CTA Tattler

Tattler named "Best Blog" by Tribune; Verizon's subway cell deal

I was humbled when the Tribune contacted me to include the Tattler (with photo!) in their fairly new "Chicago's Best Blogs" feature -- "the city's ultimate blog roll."

I note in the posting that I know you folks expect the best from me, and that helps me do my best.

Of course, no one would notice this blog if it didn't have readers like you. So thanks!

Verizon inks subway cell deal with CTA. First US Cellular, now Verizon. So good-bye to whatever "quiet" you thought you might have in the subway from cellers.

Verizon cell customers will soon be able to chat all they want in the subway, the Sun-Times reports.

The inevitable finally occurs. I just hope the CTA got some big bucks out of the deal.

Weekend CTA rail work. There's the usual work on the Red, Blue and Brown lines this weekend. Check here for details.

SRO train car idea -- first floated at "Coffee with Ron" -- to hit rails in fall

Stranding-room-only rail cars -- a concept that CTA Prez Ron Huberman tested with Tattler readers in March during our "Coffee with Ron" -- will get its debut on the Brown Line this fall.

A 25% increase in ridership since March has spurred the CTA to seek greater capacity, Huberman told the board. All the seats would be removed on two cars of an eight-car train.

When we first wrote about the idea in March, about 66% of you taking our click poll liked the concept, as long as it was confined to just two cars.

Read more coverage at the Sun-Times and Tribune. And if you didn't vote the first time around, the click poll is still open. As I wrote in March, I like the idea a lot. It's an innovative use of current resources to meet a growing capacity problem. The cars need to be clearly marked and probably should always be in a fixed position -- say, the last two cars of the train.

CTA passes communication test on this service outage

It seems like a few unfortunate folks lately have met their demise lately on various CTA rail lines. On Monday, it was the Blue Line at Western on the Forest Park branch. Tuesday, the Red Line at Argyle.

I don't know what went through these people's heads, but I do feel bad for them and their family.

I also fell bad for the CTA and the riders who have to deal with the aftermath. And Tuesday's incident happened at about 5 pm, during the teeth of rush hour.

Our Red Line motorman did a real nice job with announcement every few minutes about what was going on. At first, the CTA diverted northbound Red line trains at Belmont, and turned them around to head back south. Traffic was very slow north through the tunnel, so he kept us informed. And finally, he told us the good news that traffic would go back to normal, though bypass Argyle.

So for me, a nice job my the CTA in communicating the situation. How about you?

Finally, I was glad to see all the great CTA Alerts posted to our wireless SMS network about the situation. Those are the times when CTA Alerts really shine. Nice.

CDOT to build bike shelters at 4 stations

Chicago's Dept. of Transportation is coming to the aid of CTA bike/train riders by building four enclosed bike parking structures at the Jefferson Park and Damen stations on the Blue line, Midway on the Orange Line and Sox-35th on the Red Line.

The Red Line and Damen structure will be inside the stations, and hold 42 and 108 bikes respectively. But Jefferson will handle 120, and Midway 112. The Sun-Times printed the photo below as an example.

""In these times of high gas prices, people are looking for alternatives to the automobile," said Brian Steele of CDOT. "This parking is yet another incentive for people to use their bikes -- not only for recreation, but for the daily commute. Those who might not want to bike all the way to their destination can, instead, choose a convenient combination of bicycling and CTA."

I like that concept. Read the Tribune and Sun-Times reports.

From the CTA news blotter: CTA bus bursts into flames on Lake Shore Drive. Click through to the Tribune story just to see the great photo.

Pertinent out-of-town news: Beijing starts subway security checks; confusion in Bronx on pre-pay bus system

I recently ran across two stories that are quite pertinent for us CTA riders, though one could be a full eight years in our future.

And that is Subway Blogger's report about new security checks occurring now at all Beijing subway stations in advance of the Olympics. And Subway Blogger derisively compares the Beijing crackdown to the "laughable" bag inspection system in New York.

But we riders won't be laughing if cops start a big CTA security sweep in 2016 -- if we land the Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports about confusion on its pre-pay bus system in the Bronx. The CTA has said the Bus Rapid Transit system set to debut on four routes next year will include pre-pay kiosks.

Certainly I would expect there to be some confusion on the part of  riders at the start of the BRT system. But it's up to the CTA to do a good job communicating to riders about how it works. We'll see about that.

Weekend service changes; comments on bunching

The biggest news in service changes is this week's closure of the final leg on the north end of the Blue Line, between Rosemont and O'Hare. It continues through July 28. Details are here and here. Remember: it's a temporary inconvenience, and a permanent improvement.

And now that Taste of Chicago is over, slow zone work has commenced again. The Red Line subway tunnel is closed from 9 pm Friday till 3 am Monday. Trains will travel on the elevated tracks. Allow extra travel time.

There is other maintenance, repair and signal work at individual stations. See the CTA Rail Lines customer alert for details.

And there are many bus changes for the weekend here.

Bus bunching comments: Frankly, I've read a lot of nutty stuff from you guys challenging that the CTA's ideas to combat bus bunching are not new at all or just plain inadequate. One question: What are you talking about?

