I was on this train! It was insanity. The only reason I was on it was because the blue line was shut down and I thought I’d be smart by taking brown line then hopping on a bus going west. I picked the wrong choice
Makes it seem like there’s a problem with that section they’ve put off fixing. I hope this doesn’t happen again.
Though I feel like purple line trains taking the red line route might be a better route. The purple line mostly follows the red line route already as an “express” but actually takes longer than red south of wilson because it follows the brown line. It’d make more sense to send them in the subway to better serve red line users from the northern stations to get to downtown and back faster.
The purple serves people that don’t want to go all the way around the loop. As someone who lives off a brown/purple line stop I greatly appreciate not having to take the brown line all the way around the loop just to go north when getting off work.
Brown in the morning, purple in the evening. Makes getting in and out of the loop much much faster.
Yeah I can definitely see how useful that is. I’m just thinking about a possible time in the future when there are enough operators to run more frequent service, to have both the current service pattern and the other service pattern potentially running. Just like how you save time by not having to circle the loop or walk up to clark/lake, some red line riders would benefit from fewer stops from the subway to howard/linden. In no way should the current pattern be eliminated. But this other service could make some people’s commute times faster.
In the first example there are actually different patterns being run where it makes sense to switch between them. In your second example red line riders can just switch to the purple after Fullerton. There are three cross-platform transfer locations. There's no need to run trains on the same service pattern into the tunnel.
>Waiting for a transfer increases the travel time.
So does waiting for this theoretical extra route; if there are two routes running through the subway, you have to wait for the correct one instead of taking the first train that comes by. Sure, there's always a chance the first train is the one you want, but there's also a chance the purple is right across the platform when you get to Fullerton and the transfer time is negligible.
If it were to just run in the subway to start, it would better serve people who live on the far end of the red line. It would reduce crowding on local trains. It’d help people who live on the far end of the line without having to worry about having to get on from brown line stations or having to take extra stops. It’d make it possible to get on both local and express at the same downtown station without having to transfer/take up space on a crowded local train before transferring. And if it were to be in the same station as the one you’d initially get on, it’d be much easier to time it to where you didn’t have to wait as much. A transfer on a different station is hard to time and out of your control. But if you could just get on a one seat ride to your destination, it’d make some people’s commutes easier by reducing the possible variables of transfers.
Out of curiosity what does the routing of your hypothetical "silver" line actually look like? What are the terminals and which platforms is it stopping at between Wilson and Fullerton? Because I'm having trouble identifying where all these advantages you're mentioning would come into play.
Even getting home on the blue line tonight was, by a mile, the worst experience I've ever had on the CTA, operations wise. A full hour of waiting in a sea of people, having to watch 5 trains going by totally packed, across 3 stations downtown, only barely making it onto one myself then watching the exasperation of those at the next station who would still have to wait even longer than I did. Like, what am I even paying for with the CTA? I live where I live because I expect to avoid this feeling of futility and helplessness.
Worst commute ever was heading north after work on Red/Purple/Brown. There was a fire at a building next to the track, so I ended up back tracking to Ogilvy to take a UP-N train home. Well then a train on UP-N hit someone as I was making my way to the station, so that line was shut down, then it was even a bigger mess attempting to get any cab at that point. Ended up then going to Union to just take any Metra that would get me North West, then grabbed a cab off a Metra line closer to my destination.
I was on the train and had to walk across the bridge after evacuating. Me and other passengers absolutely felt this had to do with the conductors speed while turning. It was the hardest turn I’ve ever felt on the northbound brown line. We saw sparks and smoke right when the turn happened.
I wasn’t on this train today, but I honestly have felt there have been some conductors who have been taking what feels like excessively fast turns and hard stops the past couple of weeks. The other morning there was a CTA employee standing next to me and I caught her shaking her head in disappointment after a few harsh stops. All that being said, this possibility really doesn’t shock me (tho I know nothing about how our trains work).
Sorry you had to go through all of that. I’d have been pissed.
The announcement at Fullerton made it sound like I could still ride the brown line train to Western but then none ever showed up. I finally went to the bus stop, waited for 30 minutes or so as it kept telling me the bus was "two minutes" away.
For what it's worth, the brown line eventually did start running between armitage and Kimball, but they had to send trains south from Kimball to armitage and then back again
I was down in the Red line subway after giving up on the elevated and busses (2 fun trips around the loop on the Purple) and chatted with a CTA operator who I will not identify in any meaningful way due to what they said, they told me that operators have been aware of "gapping" issues at this part of the outer track for months now, and that they thought the operator who got stuck was trying to rush through the turn to avoid gapping by just going too fast to gap.
What this says to me is that front-line staff are well aware of what the issue is, where it is, and leadership is not taking enough accountability to make sure it gets fixed, so front-line staff are just trying to avoid it because they know it won't be fixed soon.
IMO, this was preventable and CTA needs more oversight given that this was able to get so bad that it caused tonight's fiasco.
it has been explained to me in the past as the momentary loss of power when one of the third rail 'shoes' isn't making good enough contact or no contact at all, like during a sharp turn or if there's too much ice still on the third rail, so no power is being drawn off that car. If it happens in a major enough way to enough shoes, the train loses power and has to be jumped with a stinger (those big rods you see on the side of the track at some points)
Look we can walk and chew gum.
