Doors open on the left...

I was riding the 92 Foster bus this evening and noticed a sign on the front doors that read:

Attention CTA customers with bicycles: for your safety please inform the bus operator that you are taking your bicycle off the bike rack.

Perhaps these sticker signs have been around a while, but I don't remember seeing them. Are they new? Were they added because of that poor woman who was killed taking her bike off the rack?

Just curious. I think it's definitely a good idea to remind people of this.

So last night I was on the Red Line coming home from Evanston and about every three minutes, the conductor came on the speaker to inform us that the train would be making all Brown Line stops, but only to Merchandise Mart, where the train would then turn around due to a "fire in the loop" and "unauthorized people walking around the tracks."  This was fine by me, as I was just going to Diversey, but then she suddenly announced that the train was stopping at Belmont and would not continue...apparently the unauthorized people had traveled further north. 

Does anyone know what happened?  I imagine if people were setting fires on the L tracks it would be on the news or something, but I haven't seen anything.  

What's the deal with the East and North legs of the Loop closing on the weekends? Anyone else hear about this?

The turnstile at the Brown Line Sedgwick stop ate my Upass.

The booth operator gave me a slip to take to CTA headquarters for which they will issue me a replacement Upass through the mail and give me a five day pass in the meantime while I wait for the Upass to arrive but the operator gave me a $4.50 transit card to hold me over until Monday.

Considering it's Saturday, that's not going to last and I'm going to have to buy another pass. I brought this up but they wouldn't issue me another pass.

Who do I address this problem to? (Don't say CTA tattler)

I'll be taking the Blue Line out to Rosemont next week (in the late afternoon/early evening), and then I will need a cab to get to my "final destination." Can anyone tell me if there are cabs at the station on a regular basis? Or will I need to call one when I get there? Has anyone done this? What cab service did you call? Did they show up in a reasonable amount of time?

Any advice or info would be appreciated. Thanks!



EDIT: Thanks for the info everyone!

Hey gang...
My experience on CTA is minimal. I currently commute to Lombard from Champaign every week and with rising gas prices I'm thinking of using Amtrak, Metra and CTA as an alternative.

One... when transferring from the brown line to the red line at Belmont is there a charge for the transfer. Are there charges for transfers at CTA stations in general?

Two... what's the easiest way to get from Union Station to Ogilvie? Is there an underground passageway between the two or is it mainly above ground. Just a precaution for winter.

Three... I have a folding bike (Giant Halfway). I'm thinking of using it with the commute. I assume that it's not an option on buses, but that it's OK on trains. Is this a correct assumption?

Four... Is there a stop on the green line that shares space with a Metra stop? I think they share the same raised railroad bed, but I'm not sure if their stops coincide at all.

Thanks a gazillion for all your help.
--sam

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190412.html


Take-Two entertainment is suing the CTA over the fact it pulled GTA IV ads in April.

It looks like CTA pulled the ads due to customer complaints? There's not many specifics I found in these articles.

How sad. :(

Ok, I figured this was a good place to try and get some information since all of you are so passionate about the trains. :)

I teach a class of very curious preschool children who LOVE the train.  We take neighborhood walks two or three times a week and always have to walk by the tracks because they get so excited to see a train go past.  They are curious about how a train works, who drives a train, how the train does not fall off the tracks, they are always asking questions about the trains.  

I would love to encourage this interest and bring some real world experience into the classroom.  Does anybody have any suggestions?  Or does anyone know the best routes to take to try and get an engineer or a staff member to visit my students?  Or better yet a chance for them to see inside a rail car?

Thanks everyone!  

 

granville stop, red line; chicago

perhaps
we'll find each other out there. or perhaps
just ourselves.

Is the union station stop on the blue line at Clinton...?

WBBM (780 AM) Radio's At Issue program for this week is an interview with Ron Huberman.  It aired at 9:30 this morning and will air again at 9:30 this evening.  You can also listen online by following the link on the upper left-hand side of this page: http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/213.php

Here's the blurb from WBBM's website: 

"CTA President Ron Huberman describes improvements being made to prevent the kind of problems that bedeviled the agency's response to a Blue Line breakdown this month. He discusses major improvements on the system during his first year on the job, and ..."


