It's like donating blood...sure you can take it all at once, but that pretty well kills the donor. You take a little at a time and it makes it much less painful.

I see the difference between what happened on the blue line....that was a couple weeks of no service as opposed to months and months and months and months of very slow service in tandem with already slow 3 track delays.

We didn't even have any alternatives, they also did a parallel "slow zone" on the brown/purple line. I would have been more than happy to switch to the aboveground...and quite frankly if the purple line was still running opposite the brown in the loop like it used to, I would have been there in a instant....Why not as someone else suggested work on aboveground during the good weather and the underground during the winter. That would be a win/win for the rider...

KevinB

I just read my previous post and somehow didn't make the most important point I wanted...which is:

The current underground "slow zones" were not there until construction started.

So, in effect the underground "slow zones" were created as a result of construction, not vice versa which is different than some of the "slow zones" North of addison, which are actually the result of track conditions like the previous zones when they were doing the work at the fullerton/belmont junction/corridor due to switching issues.

KevinB

[It's like donating blood...sure you can take it all at once, but that pretty well kills the donor. You take a little at a time and it makes it much less painful.]

Actually, it's nothing like that at all. What you're suggesting is that, hey, a pint is too much to take at once. But you want to leave a pint anyway, so is it OK if they could draw that pint out over 12 hours so you don't get as lightheaded? After all, you're OK with a needle stuck in your arm for all that time.

At any rate, come January, I'm guessing you're not going to be here saying, "Man, I sure wish there was more ongoing construction work. The 3-track is finished, the slow zones are gone ...what an inconvenience. I sure am mad that my commute took an extra 5 minutes back a few months ago so that I don't have to deal with it now. I think other SB morning commuters wish there was more ongoing construction, too."

Or maybe you will. Who knows.

KevinB said: "The current underground "slow zones" were not there until construction started.

So, in effect the underground "slow zones" were created as a result of construction, not vice versa which is different than some of the "slow zones" North of addison, which are actually the result of track conditions like the previous zones when they were doing the work at the fullerton/belmont junction/corridor due to switching issues."

No.

As I already pointed out in my previous post, the red line subway WAS a slow zone before construction started. What it wasn't was a 15mph construction-related slow zone. It was instead a 20/25mph track condition-related slow zone. If it hadn't been a slow zone, trains would've been travelling 55mph through the subway, which they were not.

But, that's an easy mistake to make. So much of the L has been slow zones for so long that we aren't used to being on a train that's going that fast. And besides, the subway is so dark and loud that it always feels as though the train is going faster than it is, so anyone could mistake 25mph for 55mph. I think we'll all be presently surprised after all this track work is done.

Kiel's correct. Up until a few years ago, the Red Line used to go so fast in the tunnels, you literally couldn't hold a conversation without screaming. Articles in the papers even reported damaging decibel levels in the subway. The trains have been slow for years. KevinB doesn't know what he's talking about. In my experience, people who craft and dilligently maintain internet personas never put a sock in it.

An easy way to settle this dispute would be to actually look at the slow zone maps for the relevant periods:

http://transitchicago.com/news/whatsnew2.wu?action=displaynewspostingdetail&articleid=107056

They even have color-coding so that you can see which ones are due directly to construction and which are "natural." As a huge dork, I've been following them closely, and I can assure everyone involved that the curve in the State Subway was a slow zone long before the construction started there. One map showed it was a "natural" slow zone, then the next showed it as a construction slow zone (which is where we stand now). Then once the construction slow zone goes away, it will be free and clear, like the straightaway now is.

I will give the CTA some kudos for how they were handling the rosemont to o'hare closure. I flew out of o'hare yesterday and there were CTA staff everywhere at the station and at o'hare pointing people in the right direction. It was as inconvenient as something like that could be. It was also neat seeing all the rails from the bus window. I'm excited to see how fast the train will go come Sunday on my way home.

Just spot-checking, I note that the map from a year ago shows the relevant portion as a slow-zone:

http://transitchicago.com/news/motion/board/slzn20070726.pdf

So does a map from approx. two years ago:

http://transitchicago.com/news/motion/board/slzn200608.pdf

Perhaps interested parties can check in between to see if the slow zone spontaneously disappears and is then reinserted. I would be surprised if it did.

