LVEJO en Me TV

Michael Pitula, el Organizador del Transporte Público de LVEJO, aparece en la TV este fin de semana.
Sintonicen WWME, Canal 23 y miren Une Me para una conversación profunda en español sobre el transporte público de Chicago.

LVEJO's Transit Organizer, Michael Pitula, will be on TV this weekend.
Tune into WWME, Channel 23 and watch Une Me for an in depth discussion in Spanish of Chicago's public transit.

Une Me
Sabado - Saturday, 19 Jan, 6:30 AM
Domingo - Sunday, 20 Jan, 7:30 AM

Avisenos si pueden grabar el programa.
Please let us know if you can record the program

---

THE WORKS: Man With a Plan

By Ben Joravsky - November 15, 2007

By his own account, Mike Payne is an unemployed typewriter repairman who’s crashing at his older sister’s house while he looks for permanent digs. But he’s come up with a transit plan for the notoriously underserved south side that’s far more innovative than anything put forth by Mayor Daley or the CTA.

Payne proposes converting the Metra tracks running south and southeast from the Loop into a 22-mile, CTA-operated service called the Gray Line. Ideally it would provide round-the-clock service to dozens of south- and southeast-side neighborhoods, from the Loop to 93rd on one spur and to 111th on another. (The Red Line currently stops at 95th, and its planned extension to 130th is going nowhere despite $590 million in federal funds committed to the project.)

A railroad buff who used to build model trains in his basement as a child, Payne says the idea for the Gray Line came to him one day in the mid-90s, when he was sitting in traffic in South Shore, near the intersection of 71st and Jeffery. “It was a very congested Saturday at about one o’clock in the afternoon,” he says. “The community was bustling, but the Metra commuter station on 71st was sitting abandoned. Nobody was using it. Two trains came in, one going north, the other going south. No one got on, no one got off. And I thought, what a ridiculous waste. This is an asset to our community—let’s use it.”

Not owning a typewriter himself, Payne used one at Harold Washington Library to write up an application for the project, which he filed with the Chicago Area Transit Study, the metropolitan advisory group that officially oversees all capital transit works. Payne’s Gray Line plan is the only proposal in CATS’s files not submitted by an official state or city transit agency.

Payne grants that his plan is a long shot. Among other obstacles, it would require an operating agreement between the CTA and Metra, two outfits that are typically at each other’s throats. The CTA, with its perpetual doomsday plans, isn’t exactly flush. But “if it doesn’t happen, it won’t be because it’s not a good or practical idea,” he says. “It’s because politically the politicians don’t want it for whatever reason.”

Over the years Payne has lobbied officials from Metra, the CTA, and the RTA. He’s drawn some publicity for the project from time to time—Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch wrote him up in 2002. He’s set up a Web site devoted to the project (community-2.webtv.net/GLRTS/GRAYLINECONVERSION). More recently he’s tried a new tack, linking the Gray Line to the mayor’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. The trains, he points out, could make stops at the proposed Olympic Village near McCormick Place and at Washington and Jackson parks, two major venues for the games as planned. “It makes all the sense in the world,” Payne says. “We want to bring thousands of people to the south side, but right now we have no rapid transit to get them around.”

I mention Payne’s proposal not because I think it has much chance of succeeding but to highlight the dearth of ideas coming from city planners. We all know about the CTA’s current problems. But its long-range planning has been even worse. Two recent major capital projects—the Pink Line and the underground superstation at Block 37—largely replicate existing service while leaving underserved areas untouched.

Payne’s proposal at least has the potential to provide needed service and help seed economic development in south-side neighborhoods. “You’d think they’d be interested if only because of the Olympics,” says Payne. “I’ll keep pushing, though.”

Going Public: Every 'L' line for itself

Posted by Kyra Kyles - Dec. 11

For the last two years, "Going Public" has pitted "L" lines against one another in a dramatic competition to see which one riders admire most. The results likely are meaningless in the mass transit scheme of things, since the Red Line won both years for reasons having more to do with sentimentality than superiority. But it may not have been completely frivolous to force the lines to face off. Last week, the president of New York's City Transit announced that the city's rail lines will take a similar tack—operationally.

