According to the recently released National Transportation Safety Board report on last year’s rush-hour Blue Line derailment that injured more than 150 innocent transit riders, under Frank Kruesi’s leadership the CTA falsified most Blue Line track inspections–or simply didn’t bother to do them.
This month, the CTA finally released a new Night Owl Service brochure, detailing Chicago’s overnight L and bus services. Trouble is, the brochure is nowhere to be found on the agency’s website. And where was it for the past three years, anyhow?
This week, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley made his most uninformed, misguided decision in recent memory by deciding to pull Chicago Transit Authority President Ron Huberman out of the post and install him as the CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
It may be the biggest heist in Chicago history, folks, and it’s right under our noses. Or our feet, anyway. One look at this year’s new Chicago Transit Authority map uncovers the dastardly deed: someone has stolen the Washington/State Red Line station.
Saturday morning, I was honored to be included in CTA Tattler’s invitation-only meeting with CTA President Ron Huberman–and met a couple of local transit heroes, as well.
Today, unbeknownst to Yours Truly, a quote from Chicago Carless calling for the resignation of scandal-dogged Chicago Police Department superintendent Phil Cline was featured in the Opinion section of the Chicago Tribune. That’s neat, because before Noon today, Phil Cline did just that.
Throughout the CTA’s Brown Line reconstruction project, it’s been no secret that the agency planned to reduce north side service on the Red, Brown, and Purple lines from four tracks to three during construction at the Belmont and Fullerton stations this spring. However, even for the CTA, the ineptitude of today’s announcement and lack of planned service alternatives is, frankly, stunning.
Last week I wrote that I was helping to produce a national video blog kicking off on October 23, 7 Days @ Minimum Wage, highlighting the hardships people go through when they’re stuckat the bottom of the wage ladder. I thought I would just be doing Internet outreach coordination. Instead I was tapped to find and interview participants–one of whom will become the project’s centerpiece.
Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about the bad props I give the Chicago Transit Authority. Trouble is, as experience shows, time and again when you give the CTA enough rope, they just seem to hang themselves. Like they just did again, by installing 3,000 on-board system maps–without proofreading them first. ‘Bemont’ Avenue, anyone?
Today, the Chicago Sun-Times Letters page published my response to the CTA’s use of a grade-school contest to determine an appropriate name for the impending new route for the Cermak Branch of the Blue Line–a folly that countermanded the educated judgment of the CTA’s own, well-paid planners and cartographers.