I am sometimes skeptical of the CTA and their spending however I agree that it is incumbent of Blago to specify how such an agency is wasting money. In not doing so he just increasingly makes himself out to be a faux-reformer trying to push away the blame of the transit crises. (not to be captain obvious to everyone here)

So I was one of the first people to pay for a Chicago Card Plus.

I called over a week ago because my card expired today and I was wondering when exactly I was going to get my replacement. I got an e-mail weeks ago saying it was being sent, but when it gets down to a few days.....

So I get an e-mail the day before my "expiration" saying that it's being sent. I was excited I actually got multiple e-mails about this....but... WTF??? A day before?

Tonight my 30 day card doesn't work, and I have to sit there on the bus as "the guy" who has to dig around for money and pay cash for my ride home. Why? I have a 30 day pass. I've had had a 30 day pass with you pieces of shit for over 5 years. No one at the CTA seems to care at ALL that I've called to check up on you, I've worried that my stupid card is going to "expire" and I'm going to be sitting here paying cash for my rides even though I've been paying for a 30 day pass for YEARS.

WAKE UP. Sorry. I actually love having the CTA, but then you actually take time out of your day multiple times to inquire about the process, and then have your predictions come true....

When do I get my "new" Chicago Card Plus?

Do I actually have to file a lawsuit or something to at least bring to their attention the absolute stupidity?

No organization is 100% perfect. I got my card a little later than I'd have preferred, but still before the old one expired and I'd guess most people do, too. If you called or emails and complained after you get your card, with a tally of your cash payments, they might even credit your account with that amount.

I'm sorry you didn't get your card on time but, really, to threaten a lawsuit?

Just because it's stupid I have to call twice to ask why my card is expiring after 5 years and they can't seem to at least send something BEFORE the 5 year limit is up.

Today I ended up getting pretty blasted drunk. Without thinking I was waiting for 25 minutes at midnight for the Broadway bus like I always would; had a 30 day pass for almost 8 years now.

The bus gets there and I am suddenly confronted again within as many days that my stupid pass was shut off, even though I paid my cash and had it reloaded last week.

I only had a $20 on me to get food at 7-11 when I got back to Uptown, so I ended up having to get off the bus after a confusing 20 seconds and the driver telling me I had no credit on my card. I finally found a cab and got home that much poorer and that much later than I should have.

Anyway, I've been with the CTA for 8 years now, and for the first time I feel extremely slighted and "over" the whole f-ing agency.

.....the CTA is constantly doing stupid things like that......

Yes, the CTA is constantly doing stupid things like getting drunk and going out on the street with no money.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Pilot Program

CTA unveils digital advertising on No. 124 bus

Well excuse me dear, I had plenty of money, but not two $1 bills. I get drunk every weekend, and have gotten home just fine for the past 7 years. That's why I invest $75 in a 30 day pass and make sure to never lose it so I'm not stranded. I filled my pass up last week, but I'm not the one who decided that on September 20th my pass was going to be shut off and I'd have to start using another pass that would arrive sometime in the week following September 20th.

OK, Mr. Snarky. It is pretty clear that they screwed him on this one, his own drunken antics put aside.

MayorOfChicago: I'd be pissed, too. I will say, though, that early adopters of the Chicago Cards got screwed a lot harder than the general population. I was an early adopter myself and had issues with 2 different cards as well as billing problems. Once I got my third card, they seemed to have things worked out a little better and I haven't had problems since.

Taft

I was an early adopter, too (I was pissed when the machine ate my original original silver Chicago Card, issued in the four-station pilot program).

I got an email on July 17 saying that my CC+ would expire on August 31 and asking me to confirm my address so they could send a new one. I confirmed my address on July 22 and the card arrived a day or two later. But my reaction was not to take the emergency fiver out of my wallet, decide I would never ever need it, and spend it on beer.

I kinda miss the old days when I always kept an emergency token in my wallet, too.

i said i had money, but i'm not dumping a $20 into the bus

i had the last laugh though, in the form of a lemon meringue pie chucked into the bus drivers face


http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...e%202/1-49.jpg

Standing ovation for new CTA cars?
 

