CTA Tattler

THANK YOU. The complaining on this site is unreal sometimes. Huberman is doing a great job of TRYING, something that Kruesi never did.

Yup. Phil Gramm is said to have been reading this blog when he made his comment about a nation of whiners.

Anyway, I definitely agree that there is more effort than before to address customer problems, and especially bunching (or rather gapping, since bunching is just a symptom).

I agree with you Kevin. Right on! Some people complain no matter what the circumstances. The guy is definitely trying.

Agreed. Someone at the CTA seems to be trying. On the 66 this morning, we were asked to fill out a survey about buses, express buses and the perceptions of bus vs. train.

Whether it amounts to much, who knows, but they fact that someone wants to know what riders think is at least a good sign.

Plus, ideas for bus bunching sound halfway intelligent.

Oh, come on. The appearance of doing something is not the same as doing something.

I believe this was covered quite sufficiently when the CTA-provided list of so-called accomplishments was torn apart for the fluffed-up spin that it was. And then the list of problems a few days later didn't quite rise to the level of fair and impartial because it wasn't provided by a spin doctor like the CTA's list of accomplishments was.

The bottom line is that there is one thing the CTA is doing a much better job of: Spinning the news.

They could have gone one of two ways: They could have actually fixed the issues. Or they could have hired better PR people. They chose the latter.

As for listening to complaints, they listen enough to tailor the PR to match, which is exactly what a good PR department should be doing. Their "listening" does not extend through to actual operations.

All we have here is a real-life example of the fable of the emporor's new clothes.

I think some people aren't happy with any idea they didn't think of themselves. Also, I think there's something of "familiarity breeds contempt" going on here - I moved to Chicago two years ago from living in Boston and Atlanta, and I have to say that the CTA is the best public transport system I've ridden. Atlanta's is pathetic unless you want to go only north-south or east-west, and I wouldn't get on a Boston bus if you paid me. Plus, if you live the slightest bit outside of "downtown", you have to have a car in Boston.

The CTA has allowed me to ditch my car, saving me thousands of dollars annually on gas, insurance, and car payments, and I get everywhere I need to go. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it doesn't. That's the way of the world. And I don't think "the CTA" or Huberman can be blamed for the sins of the passengers themselves.

[The CTA has allowed me to ditch my car, saving me thousands of dollars annually on gas, insurance, and car payments, and I get everywhere I need to go. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it doesn't.]

This matches my experience exactly. I moved from Dallas, where public transit is nonexistant in most parts of the city. After a couple months, I noticed that my car was simply not being used, but I was paying almost $500/mo for the loan payment, insurance, etc. anyway. So I sold it, and haven't missed it. If I need a car, Enterprise and IGo are only a mouse click away.

Which is not to say that things couldn't improve, of course. But I can't get over how many complaints I still read about things like the slow zones on the Red Line or the 3-track stuff. Sure they're inconvenient but those things are actively being fixed!

Having moved here from Phoenix 2 years ago I have seen a marked improvement in the CAT in that time. When I first moved here and started taking the CTA downtown for work, I was disgusted. The trains were filthy. Barely ranking above a porta-potty. Considering the age of the average train, and the fact that some people just have no respect, the trains will never be pristine. The trains are much cleaner now than they were just two years ago.

The project to fix the slow zones has been going on for a long time. It took years of neglect for the tracks to get into that condition. You can't fix it overnight, but it is better than it was a year ago, and getting better as they complete each phase.

Have patience, things are getting better. In the meantime, have some respect for the people who are working hard to make things better. While you're at it, stop leaving your trash on the train. The other riders and the CTA will thank you for it.

Here's another change for this weekend-aka temporary inconvenience/permanent improvement:

CTA will put a section of the new southbound platform and track at the Belmont Brown Line station into service at 3 p.m. Friday, July 11. From 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday customers at Belmont will board southbound Red Line trains on the east side of the southbound platform, and Brown and Purple Express trains on the west side of the southbound platform. At 7 p.m. all southbound Brown and Purple Express trains will move to the southbound Red Line track. All southbound riders will board and exit trains on the Red Line side of the platform until three-track operation is completed at the end of the year.

