After a cost of $530 million, you would expect some of the wood used for the renovated Brown Line stations to last longer than they have. But they've already spent $300,000 since August 2008 replacing rotting wood at nine of the stations. more ›

The CTA has announced that there could be "minor" delays this week on the Blue, Brown, and Red Lines due to maintenance and repair work. As a result, the CTA is advising that riders allow for extra travel time when using any of the aforementioned train lines. more ›

Brown Line service to the Loop will be stalled today between the Merchandise Mart and Clark/Lake stations because of planned work on the Wells Street Bridge, so plan accordingly. The inconvenience started at 7:10 a.m. and goes until 1:30 p.m. and shuttles will be provided by the CTA in order to temporarily replace the rail routes that will be out of service. A release by the CTA also stated that customers will be able to use the Orange, Green, or Pink line trains to travel within and around the Loop without disturbances, and that there will be another shuttle that will be available to patrons which will operate around the loop counterclockwise to the Brown Line route. The Red Line will not be affected, and the Brown Line will operate normally as scheduled between the Kimball and Merchandise Mart stations. more ›

The Brown and Purple Lines are experiencing some serious service interruptions and delays after an incident this afternoon in which a CTA worker was burned by electricity on the tracks. The incident happened near Sedgwick. Shuttle buses are in place between Belmont and all Loop stations according to the CTA. Update: Normal service has resumed as of 3:15 p.m. more ›

Speaking of The Beatles, hats off to Andrew "Fletch" Huff over at Gapers Block (via Coudal) for pointing out this wicked awesome Budweiser ad shot predominantly along the city's Brown Line. It appears as if the ad was shot for European markets, but thanks to the power of YouTube, we can all enjoy it. more ›

• The Parking Ticket Geek has coverage from today's City Hall Parking Meter protest.
• The Harold Ickes Homes are coming down and Chi-Town Daily News has a great story on it. [via Gapers Block]
• Brown Line riders rejoice! Another stop is finally reopening; this time, it's the Wellington stop which has been closed for 16 months.
• The Sun-Times brings us the bizarre story of the sorority, the former Chicago Housing Authority comptroller, and the $900,000 wax statue.

Remember the CTA's Brown Line experiment using cars with fewer seats that would allow more people onto each car? It seems, per the Trib's Jon Hilkevitch, the CTA deemed the project a "failure" and have quietly decided not to expand the experiment to other lines as originally planned. The cars that are on the Brown Line trains now - two per train - will remain. more ›

Just in time for rush hour on a Friday! It seems some equipment malfunctions have caused the shut down of the Brown and Purple lines at Merchandise Mart, causing major delays. We're not sure what's up but several readers have reported several fire trucks at the Merch Mart location. According to Chicago Breaking News, shuttle buses are transporting passengers between Clark/Lake and Armitage. Adjust your Friday afternoon escape plan accordingly. more ›

A crash between a CTA Brown Line train and a truck on the Northwest side (near Lawrence and Kedzie) has caused some major delays on the Brown Line (and snarled traffic). Be sure to follow the CTA site for more details. more ›

If you plan on using the CTA tomorrow, be sure you're aware of some re-routes happening. more ›

No, that's not a typo. There really is a CTA video game. It's called "Railfan" and it's a Japan-only release for the Playstation 3. After a bit of digging, we discovered the game is actually two years old and was one of the launch titles for Playstation 3 in the fall of 2006. As train simulators are apparently huge across the Pacific, it's no surprise that the game wasn't released here as...it's a train simulator. Though we suppose there are some CTA history buffs and Metra-steering teens out there who'd dig it. more ›

Things should be flowing again on the north side. All four tracks of the Red, Purple and Brown Line routes are now open as of today at Belmont. Fullerton returned to four-track service last month. more ›

Lucky you, Irving Park Brown Line users. The station, under construction for a year now, will reopen this weekend. Saturday morning at 4 a.m., to be exact. The spiffified station has new elevators, wider and longer platforms, and plenty more to make it handicap accessible and just overall nicer as the CTA continues its Countdown to a New Brown. more ›

When I look down at the grey, weather-beaten, splitting-wood platform beneath my feet on the Rockwell Stop, I wonder what relation to any one of the Powers That Be owns a lumber yard. Because it just seems silly that you'd rebuild numerous El platforms and stations, and then use untreated, unfinished wood planks that fall apart months after the grand reopening of the Brown Line station. And then I think about the months-long period of time where the automatic door openers at the stations were on the fritz, making the doors almost inoperable to open without mechanical assistance. And I wonder: What's the deal, CTA? Am I the only one thinking these thinks? more ›

In what is now a weekly right of passage, the CTA is doing all kinds of stuff to the train lines this weekend. Which is fine, because there's really not much going on this weekend besides all the street fests, Blues Fest, Printers Row Book Fair, the Sox home games, and all the tourists in town. We know it's all for the greater good and many of the reroutes are during off-peak hours, but that doesn't mean it won't affect anyone. Here's a quick summary of what's happening with each line this weekend. more ›

