CTA Tattler

On another pertinent note, the "glass slabs" that I keep mentioning have been installed at the Howard street station will be installed soon at the Belmont and Fullerton (on the part of the platforms sans shelter from the elements) and low and behold they are as I had expected a lawsuit waiting to happen.

They are slick glass tops. I took a pic with my camera phone (there was no screaming CA this time telling me I couldn't take pictures) and they are slick even when they are bone dry....can't wait to see how they fare when there is rain or ice or snow on them. I need to create a flicker account and then I'll put it up.

Kevin, maybe you can ask Ron how much they have projected in the budget for slip and fall injuries caused by this wonderful use of money and just downright smart design... (sarcasm alert).

KevinB

I'd love to go back to the Red Line, because even with gas below $3 the 147 is still overcrowded, and it still amazes me that the CTA can't say "Yes, service will be increased, but we're studying the situation to figure out how much." If it's just some minor bump up, this will have been as large a boondoggle as Block 37.

(Oh, and KevinB, I happened to take the Brown Line this weekend to run some errands in Old Town, which put me in the Sedgwick station for the first time in quite a while. You're absolutely right about the Sedgwick station design. The placement of the planters is just ludicrous and the flow of people in and out is awkward even when the station's just handling a few people out and a couple of people in. At best it's thoughtless.)

wowsers.

I have noticed all along that the work at Belmont has been behind Fullerton by at least a couple of weeks. There was a similar delay with the northbound track, and with the platforms.

Does anyone know why that is? Did Belmont turn out to be more difficult, or is the crew working there just slow?

Tecki: Regarding work at Belmont being behind Fullerton - I think that's just the way they planned it all along. The same was true on the other phases of three-tracking. Fullerton was done first and Belmont not far behind.

http://www.ctatattler.com/2008/01/four-track-is-b.html

KevinB, did you walk on the "glass slabs" at Howard? Because they are NOT "slick glass tops", they're pebble-textured... when I walked on it, it seemed like it would have more traction than the concrete around it. While I'm not so sure of the merits of having the "glass slabs" to begin with, I don't think that people slipping is going to be a huge problem.

I would also like to know if certain bus routes will have the number of runs cut after 3 tracking is over? I remember when this happened that a number of routes were run more frequently.

I actually walked on them and the ones on the platform with the cardboard around them were slick. I actually reached down and touched them.

Unless there was something added on top later, they were slick to the touch.

KevinB

Screw the escalators for Fullerton and Belmont, give us platform length canopies.

So all you folks still realize that there's no yard space for 8-car Ravenswood trains on the same headways as 6-car trains were running.

Tattler: how about a follow-up story on this? Find out when CTA plans to demolish those 6 properties near Kimball to build yard space. And how about longer canopies, too?

When they're done with this multi-million dollar project, can they fix the frickin' bench in the bus shelter at Broadway and Elmdale? It's been broken for at least six months. I'm sure numerous people have called about it (I have and I don't even use that stop). Still it remains broken, outside a grocery store, in an area with many elderly customers. That's the problem with the CTA. After months, they can't even fix a damn bench. Rocket science.

Yo, Sam Clemens,

Repeat after me. The CTA is broke. There is no capital budget for 2009. If it isn't in the Brownline rehab budget now, it won't be done.

Only reason the project is ahead of schedule is because they eliminated certain items (Roof, escalators, etc.)

Also, I can't wait to see the people all huddled up in those small "warming" areas.

Maybe they can temporarily fix the yard problem by storing some Brown Line trains at Midway, like they've been doing throughout the 3-track period. I wouldn't mind continuing to have a shot at an empty train at Adams and Wabash.

Just remember that they new lots and lots of capital funds to fix that broken bench...lol

KevinB

The express bus routes that had been running more frequently, were quietly cut back in the summer of 2007. Several of the 136 buses on the printed schedule that had been running more or less reliably, just stopped showing up at all. After this situation continued for about a week, I stopped taking the bus and went back to the red line. The CTA hoped we would not notice. They feigned ignorance when I called.

