Posted by RedEye - Tuesday, August 28

By Kyra Kyles
RedEye

Break out your old-school Bazooka Joe gum wrappers, kids—it's joke time:

Q: What's slow, wet and red all over?
A: The Red Line on the North Side.

I know it's a knee-slapper, but don't laugh too hard, especially not in front of the far-North Side riders who have been griping to "Going Public" about leaky stations, service snags at the Howard stop and slow zones they say are equally or more annoying than those on the Blue Line.

In the wake of a wave of rail rage from our neighbors up North, I checked in with the CTA regarding three highly complained-about issues.

Slow motion

"What could possibly be the reason for how slow the Red Line now goes between Sheridan and Wilson?" Uptown's Andrew Stimpson, 26, asked in an e-mail. "It's a long, straight stretch that just creeps along these days."

The slowness is for safety, said CTA spokeswoman Sheila Gregory, adding that track inspections have revealed that the area—as well as 17,050 feet of track between the Howard and Lawrence stops—contain deteriorating wooden rail ties and have been designated as slow zones.

Work to replace rail ties, under way all summer, should wrap up by the end of this year, Gregory said.

Missed connections

Yellow and Purple Line connectors have told me they are getting left behind at Howard, the transfer point for Yellow, Purple and Red Line trains. They say this seeming rail rudeness occurs mainly in the mornings and wanted to know who makes the call for Red Line trains to pull out when their trains are arriving.

More importantly, why not just wait for connecting riders?

The on-site rail supervisor decides whether trains should wait to make a connection, Gregory said, and since there only are two tracks for the three train lines at Howard, decisions are based on keeping the tracks as clear as possible to speed up service.

"Red Line trains operate approximately every three-and-a-half minutes," Gregory said of rush-hour intervals. "Therefore, if customers see a Red Line train leaving as they approach the station, by the time they unload from the train and arrive at the appropriate platform, the wait for the next Red Line train is minimal."

Soggy stations

Last week, Edgewater rider Cynthia Fox told "Going Public" that she and other riders were nearly soaked because "a huge section of the ceiling inside the station had collapsed" at the Berwyn stop. She recalled seeing a number of buckets collecting "smelly, urine-like" water.

Fox covered her head with a bag to keep from getting dripped on and came up with some ideas to put a stop to the problem, which she said occurs every day it rains.

"I could buy some steel sheeting and screws and fix the ceiling above the stairs and stop the smelly water from dripping on people," Fox wrote.

The CTA is aware of the leaking problem at Berwyn and other Red Line stations, according to Gregory, who said the agency is working with its existing construction contracts to make repairs, but there are infrastructure issues that cannot merely be patched up.

"In the meantime, maintenance crews are monitoring those areas where water is known to pool and are working to ... drain the water and keep those areas clear as best they can," Gregory said. "When it rains heavily, as it has been recently, it can be challenging."

Hey Kyra, In response to the north siders, I feel their pain. Just today after a long back breaking day at work I thought at least I am off. But to no avail my day got worst on my way home. Keep in mind that I got off at 3pm in the middle of rush hour. I waited 20 minutes just for the red line (going south),once it finally came and I got to my stop (79th St.) I waited another 20 minutes for the west bound bus, only to be told to take the next bus which is diredtly behind this one so I waited........ and waited.....and waited. Finally another 20 minutes later it came. Only to be yelled at by the driver. She told me to take the next bus which is directly behind her. During all of my waiting I noticed that there were at least 4 to 5 east bound buses whizzing by. Once on the extremely crowded bus I noticed that even though the bus was crowded it would have been bearable if there wasn't not 1 but 2 open empty strollers taking up much need space. Now I know that wasn't CTA's fault but with the combination of the days events it really didn't help matters at all. As much as I think everyone wants to put the blame of the world on CTA right now, maybe everyone could stop a moment and think about the next persons feeling before they act. This includes CTA drivers also.

Slow zones, maintenance, poor customer service, violence on the trains, platforms, and buses; what’s next? Maybe sleeping on the job! There has to be some explanation for so many of the CTA accidents that take place. What if the controllers of Power and Rail were spending much of their 8-hour shift napping? This would leave the Rail Operators to navigate blindly through twists and turns with no assistance and it would delay response time to power outages or notifications of customers on the “right-of-way” (the area of track level where electric current runs through the rails). Even worse, what if the Control Manager was napping while on duty? It might explain why the rest of the group believes it is acceptable work ethic. However, not all Controllers are sleep perhaps, maybe they are watching their portable DVDs and/or playing solitaire instead of watching their monitors that follow the progression of trains. This might account for why so many trains run express back-to-back; as it could reflect Controllers’ efforts pickup lag-time from the trains that they’ve ignored for a prolonged period of time. Also, maybe it explains the number of derailments and slow responses to crime on the platform. Considering all of this, it would be a shame if the General Manager was aware of this and did nothing. To compound matters, what if there were video clips taken in the Control Center to prove this was happening? I'd be interested in how CTA could account for endangering the lives of its customers by allowing such neglect. How could CTA account for such a thing...if the video clips were to be leaked to the public? Then again, maybe nobody cares.

I ride from Jackson to Thorndale five tortuous days per week. Twelve miles takes an hour. If the red line tracks are so dangerous that the trains can't exceed 15 miles per hour, aren't they endangering their passengers by continuing service at all? Shouldn't they instead shut down the service until the rails are repaired?

WHAT IS REALLY UP WITH THE #8 HALSTED BUS? IT IS NEVER, NEVER ON TIME, THEN WHEN IS DOES COME ITS FOLLOWED BY 2 OR MORE BUSES. WHY CAN'T THEY BE SPACED OUT TO RUN MORE EFFICIENTLY?

ALSO CAN SOMEONE REMIND THE DRIVERS THAT TAKLING ON THEIR CELL PHONES WHILE DRIVING 50 OR MORE PEOPLE AROUND IS NOT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE RIDERS. YES, THIS IS TRUE OF YOU DRIVERS WHO GO HANDS FREE AS WELL.

Ella, I traced the Red line Routh from Thorndale to Jackson on an online map. It is only 8.7 miles. I live 2 stops south of you and you are right, at night it take just short of an hour, especially if there is a Cubs night game. Red line riders North of Lakeview have definitely been left out. Our stations are by far the worst in the entire system and our slow zones have existed for many years. It seems the O'hare line and the subway portion of the Red line are the only ones they are interested in fixing in the near future. Meanwhile, our stations, bridges and tracks are about to literally fall to pieces. And yes, there is a point the tracks get in such horrible shape that a train could derail on the tracks no matter how slow it goes.

Thanks Red Line guy, I've only been in Chicago for a year now, so appreciate hearing the background. I've lived in San Francisco, New York and Atlanta where I took public transit all the time, and I've never seen a system this bad.

Hasn't anyone filed a lawsuit against the CTA for negligence and life endangerment yet?

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