saw this earlier today. april 2nd three-tracking may or may not happen on april 2nd:
Switches, signals key
CTA President Frank Kruesi said the agency is also on target to have an April 2 start date on the next phase of the Brown Line reconstruction project, which involves taking one of four tracks at Belmont and Fullerton out of service until 2009.
Kruesi and CTA Chair Carole Brown have said that three-tracking won't begin unless newly installed switches and signals at Clark Junction -- the rail corridor where Brown, Red and Purple Line trains merge -- are up to snuff.
One more meeting
"So far, these tests have gone well," Kruesi said, but the next step, scheduled to take place this week and next, is to increase the number of test trains going through the junction to make sure the new equipment can handle rush-hour loads.
The CTA board will hold a special meeting next week to decide whether to go ahead with three-tracking on April2.
In the meantime, there will be one final community meeting on the plan from 6 to 8 p.m Monday at CTA headquarters, 567 W. Lake.
suntimes.com
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i will be interested to see as to how well the planning goes on this. i know travel times will increase, but i hope they can get these trains on tight schedules so the whole operation runs fairly smoothly, i.e., trains hitting their station (well, not literally), then moving on and a new train -- north- or south-bound -- eases in to the just vacated spot, moves on, and so on and so on.
i know that will be a difficulty with slow zones (not even getting into those who will say an impossibility with the current administrators), but i believe viva' said that they were replacing ties from addison to the tunnel??
anyways, april 2nd won't be pretty.