CTA Tattler

Ultra-slow zone on rails between Armitage and Addison

The CTA is warning passengers to allow extra travel time -- and show great patience -- over the next few months as it improves tracks and installs new signals around Fullerton and Belmont stations.

The Tribune reports: "The CTA is replacing 11 crossovers and adding 11 in preparation of station work that will be done at the Belmont and Fullerton stops, said John Blum, the CTA's interface manager. The agency also is installing new signals.

"Though there have been some delays in that area, slowed and paused trains will increase in coming months as one or two tracks are temporarily taken out of service for the work, Blum said."

On Saturday it took me about 25 minutes to travel between Sheridan and Fullerton on the Red Line around noon. Workers were swarming the tracks southbound south of Belmont, and the Brown Line was using the Red Line track. Expect more of the same. The CTA says most work will be done during non-peak travel times and on three weekends to be determined.

The Brown Line expansion won't be complete until 2009.

CTA news weekend roundup

Roundup of CTA news and notes:

• The CTA holds public hearings next week on possible alternatives for the proposed Circle Line. Some folks are afraid that the CTA is putting all its development efforts into the Circle Line, at the risk of jeopardizing other much-needed projects, such as the Red Line and Yellow Line expansions. Of course, the CTA denies that. The Tribune reports on the brouhaha.
• Brown Line station closings: The Kimball and Francisco stations will again be closed this weekend for construction. Bookmark this site for continued info on the Brown Line project.
• For greater detail on the Brown Line project, go here. It's too bad this latest "update" is more than a month old.
• Earlier this month the CTA posted an update on their Performance Indicators project. CTA Chair Carole Brown explains the project well on her blog.

Have a great weekend, and on to May! Yeah!

Turning the tables on nosy ladies

Here's a reader Tattler Tale originally brought to us in Spanish by Efraín Martínez. I enlisted my pal Tovi, a Puerto Rico native, to do the translation. So thanks to Efrain for the first Spanish comment on the Tattler and to Tovi for his help.

Here's the story:

This morning I get on the 147 bus and sitting next to me are two women, around 40-50 years old, speaking French (elementary level). It seems like they were practicing for some trip abroad. It happens that, like every morning, the bus is full and they thought they were in a baseball stadium.

Suddenly, an elderly woman stands in front of me, waiting for me to give up my seat. I didn't realize this as I was reading Choke by Palahniuk, so the other woman next to me (not the one speaking French) stands up and lets the elderly woman sit down.

It is only then that I notice the elderly woman so I feel a little ashamed but I keep on reading about sex addicts in my book.

Suddenly, I hear the witches sitting beside me say: "Ces spiks, ils ne sont correctement jamais instruits" ("These spiks, they are never educated properly"). I ignore them since I refuse to lower myself to the level of these middle class women who think they are from a higher class.

When I get off at my stop, at Michigan Avenue, one of the women gets down after me, stands next to me, and says: "You should let older people sit down."

I look at her with a "leave me alone" face and tell her: "Arretez, je ne parlent pas anglais" ("Stop there, I don't speak English"). She stands there surprised since she just realized that I heard here insulting me.

She tries to ignore this and starts to tell me in French: "Vous devriez laisser des personnes plus agees s'asseoir" ("You should let older people sit"). I stop her again in her tracks, this time with a solid voice: "No entiendes mujer, que yo no hablo frances" ("Don't you understand woman, that I don't speak French!").

Click below to read the story as originally posted in Spanish. And all you Francophiles out there, don't get your undies in a bunch if the French translations aren't exactly spot on.

Yahoo CTA alerts widget available

The newest Yahoo! Widgets allows you to download software to receive CTA wireless alerts directly on your desktop, as opposed to your cell phone or other wireless SMS device.

Last week I downloaded the CTA Alerts widget created by Louis Nathan. I think it's a good start, but it needs work. If you haven't been logged into your computer and some alerts where received earlier, it tries to catch you up with them when they may actually be too old for you to find them useful.

But check it out and see for yourself.

A surprising reply for the phone beggar

Yesterday I wrote about the guy on a 30-minute-plus rant about people not letting him use their phone to make a call. He wasn't exactly making people sympathetic to his plight because he was saying white people were afraid of blacks and generally racists.

Finally by the time we made it to Granville, there were a just a few people left in the car when he turned to a white woman in her mid-20s and asked her directly to use her phone. After listening to his rant for a while as the rest of us had, she had an interesting reply:

"You know, I thought about giving you my phone, but I really don't appreciate the generalizations you made about white people," she told him.

He was stunned, and then tried to backtrack. "Oh no, you misinterpreted what I was trying to say. I didn't mean to say I hate all white people, I was just talking about that other lady."

