Doing the work on weekends means that the work is *now done*, as of December 1. If it had been done only at nights, it would still be going on…and on…and on… and it would still be going on next June…. and next December… and the trains would still be slow and late and unreliable for the entire period….

In the UK, there has been a trend towards doing all track maintenance in massive “blitzes” where an entire segment is shut down for a long weekend, because it’s a lot more efficient than shutting it down at nights every night for six, eight, or more weeks, which was previously necessary. Both choices cause a lot of inconvenience, but one causes the inconvenience for a *lot longer*, and the other gets the job done a lot faster *and* cheaper.

Seriously, the Loop is hard to fix at *all*. Stopping and starting work, having to clean everything up for trains to pass again every six hours, makes it much, much slower. One weekend shutdown, working around the clock, can get the equivalent of over a month of nighttime work done — because you don’t have to set up the temporary track nearly as often. It also costs the CTA less money.

Enjoy your on-time trains. If you still want to complain about the CTA’s choice to give you faster, more reliable trains this year rather than next year — well, that’s kind of stupid, isn’t it?

Now, doing the work at the *same time* as the subway work was definitely a mistake. I’d say it was an avoidable one, but the Loop work was badly, badly overdue, by decades. The subway work was actually *less* urgent and the Loop work probably should have been done first, but some stupid complex issues with new signalling apparently delayed the Loop work.

None of this would have been necessary if the CTA had had a reasonable level of capital funding for the last hundred years. It never has.

How does transferring at Roosevelt and going north solve any of the problems I mentioned? You’ve confused me with that suggestion. And if you think I’m afraid to walk four blocks, then you missed the part where I mentioned I often walk two and a half miles without even thinking about it – and that’s what, 20 blocks?

It appears you don’t live on the east side of downtown/River North. I can’t think of any other part of the city that’s been as inconvenienced by CTA capital improvements as this neighborhood.

Now it’s time for me to walk to North & Sheffield and burn some calories at the gym. Maybe the rain we’re expecting will hold off until I get back…

Why should Charles have to ride fully a three-mile round trip out of his way because the CTA can’t get its act together?

I live in Marina City, but my gym is at North and Sheffield. I used to be able to catch the Red Line at State/Lake, get off at North/Clybourn, and walk two blocks. Since I normally work out in the evenings and weekends, it’s a lot less convenient now. I can still catch the train at Lake, but I have to get off at Sedgwick and walk about three quarters of a mile. Thanks to the unreliability of the trains, such a trip often takes me around 35 minutes from start to finish. It’s only 2.5 miles; I can walk it in 45 – and often do.

While I frequently walk long distances without even thinking about it, it’s on the aforementioned hot/humid/wet days that it’s inconvenient. And with winter approaching, you can add cold to that list.

It’s also annoying when I’m out running errands on weekends. I often exhaust myself walking through River North, the Loop, and the South Loop because I can’t just hop the Red Line to get from, say, Clark/Division to Roosevelt/State. Don’t suggest taking the buses; those are even less reliable than the trains – and require either memorizing routes or taking a map with you to figure out how to get from A to B.

So, yeah, those of us who live downtown are getting screwed by the CTA. They should have postponed Loop El work until the subway slow zone work was finished.