In a major change to the system, individual New York subway lines will run almost autonomously and in direct competition with one another. Each of the 24 lines will be led by different managers who will take responsibility for the stations, the trains and anything that happens on their share of track, according to The New York Times, which said the experiment would start with lines No.7 and the L, not to be confused with our "L". New York lines will compete in areas of cleanliness, on-time performance and service, the paper reported. I've got two words for that concept:

Awe. Some.

So awesome, in fact, that I couldn't resist imagining what would happen if eight CTA managers were given almost sole responsibility for the Red, Yellow, Purple, Orange, Green, Pink, Blue and Brown Lines. If it did happen, here are some hypothetical Line items managers likely would have to deal with:

Red Line
Put the smackdown on illegal solicitation running rampant on the South Side between Cermak and its 95th Street terminus.

Blue Line
Help blitz the O'Hare branch's slow zones, as CTA President Ron Huberman has pledged to do.

Orange Line
It's hard to hate on the railway to Midway with its pretty clean cars, brisk service and proximity to the airport. So for now, just help bail out the Blue.

Pink Line
Broaden your fan base. A large number of riders who write to "Going Public" say you and your Line should be pink-slipped in favor of the 54/Cermak branch service you partially supplanted.

Green Line
Address complaints that Green is becoming a ghost line. "Going Public" gets regular comments that Green Liners often are stiffed in favor of more consistently running Brown Line trains at the Adams/Wabash stop. A Forest Park rider recently e-mailed to say he is tired of being packed in crowded cars. "By the time us greenies reach Clark & Lake it is jammed to where they turn away passengers and announce, `There is another train behind,' " Tony Fewlass, 44, wrote, emphasizing with all caps. "RIGHT, not a Green one."

Purple Line
Your cars are pretty clean and run efficiently, but ask your Red Line peer to ensure Purple Liners aren't left behind in the brutal cold at the connecting Howard stop. It especially hurts mass transit morale when the conductor won't wait for them to hitch a Red ride toward the Loop.

Yellow Line
Champion an extension that reaches Old Orchard Mall, but make sure to look out for increased litter on the trains. There's no telling what could happen to cleanliness ratings if riders start schlepping food court items onboard.

Brown Line
Your Line will overwhelmingly win the CTA beauty pageant once the $530 million capacity expansion project is complete in late 2009, but be forewarned: If the transit agency enacts bus cuts on Jan. 20 due to insufficient funding, you'll be facing down cramped cars full of North Siders in no mood to admire the CTA scenery.

---

The Works: Forty-Eighth Ward Follies
A state senator’s sudden resignation sets off a scramble in Edgewater

By Ben Joravsky

It looks like business as usual up in the 48th Ward. Just two weeks before the filing deadline for February’s Democratic primary, state senator Carol Ronen resigned, opening the way for a handpicked successor to assume her office.

A similar thing happened back in May, when Mike Volini, the ward’s Democratic committeeman, stepped down to make way for none other than Ronen, who shares his office suite on Broadway. As a matter of fact, several key elected officials in Edgewater—48th Ward alderman Mary Ann Smith and state reps Harry Osterman and Greg Harris—were ushered into office when their successors retired midterm. Ronen first gained her senate seat when she was appointed to replace Art Berman in 1999.

The latest reshuffle began on October 22, when Ronen sent out an e-mail announcing her resignation. “I am writing to let you know I have decided to step down from the state senate effective January 7, 2008,” she wrote. “I am announcing this now so that anyone who wishes to run for the office will be able to file petitions for the February 5, 2008, primary election by the November 5th deadline.”

Oh, that it were so easy. It takes 1,000 signatures to make the ballot for state senator. Any candidate interested would have had “to hit the ground running as soon as Carol [sent] out her notice,” says Chris Lawrence, an independent activist in Edgewater.

One candidate did. Within a couple days of Ronen’s announcement, political fund-raiser Heather Steans, scion of a prominent North Shore family, had her petition sheets printed and volunteers out gathering signatures. Ronen (who didn’t return calls for comment) immediately endorsed her, as did Congressman Jan Schakowsky.

It was, says Lawrence, a classic setup. “It worked perfectly,” he says. “Carol quits on the eve of the election when it’s too late for independents to mount a campaign.”

Steans swears up and down that Lawrence has it wrong. Yes, she and her husband, Leo Smith, have contributed thousands of dollars to Ronen over the years—they even hosted a $125-per-head fund-raiser for the senator in 2005. But she says she had no idea Ronen was stepping down until she saw the e-mail. “I knew she had been talking about retiring,” Steans says. “But I didn’t know she was going to do it now. It was a huge shock.”

