CTA Tattler

Answers to your questions to Ron, Part 1

Before our second Coffee with Ron, I asked you to share questions you wanted me to ask Ron. And boy did you respond. I got more than 80 questions/comments for Ron. I asked many of them, and sent the rest to his staff for them to answer. Here's the first in a series answers to those questions.

When is the CTA store reopening? (From Rhiakell.) The CTA announced today they are outsourcing the former Gift Express program to Image Exchange, who is running CTAGifts.com. The Tribune reported:

In the deal with Image Exchange Inc., a New York company, the CTA will be paid royalties based on a percentage of sales, officials said. The royalties will be 10 percent the first year and 12 percent in subsequent years, officials said.  "This is not a huge revenue source, but we are not overlooking any source of raising funds," said CTA President Ron Huberman.

When three-tracking is over, will the Purple Line return to being routed around the inner Loop? (From Paul.) Simple answer: Yes, said Huberman. The three-tracking will end before the end of this year.

Will the CTA please start using their Twitter account to announce system problem? Will the CTA please update their website and/or Twitter account QUICKLY when there is a customer alert? (From Bryan.) In this case, it's CTA Tattler and my brother Dan who stepped up and created the Twitter account -- ctatweet -- with help from Harper Reed. The CTA contributes alert information through our Upoc group, and we port that over to Twitter. So all you have to do is monitor the Twitter ctatweet feed or check the site.

"I recommend permanently shuttering the Wellington Brown Line stop." (From the Doc.) Won't happen. Ron said the stop will reopen as scheduled by Dec. 31, 2009.

More to come. . . .

Tactics for reducing bus gaps

We CTA riders call it bus bunching, but the CTA's President Ron Huberman refers to the problem as bus gaps.

"We're trying to attack the big gaps in bus arrivals -- managing the intervals," said Ron at a coffee Sept. 20 with CTA Tattler and a few aficionados. Huberman said he prefers to call the bunching problem a gapping problem because riders hate it when there are big gaps in buses caused by earlier bunching.

The No. 1 solution is bus maintenance -- getting the bus fleet into good repair. And Huberman said he CTA has made substantial progress -- in the last year, bus road calls are down substantially. In December of last year about 90 buses were of the street due to maintenance issues. That number is dropping as the CTA has leased new hybrid buses.

The second key solution is to have drivers leave the terminal on time. This sounds simpler than it is. Some drivers arrive back to the terminal late because of traffic problems. They have to get their break, and then they end up leaving later than scheduled. And sometimes it's just a discipline issue where the driver is poking along and must be disciplined to leave on time.

The third solution is to just fix/change the schedules. The CTA is learning more about true run times with the Bus Tracker GPS in place. So now they are adjusting those schedules and run times to better reflect reality, Huberman said. Drivers recently did a new run pick based on these new schedules.

And speaking of drivers, many folks here asked about drivers who text or eat or use the phone while driving. Huberman encourages you to call (888-968-7282) or write the CTA with the bus number, route, date and time. He confirmed that eating or drinking and using the phone while driving are against the rules. Even wearing a Bluetooth is not allowed while the bus is running.

Stretch of Blue Line closed this weekend

Service on the Blue Line will be suspended this weekend from Belmont to Montrose so crews can replace rail ties, tie plates and spikes. Bus shuttles will operate between the station during the outage, from 9 pm Friday till 3 am Monday. Here's the press release.

Free seniors ride parody video. ViralChicago brings us this video "starring" Phil Ponce with a piece on the free rides program.

More coming from Coffee with Ron. Tune in next week for some more CTA tidbits from our Coffee with Ron last week. Plus, the CTA will answer questions submitted by you readers that I didn't have time to ask. We'll post those as we get them.

Recap of the BRT meeting from Sarah

Thanks to Sarah for posting as a comment this synopsis of the BRT presentation tonight, which she attended. And as she put it: "'... a synopsis from someone that actually went to the meeting instead of sitting here and complaining about it." (Thanks Sarah.)

here's what was said at the meeting:
- first of all, this is a pilot program so they're going to try different things.
- for everyone that's worried that the CTA is out to destroy neighborhoods, they are not going to wholesale close off lanes to parking and auto traffic. it sounds to me like they are going to restrict parking during rush periods on either side of the street (inbound-AM, outbound-PM) where it is physically possible. so if it's not physically possible, they're not going to do it (and as far as "morning" or "afternoon" retail... i didn't know it was THAT hard to just cross the street). The buses supposedly will run from about 6am to 8 pm, but will have dedicated lanes only on rush periods.
- from the way i understood it, the pre-pay things won't be at every stop, and where they do have them, there will be someone there making sure the fare is paid. i think they're going to use some sort of portable machine so it doesn't take up the whole block or whatever.
- i guess it doesn't sound that much different than express buses they have now, but they say that with the combination of faster boarding, signal priority, and the dedicated lanes where its feasible will make things faster.

