CTA Tattler

The improvements to speed on the Blue line have been great, but I think its also important to look at slow zone percentages by branch. 6% systemwide isn't bad, but there are three branches that are still bad. The Purple line is over 30%, the Green line Englewood branch is not far behind and Red North Main line at 18% is not good considering how busy the line is. The long creeping slow zones North and South of Sheridan (not on the curves) cause trains to bunch up during rush hour and end up crawling even after getting out of the slow zones. How many years have slow zones persisted near Granville and Loyola? Its very inefficient and in addition to longer travel times, it messes up the train intervals down the line.

Martha tried to post the link last night (in yesterday's post) to the story you ask about, Kevin, but it got truncated. IF it gets truncated again, it's a Sun-Times article from yesterday about John Harris and his work under Daley.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1322115,harris-daley-blagojevich-120908.article

Sounds like Blago might have been less of a problem than Harris about getting funding for CTA.

But, back on topic, I commend them for eliminating so many slow zones, and hopefully faster times are in store for the north branch of the red line. Doing so, could impact a LOT of riders.

Oh, and I really like the picture on the side that says "Think of it as a fast zone". Pretty cool.

Oh, I recently saw Cities of the Underground on History Channel episode on LA. In the first part of the century, car and tire makers bought up their public transit lines and stations and shut them down! Now they have a real mess. I'm sure glad that didn't happen here!

That happened in Charlotte, where I grew up. Not all the tracks were dug up, though. A few years ago a city work crew discovered old trolley tracks buried under a road they were repairing.

I can only imagine what Charlotte would look like if they had kept the tracks. Certainly not the sprawling mess it is today. Maybe we wouldn't have moved.

Now they're struggling to build a whole new streetcar and light-rail system from scratch for a whole lot more than it would have cost to just keep the old system and expand it.

So, the CTA may have a lot of problems, but at least the train lines weren't torn down. The streetcar lines were, though.

I hope this isn't a spoiler, but "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was based on that little bit of history, and fairly accurate in its portrayal of it as I recall. Anyway, another good reason to avoid privatization.

And for posting long links, there are a zillion (I counted) free sites that shorten them, such as tinyurl and snurl. If you use them, it's good form to mention the ultimate destination.

[...hopefully faster times are in store for the north branch of the red line.]

FWIW, there's been a lot of tie renewal up that way lately, so it looks like they're already on it. In fact, the entire stretch NB from Wilson to Loyola runs pretty smooth - not yet perfect, but acceptable.

Haven't noticed much improvement SB yet.

Judge Doom: "Eight lanes of shimmering cement running from here to Pasadena. Smooth, safe, fast. Traffic jams will be a thing of the past."

Ed,

I always sympathize with the South Side, but it's not the same to talk about 30% of the Englewood Branch, since that designation is for just the last mile or two of track from the main part of the south Green line out to the terminal.

30% of that is maybe 6% of the ride from downtown, so it's pretty comparable to the rest of the system.

Strannix,

I have noticed there has been work on the north branch of the red line, but I haven't noticed much in the way of improved travel times like they have touted for the blue line. The biggest improvement was when they fixed the tunnels, but the above ground work hasn't seemed to impacted travel times as much. At least not yet. That's what I'm hoping for.

Anyone else made note of travel times on the red line lately?

It took me 15 minutes to go from Jackson to Belmont on the red line about a month ago.

It would be nice to have a little trackwork love directed to the Red/Purple Line between Wilson and Howard. It's embarrassing to be riding the Purple Line on Track 4 while Red Line trains blow right on by on Track 3.

And there is a Blagojevich angle affecting the CTA: He appointed Sheila Nix to the CTA board. I wonder what she thinks about her patron's latest turn of luck.

[I haven't noticed much in the way of improved travel times like they have touted for the blue line.]

Well, a couple of factors here:

1) As Bob S. has pointed out repeatedly, the stations are close enough together here that the top speeds are still not going to be as fast as at other points in the system.

2) For the most part, this stretch of track wasn't in terrible shape, at least relatively speaking. There weren't too many stretches of 6-15 mph like there was on the O'Hare branch or in the subway tunnels. In other words, the marginal difference isn't going to be all that big - seconds instead of minutes.

