by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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I blew it last week. I reported on Sunday that the CTA appeared to be handling the snow storm well, with only minor delays. That turned out to be just the calm before the storm. During Monday's rush hour, the CTA system disintegrated and had not returned to normal even by the end of the week. On Sunday CTA president Frank Kruesi was on television telling everyone to use public transit instead of driving. In a dramatic reversal, by Tuesday the CTA was actually recommending that people along certain routes find non-transit ways to get to work.
I knew things were bad when I walked to the station on Monday morning. I was planning on taking the L, but noticed that I was right on time for the Metra, so I decided to take that instead. From the Metra platform, I could see an L train standing at Main St. It was completely packed. It also wasn't moving (not to mention the fact that at that time it was not supposed to be there at all). Another train pulled up right behind it before it finally started moving. That was quite possibly the last Evanston Express train that ran, as the CTA cancelled express service at 7:30.
It turns out hundreds of rail cars were out of service. Snow infiltration into the motors shorted them out. Most affected were the 2600 series cars used on the Red Line - the CTA's busiest. Combined with the thousands of extra "snowbirds" who attempted to ride transit rather than drive, this created massive delays. The express service was suspended in order to free up cars for the Red Line. (It still has not resumed). Even so, many Red Line trains left Howard street already full, leaving passengers further down the line stuck at platforms for very long periods of time. (Which was the completely predictable result of cancelling the Evanston Express service, BTW). The bus system also experienced massive overcrowding and delays because of street conditions.
A friend of mine who boards at Fullerton claimed that the platform was so full there was no place to stand. People were forced to stand in the stairway and in the station house. She had gotten there early and staked out a prime spot right where the L doors opened. Nevertheless, the trains were all so packed, no one could get on. After five trains went by like this, she switched to the northbound platform, took a Ravenswood to Paulina, then switched back for the inbound trip. Someone on her train also fainted. Another person (who boards at Addison) was forced to do the same trick. Only he had to ride the Red Line all the way north to Howard street to even get on the train.
It wasn't only the Red Line that had problems. The Blue Line also saw horrible problems this week. John F. Kuczaj (nospam-jfkuczaj@hotmail.com) wrote in with this story:
"I had no problem getting to work today, but my girlfriend had a bad Blue Line experience: On the WGN News at noon, they said that the Blue Line had a major problem on the Westbound tracks (O'Hare-bound) around Nagle (between Jeff Pk and Harlem). I don't recall if it was a derailment or mechanical breakdown, but trains were stacked up for an hour or so. My girlfriend took the Blue Line to O'Hare at that time and she said at Logan Square they sat for awhile, then everyone was told to get off as the train would go eastbound--then they were told not to get off. A bit later, they were told to get off, and after they did, they were told to get back on. They eventually continued to the airport. It took her 1 1/2 hours to get from Clark/Lake to O'Hare."
The problem he describes was caused by a car that ran out of control, hitting a snowbank plowed against the median barrier wall, and flying over it like a ramp onto the CTA tracks. A CTA train hit the car, but the woman who was driving it wasn't injured as she had already (wisely) left it.
Indeed, many problems on the Blue Line were not really of the CTA's own making. The blame goes to IDOT instead. Not only did it create a ramp onto the tracks in the median (thus defeating the safety design of the concrete barrier wall, which is specifically shaped to avoid this behavior), later in the week it plowed so much snow against the median that the snow pushed through the fencing and dislocated the third rail. Several trains that passed over that section of third rail were damaged and knocked out of service. (It appeared to be about eight trains. How no one noticed this problem before eight trains suffered it is still unknown). The CTA was forced to close the Blue Line between Jefferson Park and O'Hare, substituting shuttle bus service. Even after the third rail was repaired, the CTA kept that section of the Blue Line closed in order to divert more cars to the severely overcrowded Red Line. (The CTA also took cars from the Green and Orange Lines for this purpose - and added supplementary bus service along the Dan Ryan section). The Blue Line was still not open to O'Hare as of Friday afternoon.
Of course the CTA was not blameless. It was not even able to operate the sections of the Blue Line that were in service effectively. John Kuczaj also wrote in to tell me about it on Wednesday.
"Amazingly, CTA service is getting worse. Old equipment & poor maintenance has caught up with the CTA as rail service becomes pathetic and bus service sporadic.
