How bad weather adversely affects your commute, and how CTA prepares for it
Last month was the 10th-coldest on record with an average temperature of 15.9 degrees. And today we woke up to below-zero wind chills.
Certainly the frigid temperatures adversely affect both bus and rail travel on the CTA. In one stretch of seven work days last month, the Red Line train I boarded at Morse had to run express to Wilson five of those days from either Loyola or Granville due to weather-related delays either on my train or one behind me.
Of course, I wasn't happy about being late nor about the crowded conditions those delays cause. But can I really blame the CTA? Certainly not for the cold. But do they do enough to prepare for the weather, to keep the fleet running to withstand the cold? So I asked them these questions. Below is the unedited response. And yes, it's definitely a response from the PR folks.
The CTA needs to continue to do aggressive preventive maintenance to keep all vehicles in tip-top shape in all weather. And we need to show a little more patience.
CTA's reply:
In response for your question on cold weather, we checked with the Operations staff. Obviously, both buses and trains have mechanical components that can be impacted by severe cold. In addition, the rail system also has components that are subject to the elements such as tracks and switches.
Among the more common problems buses face during extreme cold are engines failing to start or difficulty maneuvering in traffic due to icy or extreme snowy conditions. On the rail side, switches not working properly due to icy buildup; or trains not able to reach speed due to build up of ice on the rails are some problems that occur in extreme conditions.
CTA prepares for the winter and summer months well in advance in order to perform preventative maintenance to help combat potential problems.
CTA has an annual winter preparedness plans that includes checks of the bus and rail fleet to make sure they are ready to operate in winter conditions. For example, sleet scrapers and snowplow blades are installed on rail car. For buses, there are a series of steps to make sure buses are ready for winter, such as checking heaters, engine thermostats and batteries and making sure windows, roof hatches and doors close securely.
Rail
CTA's rail fleet is parked outside all year round – blowing and drifting snow, combined with sub-zero temperatures have the potential to affect the fleet in a number of ways. The same goes for the CTA bus fleet, approximately 30% of which is housed outdoors.
The most common equipment problems have to do with the build-up of snow and/or ice on the truck's undercarriage, or on various mechanical elements of the train such as the couplers.
Switch and rail heaters perform well given either heavy snow or extreme cold – but when the two are combined it is more challenging to keep it operating smoothly so rail maintenance staff is assigned to the switches and signals around the clock to keep equipment operating.
The sub-zero temperatures can cause the same mechanical problems as with other vehicles, especially affecting the oil in the door tracks and the motors. The oil thickens and causes the doors to open and close more slowly. This is especially true in the early morning when the train is coming out of the yard. As the doors operate more, the oil loosens up and the doors will operate more quickly.
Bus
In cold and snowy conditions, equipment problems encountered by CTA buses can be similar to those of cars. After a heavy snowfall, buses that are stored outside are subject to the same challenges of moving from a snowed-in parking spot.
In extreme cold temperatures, starting up buses can be difficult. Diesel fuel properties are different than those of fuel that is used in cars. Typically, diesel fuel does not function as well in extreme cold conditions. To help keep CTA buses running during colder temperatures, buses are equipped with engine pre-heaters that allow motors to start up easily and bus interiors to warm up more quickly. Buses stored at outdoor facilities need not idle all the time, due to the pre-heaters. Engines are started in the morning and are allowed to run up to 30 minutes in order to ensure proper operation.
The newly-arriving New Flyer articulated hybrids feature a plug-in feature that allows the batteries on the bus to remain charged when the bus is not in use. Power is drawn from the batteries to operate the auxiliary heater and circulate warm coolant through the engine block during overnight storage during cold weather. This eliminates the need to idle buses for startup.
(CTA photo)
Saying that you have a plan for winter maintenance is not the same as saying that your employees carry it out, and CTA workers are no more motivated or happy than any other workforce these days. That said, speaking as a person who has ridden the Red Line to and from work for 40 years, I will say that the situation is better than it was in the 70s and 80s. The blizzard of 1979 made commuting on the Red Line hell for a full month, including the few days when no train went north of Wilson. And with the signs inside buses that tell you what the next stop is, you don't have to worry about not knowing where you are because you can't see out the salt-and-filth-encrusted windows.
Posted by: JS | February 04, 2009 at 06:21 AM
Also, it doesn't help if the highly trained CTA folks "forget" to send out the train to clean the 3rd rail like they did a couple weeks ago on the NB purple line from Howard.
I'm sure there's a PR response for that too!
Share and Enjoy!
KevinB
Posted by: KevinB | February 04, 2009 at 07:10 AM
"And we need to show a little more patience."
Word.
Posted by: ames | February 04, 2009 at 07:31 AM
Is there something they can do to keep the emergency exit windows on the buses shut? I swear there are kids just pulling the red handles to be jackasses, because there's no way to get them back closed.
Posted by: prattfall | February 04, 2009 at 09:29 AM
I think they forgot to to do that window check on some buses. I've had some pretty drafty rides on Lake Shore with a window flapping open the whole way.
It's cool the new buses will allow easier/better startups in the morning.
Posted by: chris | February 04, 2009 at 09:35 AM
I see you have experienced the drafty bus too prattfall!
Posted by: chris | February 04, 2009 at 09:59 AM
I was on a yellow line train one evening during the recent extreme cold spell. The front of the first car was roped off, and they had a flow pump and carboys of liquid (salt solution?) that they were running out to the track, presumably to keep it from freezing.
