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We almost didn't go to last night's meeting about the three-track project at CTA headquarters. But we just didn't think it would be right for us to remind you over and over again and not check it out for ourselves. Our only compunction about going was that we knew were going to be fed complete crap all the while being expected to think it was a reasonably good meal.
Walking up to the second floor of the building at 567 W. Lake, we saw it was going to be a night of spin. There were these big easels (shit, we forgot to take pictures!) of maps showing all the routes and proposed supplemental routes. We think we forgot to take pictures, because the place was swarming with people waiting to 'help,' and when someone talked to us about the Bryn Mawr map we were looking at, first they didn't know what they were talking about (clearly we could read the map legend better than they could). Then when we started to get a little bitter about the public meetings and how things were already being put into motion anyway, they just fed us a bunch of good old fashioned doublespeak. And then they were saved because it was time to begin.
Truthfully, we were mostly okay with John Dalton, the General Manager of Construction. He's the major get-it-done guy and seemed to be the least involved with spinning stuff. He's more of a practical dude. Although, there were times when two different white haired gentlemen who looked like they were avid Nova watchers approached with some pretty logical logistical questions, and he wasn't really able to address some basic laws of physics/science. For instance -- If you can handle 4,000 people downtown during the p.m. rush, how come you can only handle 3,000 up at Belmont during the same time period? Where are those other 1,000 people going to go?
When John Pekay (sp? We couldn't find his name anywhere on the CTA website.) came up to talk about alternate routes and how the CTA was going to supplement bus service and what other possible solutions were (for people to leave earlier or later, for people to change their route using a bus, etc.), we knew we had hit the prime bullshit section of the presentation. For instance, he showed a slide of the current time schedules and their capacities and loads. Right this very moment, there are times when the trains are already filled to their capacity during rush hour periods (p. 12 of the presentation --PDF). When the reduction occurs (a "slight reduction," he said, to which we thought Tony Snow might have been hiding somewhere), there will be much longer periods of time where capacity will be absolutely overflowing.
More meeting mayhem after the jump ...
In Phase One of the project, the southbound tracks will be left untouched, with the northbound tracks having the work done. Tracks 3 (the northbound Red Line) and 4 (the track that the northbound Brown and Purple line run on) will have to be shifted over so that the islands at Fullerton and Belmont can be lengthened to accommodate an eight-car Brown Line instead of the current six-car formation. When the change is made, the stations will also be made ADA compliant. At Fullerton, Tracks 3 and 4 will be out of commission, with all northbound trains running on a new Track 4. At Belmont, all trains will run on Track 3. That's three train lines, one track. Some Red Line train service will be slightly reduced, even though they said that was going to remain the "core" of the system.
The presentation promised more bus service to supplement train service as people would inevitably decide to take buses instead of crowded, slowed down trains ... however, the presentation often was vague about how many more buses would be added or if the intervals between buses would, in fact, really be increasing. The powerpoint presentation sometimes only increased intervals by a minute (p. 20 of the PDF).
To make matters worse, many people reminded the presenters that they were already waiting too long for buses and that buses often were passing stops by before they got to the express part of the route because they were too full to let other passengers board -- and the major three-track operation hadn't even begun yet. Promises of staged buses that would be used as demands changed and usage patterns fluctuated fell on deaf ears as commenters also said that current posted schedules were not anywhere close to realistic. When asked if they rode the system, the employees all claimed that they did.
It turns out Chicagoist got ten seconds out of our 15 minutes of fame out of the whole deal (see CTA public meeting video). But what you see in that video clip is just a fraction of our comment/question about how if three trains are going to run on the same track, what in hell are they going to do when there's a problem? Seeing as the past year has brought a fire, derailment or other major delay nearly once a week, we can't even comprehend what commuters are left with then. All they could say was that the employees were being "specifically trained on how to deal with hiccups in the three-track operation." Hiccups? They proceeded to use that word throughout the course of the night, too. It was as if that was the party line word for "massive fuck-ups and situations beyond our control which we cannot account for nor handle in a reasonable manner."
People were making really valid comments and raising really legitimate concerns, and they were consistently being told to see customer service outside or that they didn't have an answer for that or that it would be taken care of or given some total bullshit spin no substance lalalalala answer. What was even more creepy was that a man from the South Shore/Austin neighborhood came up to ask a second question and slipped and said that it was nothing short of a "fucking nightmare." He was told that he couldn't use that kind of language (fair enough). He went to his seat, and then someone came up to him and told him he actually had to leave (marginally fair enough). Before he could even get out of the door (he wasn't resisting or putting up a fight or arguing or being vocal, by the way), there was a Chicago Police Officer in full uniform at the door. What? Last time we checked, it wasn't a crime to say "fucking."
