by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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Wanna few good laughs? Pick up this week's Sunday Tribune and look at the fanciful description of Chicago area transit in 2050.
The CTA agreed to sell the former site of the Limits Garage at 2648 N. Clark to a well connected Daley pal for $6 million less than a rival offer. The CTA claims that the relationship of Michael Marchese, the winning bidder, to Mayor Daley was not a factor in the decision. Instead, the CTA claimed that the rival bidding group failed to meet various bid requirments, such as agreeing to clean up the diesel fuel contaminated site. That cleanup was estimated to cost between $1.5 and $3 million. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 19 October 1999 - front page article ]
The CTA and the City of Evanston have reached a deal that will lead to the demolition of the long abandoned site of the Chicago-Main news stand. The city will pay the CTA $175,000 for the site, which will be added to the park currently flanking the Main St. L station. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 19 October 1999 ]
The police have issued an alert about a series of robberies dating back to late May. Two men have conducted several armed robberies at various North Side L stations, principally targeting Hispanic men. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 22 October 1999 ]
Regular reader goof (nospam-goofy@bpf.promisc.org) wrote in about this CTA accident he found out about from his scanner.
I was listening to my scanner this morning on some CTA frequencies and overheard a 10-72 at Isabella [ the street which is the border between Evanston and Wilmette - AMR ]. Aparently a female was hit by a CTA train and was DOA. The CTA decided to halt service and to turn trains around at Central. They also were trying to setup some shuttles from Linden down. They seem to be spending (as I write this) a lot of their time trying to go shutdown electricity to alot of the stations.
Tom Holmberg wrote in to tell us:
The CTA has ongoing track repairs on the Blue Line between the Loop and Forest Park on selected weekends. On Sat., 16 Oct. they were running only one track (the westbound) between Kedzie and Halsted. Although I didn't see a sign on the train there was one at the Forest Park station.Anyway, when the eastbound train I was riding arrived at Kedzie there was already an eastbound one there which had switched to the westbound track. Rather than transferring the passengers from the train I was on to the one ahead of us (which the driver of my train wanted to do), the controllers told the driver to make everyone wait while the train ahead proceeded. Then my train switched to the westbound tracks and followed the first. In the meanwhile a westbound train arrived at Halsted and now had to wait while two eastbound trains proceeded on the westbound track. However our train had to keep stopping because we were running too close to the train ahead of us. When we arrived at Halsted there were now two westbound trains backed up there. So the same comedy had to be played out in the other direction.
The driver basically blamed the controllers for not spacing the trains properly. Our driver actually did a good job keeping the passengers informed about why we were stopped and why we had to keep stopping because the trains were bunched up. This made an annoying situation a little better. I can accept problems if I at least know what they are. I commend the driver for doing her best in a bad situation.
Apparently I can expect more track work next Saturday.
nospam-MikeKr@aol.com wrote:
I boarded the Green Line inbound at Clinton on Sunday, 10/18. As we headed east, the motorman announced that due to a change in transfer policy, transfers to the Red Line should not be made at State/Lake, but at Washington. This confused many of us, since there is no Washington stop on the Green Line, but rather than clarify, the driver just repeated her earlier statement.The Green Line train I took back still had signs for the summer bicycling program. The implication of the sign being up is that the program has been continued; in fact, it is under review and bicycles are, at the moment, have not officially allowed on weekends since Labor Day.
On Saturday, 10/17, I had the opportunity to ride 5 different New York subway trains. Despite the fact that they hire New Yorkers to operate the trains and make the on-train announcements, all the announcements were clear and understandable, even to a rider like me unfamiliar with the stops and not used to New York accents.
The new fare card system is supposed to reduce employee theft, but as Patrick T Burtzlaff reports, it hasn't eliminated theft totally. This account is from the North Loop News:
From the North Loop News Police Log ....Police arrested two Chicago Transit Authority security personnel following a sophisticated sting at the CTA facility on the 900 block of West Division at 3 PM Sept. 9. Moeny was known to disappear from CTA turnstiles, and police assumed it was by security personnel who pick it up in CTA armored trucks.
Police planted powdered and serialized bills in the turnstiles on routes in question. When they arrested the pair, following their shift from 7:40AM to 3PM, police moved in. They found one suspect with $1,108 in cash and $2,311 on the second suspect and in his desk. Both had the marked money police had planted earlier.
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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