Simply put, we're not going to see a huge change in travel times. We're already looking at just over a half-hour travel time between Lake and Morse, which is pretty good (lately I've clocked it fairly consistently between 31-32 minutes, down from 40-45 during NB three-tracking).

I'd speculate that there's maybe 2-3 minutes of further improvements to be made over that stretch, tops.

Not as big a deal, but since Irving Park opened, the Brown Line has been pretty consistently at full speed in both directions up until Belmont. There used to be a slowzone almost all the way between Irving and Addison, and when you add in having to crawl through the stations while workers are up there during off hours, it really cramped my style. That change combined with the lack of slow zones in the Red Line tunnel (and presumably the effect of Fullerton being at full capacity) has dramatically shortened my commute to Hyde Park. I can only imagine how it'll be once Belmont is back to normal.

"Sounds like Blago might have been less of a problem than Harris about getting funding for CTA."

I'm not sure where you would get that impression.

MK,

The article/link posted above is where I got that impression. Thanks for asking.

Martha, thanks for finding and posting that article, I didn't think to post it and probably couldn't have found it as quickly as you, since I don't save my history.

On the red line front; 20-25 minutes a couple times lately Monroe-Thugdale! Yay, but 30-35 the other way, which I suspect will always be more due to the brown line interference. The slow 'zone' around Irving doesn't really bug me. I suspect that once construction gets going hot and heavy at the Wilson Yards in the spring, there'll be some speed reductions there (or maybe not, I don't recall any for Catalpa Gardens at, well, Catalpa, which is closer I think, to the tracks than the Wilson Yards project will be).

OK. Well, I read that article myself and there was nothing in it that remotely suggested that Harris was the pivotal force that caused Blagojevich's bizarre stance on that issue. What specifically in the article makes you think this? That was sort of what I wanted to know when I asked what gave you the impression you got. I didn't think you were going to give a vague answer ("the article") that said nothing. Obviously, the reason for that whole dispute was because Blagojevich backed himself into a corner by promising he would not raise sales taxes. I think if you read what came out yesterday it is pretty clear that Blagojevich is the driving force on everything he does. His advisors apparently never question him even when it is obvious that his behavior is nuts and not in his interest. They seem to be scared of doing so.

I should have mentioned that my response was directed at Chris. But I suppose it also applies, to a large extent, to fg.

MK, this section from the article sort of jumps out at me:

[When Huberman moved on to become CTA president, sources said Harris used his power over state purse strings to play hardball with the mass transit agency.

During the fight over CTA funding needed to avert “doomsday” service cuts and fare hikes, Huberman put up signs warning riders that their bus routes would be cut because of a lack of state funding. An angry Harris called his archrival and warned that the CTA would not get another penny until the signs were taken down.]

Of course, that doesn't tell us whether Harris was more of a problem than Blago. But later on we get this:

[...a desperately ambitious John Harris filled a power vacuum in state government caused by the investigations swirling around Blagojevich.

“The governor isn’t around. He’s never at the Thompson Center. He’s hiding in his house. Everything goes through John Harris. These last few years, he’s been filling the void."]

I would think those sections would jump out at you when you're reading the article trying to find out why someone would think Harris was a problem.

All that the article suggests is that Harris and Huberman have been rivals. And this may have played out in some minutiae during that "doomsday" dispute. There is nothing to indicate that Harris actually drove the dispute in any significant way. In fact, it is quite obvious from reading the complaint yesterday that neither Harris nor any of the other advisors regularly even make suggestions on what Blagojevich should ever do. So I don't know where people are getting that Harris was a driving force for that silly CTA fight.

FINALLY I can stop pointing that out. Thanks, strannix.

Unfortunately, lately I've ridden the Red Line only during morning commutes from Edgewater to downtown; it's still a miserable, slow, unhappy experience. The LSD express buses are consistently faster, and -- I hate to mention this in public -- it seems that between the awful weather and the low price of gas, people are driving again, so there are seats to be had on those buses. Maybe I'll give it another try when three-tracking is officially declared over.