Shout out: Strannix, I find you refreshingly erudite, but you've missed the point here, which is that rapid transit infrastructure maintenance has NOTHING whatever in common with any medical procedure, even something as routine and drawing blood. Trying to draw comparisons between the two, particularly in the case of you-know-who, is obnoxiously nonsensical. That being said, I always look forward to reading your posts :-)

And yay for the blue line being finished early. One small victory. I was NOT looking forward to having to pick up a friend at O'Hare this weekend.

Those who want to fact-check claims like "slow zones didn't exist until construction started" can use the handy links dating back to mid-'06 at

http://yourcta.com/news/whatsnew2.wu?action=displaynewspostingdetail&articleid=107056

I don't reckon KevB will want to, even though he's the only one obsessed with it...

But I did check the most recent one (issued just yesterday, in fact) and there are no Red Line slow zones between Sheridan and Wilson. I suspect poor KevB forgot the math in this post:

http://www.ctatattler.com/2008/03/other-rail-chal.html#comment-108616996

and is pissed that, no matter how many slow zones are eliminated, there will never be any significant decrease in travel time. Even in the longest uninterrupted straight stretch on the northern Red Line, 10 to 15 seconds saved between Wilson and Sheridan is realistic.

[The current underground "slow zones" were not there until construction started.

So, in effect the underground "slow zones" were created as a result of construction, not vice versa which is different than some of the "slow zones" North of addison, which are actually the result of track conditions like the previous zones when they were doing the work at the fullerton/belmont junction/corridor due to switching issues.]

The long track slow zone in the southbound side had been there for at least a year until it was removed in Jan/Feb of this year (though the ties hadn't been replaced at that time) for reasons I'm not aware of. The slow zone in the northbound tunnel has been there almost as far as the reports go back (2006).

The current slow zones were put in place to accommodate the construction but in reality they only replaced old track condition slow zones.

I go from personal experience.

If a train travels faster than 15MPH and is not stopped by the automated system, audible alert, nor do I see a "slow zone" sign or flashing slow zone lights along the tracks.

I would be really happy with a 25MPH "slow zone". The 15MPH on the other hand is not a pleasant experience. Neither is stopping completely several times for no apparent reason (no signal, no train ahead) and this happened for several weeks (see previous posts) right before the lake stop...maybe its perspective, but a constant 25 MPH would be screaming compared to the current speed.

I took the train alot on the weekends between the chicago to lake slow zone period and the current one and I know we were going over 25....thats one the times there was no curtain and I could clearly see the way that they control speed in the cabs....the rheostat or whatever you call it was clear right on the 40 mark. So, like I said, it seems that the zones are "artifical" not due to track conditions. This is the only time I actually saw the speed, but I'm pretty sure that for a week or two we were going about that fast with no penalty stops and no audible warning (I like to take the first car so I can see where we are going)....so unless I'm hallucinating, the zones don't hold water.

KevinB

Well according to those maps, as soon as we clear Clark/Division, we should be at 25 MPH and I can tell you the last 3 days, with GREEN signals, we were going the same speed as from North to Clark....

Huberman mentioned that the slow zone track now represents 11% of the system, down from 25% a year ago. However, does that include slow zones that haven't been identified yet. For instance, the slow zone maps found here

http://www.transitchicago.com/news/whatsnew2.wu?action=displaynewspostingdetail&articleid=107056

show slow zones added over time, compare january 2008 with August 2006. The 06 map does not show the blue line in a slow zone area from harlem to ohare, whereas the january 08 map does. Same goes for track between Paulina and Irving Park (The Addison stop was completed about eight months ago yet they are still doing track work there?)

Nevertheless, when can I expect the entire system to run at top speeds at all times like most other transit systems that have not been reeling from decades of deferred maintenance? two years, five? ten? olympics?

Heh, looks like Adam and I had the same thought at nearly the same time (and he managed to do some of the research I wimped out on).

Which, since KevB refuses to go on anything other than his total and perfect recall, was pointless after all.

What transit systems within the US have been perfectly maintained? I'm genuinely curious -- here I thought that not giving a crap about public transit and generally underfunding any infrastructure was a widespread American tradition going back decades, but apparently it's limited to the CTA.

[rapid transit infrastructure maintenance has NOTHING whatever in common with any medical procedure, even something as routine and drawing blood. Trying to draw comparisons between the two, particularly in the case of you-know-who, is obnoxiously nonsensical.]

Point taken.

For the record, I was also considering another analogy. I was thinking of a sick little child who hates the way his medicine tastes, and would rather stay sick than take the medicine because he doesn't know any better. And how some day maybe that kid will grow up and realize the folly of those childish ways.

But I decided not to go with that one.