To m and KevinB: If that bus shelter at Broadway and Elmdale say "JC Decaux" on it, then go complain to them about it. They maintain the shelters, not the CTA.

I can't help but be skeptical that the end of three-tracking will not result in more frequent rush-hour runs on the Brown and Red lines. I foresee the CTA claiming that the antiquated signaling mechanisms, or perhaps a lack of cars, will prevent additional runs from being implemented.

Tattler, perhaps some follow-up on the already delayed signal upgrade project is warranted.

Escalators at Fullerton and Belmont should be tabled and the funds earmarked for this project applied to improvements at existing stations, like the aforementioned extension of canopies. Elevators and staircases are sufficient.

To The Doc: The Brown Line project is being completed with mostly federal funding, which is not transferrable to other stations not on the Brown Line. Huberman mentioned to me that he thinks the overall project will come in under budget, so the CTA will be able to use those funds to install the longer canopies.

Yeah, but remember right before the 3 tracking started, they replaced all the signalling systems in the Belmont to Fullerton corridor so they can't use that excuse twice I hope.

Also, where did the "extra money" come from to accelerate the 3-track work and now "extra money" to put back the escalators....hmmm...

KevinB

I think the extra money comes from accelerating the work will save them money. I believe this was mentioned in a press release or quote.

Off topic:

Does anyone know what the structural slow zones are in the very northern part of the purple line? I noticed this and am not familiar with that area. Is it viaducts/overpasses that are not rated for high speeds?

They just recently eliminated 1730 feet of southbound slow zone just north of where the brown line splits off from the red according to the latest map. I hope they continue the work in that area to eliminate more slow zones near the Sheridan stop.

Chris: I assume it's because the concrete that the bridges are made out of are crumbling.

since the cta'ers are such workaholics does this mean the irving park and paulina brown line stops will be done early too?

Probably not. I think they could only speed up the 3-tracking, not necessarily all of the station work.

Assuming that service won't increase after three-tracking verges on conspiracy theory thinking -- with the exception that I can't imagine anyone who would benefit from such a plan.

Adam:

Let's wait and see. I'm pessimistic enough to be pretty sure that based on previous doublespeak and excuse making that the run increase/frequency will be negligible and that the trains will be just and crowded and just as unreliable.

But, this is one time I hope that I'm proven wrong....

KevinB

"To m and KevinB: If that bus shelter at Broadway and Elmdale say "JC Decaux" on it, then go complain to them about it. They maintain the shelters, not the CTA."

Kevin, It's not a Decaux shelter. It's an old CTA shelter. Are there any Decaux shelters north of Irving? In edgewater we're lucky to get a shelter at all I guess. And of couse they removed the benches down at Thorndale because of the thugs.

Yeah, Adam, I agree; but I'm still boggled that the CTA declined to answer the simple question about service increasing after three-tracking is done. Compare the version I suggested with the version they actually said, which boiled down to "Maybe." It isn't that I think they don't plan to raise service levels; it's that I'm surprised they're that guarded about it.

I'm unclear what was meant by escalators "at each station." At both Fullerton and Belmont? Or at each (above ground) station on the Brown Line?

If the latter, it seems that most would be better served with longer canopies rather than escalators.

Ryan, "each station" means both Fullerton and Belmont.

m: yes, there are Decaux shelter north of Irving. Check Pratt and Sheridan. That's why I asked.

[I'm pessimistic enough to be pretty sure that based on previous doublespeak and excuse making that the run increase/frequency will be negligible and that the trains will be just and crowded and just as unreliable.]

You were also pessimistic, as I recall, that three-track work would end in the first place. And this was *last month.*

At any rate, your intuitions to the contrary, I think it's likely enough that the number of Red Line runs will go back to what it was before three-tracking started. Why wouldn't it?