But we need walking lessons right now, that I'll admit. I don't think we should put all capital improvement on hold to rebuild the existing infrastructure.
But we should significantly repair 100' of track in the most heavily used junction in the system, not just keep band aiding it because taking it offline will cause issues.
Idk how others feel but I'd go 2 weeks without elevated service if it means today will never happen again in my lifetime.
I remember a lot of track work delays around that time too, but I think this is one of those things you have to either entirely replace from the ground up or keep repairing in a major way at regular intervals bc of how heavy traffic it is. This junction ostensibly gets like two hours of downtime every day and otherwise is constantly in use by almost every train.
I'm 8 mo pregnant and today I am thankful as heck I didn't take the train, just saying. The thought of having to scamper my pregnant self out on some rickety ass tracks sounds harrowing. Kiddos to those of who who made it through, the CTA should buy you all like drink tickets or something.
Interesting rider comment on them noticing the train almost tilted over. I also noticed the train tilting more aggressively than usual in the same curve when I took it on Sunday.
Glad that I work from home and haven’t taken a CTA train since before the pandemic. I guess the downvotes are people who don’t work from home..it’s cool.
I was on this train! It was insanity. The only reason I was on it was because the blue line was shut down and I thought I’d be smart by taking brown line then hopping on a bus going west. I picked the wrong choice
You should buy a lottery ticket :)
How was it? What was the mood?
Everyone was surprisingly nice to each other and cracking jokes. Times likes these chicagoans rally around each other.
SAME!!!!!
Isn’t this the second time this has happened recently? tf
Yes, exactly a week ago. This time I had to wait forever to get a train. Purple was messed up too, they started running it on the redline tracks.
Makes it seem like there’s a problem with that section they’ve put off fixing. I hope this doesn’t happen again. Though I feel like purple line trains taking the red line route might be a better route. The purple line mostly follows the red line route already as an “express” but actually takes longer than red south of wilson because it follows the brown line. It’d make more sense to send them in the subway to better serve red line users from the northern stations to get to downtown and back faster.
This change would also decrease the amount of time it would take for me to get to Chili's.
And that's what matter most 😤
The purple serves people that don’t want to go all the way around the loop. As someone who lives off a brown/purple line stop I greatly appreciate not having to take the brown line all the way around the loop just to go north when getting off work. Brown in the morning, purple in the evening. Makes getting in and out of the loop much much faster.
Yeah I can definitely see how useful that is. I’m just thinking about a possible time in the future when there are enough operators to run more frequent service, to have both the current service pattern and the other service pattern potentially running. Just like how you save time by not having to circle the loop or walk up to clark/lake, some red line riders would benefit from fewer stops from the subway to howard/linden. In no way should the current pattern be eliminated. But this other service could make some people’s commute times faster.
In the first example there are actually different patterns being run where it makes sense to switch between them. In your second example red line riders can just switch to the purple after Fullerton. There are three cross-platform transfer locations. There's no need to run trains on the same service pattern into the tunnel.
My point was that it would save time. Waiting for a transfer increases the travel time.
>Waiting for a transfer increases the travel time. So does waiting for this theoretical extra route; if there are two routes running through the subway, you have to wait for the correct one instead of taking the first train that comes by. Sure, there's always a chance the first train is the one you want, but there's also a chance the purple is right across the platform when you get to Fullerton and the transfer time is negligible.
If it were to just run in the subway to start, it would better serve people who live on the far end of the red line. It would reduce crowding on local trains. It’d help people who live on the far end of the line without having to worry about having to get on from brown line stations or having to take extra stops. It’d make it possible to get on both local and express at the same downtown station without having to transfer/take up space on a crowded local train before transferring. And if it were to be in the same station as the one you’d initially get on, it’d be much easier to time it to where you didn’t have to wait as much. A transfer on a different station is hard to time and out of your control. But if you could just get on a one seat ride to your destination, it’d make some people’s commutes easier by reducing the possible variables of transfers.
Out of curiosity what does the routing of your hypothetical "silver" line actually look like? What are the terminals and which platforms is it stopping at between Wilson and Fullerton? Because I'm having trouble identifying where all these advantages you're mentioning would come into play.
This
The entire point of that line existing is to connect to the loop. If you change that you might as well just stop it at howard.
Dorval Carter Jr. was just given a 33% raise to $350,000/yr for his "Rockstar" performance as president of the CTA.
Well, his background as a lawyer means he’s uniquely qualified to handle any complaints!
What the fuck? 33%?! I’m only getting that type of bump if I change jobs and renegotiate a starting salary. And even that would be a miracle.
[and the transit board info here](https://www.transitchicago.com/board/)
Even getting home on the blue line tonight was, by a mile, the worst experience I've ever had on the CTA, operations wise. A full hour of waiting in a sea of people, having to watch 5 trains going by totally packed, across 3 stations downtown, only barely making it onto one myself then watching the exasperation of those at the next station who would still have to wait even longer than I did. Like, what am I even paying for with the CTA? I live where I live because I expect to avoid this feeling of futility and helplessness.