The above press release is from here:

http://www.transitchicago.com/news/ctaandpress.wu?action=displayarticledetail&articleid=129278

or here:

http://tinyurl.com/5wdo26

Sorry, ames, I have to disagree with you. I lived near Boston 39 years -- grew up in Arlington and then lived in Watertown and Somerville (both east and west) and never even so much as had a driver's license. (This does not mean I didn't drive, understand.) The MBTA is way, way better than the CTA in many respects, from scheduling to superior coverage of a far larger area to genuine coordination among bus, rail, and commuter rail. Its single serious flaw is that the MBTA still isn't a 24-hour system.

And yes, while I'm no Huberman fan, there are too many people whose comments seem to amount to "I know they're fixing it but why do they have to inconvenience us while they do, why can't it be on my schedule, and why can't it be done my way?"

I had to be negative, but it seems silly that they're doing four-track operation for a four-hour window, against the direction of the rush traffic. When Fullerton was up to four tracks, they kept it that way for a few days at least. Having Belmont up to four tracks will make transfering easier, but until both of them are up to four, I don't see how it makes a difference in travel times -- there's still a bottleneck.

That said, I'm amazed at how fast the whole thing has been proceeding since they announced that it would be going ahead of schedule.

Bunching, no bunching, can someone please address the issue of the friggin air conditioners?

Christ- I took the bus home last night during that shower, and I get on the bus, and the air conditioner is blowing FULL BLAST- withe everyone wet, it was absolutely freezing! And the driver can never do anything about it- apparently they control it out of the garages. Remotely? Wierd....

Anyway, I call the CTA customer service line, get someone, explain the situation, describe the bus number, time, route and location, and she can "only file a complaint" but offers to transfer me to a surpervisor. Fantastic! unfortunately, all I got was a voicemail......

Anyway, anyone else with me on this one?

Emily,
No, not really. I happen to prefer things cool to hot, so having the air on too much should only be a concern of the operating budget (wasted fuel) as opposed to having the A/C broken or off during summer which would be more serious to me as a passenger.

Feel free to press them on it, but I don't think having more flexible A/C policy should be a top concern at this point.

Heh...just wait. Soon you'll find a car with the heater on when it's 95 outside. Those are my favourites.

Rusty, if your claim is that CTA is doing nothing simply because it looks like "spin" to you, I think it's your responsibility to tell us HOW CTA can prove that it's solving the problem.

If the answer is "well, service should be getting better", then you should spend your days counting all 2,000+ buses in the fleet, electronically recording the number of bunches and gaps, and assessing the results from there. That's going to be your only empirical method of confirming your hypothesis.

Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Hmm, what if CTA IS doing this, but instead of deciding to flood the public with a senseless array of information, they choose to internalize it and make improvements from there? Does an agency have to share every piece of information with the public to prove it's solvent?

Tonight's commute home on the 156 was fun. I arrived at LaSalle and Kinzie at about 5:10, in time to see two "bunched" 156s pass by just before I got there. You know what that means.

Not one bus came between 5:10 and 5:25. Of course, the next one that came was completely full and did not stop. The next bus came another 15 minutes later around 5:40, and did not stop. Thankfully, a third bus came at 5:45 which had some room.

Being on crutches, unfortunately other transit choices are not an option, so waiting 35-40 minutes for a bus that runs on 3-5 minute frequencies according to schedule was my only choice. Ugh. Good thing it was hot as balls today too.

I returned from Dallas yesterday where I was attending a conference. By day four I finally persuaded my colleagues that we needed to ditch the cabs and try the bus for our dinner transportation. The ride from the hotel to the West End was fine, but returning, the bus didn't arrive for over 30 minutes and then three arrived at the same time. Bus bunching is apparently a universal scourge. Our bus broke down and we had to wait for another although the other two in the bus bunch had apparently disappeared. Arriving at O'Hare, the shuttle bus was no problem. My bus operator even insisted on helping with my bag even though I didn't need it. I realize the Dallas bus bunch/breakdown and the courteous bus operator in Chicago may be isolated incidents, but it almost made me want to sing "I love the CTA, I love the f-ing CTA." Almost.