As for the Brown Line ... again, why wouldn't the number of runs increase? Even if the CTA wanted to use a lame excuse to explain it to the public, as you say, they would still need an *actual* reason not to increase the number in the first place, even if it's not a reason that makes sense to us.

If you want to engage in this kind of speculation, at least be a little thoughtful about it. Give us some logic, man, instead of knee-jerk skepticism.

Don't bother Strannix, KevinB is just one of those guys who will never be happy about anything ever.

I for one will be happy that 3 tracking is over regardless of wether the runs increase or not. Fortunately for me my job tends not to have me needing the trains during rush hour so I rarely have issues. I do wish my commute could return to the 35 minutes it SHOULD take compared to the 50+ that it DOES take, but I'll be happy with progress of any sort.

Oddly enough, my alternate route to work is also one of KevinBs pet peeves, that wonderful #22 bus. Needless to say, I dont bother with that bus anymore and just leave myself some extra time and deal with the 3 tracking.

Re escalators vs. canopies: Nice to hear there might also be additional extra leftover funds for canopies, but seems like this should be the first order of business, not escalators. Escalators don't really accomplish anything - elevators provide accessibility and most of us who don't need elevators could stand to take a few stairs here and there. Getting rained on during rush hour, on the other hand, benefits nobody.

Escalators will also add to operating costs, since they require a lot more maintenance than a flight of stairs. The CTA shouldn't be jumping at the chance to add to its maintenance budget.

...that last part was poorly phrased: I should have said the CTA shouldn't be jumping at the chance to add to its maintenance costs. (Whether it should be adding to its maintenance budget is another question entirely, of course.)

"Maybe they can temporarily fix the yard problem by storing some Brown Line trains at Midway, like they've been doing throughout the 3-track period. I wouldn't mind continuing to have a shot at an empty train at Adams and Wabash."

Cars are not stored there; you're seeing Orange line cars in the Loop. When the line is through-routed between Midway and Kimball during weekend track work on the elevated structure, Brown/Orange are combined. However, no cars for one line are stored at the terminal of another (except for 2-3 "Raven-ston" trains).

Signals have been replaced all over NSM (north side main). However, CTA really should have put in switches that allowed for faster switching between tracks 1/2 and 3/4. Granted it's tight up there, but 15mph switches could have been implemented instead of 6mph switches.

Oh and have you felt the bumps coming out of Fullerton on track 4 (east track)? Yea, what genius tamped those tracks?

so, has 3-tracking ended? Guess I didn't get the memo...It was still happening as of my rush hour commute this morning...

I'll believe it when I actually see it. I've heard differing times and again, I also remember the signs that said that the Washington Street Station would be re-opening in Fall 2008 and we all know that never happened.

My skeptism is fueling by the basic inability of the CTA to speak in anything other than banalities and generalities. Come on folks, how hard is it to say "We'll be back at pre-3-track levels or higher when we go back to 4 tracks."

Yeah, I do complain about the CTA, but good lord, there is so much to complain about...

I even said, this is the one time I'd be more than pleased to be wrong. I did preface my remarks with the fact that they were nothing more than impressions from the doublespeak response to the questions that others had.

KevinB

[I'll believe it when I actually see it. I've heard differing times and again...]

I don't know what you've "heard," but I think most of us here remember being told two differing times. First, we were told three-tracking would be done (IIRC) mid-2009. Then the timetable was moved up to end-2008.

Leave it to you to throw up your hands over that one.

But mostly I'm simply astonished that you're STILL skeptical that three-tracking will end. One's distrust has truly turned to paranoia when you trust it more than your own eyes.

Hard to know what else to say.

KevinB: go read the original blog post; 3-track will end at FULLERTON BY THANKSGIVING.

It isn't time yet. Try different bait, troll.

skepticism: A doubting or questioning attitude or state of mind; A methodology based on an assumption of doubt with the aim of acquiring approximate or relative certainty.

paranoia: A psychotic disorder characterized by systematized delusions, especially of persecution or grandeur, in the absence of other personality disorders;Extreme, irrational, baseless distrust of others.

