Results tagged “chicagotransitauthority”

If you can get past the staggering $15.5 Billion dollar figure in today's "Let's spend everything on the downtown area" story from the Tribune, you might get to exactly how terrifying things might get in the City. Worried about Block 37? Concerned about unnecessary Olympic-size spending? Bothered by a concentration on city-center construction in the face of the continued deterioration of Chicago's infrastructure? You'll love this.

Mayor Daley’s pick to head Chicago Public Schools might have to be approved by the City Council. That’s according to a lawsuit filed by activist and 2007 Mayoral candidate William Dock Walls, who’s just the latest critic to sound off on the appointment of Ron Huberman as CPS CEO. The lawsuit argues that Huberman’s appointment has to comply the city municipal code, which states that the City Council must approve “all officers of the city” who are picked by the mayor. But the mayor receives the power to choose the CEO from state law, which doesn’t say anything about the city council. The lawsuit, however, argues that the state law doesn’t indicate that the city council can be left out of the decision-making process.

Have you found squishing your way onto the L train a little less difficult? If so, you may have already ridden one of the new reduced-seat "MAX" L train cars the CTA has been testing out on the Brown Line during rush hour since September 12. The number of seats on these new cars has been reduced by 12 or 14, freeing up space for an additional 20 passengers.

Mayor Daley made it dramatically clear Monday what he thinks of recent accusations from Gov. Blagojevich that the city is to blame for a potential CTA fare hike.

Continue reading "Daley on Blago: "Cuckoo" "

When he tried to use his CTA card, it came back "invalid,'' Harroun said. He told the driver CTA personnel had told him in the past that if he encountered problems with the card, he should ask the driver to call a supervisor.

Continue reading "When CTA Drivers Attack"

   

Ooooh, it looks like our favorite CTA calligraphy enthusiast has struck again, this time at the Fullterton Red/Brown/Purple Line stop. So great.

Seatless El cars—which according to plans would be two cars out of an eight-car train—may start running as soon as October, Ron Huberman said today. "We're only going to use them in places where customers currently are standing anyway. They're standing because they can't get on a train. And so we're going to be using them in those corridors where we know we're leaving people on the platforms."

Happy is the morning when there's an e-mail with the subject line "you guys like vintage Chicago stuff, right?" sitting in our inbox.

If you’ve paid your CTA fares through an Express Farecard vending machine between March until the middle of July, you might want to double-check your credit card and bank statements.

A 43-year-old man died over the weekend after being electrocuted by the third rail after he fell or was pushed onto the El tracks at the Red Line Roosevelt stop. Daniel McKenzie's death was ruled a homicide today. Three men McKenzie was apparently arguing with on the platform are in police custody, but no charges have been filed. [Trib]

Aldermen approved a measure today to help the 49X bus be more efficient. Every little bit helps, Alderfolk!

Should the need arise, evacuating Chicago—due to a terrorism or a natural disaster, say—via mass transit could be tough, according to a new report.

The CTA will use new, seat-free cars during rush hour on the Brown Line starting this fall. The preliminary plan is to have two (out of eight) cars be seatless, so don't fret, lazies.

The CTA is building four new structures to meet increased demand for pedal-powered parking. The Midway stop on the Orange Line, the Sox-35th stop on the Red Line, and the Jefferson Park and Damen stops on the Blue Line will each be home to covered, three-walled bike ports that will house a combined total of 382 bicycles. [S-T]

A new report from the RTA says the CTA isn't doing enough emergency response drills, there's "debris" everywhere, operators aren't following safety protocols, tracks are severely deteriorated, and certain signal mechanisms have fallen into "disrepair." The CTA says they're on it, mostly.

The CTA is adding an additional 20 buses to its bus tracker roster, bringing the grand total up to 52 routes. Starting June 23, CTA Bus Tracker will include the 54A, 56, 56A, 68, 77, 78, 80, X80, 81, 81W, 84, 85, 85A, 86, 88, 90, 90N, 91, 92, and 152 buses.

Mayor Daley suggested over the weekend that if our city improves bus efficiency, bikers could use bus lanes and everybody would win. He mentioned the plan Friday at a Bike to Work rally.

CTA President Ron Huberman has a plan to right the wrong that is the Block 37 CTA not-at-all-super-station mess: Private investment. Ayeee.

Block 37 is a black hole where money and plans go to die, and when you combine those forces with the CTA's money-guzzling abilities, well, it's the financial equivalent of a a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. Time to call City Hall for a bail-out.

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.

Yesterday's Red Line derailment was another case of operator error, the CTA said today, and another case of a motorman blowing a red light. This time, the operator missed a red signal light then tried to back up, which is not what you're supposed to do, and that's when the train derailed.

A Red Line train derailed early this morning near 95th Street. The 14 passengers all walked off the four-car train, but one was taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

The CTA has released its Mystery Shopper reports (recall the mystery shopping program), and apparently the rest of the city rides the Heaven Express down Miracle Drive, direct from Unicorn Town.

The CTA is blaming operator error for this morning's Green Line derailment. According to CTA officials, the operator ran through a red signal light and also overrode an emergency system that would have prevented the derailment. The motorman has been a CTA employee for 31 years and has no recent records of safety violations.

Breaking news: A Green Line train derailed near the 55th/Garfield stop, and preliminary reports indicate that several people were injured but none of them critically. According to CBS 2, "One train car continued due south, while another decoupled and veered off to the west." And the Trib notes that "the derailment occurred on elevated tracks, but the cars did not fall to the street," which is now our new nightmare.

Police used surveillance video and tracking info from a suspect's CTA card to locate and arrest him. Shauntaine Curry, 18, was arrested and charged with attempted aggravated kidnapping for allegedly stalking a 12-year-old girl and accosting her outside a Pink Line stop. Witnesses came to the girl's aid, but Curry got away.

Man, the El sure is loud. A new report from the Sun-Times today looks at the noisiest stations and warns readers that prolonged exposure to El noise could be damaging, though there's nothing to suggest anyone's hearing has been affected at all.

Despite this week's news that the work on the Fullerton and Belmont stops will be finished ahead of schedule, we're still drinking the CTA flavor Haterade. Honestly, we've given up taking the El on weekends. With slow zones, closures and reroutes, not to mention the ongoing Brown Line construction/clusterfuck, it's easier in this beautiful weather to just walk or ride our bikes (always wear a helmet!). With lots of people traveling and making their way around town for fests and other spring-time activities, it's important to keep an eye on the CTA Customer Alert website. Here's a quick run-down of this weekend's closures.

The CTA released a report yesterday of how the agency is meeting its "performance indicators" for the first quarter of '08. The CTA says its metrics are "ridership, on-time, efficient, safe, clean, courteous." Interesting tidbits from the report: