by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
Visit The Weekly Breakdown on the web at http://www.urbanophile.com/breakdown/
Doing Things Right: At the same time CTA bus ridership was declining 4.8 percent, Milwaukee's bus system saw ridership increase 4% after the transit agency upgraded the bus fleet, added new service, and aggressively marketed itself to the public. Milwaukee has also not had a fare increase in 22 years. [Source: Chicago Tribune 3/16]
Priorities: The CTA is spending $9.6 million on a joint venture that will experiment with "clean fuel" busses. The number of busses purchased with this $9.6 million: 3. [Source: Chicago Tribune 3/17]
Bus Fleet Upgrade: The CTA is going to buy 450 new busses over the next three years to replace those at are past their estimated useful life. The CTA is looking to buy off the shelf busses instead of specifying totally customized models in order to save money. [Source: Chicago Tribune 3/10]
The rock band Chicago was originally called Chicago Transit Authority.
3/16 - Mid-day southbound Red Line. The train pulls into the station and the speaker says something like "hold for 2 minutes". Indeed, the train sat there with its doors open for 2 minutes before departing. There was also a slight delay of the same nature at Clark/Division.
3/16 - A Blue Line train is stopped for 10 minutes at Clark/Lake while several workers attempt to fix jammed doors on two cars. Finally, the operator announces that the packed train will be running express to Logan Square. Several people attempted to exit after this announcement, but many of them were unable to get off because of severe overcrowding.
3/17 - Afternoon rush hour on the Ravenswood. The operator comes on the intercom to say, "We love you customers" and other such comments. One of the CTA employees who seems to care.
Michael G. Beirne (nospam-beirne@wwa.com) reports that on 3/17, a Loop bound Ravenswood at am rush hour did not stop at the Wellington stop because, according to the operator, "it would be unsafe to do so."
Richard Caroli (nospam-rcaroli@nmh.org) reports that on 3/16 he exited a Red Line train at Fullerton to switch to the Evanston Express. The platform was already crowded and people informed him there had not been a Ravenswood or Evanston train in quite some time. After about 15 minutes, an Evanston train comes - but blows right past the Fullerton stop. He was finally able to get onto the next train, though it was packed all the way to Evanston. There were no announcements about any problems by the station attendants. These problems resulted in a half hour total trip delay.
The Weekly Breakdown is small Internet journal devoted to the trials and tribulations of being a regular rider of the Chicago Transit Authority. While it is primarily devoted to my experiences, I am happy to hear about and include yours. Just send mail to breakdown@urbanophile.com.
Aaron.
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