I'm going with skepticism since my distrust of the CTA is actually based on experience rather than being baseless. Of course I have a low opinion of CTA and that opinion is well deserved. If I thought that the CTA was doing it just to punish me alone, I'd think paranoia too, but since I'm just one of many that have to deal with the red line delays, the 22 problems, the basic lack of any accountability by the CTA to customers, I'm just one sheep, in a very large flock.

I also thought that no one would be stupid enough to have a platform exposed to the elements without adequate shelter (and the fix wouldn't be an afterthought) and that stations would be designed so that buses could pull up to them and load/unload without sticking out in the street...and I've been proved wrong there. I also didn't think a supposedly "under-funded" agency would spend tens of millions(or is it hundreds of millions-can't remember off hand) of dollars for basically a "hole in the ground" smack in the middle of downtown Chicago. But, hey, I was surprised there too.

So, would I be surprised if after the 3-tracking is finished that there is some other "issue" that causes delays on the red line, then answer is no. I'm not surprised any more by any of the customer hostile ways that the CTA comes up with anymore.

The CTAs basic inability to just come out and say, yeah, we are going back to at least the level before the construction began does fuel that suspicion and a hefty dose of that skepticism. It's served me well these many years, I find no reason to abandon a working methodology until a better one comes along.

KevinB

Unlike the hole in the ground KevinB, you can see and watch the improvement on the 3tracking. I dont understand what exactly there is to be skeptical about. The progress is notable from day to day. I get on at Belmont and often watch the guys work just because I enjoy watching construction. I usually stand until we roll into fullerton to see how its changed since the day before. Maybe its because I use one of the stations on a daily basis, but I don't see how anyone could be skeptical about the work that is being done right before you eyes.

I for one like the lack of canopies, it keeps the masses bottled up in the middle and leaves me and anyone else who thought to bring an umbrella or dress appropriately for the weather a better shot at a seat on the end of a car.

*below is for stillwaiting(I believe)*

The Escalators will be a large boon for me. I need surgery on my left knee asap and my right knee is not far behind. Stairs aggrivate my knees and require that I slow my pace to practically a crawl. This also helps the CTA remain slightly more ADA compliant, somthing I feel that our new president elect may begin to beef up at some point during his tenure. My mother will be very happy for it as she is disabled and has as much trouble with stairs as I do.

[So, would I be surprised if after the 3-tracking is finished that there is some other "issue" that causes delays on the red line, then answer is no.]

And I guess I wouldn't be so dismissive of this attitude if you could come up with a reason WHY the CTA would do this. I know you believe that they do things like this just for fun (or whatever), but even the CTA has reasons for what they do, even if you and/or I think they're not very good reasons.

So think about it. Please.

Anyway, speaking of the aforementioned hole in the ground, there is indeed work being done there. As of today, it was plain for all to see, since the walls around the station have been removed, so it's visible from a passing train.

Unfortunately, while it's hard to say for sure from the train, it looked as though the workers were mainly removing the construction materials. In other words, finishing up the mothballing process.

I really wonder why the CTA does alot of things.

I don't see a rational reason for getting rid of the Chicago Card Bonus but they did.

I (and others) were fooled by the previous time that they finished "slow zone" work in the Red line Belmont/fullerton corridor, the two times they finished "slow zone" work in the underground and the Washington street station and other "head scratchers"

I guess it's a toss up for me if they are:

1: just totally incompetent (poor station redesign), major cost overruns because someone can't remotely estimate what a job will cost, can't spell Belmont, can't duplicate the Tattlers real time alerts system, etc, etc, can't seem to use technology effectively, can't seem to manage and control employees, etc, etc.