According to Steans, it’s not her connections but her credentials that make her a natural successor to Ronen. She has a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. In addition to serving on several boards, among them WBEZ’s, she’s worked as director of economic development for the Civic Committee and held the post of budget director for Wisconsin’s Department of Industry, Labor, and Human Relations. She expresses bafflement at accusations that some kind of fix was in. “But people will do what they’re going to do,” she says.

With just days to go before the filing deadline, Suzanne Elder, a local activist, also jumped into the race. “This senate seat belongs to us, the taxpayers,” says Elder, who has a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago. “I don’t think we should let Carol get away with this.” An October 30 e-mail from her campaign recruiting volunteers for a last-minute petition drive urged residents to “stand up and tell the establishment that we don’t want yet another hand-picked machine pol. . . . The Democratic voters of the 7th District deserve better than anointing those who can afford to buy a political seat.”

Local independents, including Lawrence, banded behind Elder. In just one week they gathered about 1,600 signatures, and on Monday, November 5, Elder drove to Springfield to file them. But the Edgewater regulars have another political tradition: the use of election law technicalities to throw candidates off the ballot. Mary Ann Smith ran unopposed in last February’s aldermanic election because she knocked off three opponents—Lawrence among them.

Within five hours, according to the Illinois Board of Elections, attorney and Illinois Democratic Party officer Michael Kasper was reviewing Elder’s petitions. Kasper is house speaker Michael Madigan’s favorite election lawyer, and he’s turned up in Edgewater disputes before—in 2002, for example, when Osterman faced a challenge from a Green Party candidate. As Lawrence learned the hard way, Ronen, Smith, Osterman, and their allies know how the game is played.

Man With a Plan

By his own account, Mike Payne is an unemployed typewriter repairman who’s crashing at his older sister’s house while he looks for permanent digs. But he’s come up with a transit plan for the notoriously underserved south side that’s far more innovative than anything put forth by Mayor Daley or the CTA.

Payne proposes converting the Metra tracks running south and southeast from the Loop into a 22-mile, CTA-operated service called the Gray Line. Ideally it would provide round-the-clock service to dozens of south- and southeast-side neighborhoods, from the Loop to 93rd on one spur and to 111th on another. (The Red Line currently stops at 95th, and its planned extension to 130th is going nowhere despite $590 million in federal funds committed to the project.)

A railroad buff who used to build model trains in his basement as a child, Payne says the idea for the Gray Line came to him one day in the mid-90s, when he was sitting in traffic in South Shore, near the intersection of 71st and Jeffery. “It was a very congested Saturday at about one o’clock in the afternoon,” he says. “The community was bustling, but the Metra commuter station on 71st was sitting abandoned. Nobody was using it. Two trains came in, one going north, the other going south. No one got on, no one got off. And I thought, what a ridiculous waste. This is an asset to our community—let’s use it.”

Not owning a typewriter himself, Payne used one at Harold Washington Library to write up an application for the project, which he filed with the Chicago Area Transit Study, the metropolitan advisory group that officially oversees all capital transit works. Payne’s Gray Line plan is the only proposal in CATS’s files not submitted by an official state or city transit agency.

Payne grants that his plan is a long shot. Among other obstacles, it would require an operating agreement between the CTA and Metra, two outfits that are typically at each other’s throats. The CTA, with its perpetual doomsday plans, isn’t exactly flush. But “if it doesn’t happen, it won’t be because it’s not a good or practical idea,” he says. “It’s because politically the politicians don’t want it for whatever reason.”

Over the years Payne has lobbied officials from Metra, the CTA, and the RTA. He’s drawn some publicity for the project from time to time—Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch wrote him up in 2002. He’s set up a Web site devoted to the project (community-2.webtv.net/GLRTS/GRAYLINECONVERSION). More recently he’s tried a new tack, linking the Gray Line to the mayor’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. The trains, he points out, could make stops at the proposed Olympic Village near McCormick Place and at Washington and Jackson parks, two major venues for the games as planned. “It makes all the sense in the world,” Payne says. “We want to bring thousands of people to the south side, but right now we have no rapid transit to get them around.”

I mention Payne’s proposal not because I think it has much chance of succeeding but to highlight the dearth of ideas coming from city planners. We all know about the CTA’s current problems. But its long-range planning has been even worse. Two recent major capital projects—the Pink Line and the underground superstation at Block 37—largely replicate existing service while leaving underserved areas untouched.