Unless of course, you're on a crowded el train and say, "I think I'm going to fucking kill somebody."
"packed train pablo" via zigglosaur
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What I don't understand is why they can't put the 3 track operation on hold until they can fix all the slow zones on the red/brown lines, at least, to make up for some of the lost time.
The CTA obviously isn't in a rush to complete this, so why not wait until you can marginally improve the speed of your rail lines before you add 2 more hours of sitting in crowded, filthy el trains to everyone's day.
And if the blue line is supposed to be an alternative, it would be nice if it didn't go 6 miles an hour around division. But somehow that requires 2 years to fix too...
Nice report.
What I don't understand is why this city treats mass transit as an unwanted stepchild. Despite ample evidence that development here has been sparked by proxmity to transit, and ample evidence over the years of the economic benefits of mass transit, City Hall still dumps losers into the CTA, and hardly lobbies in Springfield for mass transit, and doesn't pump more money into the agency. I mean, if City Hall doesn't seem to care, why should the rest of the state, which mostly hates Chicago anyway?
At least we got more national coverage, though. Unfortunately, it was a NYT article about how much our transit sucks.
ugh. how frustratingly vague their "spokespeople" are. they just have no fucking clue about what's going to happen here. Instead they seem to be saying "get a car"
Agreed with matty,
It's weird when both the republicans at the federal level and the democrats at the local level are so out of their minds clueless with the actual day to day lives (and actual commutes) of their constituents.
My normal commute is from Berwyn to Monroe or Jackson and back each day. Last week I figured I should check out an alternate* way of getting home. I hopped on the 144, and things were going great until LSD, which was a parking lot. It picked up after we exited, and in all, I'd guess the commute was about 10 minutes longer than normal. So it looks like a decent option, unless a quarter (or more) of the red line follows me. Sigh.
* someone in CTA headquarters is still getting a good gut-laugh over the "leave early, leave late" part of that lame jingo
The CTA is for losers, that's why I'll be driving my Escalade ESV from my new Wicker Park Condo to my VP job at my Dad's company, ready to take over as soon as he retires.
During my commute, I'll be double parking in front of Starbucks, draining the trust fund at the new Bank of America, yapping on my cell phone while skipping a stop sign, and then driving drunk on my way home.
Is there some kind of problem with CTA train lines? I haven't noticed any type of delays? Oh wait, I don't live on the North Side. =)
(Sorry if I made anybody spit out there Starbucks(R) coffee right there)
What is funny to me reading from people like Vise that they are so negative about everything. The whole reason they are doing this is to improve the CTA. Short term pain for long term gain. You bone head hate everything why not buy a car that solves a lot of the damn problem or cab it. There are plenty of cabs in Chicago. Or get some immigrents and some rickshaws to take you to work. Vise you probably need someone to wipe you ass anyway.
Actually, this comment is so fascinating, I hope you can expand: "Vise you probably need someone to wipe you ass anyway."
Are you looking for a job?
By the way, when does the "short-term" pain end? Whenever the fuck the Red and Blue lines get fixed?
bitch [CTA] bitch bitch [CTA] bitch
bitch [Daley] bitch [developers] bitch bitch
enthuse enthuse enthuse [Gaze at shoes] enthuse enthuse [White Belt] enthuse
OK, can I be a Chicagoist editor now?
sigh, shrug (no-bid contracts) nod
wink, sigh (late trains), shrug
nod (indictments) shrug (bad reputation), nod
sigh (poor schools), nod, shrug (failing CTA), sigh
sigh, nod (higher and higher taxes), shrug (cops beating up people)
cheer (we are so great), shout (why doesn't NYC notice us?), repeat
OK, can I be a true-hearted Chicagoan now?
You bone head hate everything why not buy a car that solves a lot of the damn problem
wow, are our memories so short that we can't remember the horrible gas price spikes of the past couple years? that shit ain't going away. at all.
Re: Leave Early, Leave Late
This am I had to be at work in Streeterville @ 11am. I was at the Brown Line at Damen at 9:55 am. Even with the typical crap Belmont transfer I figure I'm giving myself 25 minutes of extra time.
What time did I get to Chicago Ave? 10:57 am. It took 30 minutes to get to Belmont. It took 30 minutes from Belmont to Chicago. The commute is worse and as crowded later in the AM. I cannot wait for the next 3 years of commuting hell.
Thanks CTA for this little piece of doom in my everyday commute.
Don't blame me, I voted for William "Doc" Walls!
I mean he was certainly more entertaining than Daley is a good Mayor
I wish there was a reality show crew following this up.
interesting comments ... hey, if you can get me the money, i'll do the reality show. oh, wait. if you can get the money, maybe we should donate it to a private company to fix the CTA.
as far as short-term pain? umm. three years is hardly short-term in my world. that's a pretty significant chunk of time.
