by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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The CTA has finished its cleanup job in the Red Line subway (I couldn't tell much difference, but I guess there is some. I don't ride that line regularly anymore, so I might not have noticed). Now on Sunday mornings from now through December the crews will be working in the Blue Line subway to water blast the walls and floors, paint the tubes, replace lights, and perform electrical and carpentry work. This will not require detouring the Blue Line as it did the Red. Instead Blue Line trains will all run on a single track while the opposite track and platform are worked on. Thanks to Mike Harris (nospam-mharris@enteract.com) for bring this to our attention.
In addition to having entire rail cars turned into moving billboards, the new Old Navy store on State St. has paid to have their logo put on 800,000 transit cards. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 10/19/98 ]
The CTA claims to now be accepting orders for fare cards over the Internet. They even accept online payment via a credit card, something the incredibly cretinous Metra online sales system does not. There's only one problem. While the new online sales system supposedly launched last Tuesday on the CTA's web site (www.transitchicago.com), I cannot locate it. If anybody has a link to the actual sales page, please send it to me. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 10/19/98 ]
In the first of a series of improvements, Metra is spending $2.6 million to rehabilitate the South Shore station on the Metra Electric South Chicago Branch. The new federal transportation law contains additional funding for a new station at 93th St. and an upgrade of the 87th St. station. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who obtained the federal funding for these projects, says he wants the south side stations to look more like the north side stations. [ This seems odd to me, since the north side Metra stations I've seen are little more than bare platforms with a kiosk for posting the schedule. Not something worth of imitation, IMO ] [ Source: Chicago Tribune 10/21/98 ]
More information was released on the Parsons Brinckerhoff study of transit possibilities in the northwest suburbs. Twenty options have been identified ranging from dedicated bus lanes to an extension of the CTA Blue Line. The plan is to reduce the number of options to eight by early 1999. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 10/22/98 ] [ How much do you want to bet that a Blue Line extension makes the final cut? ]
A CTA Red Line train caught on fire (again) at the North/Clybourn station. An electrical malfunction caused the seventh car to fill with smoke. Six people were taken to area hospitals, but none had serious problems. According to Noelle Gaffney, CTA spokesman, the problem was caused when "a resistor, which she described as a valve that distributes power to the car, overheated" (quoted from the Tribune article on 10/23). Could someone explain that, please?
Mon 10/19, 9:10am. My southbound Evanston Express train stopped dead at Chicago Ave for several minutes. The announcer explained that a train two trains ahead of us was "defective" and that we would be moving shortly. Finally we did move, albeit extremely slowly, until I exited at Clark/Lake about 10 minutes later. A look out the window showed at least two other trains directly behind us.
Tue 10/20, 11:00am. The 11:02 inbound UP-North line train from Main St. was delayed 15 minutes. There was no announcement. After boarding, the conductors explained that there was interference from two freight trains at Waukegan.
The Weekly Breakdown is a small Internet journal devoted to the trials and tribulations of being a regular rider of the Chicago Transit Authority. I would be happy to hear about and include your experiences. Just send mail to breakdown@urbanophile.com.
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