Payne’s proposal at least has the potential to provide needed service and help seed economic development in south-side neighborhoods. “You’d think they’d be interested if only because of the Olympics,” says Payne. “I’ll keep pushing, though.”

---

---

LOCAL News: Protest Activity - Battle of the Viaduct Rally
August 2007

	To look at the viaduct at 16th and Halsted, one would never guess that it was the site of a massive and bloody battle... Rally to remember the Battle of the Viaduct. (Click any image to enlarge)

To look at the viaduct at 16th and Halsted, one would never guess that it was the site of a massive and bloody battle. Part of the structure has been demolished. Weeds line the parkway on its south side. Small working class homes make way for the rapidly advancing condomania of University Village. It is an unassuming intersection where cars and buses whisk by on their way to UIC or to the fashionable yuppie gallery district of “East Pilsen.”

But in 1877, this viaduct was the focal point of a raging battle for workers rights. On Thursday, July 26, members of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, Citizens Taking Action and other community members took part in a small march and rally to commemorate this historic battle.

The Battle happened when the bosses and their thugs attacked striking railroad workers in Chicago during the nation's first general strike — the Great Uprising of 1877. On July 26, 1877, police and mercenaries broke up a meeting of German immigrant workers at Turner Hall on Roosevelt and Halsted. By late morning of that day, 10,000 workers had assembled in the vicinity of the viaduct at 16th and Halsted. By the end of the day 30 workers lay dead.

(Click any image to enlarge)

The march last Thursday departed from Plaza Tenochtitlan on 18th, Blue Island and Loomis. We marched down 18th Street, drumming, chanting. Marchers carried signs marking the Battle, but there were also signs calling for Transit Justice at the CTA. One sign read, “No Fare Hikes, No Service Cuts, No Layoffs.”

Another simply said, “Pink Stinks” referring to the CTA’s Pink Line experiment. The Pink Line is costing the CTA up to $8 million extra per year despite the agencies claims of a financial crisis. Long time Cermak Blue Line riders have been forced to take longer trips, make more transfers, and wait longer for the few Blue Line trains that remain in the wake of the Pink.

Once at 16th and Halsted, there was a brief rally with speakers from both labor and community groups. Michael Pitula a community organizer from LVEJO gave an overview of the Great Uprising of 1877. Charles Paidock of Citizens Taking Action, spoke about Martinsburg, West Virginia. This was the small rural town where the Uprising began in wake of two 10% wage cuts and work speedups. He remarked that this event was perhaps even greater in significance than the Haymarket incident of 1886.

	Labor was also present at this rally. A CTA bus driver spoke about the need for rider and driver unity on the CTA. An IWW member and transit activist spoke about the commonality between environmental struggles and labor struggles.

The rally was meant to highlight the relationship between struggles of the past and present. The strike of 1877 was a railroad strike. In 2007 Chicago faces a transit crisis with rail slow zones, discriminatory service, threatened fare hikes, service cuts, and over a 1000 CTA bus drivers facing layoffs. The railroad workers of 1877 were mostly immigrants during a time of intense xenophobia. Pilsen is an immigrant community facing persecution and gentrification today. In fact, 16th and Halsted is a gentrification hotspot. Even the political context of the two eras is ironically similar. In 1877, President Hayes lost the popular vote but won the Presidency, just as in 2000 and 2004 with Bush.

One young participant summed it up best saying, “The CTA is greedy and they want to take your money, so you better watch out.” The rally concluded with a lighting of candles to commemorate the 30 fallen workers killed in the Battle of 1877.

---

Clean Diesel Campaign

Transit Bus Riders Exposed to High Levels of Deadly Diesel Emissions Coalition Calls For Action To Reduce Diesel Pollution

CTA and Pace buses are among the dirtiest-and deadliest-in the country. That's one finding in a new report on diesel pollution issued by the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago and the Illinois Campaign to Clean Up Diesel Pollution, a coalition of over 45 groups. (Click here to view this report entitled "Missing the Bus to Cleaner Air") "Chicago has one of the highest risks for cancer due to diesel pollution of any city in the country," says Anna Frostic, RHAMC's Environmental Health Advocate. "And we lag far behind New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Dallas in cleaning up our diesel bus fleets."

