The Weekly Breakdown - Vol. 3, #21
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority

Note that email distribution of the Weekly Breakdown is suspended
until further notice because my computer crashed.  My new computer is
on order, so hopefully we'll be back in business soon.  If my hard
drive survived, the mailing list will be 100% restored, otherwise
some names might be lost as I'll have to reload from a somewhat out
of date backup tape.

In the Media
------------

Jon Hilkevitch had a number of CTA tidbits in this week's Getting Around
column.  Most interestingly, the Jackson-Van Buren/State subway station
is finally set to fully reopen "any day now".  Has this happened yet?
The CTA plans to perform a similar renovation on most of the State St.
subway stations at a total cost of $60 million.  This will be ongoing
for many more years.  Let's hope future projects are quicker than the
Jackson boondoggle.  The CTA has stopped accepting $20 bills in its 
change machines until further notice because the machines mistakenly 
treat the new $10's as $20's. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 19 June 2000 ]

A woman reported being sexually assaulted on the Ravenswood L about
9:30am last week.  She managed to escape from her attacker at Irving
Park Rd. station and notified police.  This is another in a string of
assaults and murders on the CTA that have received local press coverage.
[ Source: Chicago Tribune 16 June 2000 ]

A public meeting was held last week to solicit neighborhood input into
the redevelopment of the vacant CTA own lot at Wilson Yard.  Interestingly,
this meeting was not a true open door session.  Rather, you had to register
in advance to attend.  Interesting.  I did not get a report on what happened,
but this is a long neglected parcel of land that has been under study
for quite some time. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 19 June 2000 ]

Commentary
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I'm beginning to think that Metra is transforming itself into the CTA.
At least one day per week, the rail car I board has been without air
conditioning.  Usually this results in an empty car with only a couple
hardy souls braving the heat.  If Metra really wants to do a proper CTA
imitation, they'll have to figure out a way to have those cars packed
with standees when the AC goes out.