CTA Tattler

No more BRT!!! It was a failure waiting to happen.

There are buses that travel the expressway? :o

"The CTA will install them on 100 buses and all 144 rail stations"

Actually on the buses? What would be the point of that? Should they not be installed in the shelter?

"The CTA expects to generate about $100 million in revenue from the signs"

Does that mean they will show ads as well? Just what we need...

Stephen,

What are you talking about? Are you saying they got rid of it, or asking them to do so?

I think the wording got confused. The ads will appear on buses and the signage for arrivals will be at rail stations. Is there any chance of having this on the Bus Tracker system, but with rail?

I think the ones on the buses will just do advertising.

Chicago lost the funding for BRT. See this article.

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1367377,010809bus.article

Well, that sucks about losing BRT. I wasn't ever sure of the implementation, but it has potential. Hopefully we didn't waste much money on it and that the parking fees can go to something else CTA-related.

I wonder what was behind the feds' refusal to grant a 13-day extension of the deadline. I also wonder what impact not establishing BRT will have on the Olympic bid.

Yep. I couldn't help but notice that our bewildered Washington lobbyist was none other than Frank Kreusi. There's a brilliant choice. Take a guy who couldn't get along with anyone from Springfield, crippling the CTA in the process, and make him Chicago's lobbyist to Washington.

And whaddya know? The city loses $160 million for a promising program because Kreusi, once again, sucks at life.

Granted, this probably would've happened no matter who was lobbying on behalf of the city, but why the hell is that failure still allowed to screw over the CTA with his incompetence?

Oh yeah, back to the train arrival time signs. So what was the point of installing the signs at all the new Brown Line stations if they are going to be superceded by the Titan Media-installed signs?

As much as I'd like to think that Frank Kruesi convoluted matters on this, it's actually very common for extensions to be denied when there's about to be a change in administrations. It's a courtesy granted from the outgoing administration to the new one to not make promises that the new administration would then be compelled to own up to. Chicago may have a chance to reapply for an extension following the inauguration.
Of course, an extension wouldn't have been needed had the city gotten its act together and met the deadline. The Daley folk couldn't get the votes they needed to pass their proposal because according to Brendan Reilly, many aldermen felt it was being railroaded through the process (I wonder why all of a sudden they were concerned about this!) For once, Illinois and more specifically Chicago was getting a gift of federal money that another city lost. We're a "donor state" in terms of taxes collected versus federal money spent here. The city blew it.
Lastly, the CTA proposal for BRT was weak at best. Removing parking on one side of the street during peak hours on a relatively small segment of a route, even coupled with transit signal priority, isn't BRT. The plans for how Lake Shore Drive routes would operate as a BRT were, to put it mildly, incredibly vague. The lynchpin would have been congestion pricing for parking, essentially using parking prices to try to force people onto transit. It's worked with varying levels of success in other places, but my personal thoughts are that some businesses may simply choose to relocate to suburban areas.

jm, it's called the old "golden parachute"... Kruesi was loyal to Daley despite causing him a fair number of headaches toward the end and was rewarded with a sweet gig for being a good soldier.

Martha,

Maybe Titan Media will use the ones you mention... I haven't seen the signs you talk about though.

Let's hope this money gets replaced with a better approval from the Obama stimulus plan. I don't know how much of a difference this would have made anyway. I'd rather see rail upgrades, extensions.

@Martha I'm pretty sure they stopped installing the led signs when this deal was announced... or at least on the recently opened stations north of belmont... all of those have the steel posts, but no signs yet. I guess they're just waiting for titan at this point...

The only new sign I've noticed on the Brown Line is at Sedgwick, where they seem incapable of displaying the correct time.

Ooops. Guess I saw the red digital signs at the first wave of Brown Line rehabs and assumed, therefore making an ass of myself, that they'd been installed at all new stations. Thanks for the info.

Are you serious? These signs will have ads! Disgusting.