The woman politely and even pleasantly held her ground, wishing him a nice day as she exited at Loyola.

After she left, the guy said: "Hey, I respect her a lot for standing up to me. Now at least she HAD a good reason not to let me use her phone!"

The "let-me-use-your-phone" rant

I board the northbound Red Line at Grand after a long work day. As I enter the car I hear someone ranting at the other end.

A 40-ish black man is asking a white woman for a quarter to make a phone call, or to allow him to use her cell phone. She declines both requests.

Then he really gets going.

"All black people aren't criminals you know. All black people aren't n-----s. But there are some. That woman there just fucked up the rest of my day.

"I've been a fuck-up since I was a child of 12. I'm not saying I'm educated. But she's stereotyping me. She is so afraid of black people she wouldn't let me use her phone. I don't hate white people, because I wouldn't get into heaven with hatred...."

And a little later (the rant continued for my entire 35-minute commute): "I spent 18 years in jail, and I used to try to blame my bad bloodlines on white people, but not anymore. ... Really, I'm begging you just to use your phone." (This last request was made of no one in particular.)

And on and on.

Tomorrow -- another white woman responds to his request to use her phone.

Potpourri of news on this and that

Some quickies for the weekend:

• 33rd Street entrance closed through fall: My Sox fans buddies will have to take the long way to Jimbo's bar before the game because the 33rd entrance/exit at Sox 35th station remains under construction probably through fall. It seems the pedestrian bridge was in worse shape than the CTA originally thought, necessitating demolition and a complete rebuild.
• More Cubs train service: On the North Side of town, Cubs fans attending night games will have more CTA choices starting Monday, when the Purple Line trains stop there, and the Yellow Line adds service from Howard.
• Kimball, Francisco closed again: But only on Sunday this weekend. Details on Brown Line closures here.
• New Red Line tracks north of Belmont: And Red Line customers will board trains at Belmont from the Ravenswood side on Saturday to accommodate workers installing new crossover tracks north of Belmont, where the Brown, Red and Purple lines converge.
• Try Green Line to Sox Park: The Sox are close to selling out nearly every game this year. That means more people on the CTA. So be sure to try the Green Line alternative to the Red, just two block further east.

You are what you read

A 20-something woman wearing a long green canvas trench coat sits reading intently on the northbound Red Line.

She sports a ring in her lower right lip, and a stud in her upper left lip.

She's reading "People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy."

"Stereotypes are true people. That's why everyone hates them." -- T.C. Boyle at a book signing

Burning smell prompts mass exodus

At the far south end of the northbound Grand Avenue subway platform, 20 feet past the platform itself, I watch as an incoming train spits up huge sparks, causing a flare-up of smoke, but no fire.

The trains' wheels carry the smoldering embers of paper litter into the station. A smoky, burning odor permeates the entire station, causing the motorman to leave his cabin to investigate.

Meanwhile passengers wait with a sense of unease and dread. People start to show real concern when the lights go out on about half the cars. Passengers are getting more restless by the second.

Then one bails out and leaves the car. And another. Two more. In less than 15 seconds a mass exodus occurs of passengers fleeing what they think is a burning train car -- though no one has told us to leave. It's like lemmings to the sea.

But I know better, and make my opportunity to stake out the best seat in the house -- the single seat adjacent to the door between cars.

Meanwhile, people are mingling outside the car, while I get comfy with my book. I'm the only one on the train.

Within a minute, the motorman kicks off the familiar "doors closing" announcement, and passengers come swarming back on, almost as quickly as they left.

We pull out and continue on our route as if nothing happened.

"I heard a loud *thump*" ...

Yesterday I blogged about chicagocrime.org, your comprehensive source for reports on CTA crime.

Today we get a firsthand report of a take-down on the Blue Line.

My buddy Tovi often seems to find himself in the middle of fights on the CTA. Yesterday was no exception. Here is his story and camera phone photo:

"On Monday, my wife and I were riding the Blue Line north from UIC when we heard a loud *thump* as we were reaching Jackson.

"I didn't make too much of it but looked toward the back of the train and saw the scene depicted in the picture. It seemed the guy that is standing near the doors with the white hat had punched the guy who is lying in the floor, and had knocked him out cold.

"The black fellow near the middle was holding him back while the guy with the white hat walked around the one in the floor and said stuff to him. When the train reached Jackson, we headed to the front of the train and saw the conductor walking toward the commotion.

"In the end, we stood in the station for about 10-15 minutes while the conductor talked to the guy in the white hat. I'm not sure if what I'm saying is what really happened since I only saw the guy on the floor but that's what I can make of it from the limited info I could gather.

Thanks for the report Tovi. Click below to see a photo of an unconcerned passenger reading a book while all the commotion unfolds behind him.