CTA Progress
Published Nov 29th, 2008
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-Griping about the CTA has been a longtime cultural pastime in Chicago. I am certainly guilty of it. However, as jaded as we all might be, we have to step back and take a fresh look at the whole system. In the short time that Ron Huberman has taken over what appeared to be a hopeless entity, many noticeable improvements have been made.
I’ll begin with the one that still has me amazed–My half-hour Blue Line commute from Clark and Lake to O’Hare yesterday. I was blown away. I can remember the Blue Line taking a full hour from Division/Milwaukee to O’Hare, as I nervously fidgeted and muttered profanities under my breath each time the train came to a stop or slowed to walking speed. I remember being so angry and frustrated that Chicago couldn’t get it together on something other cities have a complete mastery of–efficient mass transit. Being a bit of a train enthusiast and being aware of train technologies going back to the coal powered train I rode at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, WI to the MagLev train proposals for Southern California, I rated CTA trains as slightly more sophisticated than an 1880s steam locomotive–without the historic charm. The stations were almost Soviet in their disrepair and dreariness. Having ridden my first subways in Japan and Europe, I laughed when I saw that Chicago still used wooden railroad ties. Imagine that–I’m in the global center of steel and concrete, but the “El” runs on the same track concept that brought Gold Rush prospectors to California in the 1890s.
It saddened me too that there was this comprehensive underground and above-ground infrastructure, sprawling out across Chicagoland, that somebody at sometime thought was worthy enough to construct, just rusting away into an uncertain future. Yet, more people than ever were riding these rails. Economically the CTA’s neglect of its public rail system made no sense to me. It seemed like city officials were either apathetic to or unaware of the great potential housed in the skeleton of this majestic, but ailing serpent. Then, this year, that serpent awoke.
The new platforms look fantastic. If you clubbed me on the head and I came to at the Fullerton or Lake Street stations, I might think I was in Denmark the few moments before being panhandled. According to the CTA’s website, 42,000 of it’s 650,000 railroad ties have been replaced with Composite Recycled Plastic Railroad Ties that make the ride smoother and faster due to the better calibrated rail widths these uniform and durable track anchors maintain. The rest of the smoothness will have to come from upgraded cars with newer suspensions, but the new tracks are an incredible start. The trains are visibly cleaner than they ever were–that goes for the buses as well. Both modes of transit are no longer displaying large gaps in advertising like they used to. I’m also impressed at how well the plastic window applications are keeping the graffiti at bay. I was recently in Amsterdam and while their trains are great, every single window, on every single train, had unsightly graffiti etched into it. Maybe it’s just me, but the CTA buses do not seem to be “bunching” at stops as much as they used to either.
At any rate, over the past few months, I’ve noticed small improvements here and there throughout the CTA–from the things I mentioned above to the debit/credit card fare machines that are appearing station to station, to the vast improvement in communication, through signage, on everything from construction plans to temporary closings and station bypass shuttles. Still, my favorite thing about CTA thus far is to get on a train and actually MOVE! This is what trains are supposed to do. The reason they’re above or below the city streets, on dedicated tracks, is to defy car traffic and get you from one point to another without impediment. I took great satisfaction in passing all of the slowed cars, stuck in traffic, on the Kennedy as I made my way to O’Hare with only the occasional scheduled stops to slow us down. After all of these years slogging along on the Blue Line, it felt exhilarating, almost dangerous to be speeding along at 50 mph as we were.
Ron Huberman and his department deserve a lot of credit for this amount of progress in such a short time. I’m looking forward to seeing more of these improvements in the near future.
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