by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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Starting April 5, Metra will add an additional train in each direction on its Heritage Corridor service. This line currently only has two trains in each direction. Service is being expanded to meet expected demand during the Stevenson Expressway reconstruction. In addition to the service expansion, Metra plans to perform several track upgrades to improve the on-time performance of this delay plagued line. It plans to invest $8.8 million to implement bi-directional signalling on 33 miles of the route (to allow commuter trains to pass slow moving freights), to replace a manual switch in Summit with a new remote controlled switch, and to weld the rails on the line. Metra also wants to spend $185 million to grade separate four freight rail crossings that interfere with commuter operations. That project requires additional state funding however. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 13 March 1999 ]
Ok, just last week I complained that I never win when I take the CTA in favor of Metra. Naturally, I immediately had to eat my words. Monday, the day after we received several inches of snow, I decided to take Metra to work, figuring the odds of the CTA having problems were pretty high. I ended up waiting at Main St. for an hour while every train blew past us express. I finally gave up and went over to the L, which got me to downtown with no problems. During the entire wait there were absolutely no announcements of when the next train might stop.
Metra definitely needs to pull their TV and radio ads urging people to use Metra during bad weather. IMO, these constitute false advertising. For those unfamiliar with them, they show pictures of dead stopped expressway traffic and people stuck in the snow while a Metra train sails right on by. The voice over is a fake radio broadcast relaying a series of driving horrors and informing us that "it's going to be another character builder out there". Yeah, for those of us stupid enough to ride Metra. They seem completely incapable of handling even modest amounts of snowfall.
I took L home after a concert on Friday and ended up at Howard St. about 1:30am. While I sat waiting for an Evanston train to pull into the station, I heard a splashing sound behind me. I turned to see a spreading pool of urine spreading under the wall behind me. Oh, the joys of late night transit riding.
Back in the early days of the Weekly Breakdown I used to constantly mention broken fare card machines and inoperable doors. Lest anyone think these are now working properly since I don't mention them much, I'll say that things are as bad as ever. I saw two broken turnstiles this week, and rode several trains with out of order doors. I usually don't mention these anymore because they are so common as to be a universal constant when riding transit.
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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