[ would be really happy with a 25MPH "slow zone".]

But now that it's been explained to you, you do understand that 55 > 25, right?

Also, mna, the station construction on the Brown Line project does not involve doing track work. The green slow zones around the stations currently under construction are presumably for worker safety, but the pink ones indicate that there is some actual problem with the tracks, unrelated to the station.

Yeah, I got that 55 > 25.

I'm not asking for perfect. Quite frankly, all I really want is not to spend an excessive amount of my time getting to work every day. Getting home is not on a time clock.

Perfect is not anywhere in the CTA vocabulary.

What I want is for the 20 minutes that I should be spending getting to work everyday to be at +/- 25 minutes on a fairly consistent basis. All that would entail at the present is the stretch of track from Addison to Lake, SB Redline.

In about a month, that dynamic will change and then it will be the purple line from Howard to Lake (I'm not sure how long that should take yet, but I'll do a few test runs and try out Purple Howard to Fullerton, Red Fullerton to Lake) or Purple Howard to Wabash/Monroe/Washington or Purple Howard to Wells/Washington and a bus to washington/state.

I'll probably even stop complaining about the 22 Clark at that point too :)

KevinB

Adam, I used to live in Washington DC and I rode the DC MetroRail everyday. I can attest that DC was never this behind in maintenance while I lived there. The WMATA railcars were always very clean and so were the stations. Sure there were delays now and then, but overall I feel like they did a much better job.

And you'll start complaining about waiting 15 min for a Purple Line. I can't believe a guy with an Addison to Lake commute has decided to move so far north. When you move, you will dearly miss that nice commute you complain about so much.

Not to defend Kevin B., but those who are saying that there were slow zones on the southbound tracks between North/Clybourn and Division immedietely prior to work beginning are incorrect. As someone mentioned, there were slow zones after the blue line derailment until around January or Febraury of this year. At that time, the trains started moving at 55 MPH. The Northbound slow zones in that area didn't disappear but got less restrictive. All this is reflected in the slow zone maps (although I'm not sure that the northbound slow zones in the map were ever fully updated to reflect its faster speed). I don't know whether they actually replaced the worst ties at this time or if they minor patchwork or whether they just decided that the tracks were not as unsafe as they originally determined. But it does seem unlikely that they would not have had to do this major subway reconstruction within a year or two no matter what. As to Kevin B.'s larger point about whether they should have done this work after the three-tracking, you can make a strong argument either way. One could make a case that it is better to get everything out of the way at the same time so that the delays only occur for a shorter amount of time, even if they are more extensive and effect people's commutes at once. Of course, you could make a convincing opposite argument but Kevin B., like always, is pouting like a baby and whining about everything under the sun. So he therefore obscures the fact that, for once, he may have a shred of a good point.

Stephen, One counter-example is not sufficient to disprove my point. Chicago is not a uniquely bad system. In fact, there are many American cities that badly need mass transit, but their maintenance is so far behind that the system isn't even built yet.

The NYC subway is not as fast as many people give it credit for. There are many "slow zones" on heavily trafficked lines. Even where the tracks appear to be wide open, trains are not moving that quickly. You feel like they are because your ride between 14th st and 23rd st went fairly quickly...until you realize that is less than 1/2 mile, or approximately the distance between Southport and Paulina.

And the DC Metro, while it's been in good shape for years because of it's age relative to other systems, is quite literally beginning to fall apart.

For what it's worth, KevB, some years ago I moved from Andersonville (catching the train at Berwyn) to South Blvd. for a miserable year and found that the length of my commute didn't change. But it's true that things are pretty different now, so your test runs are a good idea.

>the 06 map does not show the blue line in a slow zone area from harlem to ohare, whereas the january 08 map does.

After the big derailment in the Blue Line tunnel, they changed their standards and began checking the track more closely, and there was a sudden blossoming of slow zones. Prior to that, many stretches were not slow zones, though arguably they should have been, and it's believed the derailment would have been prevented had the track work been done earlier.

Currently, Southbound Purple's express run from Howard to Belmont is quite fast. The only really slow spots are around the Sheridan curves and then getting through the 3-tracking. Northbound is a different story. The express track is currently 15-25mph slow zoned from around Argyle until just North of Granville. Then it speeds up for a just a short while then slows down again approaching Howard. Even with stops, Red can keep up with Purple. This long slow zone is only a month or two old. Who knows how long it will be around. It looks like a LOT of ties need replacing as the wood is very splintered through this area.