As much as the ads annoy me. I'd much rather McDonald's was footing more of the CTA bill than yet another fare increase. Having arrival times is kind of nice. You know if you should bother pulling out your book or not.

I say it's about time that these types of signs will be going up. I can ignore the advertising, and if ads means more money for CTA and better service, I'm all for it.

Just knowing when a train might be coming is a wonderful thing and long overdue. There's nothing worse riding CTA than waiting 15 minutes for a train with absolutely no idea when it's coming. The signs will at least help me decide on an alternate route if the wait is too long.

What's so disgusting about some ads? The reality is that public transit never gets the funding it needs.

This is whether it's a dense city with an old, established system or a sprawling city with a relatively new system. Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina: All those rural and suburban politicians hate the Big City (Chicago, Baltimore, Charlotte) and especially that old socialist bugaboo Mass Transit.

Transit systems therefore must take reasonable measures to secure needed funding outside the public realm, and throwing a few ads on a digital sign that also posts train arrival times sounds like a great idea.

Where will these signs be installed?
It would be great to have them hang in the stations themselves as well as the platforms, particularly at Belmont and Fullerton where you have a few different options depending on where you're headed.

The ads actually aren't that obnoxious because they change frequently... as opposed to the Saw III ads that stayed up at 47th for over a year. Last night when I was there I noticed they'd added the Bus Tracker to the signs, too, listing when the 47 and 43 would arrive at the stop. They are SUPER.

I'm sad about the BRT, too, but why hasn't this gotten any press? http://www.igocars.org/chicago_card_plus

Jack: they have one screen out at street level before entering the station and one hanging above the Customer Service booth, and two per side of the platform.

I fear for the day that the new Titan signs say "immediate follower" instead of "4 minutes"...

Finally! This is great news.

>I noticed they'd added the Bus Tracker to the signs, too, listing when the 47 and 43 would arrive at the stop.

That's really cool. I wondered whether and when they'd offer tracker at el stations, since they're the biggest bus stops we have.

Thanks for the update Jessi. Sounds ideal.

This program eliminates one of the biggest frustrations of anyone riding the CTA, particularly on weekends and off-times: not knowing when the next train will arrive.

Does anyone know the timeline for roll-out? Will the Red Line get them first? I'd love to see this fully implemented by summer 2009.

For those of you who can't stand Jon Hilkevitch, the Tribune is asking readers to say how you'd like the paper to change. Here's the url for the feedback form:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/chi-ctredesign2008-form,0,49838.htmlstory

They're really seeking feedback on their redesign, but the form includes this question: "What else would you like to see in your Chicago Tribune?"

Put your money where your mouths are, folks!

In my experience, constructive criticism, such as, "Better coverage of the CTA that doesn't mimic their press releases and critiques their decisions when needed," gets better results from the Trib folks than commentary like, "a transportation writer who actually does his homework."

When I fill that form out, I'm going to focus on other things--like the shifts in focus from words to graphs and charts, and from news to celebrity gossip. Argh.

@Jack

I'm guessing they installed them at 47th St. in December so that they could evaluate how well the platform they intend to use holds up under the weather. Also, to see how quickly the get vandalized or someone tries to steal one.

"Over the next 30-days, the CTA will test the eight displays installed at the station for durability, placement and customer feedback before moving forward with its gradual installation at the remaining 143 rail stations."

From the news release: http://www.transitchicago.com/news/default.aspx?ArticleId=2265

So what you're saying, Heron, is that it would be unproductive to write the Tribune and tell them they shouldn't be charging for the paper since it's virtually indistinguishable from the Red Eye since the redesign? :)

Another look at the sign:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reallyboring/3120983077/in/pool-chitransit

I'm curious to know what the ratio of ads to actual useful information will be. If the CTA isn't paying anything, it will surely be unbalanced

I was at 47th recently and it seemed like the ads to information ratio was about 50:50. It looks like the ads and the information rotate on 10second intervals.

