CTA Tattler

FYI, the Flckr photo posted with the article isn't the new entrance that opened today. It's the former North Shore Line interurban station entrance across the street, which houses two auxiliary exits from the platform (and eventually some retail).

The new entrance is on the south side of Howard Street and is a recreation of the 1920s entrance. It's also very cool looking! Some nice history has been preserved and recreated at the north end of the station!

The entire renovation is obviously worthless because the canopy leaks in some places and the buses don't pull directly alongside the trains in the station for easy transfers.

Does anyone understand why the dearborn subway does not have any slow zones on the slow zone map. The grid shows a slow zone in the dearborn subway but I don't see it on the actual map. Maybe I am missing something. Obviously there is a slow zone in the subway as they are going to replace the tracks with stimulus money.
http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/rail_slow_zone_maps/slzm_03_11_09.pdfit

Thats really neat they kept the old North Shore piece, as a railfan and transit junkie I love historical stuff like that

It's done? I assumed the elevated walkway from the round building on the Dominick's lot would be extended to the upper floor of the south station. And that the CTA parking lot would have doors directly to the upper floor of the station. There's a stub of the walkway, and the parking lot doors look temporary, so this had to be part of the plan.

Surely they're not going to screw this up -- it's nuts to have to go down to street level and then up again from either location.

I was there this morning and it looked cool.

Ald Joe Moore was there and he introduced me to the construction manager and I pointed out the last one they opened leaked from day one and he told me that they had thought they had identified the leak and were in the process of fixing it on the south side of the station near the up escalator.

KevinB

Thanks for the update KevinB. Good to know the "proper authorities" are aware of and fixing the leak.

I'm sitting on a SB Red as I post waiting to depart Howard. Some jackass m-fers have already kicked in some of the brand new plexiglass that's encased in steel. That's right, CTA has endless dollars to devote to the vandalism budget What the fuck is wrong with people?

I have something I've been meaning to get off my chest. It seems as if the south side (dan ryan branch) of the redline is getting the short end of the stick. CTA has been working on every other area for slow zones whereas the Dan Ryan Branch needs just as big of an overhaul as the Blue Line recently had. I get tired of being bumped and jerked around in the trains plus theres the fact that every time one slow zone disappears another one takes its place in another area. And I'm sure there are a lot more people who feel this way so don't be afraid to stand up. If enough us write in about this problem then maybe they will give us the same much needed repairs as they did on the Blue Line. We desperatley need it and it would prevent more slow spots from creeping in.

Sam,

Until recently, those of you on the south side had it real good compared to the rest of us. The northern half of the red line, the blue line, and the brown line all had numerous slow zones (some a result of deteriotated track and some the result of construction) that in many cases doubled people's commute time. At that time, you guys were spoiled with little to no slow zones. In addition, you also have a greater distance between stops so your commute is faster as a result of this as well. So please don't complain about "getting the short end of the stick". I'm not suggesting the CTA purposely make your commute longer to even things out but I must admit a part of me would like to see that. ;)

Sam,

Until recently, those of you on the south side had it real good compared to the rest of us. The northern half of the red line, the blue line, and the brown line all had numerous slow zones (some a result of deteriotated track and some the result of construction) that in many cases doubled people's commute time. At that time, you guys were spoiled with little to no slow zones. In addition, you also have a greater distance between stops so your commute is faster as a result of this as well. So please don't complain about "getting the short end of the stick". I'm not suggesting the CTA purposely make your commute longer to even things out but I must admit a part of me would like to see that. ;)

The new station is great -- The water falls during rain and the pools of serenity are incredible -- OH WAIT! The new section of the station is leaking rain like sieve and there are pools of water... $60 million and this is what we get???