--Sarah

The Launch of CTA Tweet

Guest post by Dan O'Neil.

Today is the launch of a new Web site, CTA Tweet, an unofficial Twitter tracker for the Chicago Transit Authority. We also started a series of Twitter accounts for each train line and the bus system as a whole. There are two things you can do with CTA Tweet:

1. Monitor postings to the CTA Alerts wireless notification utility without signing up for a UPOC account.
All posts to the CTA Alerts system at http://www.upoc.com/group.jsp?group=ctaalerts automatically appear on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/ctatweet (thanks to Harper Reed and his chicago.transitapi.com). If you're only interested in true alerts, this is for you. If you have a Twitter account, just follow CTA Tweet and you're done. If you want to publish to this feed, sign up here, just as before. CTA Alerts remains an effective source for transmitting "rider-to-rider communication in the event of service disruption or emergency on the Chicago Transit Authority", just like it has been since July of 2005. This is just a new way to get alerts from an existing system that opens it up to a lot more people. Go here to find out how to subscribe to this system.

2. Monitor what people are saying about the CTA in general, each train line, and/or the bus system as a whole at ctatweet.com via Twitter @replies. 
If you have a Twitter account (what is Twitter?), you can use an @reply to post less urgent, but still useful and interesting things about the current state of Chicago public transit as you’re experiencing it. We pull those replies together and publish them in one place. Keep in mind that these are not alerts as we've come to know them over the years. This is the random chatter and tweets of the Internet; people who use the @reply feature in Twitter to publish about the CTA. If people buy into this, we think it has a lot of potential for organizing real-time information about the second largest transit sytem in United States. Here's a complete list of the Twitter accounts and @reply feeds we have.

Here's some background and further discussion.

Bus Rapid Transit project presentation; Blago appoints new CTA board member

The CTA will make a presentation Thursday night on the next steps for the Bus Rapid Transit project.  Thursday's presentation will be from 6 till 8 pm at the Near North Branch of the library, 310 W. Division.

At the Coffee with Ron last weekend, Huberman said he had just seen the new BRT buses. They have three large doors, where passengers pre-pay at the stop and then load en masse through the three doors. Prototype buses will be on the four BRT streets next summer -- Chicago Avenue, Halsted Street, Jeffery Boulevard, and 79th Street.

Check back later for a link to the presentation here. 

Guv appoints new CTA board member. The person who helped developed Blago's free rides for seniors program was named a CTA board member Wednesday by the governor. Sheila Nix, the former deputy governor, will replace Nicholas Zagotta. The governor gets to appoint three of the seven CTA board members. Daley appoints the other four.

Ron outlines the CTA's long-term fiscal pressures

At our coffee talk on Sept. 20, CTA President Ron Huberman said that despite the threat of a slight fare increase in 2009, the CTA finds itself in the best fiscal position in a decade. That's because of the sales tax increase passed early this year by the Illinois General Assembly.

Huberman DID flatly rule out any service cuts. And with ridership increasing monthly, that would be really dumb. Still, the following financial pressures have the CTA tightening its belt and mulling that fare increase:

1. Rising fuel and energy costs. Huberman said the fuel bill will be $50 million more in 2009 than 2008. Energy costs will be 30% higher.
2. The soft economy means sales tax revenues are 9% less than projections. And the new real estate transaction tax will yield 50% less than originally anticipated.
3. Free rides to various rider constituencies will cost $66 million this year. "And someone has to pay for that," said Huberman.
4. And it certainly won't be the state of Illinois paying, since Gov. Blago vetoed $32 million in fare subsidies that the CTA had been getting for many years to pay for reduced fares.

Huberman talked further about the impact of free fares for seniors and others. Free rides for seniors grow every month. Just under 30,000 seniors were enrolled in the reduced fare program in March. More than 90,000 were enrolled in August for the free fare program, and Huberman expects that number to swell to 100,000 by year's end.

