by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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In reponse to Christine Sinacore asking about an incident on the Blue Line two weeks ago, several people wrote in to say that the line closure was due to first someone jumping in front of the train, then a derailment when two trains collided while trying to detour around the affected track.
An anonymous person wrote in with this tip:
I heard it through the grapevine that there was a job action on the BNSF line last Monday. Monday was the first day of the new schedule changes. According to my third hand information (you have been warned :-) there was a rather large drug test that occurred which resulted in the firing of a lot of crew. Both crews in my morning and afternoon trains have completely changed but that could because of the schedule change. The afternoon BNSF trains were screwed up Monday.
Mike Harris wrote in to say:
A small tidbit for _Breakdown_ readers: if you utilize the program where the CTA allows you to deduct transit fare from your paycheck before taxes, then you simply cannot use the SmartCard system. The pre-tax deduction ends up with a transit 'check' which can be used at currency exchanges towards transit card/monthly pass purchases. However, since there's no way for the transit 'check' to be turned into cash for a farecard machine, then there's no way to refill the SmartCard. I'm basically up a creek without a paddle.Unfortunately, I found this out after going over to the Merchandise Mart to purchase one. Maybe when they implement SmartCards as a fulltime measure, they'll utilize some sort of 'direct deposit' system, instead of 'transit checks,' so that I can use 'em again. It'd be nice. I've been enjoying myself. I've been using it over the past few days and have found the experience to actually be quite delightful. The reaction time from the turnstiles is much quicker than with a normal farecard, and I've not experienced any of the problems your other SmartCard guy wrote about.
BTW, happened to get marooned in Evanston when the trains derailed on Saturday the 26th. After waiting an hour at the Davis Street station, someone finally got around to telling us about the malfunction. I kept being directed to a CTA route 201 which supposedly was on Sherman, but couldn't find it anywhere. Finally a PACE 204 rolled by and took me to the Howard station, but not before being mistaken as a shuttle bus and being filled up by my fellow angry platform mates. The driver, who was actually a nice guy (he's PACE, not CTA, don't forget, so he's not automatically a surly schmuck), finally was able to convince people to deboard when the CTA shuttle bus pulled up behind him. Unfortunately, it filled to the brim in no time, so the PACE guy ended up carrying those who couldn't fit. Nice to see that some people aren't slavishly married to regulations.
Patronage truly is the bane of this city, at least when it comes to the CTA. With Daley always being able to appoint a friend to that post, we're never going to get someone who'll be willing to go at loggerheads with the mayor about transit funding. Nor will we ever get someone who Daley will fire if he's doing too bad a job. The only reason Daley yelled at Kreusi two winters ago when half the Blue Line got grounded was because it was the politically expedient thing to do. Still, what else should we expect from a city whose mayor says that public transit doesn't have a constituency ...
nospam-patrick@enteract.com wrote in with this unbelievable experience.
Today, on Blue Line O'Hare run #121 around 6:15pm, the train lurched to a sudden stop about two thirds of the way between Clark/Lake and Grand. Not too uncommon since rush hour trains usually crawl through that section. After standing for 15 minutes, the train started up again, and traveled for about 1 minute when it stopped so suddenly, that people in my car actually toppled over. The familiar ding-dong "the train is experiencing problems. Your operator is off the train...blah blah blah." This message repeated routinely for about 10 minutes until all DC power shut off, and we waited in semi-darkness. Being 90 degrees outside, the temperature in the train quickly rose to extreme levels, and every passenger was drenched in sweat.After nearly 30 minutes of waiting, the operator told everyone that there was an emergency, and to "evacuate" the cars. We were directed to walk toward the front of the train on the ledges. This was sort of exciting, as I always wanted to walk through a tunnel. My excitement lasted for about ten seconds -- people inched forward for another 15 minutes or so. Several O'hare bound people were carrying large pieces of luggage down the tiny ledge. I exited the second to the last car, and by the time we reached the lead car, we were herded back onto the train. However, a large number of people had already passed the train, and were being led across the tracks onto the Grand platform.
Back inside the train, the doors were closed, and it was back into the sauna-like environment. Another train was behind us, and we were told that our train would be pushed to the platform. Before they could turn the power back on however, they had to clear the tracks. Another 20 minutes passes. Finally, the train starts moving slowly up to the Grand platform. Before the train came to a halt, people pulled the red balls and were stepping off the creeping train, much to the dismay of the assembled CTA workers on the platform.
Finally, almost 90 minutes after I boarded the train, I staggered out of the station onto Milwaukee to find dozens of people loitering about waiting for a bus, or trying to hail the rare cab. Fortunately, I live near Grand (closer to the Chicago stop though) so I was able to walk home. By this time, I was completely drenched in sweat, and feeling quite exhausted. (coincidentally, the escalator was closed at Grand as well)
The thing that really bothered me was that a large number of passengers refused to follow the directions of the CTA staff. Everyone had their own idea about how to solve the situation, and it just made things worse. With the bulk of passengers from two rush-hour trains wandering around the tunnel, it was obviously a dangerous situation, and the CTA really had no choice but to get everyone back on the train before powering up the tracks. When they tried to push the train to the Grand station, people kept opening the doors, and it was a good 10 minutes before they could get the door relay to lock. In retrospect, it was the passengers that caused most of the delays, but getting off the train was on everyone's mind because the heat was just unbearable.
Another big problem was that passengers had no idea what was going on, and the CTA wasn't communicating with us. Approximately 20 CTA staff were on hand, but none of them seemed to know what to do...They didn't seem to have a clear leader, or a process to follow for when a train dies underground. The motorman in the lead car muttered that he could have taken the train into Grand from the second car -- probably against CTA policy since he wouldn't have been able to see what is in front of the train. He jokingly (?) said something like "everything was fine until a manager showed up." I don't exepct 100% uptime from CTA, but they definately need better procedures for getting people out of the tunnels in emergency situations like this.
On a more pleasent note; I'm using a CTA smartcard, and have been very happy with it. I've only run into one turnstyle where it didn't work. (Library) All other turnstyles have responded promptly. (I never ride the bus, so I don't know how well it performs there) I keep the card in my wallet which I carry in my front right pocket...just brushing up against the reader activates it, and I fly through. Baffled passengers look at me like I just hopped the turnstyle. I'm tempted to "lose" my card to see how well CTA performs with issuing a new one, and transfering the balance. One thing CTA absolutely needs is a privacy policy. The idea of the government knowing who I am, and what train I get on is a little disconcerting.
I don't look forward to riding the train to work tomorrow...
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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