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/
Thanks to Mike Harris (nospam-mharris@enteract.com) who kept an eye out for transit news for me this week while I was on vacation. This week's issue is shorter than I'd like as a result of said days away, so those of you who sent me stuff should expect to see it next week.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a safety report last week that the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD - the South Shore operator) meets all current safety standards, but should improve its safety program nevertheless since its route has so many grade crossings. [Source: Chicago Tribune 11 August 1999 ]
Here's Mike Harris' summary of this week's power outage, wrt to the CTA. Thanks again for this.
"On August 5th, ComEd took down one of four transformers at the ComEd substation at 9th and Jefferson. The evening of August 11th, a second transformer shut down because its cable burnt out at a splice. On Thursday the 12th at 10:15 am, the third transformer shut down for the same reason. At that point, 2,300 customers lost power in an irregular pattern across Chicago. To ease pressure on the last transformer, part of the electrical load was moved to a transformer at 707 S. LaSalle. However, when a new transformer there began to heat, ComEd decided to shut down power as of 1:45 pm, which blacked out a 30-square-block area in the South Loop, including stoplights, police headquarters, federal building (the Director of the FBI, visiting Chicago's offices, ended up stuck in an elevator), the Chicago Board of Trade, many small businesses, and the downtown campuses of many colleges. Business losses have been estimated at $100,000,00. ComEd Chairman John Rowe said his utility's performance was "humiliating" and that he would "grovel, if necessary," to Daley and the company's 3.5 million customers.
"The power failures caused lights to dim and fare collection systems to shut down at 13 train stations, including the Red Line's Chicago, Monroe, Jackson, Harrison, and Roosevelt stops; the Green Line's Clinton stop; and the Blue Line's Halsted, Clinton, Monroe, and Jackson stops. Since fare collection systems had shut down, thousands of passengers ended up riding free. While no stations were completely dark, emergency lighting was dim enough that employees were required to use flashlights to lead passengers down staircases and to and from trains, and portable generators were brought in. Some track switches were operated by hand on the Green Line and Orange Line (according to NBC News) until emergency generators were brought in, but since the CTA purchases power from ComEd and redistributes the electricity itself, the operation of CTA trains themselves were unaffected. Amtrak plugged the Union Station power into its diesel-electric locomotives, which acted as large electric generators for the interim. Some electrically powered lines were affected on Metra, but were back up in time for the afternoon 5:00 pm rush hour."
According to a Usenet posting by Steve Krauss, a contractor working on the Millenium Park project (a deck over the Metra Electric tracks downtown) accidentally knocked down a support for the catenary, forcing many trains to be terminated at Van Buren.
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. The views expressed by contributors are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the publisher.
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