I only caught a few minutes this morning, so I can't say anything for or against it, just thought I'd pass it along. 

-K

The last Douglas-O'Hare trips were made yesterday. There is no more Blue Line service to 54th and no in-service trains now operate over the ramp for the first time since 1958.

I'm somewhat surprised that no one has said anything about this yet.

 Is there an easier way to get from Union Station to McCormick convention center (2301 S. Lake Shore)? RTA's trip planner wants me to take a Sheridan bus, a Metra electric, then walk nearly a mile. I'll be travelling tomorrow (Sunday).
 Thanks in advance, fellow commuters. 

A semi truck crashed into the Cermak-Chinatown Station at 5:30pm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/25/truck.crash.ap/index.html


From the CTA website:

Due to an accident at 138 W. Cermak, Red Line service is interrupted between Grand and Sox-35th stations.

Northbound trains are turning at Sox-35th station back towards 95th.

Southbound trains are turning at Grand station back north towards Howard.

For alternative service, customers can use Green and Brown Line trains as well as #29 State buses.

Customers going south may also take the #29 State Street bus and transfer to the Red Line at 35th Street.

Customers heading north can take the Brown Line to Fullerton and transfer to the Red Line at Fullerton.

Please allow extra travel time.

Thank you for your patience as we work to restore service as soon as possible.


EDIT :: RED LINE SERVICE RESTORED
Cermak station closed , red line will bypass station

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta-fares-both-26apr26,0,5353413.story

CTA may have to hike fares even with increased state aid, transit chief says

Fuel costs, seniors' free rides taking unexpected toll on budget, Huberman says



I did, from a million miles away.

Guest speaker:

Stephen E. Schlickman
Executive Director
Regional Transportation Authority

10 AM Saturday 4/26
DePaul University, Chaddick Institute
243 S Wabash
9th Floor
Chicago, IL 

Details and RSVP here

So has anyone else gotten the impression recently that the Chicago-area media is doing anything and everything they can to paint the CTA in the worst possible light?  

Take this Tribune article for example.  The guy was parked in a car which just so happened to be outside a Red Line stop.  If you can manage to sift through the mind numbing drivle of some of the 70+ comments (hooray for the interwebz giving a voice to every idiot with an opinion), you notice a lot of people wanting to know where the CTA employees were to stop this?  If the same thing had happened outside of, say, a Walgreens would the headline still read "Man stabbed outside Walgreens in Rogers Park" with a string of comments asking where the Walgreens employees where to stop this from happening or why there aren't armed guards inside the Walgreens to stop this?

I'm not going to deny the CTA has a lot of issues, but to me it seems like the media is working hard to make the CTA look as bad as ever.  Maybe they've always done this and I'm just taking more notice, I don't know.

Sometime before 9 AM on Tuesday on the Brownline tracks near the Kedzie stop, a man took his life.

His Name was Steven Mack.

He was one of my best friends.

If anyone knows any specifics of it please contact me privately...

Thank you,
Tracer
Who misses Steve

I have been looking online and maybe I'm not finding the right reports but does anyone know if there are any records of bikes falling off of the bike racks on the front of the buses? On LSD specifically? Has anyone had any problems with them in that regard? I have mental images of my bike flying off the front rack on LSD and being crushed by the bus. There are too many potholes on LSD for me to envision a smooth ride for my bike. They make a point to say that "The CTA is not responsible for bicycles lost, stolen, or damaged on CTA buses, trains, or property." So if that nightmare came true, I'd be up a certain creek without a paddle....at least that's my interpretation of that statement.

I just found this community, hello all, and after browsing a couple of posts it occurred to me that this would be the best place to ask about the green line filming that I saw March 14. We were crossing State Street by the 35-Bronzeville-IIT station around 9pm, when we were stopped by a guy who told us that because a helicopter was flying below regulation, we needed to stay away from the elevated tracks. A few minutes later, we saw the helicopter landing on the train as it exited the elevated tunnel.

The guy told us the movie they were filming was called The Unborn. Google turns nothing up, though. My theory is that it's the fourth Bourne movie (The UnBourne--get it? Har har.) but I'm not sure. Has anyone got anything on this? Thanks! :)