by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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After last winter's snow storm that paralyzed the CTA, the agency commissioned the American Public Transit Association to conduct a review of the CTA's snow readiness and make recommendations for improvement. That report came out a couple weeks ago. Among its recommendations is accelerating the rehab of the 2600 series cars and improving CTA maintenance procedures. In one change, in November the CTA will start testing every rail car every day before rush hour to ensure that it works. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 1 September 1999 ]
The village of Elburn voted to support the proposed Metra UP-West line extension to their town. Trains could start running there in 2004. The village had reservations about the project, but voted to support it in the hopes that Metra would consider their input in station locations, etc [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 7 September 1999 ]
Editorial: Metra is even worse than the CTA when it comes to their capital spending priorities. Metra is constantly whining about their 100+ year old bridges that need to be replaced, yet all of their major projects involve extensions to the sparsely populated ex-urban fringe. The Elburn project is by far the worst, since it will cost approximately $150 million. This is nothing more than transit oriented sprawl and boondoggle pork.
Lisa Martain Hoffer wrote in with this story titles "almost killed on a CTA bus":
"About a month ago, around 8pm on a Tuesday I boarded a northbound Ashland bus a few blocks south of Belmont. I sat down and was almost immediately hit with the bizarre, odorless sensation of all the moisture in my nose being sucked out that took my breath away. I thought it was a blast of air conditioning or exhaust fumes but when I tried to take a breath I began coughing and gagging. That panicked me a bit so I stood up to ask the driver to let me off. That's when I noticed that most of the passengers (there were about 12 on board) were lurching towards the front of the bus, all of them coughing, gagging and covering their faces. I staggered over to the driver, still unable to breathe properly and coughed out that something was wrong. He didn't understand me and asked if I wanted the next stop. I caught my breath and screamed 'Something's wrong! Can't you smell that!? Stop the bus!'. He pulled over at Ashland and School and yelled for everyone to get off the bus. A passenger grumbled that someone must have sprayed mace on the bus and the bus driver yelled 'Then why would you want to stay on? Get off now!' Another Ashland bus pulled up beside us less than a minute after we got off and the 1st bus driver went over to the driver's side window, mumbled something in a disgusted tone, then told us all to get on that bus. We drove away without an explanation or apology from anyone."
Steven Weiss wrote in with this complaint:
"The problems at the Howard Station are so numerous, so horrible, so pathetic, that it would take a manifesto to cover it all. So I'll focus on one feature of the station from hell.
"When the weather turns cold, and you are waiting on the Southbound platform, one naturally looks for the measly heating lamps. These lamps are found on every platform on the Red Line. But not at Howard Street! The heating lamp on the Southbound platform broke down a couple of winters ago. Those on the platform waiting for Yellow and Puple lines can get a little warm with a heating lamp. But not the multitudes traveling to the Loop. Try complaining to the people in the booth. They laugh.
"Those that wait at Howard Station going South...please beg those in charge to provide a heating lamp. And while you are at it, ask them why the Howard Station doesn't build a new station to coincide with the shopping center currently being built across the way? The CTA has promised a new station for years, but where is it?"
There is a project to completely replace the Howard St. station. This would cost about $50 million and is in the CTA capital plan, but is dependent on additional funding being secured. As with most CTA projects, this one is gold plated beyond all reason. The existing Howard St. station could easily be repaired and upgraded for far less money than this.
Sean M. Gash wrote in with a followup to Jonothan's discussion of CTA schedules:
"Regarding schedules: I know CTA schedules realy well....and they are weird. On the Blue Line for example, during pm rush hour, the normal headways for trains are about 4-6 min. After rush hour, the transition from 8 to 4 cars is a 7.5 min headway. But for some reason, the CTA feels the need to increase frequency out of O'Hare for an hour. Trains begin at 10pm by running every five minutes with 2 cars! This is a standard CTA practice, to have train length reduced and decreased headways. The CTA admits in its budget that over 50% of their costs are labor...and Frank Kruesi doesn't want to privitize operations?"
Well, I'm not sure I agree 100% with this. The CTA likes to run longer trains because then they can run fewer of them. That's one reason they want to expand the Ravenswood platforms. I'd personally like to see shorter trains and shorter headways, but of course that does cost more money in labor. Any attempt to contract out major services would certainly be fought hard by the union. I believe that the current contract prohibits the CTA from contracting out jobs currently performed by union members.
Here's the latest from Jonothan. As promised, it has his take on the CTA security changes:
"Well, it's official. It seems that during the last week or so, the CTA has cut back on security on its buses, trains, and other facilities. According to the Channel 7 News broadcast on 09/02/99 at 10pm, the CTA has cut its K-9 security force by 60% to 14 officers and 12 dogs. That's all that remains to patrol the entire rapid transit system. Officers who patrol the buses will make less rides, and in some cases, entire bus routes will be left unpatrolled. And 12 CTA facilities will have their security service discontinued. This is all part of a plan by CTA administrators that will save the Authority one million dollars. However, the CTA says that it is going to handle security differently using other methods than patrolling, and also claims that it is spending 40% more this year than in the previous year on security.
"Now, as usual, nobody knew anything about this - not us CTA employees, not the CTA's customers, and not even Mayor Daley knew. In fact, when a reporter asked him about these cutbacks, he seemed surprised to hear about it, and said that he would look into it. When a Channel 7 News reporter asked CTA president Frank Kruesi why he didn't tell anyone about the cuts, Mr. Kruesi basically told him that when dealing with security there are some things you make public and some things you don't. Which is not surprising in the least bit, since CTA never shares any information with the public. I mean, sometimes I think I am working for the Pentagon. God forbid if I should tell the public some of CTA's secrets, like the fact that the Authority doesn't send some buses out on the street so that they can save money. Or how about the one where if a bus operator hits a person with the bus, the CTA would prefer that we kill the person rather than injure them, so that way they won't have to pay for the care of the person for the rest of their life. Or how about the fact that recently, several transportation managers and supervisors on the south side failed the drug test. Or how about the transportation manager at North Park garage who was caught having sex with one of the bus operators on company time using a company vehicle, and he only received a slap on the wrist while the bus operator was fired. But like I said, you didn't hear it from me.
"I am concerned for our customers and for myself, because not only am I a CTA employee, but I am also a frequent CTA rider. Security is important - I can't tell you how reassuring it is to have those uniformed police officers riding our buses, especially when we go through those bad parts of town. I worry because a video camera can't replace a police officer. How would having a video camera on board my bus have prevented me from getting assaulted three years ago? If there had been better security, such as more uniformed and undercover officers riding the buses, I might not have had to go through that. But that doesn't matter to CTA - all that matters is saving a million dollars. Which, I might point out, is about how much their recent advertising campaign cost."
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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