"Yesterday the Red & Purple, today we can add the Blue Line to the major malfunction list. During the end of last night's rush, the CTA was running 6-car trains at long intervals. I arrived at Clark/Lake and waited 25 minutes for a packed 6-car train headed to O'Hare, then an additional 10 minutes for a 6-car train that I could get onto. I arrived at the Addison Blue Line Stop at 7:15 and waited until 8pm for a westbound bus. I don't ever recall waiting 45 minutes for a bus before, and I hadn't known what cold was until last night (Thank you CTA, we don't need heat lamps...or any protection from the elements).
"Today the Blue Line self-destructed. After waiting 15 minutes on the Addison Blue Line platform (during which a a 6-car train going westbound arrived--doors not functioning on cars 4 and 5), the customer service agent announced that train service was out and we should go up and get on a bus (not a shuttle bus, mind you). After waiting 10 minutes for a bus, I spotted a train coming into the station and several of us sprinted across the street and down the stairs. I squeezed into the first car of the packed 6-car train bound for the Loop. The conductor was doing his best as several alarms sporadically rang as he took us downtown--stopping at every station to cram on 1-2 more people per car. I heard him say that all the trains were running 6-cars and everyone was turning around at Jefferson Park. My 50 minute trip turned into 2-hours last night, and 2 hours to get to work today."
As to how some of this chaos came to be, Jon Wilson (nospam-jwilson@ripco.com) wrote it to give some insights about what goes on behind the scenes at the CTA.
"I am a scanner buff, one of the reasons I got one was to listen to the CTA follies during rush hour. I take the Red Line from Morse to Washington/Randolph every day for work, and use the CTA for all personal travel as well.
"Anyway, I will sometimes listen in to the conductors-control radio traffic banter amd thought you might be interested in these two short items.
"One is an observation by myself. After listening to this stuff for about 4 months now, I have come to the conclusion that the control personnel that are running the 'big picture' (this is what they call it) have really large egos, to the point of a god-complex. This was highlighted this past week from the snow storm in item item #2 below. These controllers talk down to the conductors (hehe, they kiss ass to the supervisors though), refuse to listen to any suggestions from workers actually on the train and in the environment these GODS are trying to conduct. I feel that the lack cooperation probably accounts for at least a good %25 to %35 of the delays.
"My second item. I was listening to them yesterday around 7:30 or so, It was just before I left the house. A scanner by the way is such an excellent tool for planning daily CTA travel schedules...my god, I have saved a lot of time by avoiding massive train delays in advance...hehe
"Anyway, so I hear the usual banter, but tempers are getting a little intense here from all the aggravation. Well, the platform conductor at Belmont I think is trying to get Red Line control to express some trains from Wilson to downtown, I think to get some empty trains rolling up his way...crowded platform, you know what I mean I think. And he's fighting with this radio control guy who's telling him to just do HIS own job, control has the big picture, CONTROL knows what is really going on.
"After much frustration along these lines, bickering and banter....you hear control blurt out that ALL of the platform conductors walked out on a personal break. All of them at once.
"Out of control....this all came to a head while I was on the train riding to work, and the effect was interesting. With no platform conductors to keep watch on the trains, it seemed like the train operators were having a grand old time ignoring express instructions and what not.
"Pretty crazy.
"I tell ya, my hat's off to the poor train conductors who have had one hell of a week."
What amazes me the most about this is how unprepared the CTA was. The snow fell on Saturday. They had two days to get ready for Monday morning's rush hour. Yet they apparently made no preparations. For example, Evanston Express service started out running as normal. Apparently the CTA did not know hundreds of its trains would not be working until they actually tried to fire them up on Monday. Had the CTA (which knew about the electrical problems in these trains) simply tested the cars over the weekend, they could have started making repairs sooner. Additionally, they could have shuttled working cars between lines where needed (by shutting down the Evanston Express, if that is really what they wanted to do) and put the word out that people should expect delays. Instead it looks like the CTA simply expected everything to work fine on Monday and they - and we - all paid the price.
Metra also had its share of problems. Frozen switches caused many trains to run late. Additionally, Monday saw an almost freakish occurrence of three separte fatal accidents in the western suburbs. Two vehicles were struck in Downers Grove on the BNSF line and a pedestrian was struck and killed in Lombard on the UP-West line. Both of these lines experienced delays of up to two hours as a result. My Monday morning train was packed. One woman (obviously not prepared for the CTA like crowds) fainted just before our train got into Northwest Station.