2: only give out bad information in little pieces in the hopes that people won't put the pieces together and actually have some clue about how to manage and run a transportation system. This would be like the fact that under 3-track SB, there seems to be some sort of phantom signaling issue that keeps a train from going anywhere near the allowed speed and slows down or stops several times for no reason without any other traffic in the corridor between Belmont/Fullerton and causes a red line train with no stops to take longer to get from Belmont to Fullerton than a Brown or Purple line that has to make a stop at Diversey in between. I'm not talking the stop that would be made just before the station due to switching so that brown/purple trains can move over to the inner track, I'm talking when the red line train has exclusive use or I think its track 3 from Belmont to the switch/sign right before the Fullerton station.

So, if/when 3-tracking ends will there be the same delay or will trains be able to go at the posted speed without delay or if they will still have the phantom slowdown/stops like they do today.

The skeptic in me wonders if there will be a second round of Belmont/Fullerton signal issues after the work is done.

I'm waiting for "Oh, we forgot to tell you that now that the 3 tracking is done, we can't run trains at capacity until we upgrade the signaling system" Never mind that we just did this a year or so ago.

Then there's all that work on signalling/switching in the loop area that we haven't heard about lately (you know, the one that was going to take much longer because we couldn't adequately make time/money/schedule projections...

Again, don't have alot of confidence that the CTA has even a small ability to effectively do their job, plan, budget or communicate. I think that they again, tell us about little pieces of what they are doing in hopes that we won't connect it all together to get a "big picture" of exactly how inept and clueless they really are and how horribly they manage the resources that they have.

Again, this is one of those times that I challenge them to prove me wrong and I'd be happier than a pig in mud to be proven overwhelming wrong. I really don't think there's much chance of that happening, but then miracles do happen...

As far as the Washington St station, I saw the walls down last night too. Looking at it, I don't see any reason that they couldn't at least reopen the station. I still see the stairs intact for access to the transfer tunnel, but obviously can't see what damage they've done under there and I don't have high hopes that will ever return.

Cheers,

KevinB

Hey KevinB: nobody really cares what you think. Why don't you get a job and stop being an armchair analyst.

KevinB wrote: "I don't see a rational reason for getting rid of the Chicago Card Bonus but they did."

How's this for a reason: Because they didn't have enough revenue to meet the budget.

If they didn't cut that Chicago Card bonus, then they would have to make up the revenue somewhere else. Perhaps you can suggest another place to make it up.

I did at the meeting, furloughs. With all the publicity about this happening all over (Mayor Daley, Todd Stroger, etc), you'd think the CTA management would be smart enough to figure this out too (evidently not!).

My office saved almost 16 million dollars in labor costs (the biggest part of the budget from what Ron tells us) by requiring 4 furlough days from it's employees in lieu of layoffs and we have about half of the employees that the CTA does (and make less too). The city and state and county were able to figure this out, why not the CTA?

Plus, as others pointed out it ADDs additional collection costs by discouraging the use of the CC and CC+ cards. If I wasn't using the CC+ through a transit benefit program at work, I would have been using the CC card to get the bonus and if they got rid of the bonus, I'd have just gone back to picking up the paper card every month like most of the other people I see do.

KevinB

Bob:

I have a job. Part of my job is analyzing things and coming up with fixes/alternatives. According to my boss I do it pretty well.

Doesn't mean that I can't comment on an obviously f***ed up organization. Last I looked it was a free country, but then maybe I didn't get the memo yet where it became Bob the Builders land. At least I offer something more than "get a job"...

KevinB

OK ... after wading through that huge pile of BS, the only *actual* reason I can see that you think full service will not be restored after three-tracking is that the signalling system may need an upgrade.

Furthermore, the only basis you have to think this is that sometimes trains don't go as fast as they should, and you don't know why. And in typical form, you've decided that "I don't know why" is the logical equivalent to "there is no reason."

Seems like weak tea to me. Especially so, given that the issues involved in switching tracks will not be in play once three-tracking ends (obviously).

The CTA deserves a little credit for under budget and ahead of schedule. Here in NY, if the MTA ever did ANYTHING "under budget and ahead of schedule," Manhattan might just spontaneously implode.