Hotcha! The CTA says it's going to finish construction at the Belmont and Fullerton el stops by the end of 2008, six months earlier than expected. How will they accomplish such a feat? By uh...working faster. more ›

Many would say Chicago tops the list of America’s funniest cities, so it’s fitting that our town created an awards show exclusively to honor Chicago comics. The Second Annual Chicago Comedy Awards, a three-day extravaganza taking place this weekend, sets the stage for local comedians to, well, celebrate themselves. more ›

Riding the Brown Line home tonight? Local comedian Ken Barnard is organizing a rally at the Montrose Sinkhole to er, protest its filling/be silly. The fun starts at 4:45 and people should be there until around 5:30. BYO signs. more ›

Today would be an excellent day to take the CTA, if you happen to be planning on driving anywhere from, or to, Lincoln Square or Ravenswood. A water main broke on Montrose under the Montrose Brown Line stop at 1:30 a.m. (or 12:30, if you like to believe the Sun-Times) last night, causing an enormous part of the street to collapse in, and partially submerging several cars. Also causing water to run down Montrose and Wolcott. Also causing the snow from last night to turn into a disgusting brown sludge that runs from Damen past Ravenswood. The street, obviously, is closed for the time being, as workmen attempt to fill the hole with sand. more ›

WBEZ condensed a day in the life of the Illinois Supreme Court into one awesome minute. (And...was that a shout-out to one of the State's most intriguing cases?) more ›

Every morning on our way to work, the Brown Line takes us past a building declaring itself as Noble Horse Theater. We always peered down from our perch up on the L and wondered what this place is all about, and could sometimes even see horses hanging out in a paddock the size of three Old Town brownstones. more ›

We've got a huge crush on My Blank Page after being alerted (via) that she had created a gingerbread version of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Behold! more ›

We're trying not to jinx it, but it looks like legislators might be solving the transit crisis, like, tomorrow. Mike Madigan agreed today to push for a Blago-backed plan that would use the State's share of the sales tax on gasoline in Cook and the five collar counties for the RTA. Even Daley's on board. Are we seeing a unicorn? Last week, Blagojevich endorsed Minority Leader Tom Cross's plan that would send around $385... more ›

While we're pre-mourning the loss of basically all forms of public transit near our apartment if the CTA "doomsday" plan goes into effect in January, we never stopped to think about the true victim in this situation: Missed Connections. With fewer buses running, trains will inevitably be more crowded, eliminating the chance to make eyes with that guy with the Timbuk2 bag and iPod during your morning commute. The humanity! more ›

Bad news hit the Chicagoist offices late yesterday afternoon as word came through that SB572 — the bill that would have raised sales taxes in Cook County and the five surrounding "collar" counties, as well as the real estate tax in Chicago, to help fund regional transit — failed to reach a "supermajority" of 71 votes in the Illinois House. Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), sponsor of the bill, halted voting and placed it on the... more ›

We complained about the heat yesterday, but we really started bitching when the rain fell. Sure, the rain was over before the Chicagoist offices closed for the day, but the fun was just starting. Chicagoist found three inches of water in our basement and that was after our reroute around multiple streets on the Northside that were either under of foot of water, such as Irving Park Road at the Brown Line, or had broken... more ›

Chicagoist doesn’t live with our mama. Since our June Cleaver impersonation is rather lacking, when we want to feed a home cooked meal to our family we trawl Chicago’s restaurants. Our favorite is Panes, a family-owned Lakeview original, nestled in between chains Chicago Pizza and Pompei on Sheffield and Wellington. more ›

All safety measures appear to have been working when a bicyclist was hit by a Brown Line train on the 4600 block of North Rockwell. Because we don't have enough to worry about -- the idea of a direct rail link from the Gary/Chicago International Airport to downtown Chicago is gaining steam and giving a push to other dormant rail. Those warnings before DVDs are no joke: Federal authorities have charged a Chicago man... more ›

Nearly all of us agree that Frank Kruesi was a big DB that couldn't keep the CTA from being in a continuous state of CF always leaving everyone going WTF? And it was with great hope that Chicagoist saw Ron Huberman come on board with promises of administrative cuts and just not being Frank Kruesi. However, over at Time Out Chicago, our old pal, Scott Smith, posted that, yet again, the CTA is threatening fare... more ›

We all know how much money the CTA doesn't have, but they won't let us forget that it is about 110 million. Now Chicagoist struggled through accounting classes in college, but that seems like a lot of money. Mayor Daley and CTA president Ron Huberman are on their second trip to Springfield in search of a bailout, and they are throwing out every possible worst case scenario they could come up with. Though Huberman... more ›