Emanuel Takes Train to Work

Bloomberg famously takes the subway to work in NYC, so it's not like there isn't high profile precedent, and I suspect Rahm is taking his cue from Bloomberg's example.  I do give Emanuel credit for mingling with the constituency, and he was the only candidate I saw in person out greeting people on my commute during the campaign.  Moreover, when I encountered him at my Blue Line stop he was alone, no security or assistants standing around with him.

I saw him twice at my stop on the Blue Line when he was still campaigning. Super cool.

The Brown Line is a dream. I lived off it for many years and miss it dearly. He should ride the Red Line next ... he won't be extolling the virtues of the CTA after he endures the slow zones and listens to the buzzing inaudible P.A. system in many of the stations.

On a positive note, it's nice to have a mayor who gives a flying damn about public transit. Daley clearly did not and was even quoted in 1996 saying "public transit has lost it's constituency." What a moron. The Brown Line is a case study in the ineptitude of those in charge. In the 70s the CTA wanted to close it down. Now look what's happened to the neighborhoods in that corridor.

I thought drinks weren't allowed on the L

"Smoking, littering and eating are not permitted on the CTA trains"
Nothing about drinking

Yep. I took my morning coffee on the el for twelve years, no one ever said boo about it.

This is a good sign but...

I'd really like for him to take the Red Line from one of the Rogers Park stations to downtown to experience for himself the frustration of riding a train for nearly five miles, at least, in a slow zone. (I think the slow zone ends at Addison but then there is the bottleneck of the Brown, Red, and Purple Lines converging at Belmont.)  Lately, I've noticed even when in the tunnel, the train seems to be slow-zone mode.  My door-to-door commute (including approximately 10 minutes of walking time) used to take about 55 minutes but this summer has crept up to a 65-minute commute.   Ridiculous considering that I only live 9 miles from office. My co-workers who live in the suburbs think I'm lying about my commuting time because it takes me just as long or longer to get work as them.

I was watching the trains from Broadway & Rosemont going about 5 MPH.
Now if they're restricted to that speed, then the entire track structure must be near collapse & nothing should be running through that point.
I wish we could get an independent expert up there to evaluate the tracks & the embankment, instead of relying on the CTA which does nothing but lie>

While I agree that the north side mainline embankment that starts at Leland is in abysmal, third-world condition, the slow zones are caused by the tracks, not the structure they lie on.

Because most of our tracks are elevated, they're exposed to Chicago's
extreme weather and require constant care. The same theory applies to
highways, but in the great USA we maintain roads as a necessary given,
but balk at sinking a nickel into transit.

The weather causes the wood ties to expand and contract. The tracks have to constantly be tweaked. When they are not ... slow zone. I feel safer riding the Red Line over the Hollywood viaduct than I do driving or walking underneath it.

Track structure means everything: The rails, ties, spikes, tie plates, roadbed, etc, not just the embankment.
What I'm saying is, if it's only safe to operate at 5 MPH, then it's flat out not safe to use at any speed.
The weird thing is that I've been on expressed trains through that same section & they ran at 25 MPH or more.
The CTA is lying about this & someone needs to get to the bottom of it!

But, he lives near the Brown line. I hope he doesn't make this a publicity stunt and just  . . . you know . . . commutes.