Posted July 7 at 3:12 p.m.

Head's up, home team.  I may be running some blog posts in "Hey, CTA!" tomorrow, so if you have any compliments or complaints for CTA service, hit me up below.  We're making sure we have a mix of comments and commenters, so from time to time, you'll see your posting in the paper.

Don't be shy.  I know someone has got something to say about Taste of Chicago service, particularly on the Fourth of July.  Kinda glad I was out of town for that fiasco. 

I love reading this column because it let's me know that I am NOT alone in my CTA misery. I know I'm late for the "Rotten Routes" voting, but I had to add these three routes.

I have the "luxury" of taking THREE major routes to my destination.

*29th & State Street (Northbound)
*74th/75th Lakefront (Eastbound)
*74th/75th Damen (Westbound)

Sounds great right?

Not really, at least 99% of the time I exit the train at the 79th Street L station and usually a quick glance overhead shows my 29th & State bus pulling away from the bus stop. And by the time I exit the station, there are ONLY 79th and Lakefront buses (millions of them -- or so it seems) arriving/departing, there are NO 74th/75th buses (EASTBOUND or WESTBOUND) and NO 29th & State (NORTHBOUND) buses arriving/departing.

Instead, there just seems to be this LONG lull between the wait times for the buses. This “lull” in the wait times usually leads to the arrival of TWO buses from the same route (74th/75th Damen) OR "almost empty" buses that are then packed by my fellow commuters that missed the FIRST bus (with me), creating quite a bus/commuter traffic jam at the 79th Street/Red Line station.

The irony of my situation baffles me on so many levels -- three possible routes and none them work!

After the fireworks show on 7/3, I was on a cta bus on Madison, where the buses were lined up 3 wide, bumper to bumper all the way down the street. It took 45 minutes to go from Clark to Wacher, even though it was 2 hours after the show was over. The main reason was that Franklin was closed N bound at Madison, requiring N bound traffic to reroute wast on Madison. On every light the N bound traffic (approx. 98% private cars)would pull into the intersection blocking all the buses on Madison from moving when they had the green light. There were 2 CPD standing by the horses blocking the street, totally ignoring the gridlock. Thus, the people. many of them standing on the crowded buses, who took the advice of the city and used public transportation, saw the people who drove, get prioriry treatment. If you encourage people to take public transit, why do you stick the buses in with the cars anyway? How about streets with bus only traffic and let the buses clear the loop first? Maybe when the motorists who drove down see the buses having priority, they will take public transit next time.

Sometimes, despite the irritation and the anger, one just has giggle when trying to actually get somewhere on the CTA. For instance, yesterday I was taking the Red Line for this thing called a job that actually starts at specific time (a foreign concept to the CTA). As usual, we moved from the Berwyn stop all the way to Fullerton at a pace akin to a brisk walk with, of course, lots of random stops along the way.

Before entering the subway portion, the conductor came on to announce that we would be going through a "slow zone." Slower than what, one had to wonder? Then as one might expect in the delusional world of the CTA, we proceeded to move faster through the "slow zone" than we had for the rest of the route.

The CTA -- where time, schedules and even words have no meaning.

Yeah, I'd like to know what's up with the slow zone on the Red Line between North & Clyborn and Clark & Division. I thought they had already fixed that section of track before. So much for putting the "rapid" back in rapid transit. It's more like "snail" transit.

If you are angry at Ron Hubrisman and his arrogant associates mismanaging the CTA, I heard great advice this morning in a pre-recorded announcement on the bus:
Visit the CTA Web site for more inflammation.

I would like to congratulate CTA for providing a 3rd class mass transit system in a 1st class city.

And I was wondering, if there's even a 5 minute frame in any given day, that CTA operates without a screw up?

Also, I think CTA should just suck it up and take all the complaints, since it was their responsibility to take care of the whole system from the very beginning, rather than leaving everything unattended until everything has started to fall apart.

Yeah, I read that "Transforming the CTA" PDF on the CTA site. And as usual, Huberman is full of crap.

Let's take care of what we have now instead of dreaming up future plans. Let's get rid of the slow zones on rail system, and fixing up the shoddy, leaking, rat hole stations.

I love the part about the new trains. That would be typical CTA to fix all the slow zones, then turn around and tear everything up for a new rail system.

The consession stands for extra money are nice. But then the CTA, and other riders shouldn't gripe about the extra trash on the trains that will be the result of the consession stands at the stations.

Nice idea for the digital displays at station entrances and on the sides of buses. But Huberman must have forgot, Chicago has ghetto thug gang bangers who like to tag and mark up CTA property with their unreadable garbage. It'll cost more money to clean the paint & markings off of them. And a digital display on the side of a bus in the winter is not going to work. I'm sure everybody has seen a bus with it's sides turned black from all the gunk and salt spray in the winter. Sometimes to the point where you can even see in or out the windows. So... How are people going to see the ads on these digital displays with the screens covered with cakes on grime & salt?

Wow, a #147 bus catches fire on Lake Shore Drive, and it takes the driver a minute or so before he pulls over?! Man, first we get train operators who ignore stop signals, and now a bus driver takes his sweet time pulling off the road when his bus is on fire? Sheesh, I wonder what was going through this guy's mind...

I get SO tired of people always complaining about the CTA. The bus drivers are human and shouldn't be getting the wrath of riders who feel like they're doing the CTA a favor by riding the trains/buses. Tired of the CTA? Buy/rent a car, buy/rent a bike or WALK. In the end, you'll still be pulling out your 7-day to ride the bus/train, so stop complaining SO much and just live life!

I know the CTA has losts of problems with the system. Most of the problems are mechanical but sometimes its human error. I ride the 76 Diversey route 5 days a week and usually have no problem. When I do have a problem or issue I call a manager at the Chicago ave garage. I usually get Mr. Akino a manager at the garage. He is very patiant and polite to speak to and he usually gets the problem resolved by the next day. Other riders say he has been seen on the route following the buses down the street. Maybe if CTA had nore managers like this we wouldnt have to many driver issues.

I was on the 97 Skokie bus on Sunday night June 14,2008 at 8:42 bus number 1582 leaving from Old Orchard mall.Six teenagers were so loud and caused a disturbance on the bus that the passengers were annoyed a woman could not hear her cell phone and they saw people looking at them I gave a look and after 20 minutes decided to phone CTA on the bus I was on.Their CTA mailbox was full but the kids knew what I was up to.One kid joked were going to get kicked off the bus again.Going on 35 minutes as annoyed passengers waited patiently for the bus driver to say something to them but he did absolutely nothing the kids controlled the bus not the driver.I am very annoyed by the fact that the driver would not take the matter into his own hands.I would like to know if anyone at CTA could inform this driver that evening that there is a complaint against him because of it.
Sandra

The CTA is a very old system. Why don't they just shut down for about five years and totally rebuild the system. They (CTA) are trying to rebuild while keeping the system active (try doing open heart surgery on an awake patient) and all everyone does is complain. If you don't like it, do what I did, spend 12 years in the military traveling all over and try other systems. I could not wait to get back here. For one second, take a step back and see what the CTA has to accomplish on a daily basis. Then ask yourself, not WHAT you would do to FIX IT, but HOW you would go about fixing it. Bet you couldn't answer that one.

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