The Coalition is calling for equipping CTA and PACE buses with clean technology to reduce diesel pollution by more than 90%.

"Diesel emissions are almost impossible to avoid," says Frostic, "that's why we need to retrofit diesel vehicles with particulate filters to reduce their harmful emissions."

These findings build on the conclusions of another new report, issued by the Clean Air Task Force, which suggests that pollution levels inside CTA and PACE buses are four times deadlier than the air outside. (click here to view the report entitled "No Escape from Diesel Exhaust")

The Coalition is urging support for Illinois Senate Bill 268 (Collins, D-Chicago), which would create a public funding mechanism for retrofits of diesel vehicles in Illinois. It also calls on the Illinois General Assembly to require the clean up of the CTA and Pace diesel bus fleets by 2010 as part of any effort to increase and stabilize funding for public transit in Northeastern Illinois.

Other report findings:

• The cancer risk of diesel exhaust is 8 times greater than the cancer risk from all other 133 air toxics tracked by EPA combined.
• Diesel exhaust causes 878 deaths, 1,193 heart attacks, and 19,162 asthma attacks in Illinois every year.
• Half a person's exposure to deadly particulate pollution occurs during morning and evening commutes, even though commuting only accounts for about 6 percent of the day.

RHAMC Seeks to Reduce Diesel Pollution in the Chicago Metropolitan Area and Illinois

Diesel fuel emissions are damaging our health and the quality of our environment. Each year, diesel engines emit millions of tons of particulate matter (soot) and air toxins that cause adverse health effects such as lung cancer, asthma attacks, heart attacks, and premature birth. The U.S. EPA recently strengthened the air quality standards for soot after scientific findings that these particles are more dangerous than previously thought.

While new engine standards that reduce soot emissions by 90% will go into effect in the coming years (see http://www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/), older vehicles may continue to pollute for another generation. Retrofitting 10,000 older engines with pollution control technology, such as diesel particulate filters, would eliminate roughly 15,000 tons of harmful pollution each year.

Through our campaign efforts, we hope to see over 2,000 CTA and Pace buses retrofitted, expand the use of green contract language, and achieve state and federal funding for diesel initiatives.

• Every year in Illinois, diesel exhaust triggers over 19,000 asthma attacks and nearly 1,200 heart attacks and causes 878 premature deaths.
• In Metropolitan Chicago alone, diesel fine particles cause 755 deaths (65 from cancer), 1,021 heart attacks, 476 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 17,017 of asthma attacks annually.
• National estimates indicate that a child with asthma misses an average of 7.6 days of school per year.
• In Illinois, the average charge per hospital stay for asthma is $5,283.
• The cancer risk that diesel exhaust poses is 8 times greater than the cancer risk from all other 133 air toxics tracked by EPA combined.

To determine the diesel risk in your area, click here.

Click here to review the Clean Air Task Force's report Diesel and Health in America: The Lingering Threat.

What can I do to help?

If you would like to get involved, please contact Anna Frostic at:
afrostic@lungchicago.org or fill out an application to volunteer.

---

CTA softens cuts' impact: Unexpected savings improves outlook

By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune transportation reporter.
Tribune staff reporter Mary Owen contributed to this report

August 9, 2007

---

Chicago -- El transporte público de la ciudad estaría por aumentar de precio. Tras meses de posponer un voto por un plan presupuestal para hacerle frente a un déficit de $110 millones, los miembros de la Junta Directiva de la Autoridad de Transporte de Chicago (CTA) votaron ayer por un plan de contingencia modificado.

El plan, sin embargo, contempla aumento de tarifas y recorte de servicios menores a los anticipados inicialmente por CTA.

Dicho plan de contingencia modificado incluye: aumentar las tarifas del tren a $3 en la hora pico, (en lugar de los $3.25 anunciados antes) y a $2.50 en el horario regular, mientras que las tarifas de autobús aumentarían a $2.50, 25 centavos menos que lo anticipado.

Asimismo, se suspendería el servicio de 39 rutas de camiones, en lugar de los 63 planeados inicialmente, y se mantendrían las líneas del tren Morada Expreso y Amarilla, que anteriormente estaban programadas para ser eliminadas.

Adicionalmente, unos 700 empleados de la agencia serían dados de baja.

Ron Huberman, presidente de CTA, lamentó tener que llevar a cabo el plan.