Sorry Josh, but if you're going to complain about the 156, that's a little funny considering that nearly every day I ride the 136 Northbound, I see about 4-6 #156 buses pass me before I see mine. So, you might have had one bad experience, but in general you are boarding your bus WAY faster than everyone else on a normal day. I'm not complaining though, there is a lot of ridership on that bus route, so it makes sense to run so many.

Let's not get carried away with feeling bad for the CTA.
Sure they may be trying, but that's after so many years of mismanagement they owe the city more than just trying. I just looove the press release where they claim bus bunching is down to 3% or something like that. This morning I did a quick check of the buses I take. Did I mention it's Saturday at 10AM? Around my house (near west side) there's no real traffic since there's no neighborhood Crate and Barrel and other yuppie magnets.

Long story short, both the 49 and the 9 routes show bunching. Two 49 Southbound buses were bunched together and two Northbound 9 busses - both showing ON THE SAME SCREEN. It took me like one minute to find this example:

http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q364/sanenazok/CTA/BusBunching.jpg

I'm all for improvements on the CTA but they seem to spend as much time massaging statistics for press releases as they do solving problems. It could certainly be worse, but I'm not going to fall over myself to thank them for "trying" i.e. doing their jobs.

God, what a bunch of babies. I've never seen so much whining.

Time to stop reading these useless limp comments and just read the actual posts.

Looks like the CTA has the Marines or the Army helping them out with construction. The icon on their home page http://www.yourcta.com/news/motion/szepBluelinecut2.gif
kind of looks like someone is aiming a machine gun at the Blue Line.

Who is doing their graphics now? This looks like some of the bad graphics they put in their President's powerpoints.

I am still thankful that certain lines on the CTA are still 24 hour. It is nice to know that in a pinch I can get anywhere I need to if need be. Not all public transit systems of major North American cities can boast such a schedule.

Nice....saw a 147 bursting into flames this evening on Lake Shore! Busload of horrified passengers were on the side of the road. How old are these piece of crap articulated buses? What 4 years now? The CTA got taken to the cleaners with these NABI buses. I wish they would file a lawsuit. Bad doors, bad suspension, now that they are a few years old, now catching fire? Unreal.

The CTA's story about the hunka hunka burnin' 147:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta_bus_fire_webjul14,0,2398733.story

Great photo.

scary.

make sure you read the comments, too (only 3 right now, but one's a bus driver's view of what the CTA might say or do)

For a while there were number of these buses at any given time had a broken back door and it was deactivated. It is scary to think had this been a crush-loaded rush hour bus with a broken back door what might have transpired. Does anyone know if the buses have emergency manual releases on the doors like the trains do? I know buses have emergency escape windows, but if you are not nimble enough to climb out it could take a few minutes to get everyone out one door, especially if people panic and jam up trying to escape.

The back doors have a knob on the upper right hand corner to pull to force the door open. I don't know if it works at all times, but I would think that it would have to.

Er. When I said "The CTA's story," thank you all for knowing what I meant and not correcting me. Doy. Stupid finger muscle memory...

Done early? Well, thanks again Scottie!

From CTA Press release here:
http://www.transitchicago.com/news/ctaandpress.wu?action=displayarticledetail&articleid=110420

"Service Between O’Hare and Rosemont Stations
Resumes July 24

Blue Line rail service between the O’Hare and Rosemont stations will resume ahead of schedule at 3 a.m. on Thursday, July 24, as CTA continues its aggressive efforts to eliminate slow zones. Crews were able to accelerate the replacement of deteriorated rail, tie plates and spikes and restore service four days earlier than anticipated..."

Favorite line:
"Work between Jefferson Park and Addison is scheduled to begin in August."

Really? So I guess the massive track welding work in the Kennedy south of Montrose tonight along with the single track in effect is just practice for August. Gut feeling here - this will get done "early", too.