..

They didn't decide on September 20th to shut your card off. It had been announced in the PRESS and CTA Webpage...back in June and July. It happened to my partner (and was a huge mess last year) and it will happen to my pass next August 2009. I figured that out in 2007 when they had all the press on it and my partner had to jump through hoopes to get a new card.

so do we all

Right, they decided that on Sept 20th it was to be shut off, they didn't decide on Sept 20th to shut it off.

I had known for weeks that it was going to happen. That's the reason I was most upset. I got an e-mail 4 weeks before saying a new card was going to be sent out and I had to do nothing. I thought, awesome, fine. So 2 weeks before I called the CTA very nicely, said I hadn't gotten anything yet and they had sent their initial e-mail 2 weeks earlier. I made sure I had the correct address, and the lady was really nice to me, said there were no problems, that it would be sent out soon. She said the e-mail was sent out a month early to alert people, but the cards were sent out much later.

So 2 days before it's expiring I call the CTA, cause I had just dumped money on my 30 day card and didn't feel like paying as I go just cause they want to wait till the last minute. They said it was being sent out, and I should be fine.

yadda yadda yadda.

Not sure if this was posted before
 

http://westloop.org/news/contentview.asp?c=215898

UPDATE ON LAKE/MORGAN "L" STOP

* Funding source for project: local TIF money (100% active and healthy)
* Project Manager - Julian Silva
* Need for stop - gap between Clinton and Ashland stations
* Two entrance stations on NE/SE corners
* Bicycle racks on all four corners
* Customer assitance kiosks
* Concession venue
* 8 x 10 platforms
* 6-car canopy made of transluscent material
* Exterior in keeping with existing architecture (historic and contemporary)
- Perforated material to let in natural light
* Security and safety measures
- Security cameras monitored by CTA
- Lighting throughout station and surrounding sidewalks
* Station will be built entirely on the public way, using the existing parking lane as well as 7 ft. of sidewalk (sidewalk will be reduced from 15 ft. wide to 8 ft. wide)
* Possible traffic signal at corner
- Redirect trucks
* $34 million dollar project
- Cost is higher due to the lack of staging (streets and tracks will not be shut down during the length of construction)
- Value-engineered
* Bidding to be announced on CDOT website shortly
* Project timeline
- Construction documents: December 2008
- Advertisement: January 2009
- Notice to proceed: March 2009
- Projected completion: September 2010

^^ Way cool. It will be great to have that part of the loop more accessible.

...........I have a couple of track maintenance questions: on the Loop....are they going to replace the old track on Wells and Van Buren as well. also, I thought they were finished with the track repair on the O'Hare Blue ? ...how many more mile are left to repair ??? .......(or....how soon before I can go all the way from O'Hare to the Loop with no slow zones)? ......what parts of the Red Line (north of Addison) are they working on and when will that be done ? .......inquiring minds want to know !! :D :D :D

In general, for people living in Chicago (and as someone shortly about to move there), would anyone say that the Chicago transit system has actually improved? In the most general sense, do all these news clippings amount to improved service over the past 5 years?

Secondly, does anyone see the bus rapid transit system as a means to cut funding for light rail within the city, should it become successful?

For me it's a resounding yes, though that's not to say it's as good as I'd like it to be (oh how I'd love to have a system as smooth & clean & efficient as the DC Metro). The resounding yes stems from the fact I can ride the red line through the subway now without creeping along at an astoundingly slow pace. I don't know if anyone has seen the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is on the subway when it stops & in her mind she is screaming at the top of her lungs? Well every time I rode through the subway before they eliminated the slow zones, I found myself absolutely fuming in utter disgust as the excruciatingly slow speed the trains were traveling. Now for the most part I seem to be able to ride without experiencing those overpowering moments of sheer anger. And by the end of the year we should be back to four track operations from Belmont to Fullerton which should speed things up again, especially for the morning & afternoon rush commutes.