“CTA hizo todo lo que se le pidió para poner sus finanzas en orden. Tomamos muchos pasos para reducir los costos y evitar el impacto a nuestros pasajeros. Pero el sistema tiene problemas estructurales de financiamiento y las medidas de eficiencia administrativas no se van a resolver solas. Sin un financiamiento adecuado de Springfield, nos veremos forzados a reducir el servicio y aumentar las tarifas”, dijo Huberman.

Según CTA, el recorte de servicios dejará ahorros por $7.5 millones y el aumento de tarifas producirá otros $7.5 millones. Asimismo, transfirió $57 millones de su fondo capital al operativo y espera producir otros $20 millones al reducir costos laborales, que incluyen reducción de tiempo extra y la contratación de firmas consultoras, ingresos por renta de propiedades y la venta de equipo, entre otros.

Michael Pitula, coordinador de la Campaña por el Transporte Público Igualitario de la Organización de Justicia Ambiental de La Villita (LVEJO), dijo que ese grupo se oponía a los incrementos y reducción de servicios.

“Aumentan las tarifas, pero no suben los salarios. Esto es como recortar el sueldo de las personas”, dijo Pitula, quien agregó que la agencia necesita buscar financiamiento en el gobierno local y federal.

En la calle, usuarios como María González reaccionaban a los anuncios y calificó el aumento de tarifas como “un golpe para todos”.

“En mi caso, tengo como único ingreso el Seguro Social. Me va a sacar de todo mi presupuesto. Será más difícil pagar los gastos, sobretodo con la electricidad que está tan cara”, comentó González.

La reducción de servicios, aumento de tarifas y despidos se llevarían a cabo el 16 de septiembre si no llegan más fondos del gobierno estatal, según dijo CTA en un comunicado.

RECUADRO

En números

* CTA enfrenta un déficit de $110 millones

* Suspendería el servicio de 39 rutas de autobuses

* Subiría la tarifa del tren en hora pico a $3 y $2.50 en horario regular

* Subiría la tarifa de autobús a $2.50

* Se mantiene el precio del pasaje reducido en $35 mensuales

Fuente: Autoridad de Transporte de Chicago

---

Valuable Information in Greenopolis

I want to salute you in including Sarah Finkel’s stories in your paper. It was so good to see the article she wrote last month about Soy Organic.

Having bilingual information about resources in the community that can help us to be healthy is so valuable.

Regarding Ms. Finkel’s article on climate change: It was good that you showed the map of migrating climates, because I think it is one of the simplest ways to show people the outcome of very complicated processes in a way they can understand.

I wanted to propose some solutions that are more aggressive than her suggestion to improve automobile fuel economy. As a society, we need to move beyond car culture. Instead we need to repair, enhance, and dramatically expand our public mass transit systems. In Chicago, we also need to shut down the Fisk and Crawford coal power plants and make the switch to renewable wind and solar energy.

Another important point in the climate change discussion is whether our solutions will promote equality and help everyone’s environment, or if environmental quality is only for the wealthy and privileged in our society. Global warming is an economic and human rights issue that is already generating many victims and huge costs for indigenous peoples in the South Pacific, in the Northern regions and in places like New Orleans.

According to the reports this year by the planet’s leading climatologists, humanity now has less than 10 years to curb global warming before its effects are irreversible. We need to think big and act quickly to do what it will take to create a sustainable society for all.

Michael Pitula
Community Organizer – Public Transit, LVEJO (Little Village Environmental Justice Organization)

---

Public comment sought on extending Red Line

Tribune staff report
Published March 19, 2007, 8:14 PM CDT

Chicago Transit Authority officials are asking for the public's comments on the extension of the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line during a meeting scheduled for next month.

The proposed extension would take the Red Line from the existing south terminal at 95th Street to a new terminal at 130th Street, a move that would streamline several bus-to-rail connections, CTA officials said.

The first meeting will be held April 10 in the 4th floor auditorium of Chicago State University's New Academic Library, 9501 S. King Drive. The second meeting will be April 11 at the West Pullman branch of the Chicago Public Library, 830 W. 119th St.

Both meetings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.

---

CTA: Get used to it Blue Line repairs would take 3 years, $100 mil.

March 19, 2007
BY MONIFA THOMAS Transportation Reporter

Even if the CTA gets the money it needs immediately, it would take at least three years for the agency to fix the rotting rail ties and worn-out track that cause many of the slow zones on the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line, officials said.