Things were bad on Tuesday as well, though there were no accidents. I showed up a bit early for my train at Main St. The station was crowded but I was still able to push my way through to the counter and grab a cup of coffee and a newspaper. Only about three minutes after the scheduled arrival time, a train appeared so everyone went out to wait for it. (This takes quite some time when the station is full, BTW). Unfortunately for us, the train blew express right through our station. I went back to the station house to wait in heated comfort, but could not get in. There was no room for even one additional person in there. The fire marshall would have had a field day. So I was stuck outside in -30 wind chills waiting. Over half an hour went by with no trains. I swore that the next time I saw an L coming down the tracks I was going to run over to the station and get onto that instead. Fortunately, a train finally came, and just in time to keep my feet from freezing solid.
Wednesday Metra was almost back to normal, though there were a few problems. A midday train that takes the UP conductors to the coach yard to meet their trains for afternoon rush hit the bumping post at Northwest Station, knocking it out of service. The conductors had to be bussed out to their trains, which caused various delays and cancellations. This one can't be blamed on the cold though.
The same conductor who told me the bumping post story also provided some insights into why service has degraded on the ex-CNW lines after the UP takeover. He said the UP offered early retirement to many people, and their two best troubleshooters took the deal. According to the conductor, the current people in charge don't know how to find and fix problems, and seem unable to decide what to do when things start going wrong.
In addition to giving us the scoop on the UP's troubles, the conductor let us all ride free. Not that he had a choice since no one could move in the train. As he said on the intercom, "The good news is I can't get through to collect tickets. We're honoring CTA fare cards, and you've all got one."
That's right, Metra allowed people to ride its trains free all week if they had a CTA fare card. This was a huge score for me since I use ten rides and don't have a monthly pass.
As you can imagine, newspapers ran numerous CTA articles this week. Many of them were on the front page. Here is a sampling of the headlines:
"Mass Transit Falls Short"
- Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, 5 Jan 1999, lead headline on front page.
"CTA Train System Crippled By Cold"
- Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday, 6 Jan 1999, lead headline on front page.
"Daley Hot as CTA Runs Cold: Buses, 'L' stuck in deep freeze"
- Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, 6 Jan 1999, front page article
"CTA Shows Inability to Weather the Storm"
- Chicago Tribune, Thursday, 7 Jan 1999, front page article
"CTA Stalled in Mayor's Woodshed"
- Chicago Tribune, Friday, 8 Jan 1999
Mayor Daley was indeed hot, saying, "There is no excuse for these delays". Daley called CTA president Frank Kruesi at home on Tuesday morning (waking him up in the process) to deliver an angry dressing down, no doubt concerned over how the CTA's abysmal performance might affect February's mayoral primary.
Daley also revealed on Thursday that he was the one who was behind the CTA board's decision to table the bus renumbering plan last month. (See WB #47). This means the plan is most likely completely dead, not just delayed. So transit riders got at least one piece of good news this week.
As criticisms of the CTA's performance mounted, Frank Kruesi and CTA board president Valerie Jarrett apologized to riders, but steadfastly denied any responsibility for the problems. They blamed previous administrations for buying the 2600 series cars that experienced problems. (Never mind that the problem has been known for years and the CTA has done nothing about it). They also blamed the state and federal government for failing to provide the CTA with more money.
I understand that there are funding constraints. I understand that there is a lot of old equipment with flaws. But these things were true when Jarrett and Kruesi signed on. If they didn't want to be responsible for the CTA, they should have refused to take the job. Kruesi's whining and moaning about how everything was somebody else's fault disgusts me. If I were mayor I would fire him for that alone. Making mistakes and experiencing problems during severe weather are to be expected. Nobody can run an agency as large and complex as the CTA under the constraints that exist without problems. But to refuse to acknowlege any responsbility when things do go wrong - particularly when that is clearly not true - is ridiculous.
Of course the real leadership vacuum at the CTA really starts with Mayor Daley. Public transit is probably his lowest priority among all major city services. He has been very upfront in saying that he thinks mass transit has "lost its constituency". If Kruesi were gone, Daley would most likely yet again appoint a political crony with no real knowledge of transit and without the management skills to improve the agency. We could easily end up with another Belcaster or Mosena. Kruesi at least tries to make things better, even if his ideas are boneheaded (e.g., bus renumbering) at times. Until Daley himself makes transit a priority, the CTA will simply continue to deteriorate.
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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