BRT is many times a poor solution to transit but in Chicago's case, it hopefully makes existing bus operations smoother and faster. Especially considering that Chicago would have never gotten a rail system where the proposed BRT target areas.

fyi, Chicago has little light rail in the city. In fact, I don't think it has any outside of O'Hare's rail link.

...Megabus has been in Chicago for a few years....

..i think the CTA has really improved over the last 2 years.......the slow zones almost everywhere has been eliminated (or will be soon)....over the last 15 years the CTA has almost completely re-built itself (Douglas, O'Hare, Brown, Red South, Green, and Orange)....just let the current construction finish and a few improvements like GPS and digital signaling get widespread and it will be doing very well.....rolling stock replacement is probably the biggest problem now......

.in general people are so used to bashing the CTA (particularly the press) that it has almost become a religion......

I see we just shelled out Midway Airport today!

I'm glad the city proved I wasn't crazy when I rationalized selling my car was the only way to pay for next months gas.

^^ 90% of the proceeds have to be used for infrastructure... I'm sure the city can bend these rules (we're good at that in Chicago) but that basically means $900 million for CDOT projects - streetscapings, US-41 South Works extension, bike paths, riverwalk improvements, new overpasses, etc.

Yeah, I agree... it's like a mini national debt. I'm not really seeing long-term gain here.

No light rail at all, as that term is usually understood. O'Hare's peoplemover is usually categorized as automated guideway transit.

Amtrak grant Spgfld-Chicago route
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,7784079.story

Improvements on track for busy Amtrak routes
Federal grants help speed ride to St. Louis
By Jon Hilkevitch | Chicago Tribune reporter
October 1, 2008
About 30 minutes will be shaved off the 5 1/2 -hour Amtrak trip between Chicago and St. Louis when train speeds increase to 110 m.p.h. within about a year on parts of the route, state officials said Tuesday.

Two federal grants totaling $3.4 million were awarded to Illinois for passenger rail projects aimed at boosting train speeds and reducing delays from south of Chicago through Springfield. The state must provide $3.4 million in matching funds to get the federal funds.

Ridership has grown 15 percent on the Chicago-to-St. Louis route, where Amtrak operates five round-trips daily.
.....
The improved technology will also boost train speeds from 79 m.p.h. to 110 m.p.h. on sections of 118 miles of track between Mazonia and Ridgely, near Springfield.

Illinois has invested about $100 million on track improvements to make way for high-speed rail on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

the long term gain here is another service that is not run by the city. There will no more unaffordable pensions, bloated expensive work forces, etc for the city to pay for. Governments are inefficient at running things, and labor is extremely expensive and cumbersome. Its off our back now. You notice part of the proceeds from the sale have to by law go towards pensions. Chicagio is about, off the top of my head, about 7 billion in the hole for underfunded pensions.

Good news on the Amtrak article. For those of you too lazy to read the article, federal money will also go towards improving service reliability and (to a small degree) speed between the Chicago-Milwaukee route.

Looks like the Midwest High Speed Rail Coalition may finally have its first 2 routes if all goes well in the next couple of years.

Illinois tollways
 

Hey guys, I just wanted to ask a question for those of you in the know. Last week I spent a lot of time driving the 294 and 88 tollways in the suburbs. The monumentous traffic that I saw (and yes, I really think legends can be written about what I witnessed) caused me to wonder why the tolls were so cheap ($0.30 in some places, but mostly $0.80 to $1.00).

Seems as if the state could easily get away from raising tolls if even by a small amount (a quarter?). I read somewhere that tolls haven't been raised for 30 years. Is this all true?

Tolls are about 1/3 what they should be, at least during peak periods. The tollway board is de facto run by politicians, not businessmen nor planners. So, the anti-tax yahoos in the suburbs who threaten to storm the bastille whenever anyone deigns mention a toll increase make sure the system is chronically short of adequate money and failing in its ability to control congestion. There hasn't even been a nominal toll increase since the early 1980s, except for a significant hike to commercial vehicles a few years ago to pay for the current ongoing reconstruction of the whole damn system because it all crumbled to hell because there wasn't enough money for adequate maintenance or phased rehabilitation.