Gov. Blagojevich and the state Legislature have so far given short shrift to requests from the CTA and its sister agencies for a multibillion-dollar capital funding program that would allow them to make long-delayed repairs on the aging transit system.

"It makes me feel like the state Legislature has abandoned us," said 55-year-old Michael Pagano, noting the lack of a long-term funding source for mass transit. "I guess I'll have to bear with it until the state gets its act together."

For months, L riders have been dealing with almost-daily service disruptions and delays caused by derailments, equipment failures and major construction projects like the Brown Line expansion.

The number of systemwide slow zones has more than doubled since last February, stretching out travel times.

Band-Aid repairs
The Blue Line slow zones, which affect 30 percent of the tracks between O'Hare and the Clark/Lake station, are largely the result of rail ties that are falling apart at a faster rate than they were expected to.

The CTA has said contractors hired by the City of Chicago to extend the Blue Line to O'Hare Airport in the early 1980s may have used a different type or amount of preservative on these ties than was used elsewhere on the system.

The CTA has been making Band-Aid repairs where it can. As of last week, for instance, the speed limit on all but 600 feet of 6 mph slow zones on the Blue Line had been increased to at least 15 mph, CTA President Frank Kruesi said.

2 years of construction
But getting rid of all the Blue Line slow zones would cost about $100 million in capital funds that the CTA says it doesn't have. Only $63 million has been budgeted through 2011 to repair track defects throughout the entire system.

If additional funding were to come through today, it would take "a good year of design and at least two years of construction" to fix the segments of the Blue Line where trains currently travel at reduced speeds for safety, CTA's vice president of engineering, Glen Zika, estimated.

"Almost anything done on the capital side is a very time-intensive situation," Kruesi said. "It takes an enormous amount of planning. When that stops, there's an awful lot of catch-up, and that's what we're dealing with now."

mjthomas@suntimes.com

---

State's Top Auditor: Public Transit In Financial Disaster

WBBM's John Cody reports.

CHICAGO (WBBM/CBS 2) -- The state's chief auditor says even doubling fares of Chicago area transit systems wouldn't provide enough money to bail them out. Illinois Auditor General William Holland said in his first ever report that mass transit in northern Illinois is in a serious financial crisis. Holland estimates the CTA, Pace, and Metra together are almost $6 billion away from meeting their needs for new equipment and maintenance.

He says expenses have risen at three times the rate of income. He said he's not predicting shutdowns, but he says delayed maintenance and replacement will lead to increasing delays and service problems on the CTA. Problems were seen at all three organizations, and all of them are under funded, Holland said. They lack the revenue to cover current operations and replace an aging fleet of buses and rail cars, he said. At the CTA, the audit uncovered $45 million a year in costs related to absenteeism, which Holland characterized as very high.

Further, Holland said, Pace and the CTA do not coordinate bus routes and there are redundant routes that cost money. The most serious problem with Metra is that even though ridership is up, the cost of running trains is rising at three times the rate of revenue and stands to get worse, Holland said. "Even if Metra were to double fares, it wouldn't even come close to covering the shortfall," he said.

Holland said he does not advocate doubling fares, but the comment was intended to illustrate the financial straits the agencies are in. Holland said CTA management improvements might save several millions, but wouldn't be nearly enough to cure the larger financial problems in the billions. In fact he said regional agencies together are almost $1 billion short of meeting operating and purchasing needs this year alone. In addition to advocating centralization under the RTA, Holland suggested lawmakers review the funding formula that relies on sales tax.

Contents of this site are Copyright © 2007 by WBBM. CBS 2 contributed to this report.

---

CTA Orders Exam Of Dirty Trains, Buses

Bob Roberts Reporting

CHICAGO (WBBM) - The CTA's inspector general has some real dirt to check on --filthy trains and buses. WBBM’s Bob Roberts reports CTA Chair Carole Brown ordered the audit Wednesday amid a rising crescendo of complaints about filthy buses and trains. Last year, the CTA received only 133 complaints about dirty trains and buses through "official" channels. But any check of local newspaper columns and Brown's own blog show growing dissatisfaction with the food, drink cups, newspapers and other trash left behind by riders.