@mna

Yes, they will be mounted on the sides of buses!

As WMAQ noted on October 18, "Using GPS technology and cellular signals, the ads can change from neighborhood to neighborhood. Buses and stations can then advertise businesses that are near their specific locations. Perhaps most importantly, the digital displays are directly connected to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. In case of an emergency, the CTA can replace the ads with useful information, real-time updates, and possibly even Amber alerts for missing children."

Source:

Martha: I think your comment would be fine, and is actually quite accurate. I just don't think submitting a snarky comment about Hilkevitch would accomplish anything.

I told the Trib that if they raise their home delivery rates (as they plan to do), but don't raise the level of their content back up to levels above what one would expect to find in a tabloid newspaper, we'll be cancelling our subscription.

Sam Zell, the shark who bought the paper and has cut staff numbers to the bone, cares more about the state of his bank accounts than putting out a quality newspaper. He's ruined the Trib, in my opinion. He thinks paying subscribers are happy with pretty pictures of pretty people, but I've got news for him.

The New York Times is covering Chicago news better than the local papers are lately. That's just sad.

Of course, I don't expect my comments to cause any miraculous changes, but money talks, and if enough subscribers who think like I do let the paper know their opinions, who knows?

I suspect that print newspapers will go the way of the dodo in the long term, though. The era of expensive display ads supporting a large pool of experienced reporters is coming to a close, and online advertising simply isn't as profitable.

Newspaper companies are probably going to shift over to producing a fee-for-acccess online product with less overhead and fewer production costs, and hope enough people are willing to pay to support good journalism.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Maybe it's because I just read the Sunday Tribune edition, but I don't see the changes you guys are saying are going down. I see changes, but it doesn't look anything like the Red Eye or its content...

Chris, the changes are a lot more noticeable Monday through Saturday. What used to be the Tempo section could now be described as the "fun news about celebrities, movies, and television shows" section. Ick. The coverage of sports teams that aren't located in Chicago is practically nonexistent. More importantly, the Washington and foreign correspondent departments have been decimated, and the space devoted to news from those locales written by Trib staffers (not wire service staff or freelancers) has shrunk commensurately.

The guy who bought the Trib and the L.A. Times has decided that fluff is more profitable, so that's what we're getting in the Trib nowadays.

I'm one of those effete arugula-eaters who subscribes to the NY Times and only scans the Chicago papers online for necessary bits, so my opinion may be suspect. :P When I do see the print version of either the Trib or the Sun-Times, I'm apalled by the lack of text and substantive writing. They are both like the Cliff Notes versions of a big-city newspaper. A lot of the "news" stories are taken off of wire services and there are way too many vacuous features. It's sad that a great city doesn't have a better paper representing it. I am, however, somewhat cheered by the role the Trib has played, and hopefully will continue to play, in the Blago takedown. It's bleeping golden.

Martha, did you know that Fitzgerald blew the whistle on Blago earlier than maybe he should've because the Trib was sitting on the story? That's the rumor, anyway...

That's true, Heron although some legal analysts think Fitzgerald may have jumped the gun a bit. When I wrote that yesterday I was thinking about the weirdness of Blago trying to pressure the Trib's Editorial Board to write more favorable pieces about him if they wanted the Wrigley tax breaks. Fitzgerald asked the Trib not to publish any further columns about the wiretaps after the first one appeared the weekend before Blago was arrested. They must have agreed since he thanked the Trib for their compliance during the press conference announcing the criminal complaint. The Trib even used the footage of Fitzgerald thanking them as an ad for subscriptions that ran briefly on WGN and CLTV.

I think PFitz had no idea what a total circus this would turn into. Maybe he thought he was dealing with a rational human being and assumed that Blago would do the honorable thing and resign. At work we've been enjoying getting the DSM out and diagnosing Blago. He just keeps getting nuttier and nuttier. I wonder how much he paid those people to stand behind him at yesterday's press conference.