I love toll roads in principle, but not when they're run like political playthings.

1. Again....implying business people run a business better seems kind of ironic in these days of massive financial problems in this country.

2. Money should NEVER be used to create order. If we raise the fare on tollways to "control congestion" what we are basically doing is creating a private tollway for the wealthy.

3. Tollways stink to high heavan. Get all the revenue from the gas tax get rid of tollways or make all the down state roads and Interstates tollways.

Poor, unsupportable logic, but we won't go there in this thread.

A trip on a road should be priced to include 1) construction/maintenance cost, or the fixed cost, and 2) the amount of congestion that additional marginal trip will cause thereby imposing costs on every other user of the system, the variable cost. Creating order or reserving roads for the wealthy has got nothing to do with it. A marginal trip on a roadway creates a certain amount of congestion and delay, and presently that marginal trip is underpriced - the person causing congestion should have to pay for it.

The gas tax, while decent, is not nearly as good as tolling in capturing the cost of a trip. It has no means of factoring in the cost of congestion, and furthermore becomes less effective as the auto fleet become more fuel efficient.

All I'm advocating is drivers pay their fair share, nothing more nothing less. Our current system is rife with immense amounts of cross-subsidization, between drivers at different times of day, between drivers and transit users, and so on.

Your initial statement seemed political.

Again I am not for privatized Tollways for the rich. It should only be based on use....not economical status.


When that point comes we will raise the tax. It is the same way our home gas is. If we use a lot the price goes up yet on mild winters when we don't use as much the gas company gets a rate hike to offset the lower usage.

Fair share to me is usage. Not how much money people make. Chicagoland area needs to stop building and maintaining roads outside of our area and put that money to our infrastructure.

I do agree with you 100% about your assessment of where we stand currently and the mess we are in.

Yeah, I agree with this. But I do sense risks... perhaps because this is a newish concept for me, critical infrastructure being owned by third parties.

It's still owned by the city, just operated under a contractual agreement. In theory the city could terminate the contract if the operator breaches the terms. Of course that would be a very costly process, but I'd like to think the actual concession agreement will protect the city pretty well.

Never fear! Midway Airport will be back in Chicago's hands in 2107! By then, of course, it will offer regular discount service to Mars, the Moon, and Alpha Centauri (the latter being a bit of a longer flight, but they have deluxe meal service)

OK, thanks.

I must be the most annoying person in this thread, since I know so little about transit and only follow it casually lest I get depressed. I usually try to keep my mouth shut!

First of all.... the majority of Chicagoland's traffic is carried by local arterial roads, which have equally heinous traffic. This is because our interstate network is drastically under-sized for a metro area of 10 million people. Metra and CTA pick up some of the strain, but they don't work to carry people from suburb-to-suburb, and so we have terrible traffic on our arterial roads as well.

Honestly, I don't know why there isn't a massive regional attempt to stagger work hours. LA did this during the 1984 Olympics and had fantastic results on their gridlock. Our traffic would virtually disappear.

Chicago should be proud of its expressways--they scream out "you are near a very large and wealthy city". Never ending billboards advertising Movado watches, steakhouses, and casinos, and seemingly every other car is a Lexus, Mercedes, or some other European luxury car

Holy shit dude, are you fucking kidding me? The best (and, IMO, what should be the only) use of taxes is to serve as a disincentive of behavior/consumption with high spill-over costs. And what's currently worse for our society than car-dependence? It's one of the greatest sources of pollution and international conflict, not to mention anathema to (highly desirable) urbanism.

Our current highway-oriented transit system already disproportionately serves the wealthy by demanding car ownership; what we should be doing is taxing the fuck out of roads and using that revenue alone to provide for their maintenance: you play, you pay. Those priced out would necessarily gravitate towards and agitate for public transportation, "bottom-up" change which, in a democracy, is the best way to effect it.