Brown said one rider recently stopped her on the street to complain, and Vice Chair Susan Leonis said she has heard from "many riders." "Easy things, in my mind, like cleaning a train or cleaning a bus, are things that we should be doing as a matter of course," Brown said following a board meeting at which Leonis suggested that clean-up work be outsourced to private contractors.

CTA Executive Vice President Dick Winston said that currently, CTA trains and buses are supposed to be swept each morning before they go into service, and that personnel at terminals between runs are supposed to pick up any on-board trash they spot. CTA Vice President/Bus Operations Bill Mooney said that each maintainer is required to clean 28 buses as they are refueled each morning. Winston said that CTA buses are supposed to get a top-to-bottom washing once every 18 days, and "L" trains once every 35 days.

Brown said she has heard some complaints recently from riders who are upset because of the layers of salt that covered buses, especially windows, for much of the winter, but said most complains are about the conditions inside trains and buses. "'Clean, safe, on-time, friendly,' is part of our mission statement and it's important to me," Brown said. "So, whether or not I really believe that our customer service has slacked off or that we're not being as responsive to customer concerns is less important than what the people who come down here and take the time to voice their concerns believe." One Edgewater rider, Mark Lovelace, told Transit Board members that he believes the CTA is in a "customer service crisis," and cited the condition of trains and buses as one example. Transit officials told the CTA's board that the number of complaints about filthy buses has increased substantially, even though buses are being washed inside and out almost twice as much as they once were.

By contrast, they said, complaints about dirty "L" trains increased only 9 percent, despite a reduction in full cleaning and washings. Kruesi said CTA is experimenting with technology first used by airlines to try to clean planes faster between runs, and said it is working well. Leonis said privatizing the cleaning of CTA buses and trains may require re-negotiation of contracts with its unions, but urged is consideration to determine if it would be cost effective.

She was quick to deny that filth is being allowed to accumulate, and service to slide in general as a bargaining tactic with the General Assembly to provide additional operating and capital funding. "We just have a lot of issues in the past year," Leonis said. "There are those who think or say that perhaps we're letting it go and that we're doing it on purpose. I know that that's not true."

In other action:

-- The CTA's board approved an agreement with the city of Chicago to display airline flight information at its Clark/Lake station downtown, in an attempt to help riders who are taking the "L" to O'Hare and Midway. Information for O'Hare would be posted on a monitor on the Blue Line subway platform, while information for Midway would be posted on a monitor on the Outer Loop "L" platform. When board member Michael Chandler asked if it would make more sense to put the monitors outside of the "paid" area, to inform riders whose planes may be cancelled or delayed before they pay fares, CTA Vice President Patrick Harney told him areas outside of the turnstiles are not under CTA control.

-- CTA is purchasing 15 additional farecard vending machines, that will be placed at select CTA "L" stations and sales outlets. The machines are geared primarily toward tourists and occasional users.

-- Although ridership was up 1.1 percent in January, the CTA went $3.6 million over budget. Treasurer Dennis Anosike (ANN'-oh-syk) blamed the costs of diesel fuel, repair parts and overtime run up primarily keeping its aging bus fleet repaired. The CTA paid $2.63 a gallon for diesel fuel in January; it has budgeted $2.50 a gallon for the year.

Contents of this site are Copyright © 2007 by WBBM

---

Mar 14, 2007
What Will It Take For CTA To Operate Better?
Troubled Public Transit Agency Has No Easy Way Out Of Woes

Rob Johnson - Reporting

(CBS) CHICAGO The terrifying subway fire on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line last July exposed serious flaws throughout the CTA rail system. CBS 2's Rob Johnson reports on the trouble on the tracks, and whether those problems will ever be fixed.

It was a dubious year for the CTA’s ‘L’ trains. Nowhere was that more true than on July 11, 2006. The eighth car of a southbound Blue Line train derailed, shutting off power and starting a fire. Passengers thought they were going to die, some saying they feared burning alive.

A group of 65 survivors is suing the CTA for negligence. A judge determined the CTA was at fault, boosting chances for settlement, but preventing lawyers from further investigation of the accident. Attorney Dan Kotin believes there are serious track defects. “I suspect there are some significant, long term on-going problems down there,” Kotin said. The day after that legal decision, the CTA axed five workers including track maintenance foreman Darryl Nelson who says he does not believe there was anything wrong with the track. But CTA president Frank Kruesi, who recently took CBS 2 on a tour of the ‘L’ system, defends the firings.

"I can understand if somebody loses their job has got excus