Is the CTA "shovel-ready?" Brown sets her sight on stimulus dollars for CTA
CTA Board Chairwoman Carole Brown on Thursday testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hoping to get her hands on some of Barack's economic stimulus dollars.
President Obama is looking for so-called "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects to create jobs and stimulate a moribund economy. Brown told ABC7 News that some of those projects "include purchasing 58 new buses, updating rails, new signal work, and station improvements."
"And what I want to reiterate is as long as the process is streamlined, as long as they look at is as kind of an emergency to help stimulate the economy and invest in the economy, hence to streamline the process of getting the money to us, that we've got plenty of projects ready to go," said Brown.
Speaking of signal work, the CTA gets back at it on the Loop elevated this weekend, closing down stations Sunday on the Wells-Van Buren stretch. Details here.
Now you'll know when your Clark bus is not coming. Don't forget -- the #22 Clark and #36 Broadway (and 9 other buses) go live on Bus Tracker Monday. I don't ride them, so y'all must let me know how reliable Tracker is on these routes. Details here.
Thats a good point about Sheridan. I never thought of that. Reminds me of the disappointment I had when the CTA didn't straighten the Paulina connector as it goes over Jackson/Ogden.
Posted by: Stephen | January 24, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Looks like our favorite man, Huberman, might be going to the ol' CPS. It absolutely amazed me that someone who is so unqualified (no previous mass transit experience nor any educational experience) can be in the running for so many important positions.
I hope for the sake of the children in the already bad CPS system do not have to be subjected to the leadership of someone who has never worked in the kind of position he is being charged to lead.
For those who say "well, he had no experience in mass transit and he has made XYZ improvements, why wouldn't that happen at CPS"... I am afraid CTA leadership skills are not very transferable to leading the school system. I hope Daley wakes up and realizes this is a BAD move.
Posted by: johnson | January 24, 2009 at 12:33 PM
If this is true about the early scrapping of those buses, well, obviously shame on CTA for buying them, but, in many ways, shame on the Feds for paying for 80% of them, allowings some hungarian-alabamaian conglomeration to build those pieces of junk and dump them on the citizens of one of the largest North American cities, for forcing CTA to always go with lowest bidder and not providing any oversight, or even better, help.
Imagine buying a car and driving it hundreds of miles a day, stopping at every intersection, opening and closing your doors, loading to 60-plus people, all day long, all season long, all that rain, snows, salt, and then someone told you that you MUST keep that vehicle for 12 years! Crazy. But that's the way it is with under-funded transit in America.
CTA's performance metrics on their website reports something like a breakdown every 4,000 miles. I wouldn't be surprised if that's pretty standard across the country--or at least not that below average.
The Feds need to do SOMETHING about North American bus manufacturing, or at least, loosen-up some of the incredibly restrict rules they have.
Posted by: JMan | January 24, 2009 at 01:25 PM
I hardly think the Addison stop is anywhere close to disrepair. I'm sure the Cubs would prevent that from happening.
I'm confused about the Skokie Swift to Jefferson Park you mention... It doesn't go through Jefferson Park, so wouldn't it just be a completely different line altogether?
Posted by: chris | January 26, 2009 at 09:24 AM