Anyway, your internal logic doesn't even make sense. The sales tax you refer to in 3 is just as regressive as a highway toll, so why the outcry of social injustice for the latter and not the former?

VivaLFuego is smart not to get into 1 but I'm a little less tactful: Our current crisis is just as much if not more the result of a culture of self-entitled, irresponsible spendthrifts who live beyond their means because of the misplaced sense that they deserve to. Businesses may serve them, but government enables them.

Let's walk you through this....
Tollway fees are specific to the roads being used.

By raising the price of Tolls, to control congestion, people will start using adjacent roads like Highway 41.

This will cause less congestion on the tollways and give rich people a better driving experience on the tollways, while creating a huge head ache for the local routes.

Let's get rid of tolls and jack up gas taxes. Using the taxes for use and maintence of the roads is a great idea.....and it will apply and cover all roads from local, free, to tollways. That way....we wouldn't be able to create tollways for the elite rich.

Haven't owned a car since 1989 and haven't driven since 1996 so that should tell you what I really think should happen to both tollways and highways and roads and strip malls and all that garbage.

aaaanndd you might as well just shut the hell up then, because if you're that openly biased, you might as well help power a wind turbine

Love you too.

Tolls = apartheid/class warfare. Got it. :koko:

I believe I side with Chicago3rd's overall notion here, if not some of the details... I think increased taxes on the toll roads will hurt the working poor, and as conditions continue to erode in the US, the middle class. Why? Because of proximity of affordable housing to jobs and the fact that in many cases mass transit is simply not workable.

If I live in Dalton and have to get to work near O'Hare, how efficient is it for me to take mass transit? Not so much, especially if I have a life to live with a family to raise etc. The high price of gas is already taking a disproportionate toll on the working poor due to simple percentages of their income levels.

Sure, we can effect change from the "bottom" up, but is this really a fair way to proceed? Just like we are supposedly now making a change on Wall Street (yeah, sure), only after thousands of unnamed Americans got duped into mortgages they can't afford. Not a good process at all, quite wrong if you ask me.

Seems like you are trying to take this off topic...but please reframe from that. You have not addressed the issue that people will take alternatives such as HWY 41...making the parallel running roads much more congested.

And you haven't explained why having roads paid for by one massive tax that is assigned to gas, a usage tax, wouldn't help out. I am against parking garages in general but am extrememly against raising the price to keep people from driving. What would you call the fact that in my office all the folks who make in the six figures pay for parking in the building while the admin take public transportation? Higher doesn't = less parking. Higher parking = parking for the rich.

I am not opposed to the rich....love them see all the great things they do for our city...buildings.....organizations....capitalism can be great and rewarding...but when it comes to "public" things like roads and garages and services we should all be equal.

^ Look, neither increased gas taxes nor tolls will happen anytime soon, so the debate really is academic. But the fact of the matter is we have a transportation infrastructure in place which rewards drivers and punishes mass transit users. Furthermore, as I stated in my original post, there is no difference between a sales tax and a toll inasmuch as both are regressive and therefore affect the poor in the same way. It really doesn't make sense that either of you would rail on one and not the other. Moreover, were any strategy to actually be implemented, I imagine a multi-pronged effort would be more effective than a single thrust, say, into the fuel market.

The point is to persuade people to change their untenable lifestyles. Money in the form taxes, as the only tool the government really has, will always be a greater issue for the poor; there's no way around it, unless you advocate for communism or some other redistributive monetary program (which we already have in place as far as incomes are concerned).

The other thing to remember-- and I suspect this is where we disagree-- is that "Main Street" is hardly guilt-free. The development of exurbs and far-flung suburbs occurred only because of a real demand for space, space, space. Ultimately, greed and irresponsibility on the part of many average Americans accounts for a huge part of the mortgage crisis you allude to. The same is no less true about our car culture. And, ultimately, the market will catch up to these people, the only difference being that when gas prices start increasing exponentially there will be nothing the government can do to help, at least in the immediate aftermath.