For nearly three years, from January 1998 to October 2000, I published a weekly electronic ezine about life with the Chicago Transit Authority. While I ceased publication upon a job change that kept me away from transit, it was a nice ride. The complete archives of The Weekly Breakdown are preserved here for your enjoyment.
The Weekly Breakdown was inspired by the seemingly endless budget crises, service cutbacks, and operational chaos of the CTA. But more importantly it was inspired by personal experience. After a five year hiatus, I found myself back working in the Chicago Loop and riding public transit daily. And I experienced a problem almost every time I rode. Not usually major problems, but annoying problems. Like when the train stops for no apparent reason. Or the doors are out of order. Or a farecard reader. Or when a CTA employee treats a customer rudely. The sort of "death of a thousand cuts" experience that is making riders flee the system in droves.
So I decided to start an electronic journal devoted to the bad experiences that I had on the CTA, along with any that my readers care to report. At first I thought I might run out of material in a couple of weeks. Alas, my fears unforunately proved groundless.
But there was more than just trouble reports. I tried to keep up with the latest news about the CTA and pass that on, along with fun facts and trivia about one of the world's largest transit systems.
The Weekly Breakdown was published by me, Aaron M. Renn. If you so desire, you can visit my homepage.
Archives are broken out by year. The third year's issues (the most recent) are listed on this page.
Volume 2 Archives - Jan 24, 1999 to
Jan 16, 2000.
Volume 1 Archives - Jan 25, 1998 to
Jan 17, 1999.
Vol 3, #39 (15 Oct 2000) - Final Issue
Vol 3, #38 (8 Oct 2000) - "Clybern" revealed
Vol 3, #37 (1 Oct 2000) - Sold Out
Vol 3, #36 (24 Sep 2000) - Funding Updates
Vol 3, #35 (17 Sep 2000) - Pace fare increase?
Vol 3, #34 (10 Sep 2000) - The train Nazi
Vol 3, #33 (3 Sep 2000) - Blue Line trauma
Vol 3, #32 (27 Aug 2000) - A very bad week on the L
Vol 3, #31 (20 Aug 2000) - Green Line goodies
Vol 3, #30 (13 Aug 2000) - Midway madness
Vol 3, #29 (6 Aug 2000) - More airport rail?
Vol 3, #28 (30 Jul 2000) - Metra accident
Vol 3, #27 (23 Jul 2000) - Skokie Swift terminal nears its end
Vol 3, #26 (16 Jul 2000) - Arrest in Metra murder
Vol 3, #25 (9 Jul 2000) - Boston roadtrip
Vol 3, #24 (2 Jul 2000) - Metra mayhem
Vol 3, #23 (25 Jun 2000) - No AC
Vol 3, #22 (18 Jun 2000) - Cub game probs
Vol 3, #21 (11 Jun 2000) - $1.5 million for
7' of land?
Vol 3, #20 (4 Jun 2000) - My computer crashed
Vol 3, #19 (28 May 2000) - Aaron goes ballistic
Vol 3, #18 (21 May 2000) - $8.5 million lawsuit settlement
Vol 3, #16-17 (14 May 2000) - Tons of transit news
Vol 3, #15 (30 Apr 2000) - More announcement madness
Vol 3, #14 (23 Apr 2000) - Happy Easter
Vol 3, #13 (16 Apr 2000) - Only 50% think CTA sucks
Vol 3, #12 (9 Apr 2000) - Train breaks in two
Vol 3, #11 (2 Apr 2000) - L train gets lost
Vol 3, #10 (26 Mar 2000) - Bus answers
Vol 3, #9 (19 Mar 2000) - Bus trip problems
Vol 3, #8 (12 Mar 2000) - "Old time" uniforms
Vol 3, #7 (5 Mar 2000) - Another L shooting
Vol 3, #6 (27 Feb 2000) - Adam Kerman not guilty
Vol 3, #5 (20 Feb 2000) - Free Adam!
Vol 3, #4 (13 Feb 2000) - Water main break
disrupts L service
Vol 3, #3 (6 Feb 2000) - Blue Line gets funding
Vol 3, #2 (30 Jan 2000) - More rape and murder
on the CTA
Vol 3, #1 (23 Jan 2000) - CTA employee raped
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