The Weekly Breakdown - Vol. 3, #20
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority

Note that email distribution of the Weekly Breakdown is suspended
until further notice because my computer crashed.

In the Media
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The CTA fired two track workers in the wake of last week's Blue Line
derailment.  They improperly threw a switch that derailed the train
and refused to cooperate with investigators.  Virtually every other
CTA employee involved with the derailment was suspended and/or ordered
to attend additional training. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 2 June 2000 ]

Commentary
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A Metra UP-North line train struck a pedestrian in North Chicago, causing
delays of 30-50 minutes on the line.  My train that arrives at Main St.
at 8:01 was at least 25 minutes late.  That's when I gave up and went
over to take the L.  Metra, despite all their claims about improved
communication, never made any announcements about delays.  I did not
discover the accident even occurred until I got to work.

Chris Maag wrote in:

I wanted to drop you a line about something positive on the CTA I've 
seen over the past six - twelve months.

I ride the Blue Line from Damen to Chicago, then pick up the 66 at Chicago /
Ogden / Milwaukee going East to Michigan Avenue.  I've been riding this
route for four years.  In the past year or so the service on both of these
routes has gotten much, much better.  The trains on the Blue line have
gotten much more regular, and rarely have to run express, or in sardine
mode.  The 66 busses still tend to bunch up, but there is less time between
bunches, and the bunches are usually just two busses, instead of the three -
five that I used to see.  The drivers on the busses also are much better
about encouraging passengers to move to the rear of the bus when they need
to.  I don't know if anyone from the CTA reads this or not, but I'd like to
say to whoever is responsible for these changes "Thank you!"