Posted by: Sarah | February 04, 2009 at 10:27 AM
I agree that the service has been better this year than in the past, I haven't had to deal with any significant delays this winter.
One thing they didn't address is snow removal on El platforms, that's the one area I've seen a real need for improvement in this winter.
Posted by: Attrill | February 04, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Metra has had significant weather-related challenges this winter. One of Hilkevitch's recent pieces of "journalism" was about the trouble Amtrak has had keeping its trains running the last few months. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I haven't experienced any horrendous weather-related equipment malfunctions and resulting delays on CTA.
Posted by: Martha | February 04, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Along these lines, there seems to be a CTA-related event at the Chicago History Museum tomorrow (Thursday) evening, according to a post on LiveJournal's CTA community:
http://community.livejournal.com/chicago_el/507037.html
The poster mentions that the museum's site has more info and a reservations link, but he doesn't seem to have provided any link himself, so I have to leave it as an exercise for y'all.
Posted by: Bob S. | February 04, 2009 at 11:26 AM
It's Tattler kismet!
From www.chicagohistory.org
Transportation Frustration
Thursday, February 5, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Between weather, construction, pot holes and rising costs, commuting in Chicago can be very daunting. Find out what the CTA and the city are doing to ease your transportation woes and arm yourself with the information you need to make your Windy City commute a breeze.
Posted by: Martha | February 04, 2009 at 11:38 AM
>>>
Saying that you have a plan for winter maintenance is not the same as saying that your employees carry it out
<<<
That's about as true of a statement as there can be. (I'd also add in just because you have a plan doesn't mean your field managers are dispatching employees to carry it out.)
Comparatively speaking, Chicago's rail operations have a better potential for little trouble in winter weather than cities like Denver or Portland's system. Portland's light rail system has come to a halt twice in the last five years because of ice in the switches. It's much harder to keep switches embeded in a street working than it is to keep switches that aren't surounded by pavement clear.
Make sure switch heaters are operating. Run some trains 24 hours a day, and it will take a monster storm, like 30-inches of snow in 24 hours, to stop the trains. Snow drifts in the yards may be the most difficult issue if they follow the plan.
Winter mix diesel fuel should be fine until you start hitting 10 below. That's when it starts gelling-up. A starting problem at temperatures warmer than that would probably be more related to weak batteries powering the starter.
Kids pulling open windows are a social issue that I'm not sure how to deal with. But a better designed window that can be re-closed as easily as it's opened would go a long way.
You can't do much about the traffic problems that buses face. Thankfully, Chicago is relatively flat. Portland's bus system frequently has to switch to "snow routes" that go around the big hills, and can strand people 3 miles away from home easily. They also fairly frequently need to use chains, which adds further delays.
Many times people point towards how Portland has such better transit than Chicago, but if you ever have been in Portland when they get an inch and a half of snow, you'd love how well the CTA can handle more than a foot of snow!
Shoveling platforms is a big problem. When the snow is coming down, a platform can look pretty bad as little as 15 minutes after it's been shoveled.
My suggestion is that this would be a good time to get some people with community service sentences out there to do a little work. Keeping a crew of two or three at each station until the snow stops coming down would be ideal.
But overall, I'd have to say CTA has done a pretty good job considering the weather. It could be a lot worse, and the high-and-mighty in Portland are one group that can atest to that.
If there's one thing CTA does do well, it's maintaining good operations during adverse weather. (Now if they could only do that well under normal conditions. lol )
Posted by: Rusty | February 04, 2009 at 11:48 AM
I agree, when it comes to bad weather, the CTA knows how to handle it pretty darn well. In fact, sometimes it seems like they get more riders on such days because of their reliability. Perhaps people who normally drive switch over to transit for a day to avoid the hassle.
Posted by: chris | February 04, 2009 at 01:19 PM
"Perhaps people who normally drive switch over to transit for a day to avoid the hassle."
Ya think!?
Posted by: MK | February 04, 2009 at 02:50 PM
MIT did a study of the effects of weather on CTA ridership awhile back. Apparently ridership decreases if the weather is bad, but increases if the weather is REALLY bad....
"In general, good weather tends to increase ridership, while bad weather tends to reduce it. But it is still possible that extremely bad weather such as fog or a blizzard may increase ridership because some drivers are likely to switch to transit in these situations."
http://dusp.mit.edu/media/pdf/employment/guozhan_pub2.pdf
Posted by: Attrill | February 04, 2009 at 03:16 PM
Jesus! That's one of those times that you really have to scratch your head and wonder why a study was conducted to find out something so obvious. Especially from a presitgious institution like MIT. It would certainly be understandable if the CTA conducted or commissioned a study to determine the extent of this. But is is pretty baffling why an academic institution on their own decided to study something with such an obvious conclusion.
Posted by: MK | February 04, 2009 at 03:25 PM
[That's one of those times that you really have to scratch your head and wonder why a study was conducted to find out something so obvious.]
Well, it's obvious that it rains sometimes. But there's value in measuring how much it rains.
Same concept here.
Posted by: strannix | February 04, 2009 at 04:25 PM
Sounds like a professor had some grant money burning a hole in his/her pocket. Either that or it was someone's dissertation.
Posted by: Martha | February 04, 2009 at 04:29 PM
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The paper reports the results of research funded by Making CTA More Competitive in the New Millennium, a collaborative program between MIT, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
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Posted by: Rusty | February 04, 2009 at 05:09 PM