Many of these folks previously paid full fare, including Ron's own father, who Huberman said has just recently signed up to get free rides on the CTA, thanks to Blago's amendatory veto of the sales tax increase bill back in January.

Bus rider communications improvements: Get arrival info via text message

On Monday we wrote about planned improvements to communications with rail riders in 2009. Today we recap improvements in communications to bus riders, detailed in the CTA Tattler Coffee with Ron Huberman last Saturday.

The most intriguing initiative is the ability to text a phone number posted on bus stop signs to learn the arrival time of the next bus. Huberman promises this feature by early next year, made possible by Bus Tracker location information.

And speaking of Bus Tracker, I asked Ron why there haven't been additional bus routes added in the last two months. He said the CTA needs to get more new buses on the road so they can retire the last of the buses bought in 1991. Due to the lack of capital funding, the CTA is leasing buses instead of buying them. He said the CTA can't write off depreciation, since it's a public agency. But private companies can, so they buy the buses, lease them to the CTA, take advantage of the depreciation writeoff, and pass on some savings to the CTA.

Huberman acknowledged there still are issues with reliability with Bus Tracker information -- issues that have been reported by many Tattler readers. Issues such as buses either dropping off the Bus Tracker data base, or never showing up there. Ron said reliability is still in just the 90% range. He's trying to get it to 98%.

Finally, Huberman mentioned the CTA has gotten a grant to install video screens at the busiest bus stops -- much like those at rail stations. Unfortunately, there's not enough cash to install them across the vast CTA bus system.

Huberman said all of these improvements should be in place in the next six months.

Plus, on Monday, Huberman announced that advertising info boards will be mounted on the curb side of some buses. A total of 100 buses will be equipped with the digital advertising display boards, part of the$101 million deal to equip train stations with the 55-inch screens.

Improved rider communication is top priority for CTA in 2009: Huberman

After admitting that "when something goes wrong, we do a terrible job communicating with riders," CTA President Ron Huberman vowed to make improved rider communications the top priority in 2009. He outlined how he plans to do that in a freewheeling, 90-minute chat with CTA Tattler and friends on Saturday.

Here's how:

On the rails: Within the next eight months, the CTA will roll out 55-inch plasma TV screens at every train station. There will be one screen above the fareboxes, another on each stairway, and at least two on the platform level. The TVs are free to the CTA, paid for through advertising in a partnership with Titan Worldwide Outdoor.

The bottom quarter of the screen will contain CTA travel information, including the arrival time for the next train. Ads will rotate on the rest of the screen. If there's an emergency, the CTA will take over the entire screen and broadcast information to riders.

This deal also means $101 million in ad revenue for the CTA over the 10-year contract.

New rail alerts. Huberman also told us about two new alerts for rail passengers. The first would allow passengers to sign up for email notices of planned service outages and changes, such as Blue Zone weekend slow zone work between Jefferson Park and Harlem.

The CTA also plans to issue live service alerts by both text message and email in the next seven months. The alerts will explain the situation and always give alternative travel information.

Finally, Ron said CTA rail cars will advertise an 800 number onboard that riders can call for the latest info. That line will be updated every 2-3 minutes as needed.

Footnote: Ron insisted we meet at the Emerald City Coffee Shop under the Red Line Sheridan El stop because he wanted to support a business that rents from the CTA.

Coming Tuesday: New communications efforts for bus riders.

How other transit systems are "Rubbing out rudeness"

The travel columnist on msnbc.com on Thursday took up a much-discussed topic here: rudeness on public transit systems.

(And a big CTA Tattler welcome to msnbc.com readers directed here from that column.)

Of course, Well-Mannered Traveler  columnist Harriet Baskas turned to the Tattler to find myriad examples of Breaches of Etiquette.

But she also found a few transit systems that are making concerted efforts to combat rudeness -- such as New Jersey Transit. They have started an ad campaign urging passengers in a fun way to be kind and more thoughtful toward other passengers. From the column:

For example, one poster shows a woman screaming in frustration and a printed message that reads: “Please stow your stuff.”

And in our nation's capitol, Metrorail officials show zero tolerance to riders who eat or drink on the system, Baskas reports:

In one case the offending food was a French fry; in another it was the last bites of a candy bar. Clearly, Metro riders have taken the “no eating” rule to heart: On my last visit to Washington, D.C., a woman leaned over and hissed, “Hey, tourist lady — ditch the biscuit” as we approached the fare box. “They’ll ticket you in a heartbeat.”

I'm thinking we could use a little bit of that same approach here in Chicago.