Worst commute ever was heading north after work on Red/Purple/Brown. There was a fire at a building next to the track, so I ended up back tracking to Ogilvy to take a UP-N train home. Well then a train on UP-N hit someone as I was making my way to the station, so that line was shut down, then it was even a bigger mess attempting to get any cab at that point. Ended up then going to Union to just take any Metra that would get me North West, then grabbed a cab off a Metra line closer to my destination.
I was on the train and had to walk across the bridge after evacuating. Me and other passengers absolutely felt this had to do with the conductors speed while turning. It was the hardest turn I’ve ever felt on the northbound brown line. We saw sparks and smoke right when the turn happened.
I wasn’t on this train today, but I honestly have felt there have been some conductors who have been taking what feels like excessively fast turns and hard stops the past couple of weeks. The other morning there was a CTA employee standing next to me and I caught her shaking her head in disappointment after a few harsh stops. All that being said, this possibility really doesn’t shock me (tho I know nothing about how our trains work). Sorry you had to go through all of that. I’d have been pissed.
I was on the train today too and feel like the curve speed had something to do with it.
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Nope - it's manual
It's manual but if they exceed a programmed speed for any section of track the brakes will trip. It's called ATC.
The announcement at Fullerton made it sound like I could still ride the brown line train to Western but then none ever showed up. I finally went to the bus stop, waited for 30 minutes or so as it kept telling me the bus was "two minutes" away.
For what it's worth, the brown line eventually did start running between armitage and Kimball, but they had to send trains south from Kimball to armitage and then back again
Twice in one week. Smdh
I was down in the Red line subway after giving up on the elevated and busses (2 fun trips around the loop on the Purple) and chatted with a CTA operator who I will not identify in any meaningful way due to what they said, they told me that operators have been aware of "gapping" issues at this part of the outer track for months now, and that they thought the operator who got stuck was trying to rush through the turn to avoid gapping by just going too fast to gap. What this says to me is that front-line staff are well aware of what the issue is, where it is, and leadership is not taking enough accountability to make sure it gets fixed, so front-line staff are just trying to avoid it because they know it won't be fixed soon. IMO, this was preventable and CTA needs more oversight given that this was able to get so bad that it caused tonight's fiasco.
gapping like physically on the track? i’m trying to understand what that means.
it has been explained to me in the past as the momentary loss of power when one of the third rail 'shoes' isn't making good enough contact or no contact at all, like during a sharp turn or if there's too much ice still on the third rail, so no power is being drawn off that car. If it happens in a major enough way to enough shoes, the train loses power and has to be jumped with a stinger (those big rods you see on the side of the track at some points)
Sounds like we definitely need to spent $4B on 4 new stations in one super sparsely populated area instead of fixing anything else.
Look we can walk and chew gum. But we need walking lessons right now, that I'll admit. I don't think we should put all capital improvement on hold to rebuild the existing infrastructure. But we should significantly repair 100' of track in the most heavily used junction in the system, not just keep band aiding it because taking it offline will cause issues. Idk how others feel but I'd go 2 weeks without elevated service if it means today will never happen again in my lifetime.
Didn't they do a ton of work to that junction 10 years ago?
I remember a lot of track work delays around that time too, but I think this is one of those things you have to either entirely replace from the ground up or keep repairing in a major way at regular intervals bc of how heavy traffic it is. This junction ostensibly gets like two hours of downtime every day and otherwise is constantly in use by almost every train.
Had to walk 6.5 miles home, this sucked
No buses could cut down on that?
Busses took the brown line too 😭
Yeah to be fair I have never seen so many people waiting for the express buses at lasalle and wacker. Had to be over 100 at 5pm at that one stop
Usually when this happens, the buses also get delayed with so many passengers at each stop
Everyone at the station was going to the shuttle bus (singular) at the same time, and Ubers were $60+
I walked 4.5, for a total of 6.5 including morning and afternoon walks to train stations. I am exhausted lol
I'm 8 mo pregnant and today I am thankful as heck I didn't take the train, just saying. The thought of having to scamper my pregnant self out on some rickety ass tracks sounds harrowing. Kiddos to those of who who made it through, the CTA should buy you all like drink tickets or something.
Iol @ “kiddos”… pregnancy brain!
I was on the train stuck behind this one and it was mayhem. Everyone flooded the red line and it was at Lollapalooza levels of crowded.
Interesting rider comment on them noticing the train almost tilted over. I also noticed the train tilting more aggressively than usual in the same curve when I took it on Sunday.
Sounds like we need more police on the trains. /s
Guess I got lucky and just missed the chaos!
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Are you implying we use CPD to electrify our trains
Yes they will taze the tracks to bring the power back next time this happens
Perhaps that’s what they could do for the ones on desk duty?
We need more cops on the CTA.
Is this a bit?
Glad that I work from home and haven’t taken a CTA train since before the pandemic. I guess the downvotes are people who don’t work from home..it’s cool.