Back to Red Line speeds:

Normally in the evening I get on the Brown Line at Quincy at 5:08 pm and arrive at Southport at 5:46. Yesterday after work I had to do some quick shopping on State Street, so I got on the Red Line at Lake at 5:31.

After transferring to the Brown Line at Belmont, I got to Southport at 5:54.

So I got on a train 23 minutes later than usual, but was only 8 minutes late getting home. I knew going around the Loop was inefficient, but wow.

I'm still perplexed with one particular slow zone on the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line: the area between Division and Clark/Lake. Why in the world are the trains still going so slow on this stretch? If this particular portion has well and truly been repaired and the slow zone eliminated, why haven't trains been moving more quickly through the tunnel than before/during the track work? I can understand normal train traffic - stops, etc. - but this is every morning slowness. What's the deal there?

[The LSD express buses are consistently faster...]

This obviously has a lot to do with where you get on and off, though. I take the 147 from time to time (usually when I need to go downtown on weekends), but I get on at Estes, up in Rogers Park. By the time I get to LSD, often almost a half-hour has gone by, and that's on the weekend. I'm almost downtown in that time on the Red Line. I've never tried taking it when there's actually traffic.

But if I lived in Edgewater, especially near the southern end (not sure where you get on), that math vs. the Red Line would be much, much different. At that point, you pretty much have a non-stop trip to the Mile. Trains would of course have a hard time competing with that.

Looking down the tunnel at Clark and Lake waiting for my wife to return from O'Hare, I noticed that the tunnel takes a sharp incline up to C&L.

My guess for the slowness is that the tunnel dips far below the river (Maybe farther than usual, say like on the Red between Grand and Lake?)and the trains have to slow down, then slowly crawl back up before reaching Clark and Lake.

I live in Southern Edgewater along Sheridan. The 147 bus to Water Tower on a weekend takes 15 minutes maximum from the Balmoral bus stop, usually less. The Red line takes at least 20 minutes, but add in 5 minute walk to the station and another 5 minutes or so from the Chicago Ave subway station over to Water Tower and the 147 is great. Oh yea, and now that 147 is on bus tracker, I avoid the L even more now.

So far as the "mystery slow zones" that aren't on the slow zone map, there several on most lines. It seems anywhere there is a slight curve, incline, etc, its slapped with a 15mph speed limit, so I guess its not a slow zone because there is nothing in the way of tracks, ties, signals, rail that can be fixed to increase the speed. They have significantly reduced the speed and length of the speed restrictions on the Brown line curves in the last year or so. Its now 15mph max on most curves and a good few hundred feet before and after them now. Maybe all of you that complained on here how the Brown line was too quick on the curves and you spilled your Starbucks, someone might have listened.

The point is, a minute here and there all along the line does add up. Just remember 25 years ago the Red line could make it from Bryn Mawr to Washington in about 22 minutes. I think that should be CTA's goal, don't stop working on it until travel times are back to where they were in the 70's.

On the Harris thing: there's got to be a connection to Kruesi, right? City. Aviation. No?

[The 147 bus to Water Tower on a weekend takes 15 minutes maximum from the Balmoral bus stop, usually less.]

This was precisely my point to Bob. It's hard to see how the train can ever beat that kind of service between those two points. The 147 is practically a $2 taxi when you get on as far south as Balmoral.

[It seems anywhere there is a slight curve, incline, etc, its slapped with a 15mph speed limit, so I guess its not a slow zone because there is nothing in the way of tracks, ties, signals, rail that can be fixed to increase the speed.]

I think it's become more than clear that the reason for this is that track maintenance was a couple of decades behind schedule and is only now starting to get caught up.

But things are getting better, it's just that it looks like the curves are going to be fixed after the current non-curve slow zones for the most part. The Clybourn/Division/State curves in the Red Line subway have been repaired, for example, and trains hum by there at 35mph or so now. The Sedgwick curve has seen similar attention. And I'll be surprised if the Ravenswood curves aren't better after Damen and Paulina reopen.

And I don't think inclines are an inherent problem. The slow zone between Lake and Grand has been removed in both directions, and I believe the trains are traveling at 55mph up and down the inclines there. Entering and exiting the subway on the north side is no longer slow. I think previous slow zones along these stretches were more coincidence than issues with the inclines.