All I can say is at least this new administration is actually listening to passenger complaints and coming up with plans to fix them. I don't really recall writing about Frank Kruesi doing so much in so little time as Ron Huberman has done in his 14-month tenure. Huberman is not perfect. But last time I checked, none of us is.

OK. Now I'm off to New York City this weekend for some buddy bonding over beers and baseball. We'll see how the trip is to Shea Stadium from Manhattan.

Two new routes out of North Park for bus tracker announced; more on CTA's response to bus bunching

Lost in the news about what more the CTA is doing to ease bus bunching was the announcement of 15 new routes for bus tracker starting July 21, two from the North Park garage:

• #7 Harrison
• #8 Halsted
• #10 Museum of Science & Industry
• #12 Roosevelt
• #17 Westchester
• #18 16th/18th
• #38 Ogden/Taylor
• #52 Kedzie/California
• #125 Water Tower Express
• #126 Jackson
• #129 West Loop/South Loop
• #146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express
• #147 Outer Drive Express
• #148 Clarendon/Michigan Express
• #156 LaSalle

The 146 and 147 originate out of North Park. Let the moaning begin about no #22 on the list yet. Also on July 21, the Bus Tracker system will enhanced to use Google's mapping service. Riders will be able to view bus locations for up to five routes.

And in further news about the bus bunching response by the CTA, the Chi-Town Daily News reports this:

They will also have access to a new, system-wide communication program, the Supervisor Information Management System, which will enable supervisors to track multiple buses at the same time, respond to delays faster and speed up communications with the CTA's Control Center.

Some of you were wondering yesterday what's so unique and "new" about this effort. The above paragraph should answer that question.

CTA to tackle bus bunching with more mobile supervisors

The CTA and Ron Huberman are listening -- and acting on -- our growing complaints about bus bunching.

Tuesday Huberman said the CTA plans to get bus supervisors out of their wooden booths and onto the streets in hybrid vehicles with GPS phones to proactively tackle bunching problems. That may mean that they put passengers from one bus onto another "express" bus, or turn one around and head it in the opposite direction.

From the Tribune report:

"The days of you seeing a CTA bus driver with a clipboard sitting there in a little wooden booth methodically counting buses are over," Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday. "Even better, CTA riders will decreasingly have to endure the frustration of what feels like endless waiting only to see three buses arrive at the same time."

That's music to our ears. Huberman warns that the bunching problem won't be totally eliminated with this idea, which he says is unique to Chicago. But it's got to help.

The CTA also plans to eliminate almost 30% of the bus supervisor jobs -- from 70 to 50. That would amount to a savings of about $1.2 million after accounting for the cost of the new vehicles and GPS systems.

"To El and Back" - hitting all the El stations in a weekend

Andy Seifert over at NewCity Chicago writes about his weekend where he visited all 144 train stations on the CTA system. (Well, he didn't get to visit Washington on the Red.)

Along the way of course, he saw lots of strange sights and much mundane -- just as we often report here.

He even takes some time to interview CTA Tattler, so check it out.

And speaking of interviews of CTA Tattler, you can download an interview with the Tattler over at Smart City Radio here.

What the CTA is doing to help alleviate bus bunching across its system

After two posts last week with comments from a CTA driver on bus bunching, I asked the CTA for its official response on what it's doing about bus bunching. Here is its reply.

Bus bunching is an occurrence dealt with by public transit agencies throughout the world. It is the result of factors such as traffic congestion, weather-related driving conditions, increased ridership, longer boarding times, unforeseen emergencies or many other reasons including poorly timed schedules and operator behavior.

CTA has worked to address the issues that can be controlled such as the operator behavior and the schedules. 

CTA continuously evaluates bus schedules and makes adjustments to the schedules to better reflect the operating conditions.  Supervisors have increased focus on ensuring that operators leave the bus terminals on-time which improves schedule adherence throughout the route.  CTA also has leveraged the GPS technology on buses to allow supervisors to track buses using in-vehicle computers in order to assess situations and determine what adjustments need to be made in real-time in order to alleviate bunching.  Bus operators also have been given the authority to assess if a follower bus needs to bypass the bus ahead of it in order to help adhere to schedules.

In addition, CTA has also trained supervisors and management to issue bus lane citations to motorists who illegally park, stop or stand in a designated bus lane or at a CTA bus stop, which also is a contributing factor to bus bunching.

CTA staff continually evaluate route performance on a daily basis by pulling global positioning system (GPS) and logical positioning system (distance-based) data collected through the automated voice annunciation system (AVAS) on each bus, as well as information from those buses currently equipped and activated on the Bus Tracker program.

Analysis of this data allows CTA field and planning personnel to identify trends and their causes (scheduling, ridership, route configuration, equipment failure, operator performance) and determine what can be done to help improve service reliability as quickly as possible.

In September 2007, prior to initiating any of the new measures, 4.5% of all CTA buses recorded instances of one-minute or less between buses (bus bunching). One month later, when some of the new initiatives were implemented, there was an immediate but moderate decrease in bus bunching to 3.9%.

Thereafter, the percentage of bus bunching remained steadily below the four-percent mark with an average of 3.4% for the period of September 2007 through April 2008. For the month of March, CTA saw the lowest reported percentage of bus bunching across the system with 2.8%.