JKM -- as far as the CTA 'not being in a rush,' it was weird. when people would suggest that they do things in segments or something, the construction manager would keep harping on their December 2009 deadline and how they wouldn't meet that deadline if they did these other things. i wish i would have asked who came up with this deadline. maybe they wouldn't have gotten the federal monies if they didn't promise a certain timeline?
to NSH -- i just lived in bridgeport for six months, and i experienced delays quite a few times. i thought i'd be getting off easy, but i can't tell you the number of times i'd get stuck in the tunnel between roosevelt and cermak/chinatown while construction was being done. so, it's not like it's all peaches and cream going southbound, either. not to mention waiting for a train every morning going north was always sort of a weird crapshoot as well.
bopo: there was also a gentleman there who mentioned the fact that LSD was badly in need of some major repairs (potholes, anyone), and if that ever happens, there will be lanes closed, etc. he also mentioned that the buses are always in the right hand lane competing with merging traffic, etc. (there's no bus only lane, for instance.) that the bus option really doesn't shave a lot of time off for a lot of people.
I've also noticed that the express buses are almost always in the right lane lately.
It never used to be like that.
I wonder what CTA weasel came up with that idiocy!
Jocey, agreed the red is a crapshoot with all the dan ryan/cta reconstruction going on, but you were in bridgeport, you could have done the orange or green, I take the green from 35th to clark and lake every other day or so and can make my 9 am meetings as long as i catch the 8:38 train.
Also, for the converted north siders, the green to the Cell in the summertime is the only way to go.
Forget all these comments - what is with that picture?
I agree with Sean. That mug in that picture bothers the hell out of me.
Why is this post listed in "Comedy?" The content and the telling are decidedly unfunny.
the comedy tag is being sort of cruel -- "sarcastically laughed."
also, the title of the photo is "packed train pablo." the dude in the forefront? i don't know. i didn't take the picture, but i also found his sort of questioning/dumbfounded expression sort of apropos.
oh ... and i lived at 32nd and princeton, NSH ... the 35th street red line was right by my house. i wasn't really near the orange line at all as far as walking was concerned. and the green line was a possibility i suppose, but i would have had to add a considerable chunk of time to my commute in walking further to get to it. it seems unfair to expect me to pass up an el that is *right there* just because it sucks.
to answer one of your questions -- I imagine the reason capacity drops north of belmont is because of the delays associated with clark junction. after that the red & brown lines are completely separated.
If you were recently using the 33rd st entrance then you were boarding during the heart of the red line reconstruction. I don't think its fair to paint such a bleak picture since your example clearly is not in the present tense. Kinda like me complaining about not being able to take the green line in 1994 since it was in pieces along State St. Or like me complaining about taking the brown line in 2007 because it is under construction and delays are to be expected while crews repair and or replace track.
here's a part of this discussion not yet touched on - the fact that for oh, OVER A DECADE, people have been pointing out that adding tons and tons of residential density along the brown/red line was eventually going to wear out the CTA's infrastructure.
did they act, even though the giant condo buildings and the Census were clearly showing the usage was growing?
oh, lord, no. "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" was the attitude.
welcome to the bridge. it seems to be like the ones downtown, except stuck in the "unusable" position.
right now the same lame game is going on in the west side neighborhoods, "oh, we need more density and more development, it's a win-win situation"
well, perhaps it could be, but that would require the City to actually be PROACTIVE and to start adding infrastructure in anticipation of the added residents, instead of the tail-wagging-the-dog method we use now.
I'd suggest that a good way to make people start thinking about this is to force recipients of zoning density increases to put some cash in a pot dedicated for infrastructure.
Posted by Carter
I took the CTA for years but because of a change in work location, I've been driving for the past several months. And if you think buying a car is any sort of solution, you're crazy. Lakeshore Drive is completely unreliable after about 7 am, ranging from "parking lot" to "glacial crawl" (I actually switched to taking Western and now get to work faster), and coming home you'll be stuck going
At this point, local roads move way faster than the highways, but the city only has a couple of good North/South arteries (and even fewer good East/West routes) and they all happen to be truck routes too. Getting around in this city is going to be really hard for the forseeable future. That immigrant rickshaw thing might actually be a viable strategy...
Ah, it ate my "less than" bracket. That should read:
and coming home you'll be stuck going less than 20 mph because every SUV and Mercedes in the city needs to get off at the Belmont Av. exit. And this all happens in the backdrop of the Ryan disaster and the impending doom on the Stevenson too.
Our public transit blows so bad, it isn't even funny. NYC's is light years ahead of ours. We have only a handful of lines, and can't even keep them running. You're better off walking then taking the L. When is Chicago going to get off their butt and fire Kruesi...and get the CTA back on track? It's far overdue.