by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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The CTA is no longer providing free transfers between the Loop L and the Red Line subways for non-farecard users. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 4 October 1999 ] [ This was a previously announced move and is simply - IMO - another part of the CTA's plan to make using cash as miserable as possible in order to force people into the fare card. Thanks to Mike Harris, who also reported this - AMR ]
The gross incompetence and willful stupidity of the CTA never cease to inspire awe. This Tuesday I took the L home from the Loop. At Howard, I disembarked to wait for my Evanston transfer. I saw an inbound Evanston, but wouldn't you know it two Howards were blocking both southbound platforms. It must have taken five minutes or more before one of the trains left, at which point the inbound Evanston riders got the joy of seeing the train they wanted to catch pulling away from Jarvis. Get ready for another ten minute wait for the next run fellas. When the Evanston train pulled forward to turn around and pick us up, another Howard promptly pulled into the station so that both platforms were blocked again.
It was 7:50 when I left downtown. I didn't get home until 9:00. Interestingly, just as my L train arrived at Main St., the 8:35 Metra pulled into Main St. That's right, at 7:50 I could have decided to go drink at the bar for 45 minutes, then caught Metra, and I still would have gotten home at the same time.
Christopher James Tassava had two bus stories to share:
1. I boarded bus #4509, a southbound 8/Halsted, at Cornelia around 8:15 am on Tuesday, September 21, 1999. The driver - clearly a disciple of the herky-jerky, whiplash school of driving technique - barrelled the few blocks from Cornelia to Belmont, where she announced, in a general and not at all apologetic way, that she was now going to run express to Grand Avenue and that if you should get off unless you wanted to ride that far. I was going south of there, so I stayed on, but a good number of people who'd settled in for the ride to work - books and newspapers out, coffee being drunk - had to get up and off. She even tried to keep people from getting on at Belmont: one guy asked her why he couldn't get on if he was going south of Grand. She shrugged and he got on, disgusted. When the light went green, she sped off, only to slam on the brakes at Clark and every other stoplight between Belmont and Grand. Countless people at all the stops in between stared in disbelief as she blazed by.2. Trying to get home from Union Station on Thursday, September 23, 1999, I first waited for ten minutes before a 151/Sheridan rolled up. The driver was very courteous to the embarking and disembarking passengers, but after idling for a few minutes he turned around with a sheepish grin on his face and asked the bus full of riders exactly how he should drive north. He explained that he normally drives out of a west side garage and was just filling in tonight, so he didn't know and hadn't been told how to drive the 151 route. I offered him my route map, but he waved it off in preference to the various verbal directions others were offering. I didn't take any chances, but got off at Dearborn to catch a 36/Broadway."
TGS had a similar experience with a driver not knowing the route.
RE: #136 south on 9-22-99.Got the bus on Marine Drive and Sheridan about 7:30 a.m. It was a chilly morning, but the air conditioning was on (or maybe it was the heat not working! We never get AC on the #136). Anyway, it was warmer outside than inside. The supervisor at Sheridan and Foster had directed the driver to get on the outer drive at Foster, exit at Irving Park, and then get back on the outer drive. Normally the buses are told to exit at Montrose, pick up passengers until Irving Park, but not this time. (Maybe the supervisor made a mistake.) Instead, here was a less-than-full bus on a route that already has too few buses making only one stop at Irving Park, picking up about 5 passengers, and then going express. The bus exited the outer drive at the LaSalle turnoff, but instead of going over to LaSalle as he is suppose to, the driver continued down the inner drive. Passengers pointed out his mistake. Then passengers had to direct him down Michigan to turn west on Chicago. As he went down Michigan, he made bus stops. he would open the door and people would try to get on, but he'd have to tell them he was a #136. Why did he even stop and open the door? A supervisor at the corner duly wrote down the number of the bus passing him. He either didn't notice or didn't care that this was a bus way off its route. Passengers continued to direct the driver to LaSalle.
At LaSalle and Wacker there is construction and the southbound lanes are closed to all traffic. The driver came down LaSalle and remained in the right lane. Again, passengers had to point out to him that he should be in the left lane, turn east on Wacker and then go south on Clark. Fortunately, I got off before the end of the route so I don't know what else happened to this "lost" driver.
Aren't drivers trained to know routes? If you put on a substitute, at least give him directions and tell him about route detours.
Mike Harris passed this one along:
From the 'Quick Takes' column in the Thursday, September 23 _Sun-Times_:"Patrick O'Neill, an Internet reader, e-mails:
'I was taking the Chicago Avenue bus at 11 p.m. last week. The driver talked on a cellular phone the entire length of my ride, which was 15 minutes. Makes you feel good the CTA keeps you in such good hands, doesn't it?'
C'mon. He had a hand free."
B. Scott has this interesting Ravenswood experience:
This morning (9/30) about 7:20 I boarded yet another ridiculously overcrowded Brown Line train at Fullerton. Packed in like sardines, we lurch our way toward the Loop. Finally, after the Merchandise Mart, there's room to breath. I'm looking forward to getting off the train at the next stop, Washington.But we're not going to Washington! I'm looking out the window and I notice that we're curving onto the loop in the wrong direction! We were following the route of the purple line! Because the driver was going comparatively fast, perhaps because she didn't realize that she was not going to be going the right direction, the first car of the train (I was in the third) was swaying wildly due to going too fast around that tight curve - several people commented that it looked as if the car was about to go over the edge.
The operator stops the train. She comes on and points out that we're not on the right track! Really? In a short while we move again, heading toward Clark/Lake. The driver announces that she's been instructed to go the wrong way around the Loop due to some track problems in the other direction. Right. If there were track problems, she'd have (or should have known) about that, and could have announced it. Clearly what happened is that whoever, or whatever, controls the switches at Lake/Wells screwed up.
And as expected, not a word of apology for the inconvenience or near death experience. Another day, another frustration on CTA.
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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