Now that Daley is a lame-duck mayor, should he be proposing an expensive maglev rail link to O’Hare–especially since his last airport-train idea cost $300 million, ruined a Loop ‘L’ station, and still failed?
The CTA blames bad rider behavior for the annoying, live ‘doors are closing’ announcements now made every time an ‘L’ train leaves a station. But the problem might not exist if train operators didn’t abuse the existing recorded warning in the first place.
Last week, the entire CTA Orange Line was placed under a slow zone to prevent trains from crashing into each other–thanks to a newfound fault in the signaling system that may have put ‘L’ riders in danger for 17 years. Sounds like news, right? So why haven’t you read about it in the Tribune or Sun-Times?
Whether you’re an Oprah Winfrey fan or not, if you’re traveling through downtown Chicago and the Near North Side over Labor Day weekend and the first workday to follow, chances are you’ll be significantly impacted by Winfrey’s two-and-a-half-day closure of North Michigan Avenue–Chicago’s most important transit bus corridor–to tape the season premiere of her talk show. If you’re a CTA rider–and heaven knows you should be this weekend–here’s what you should know about the detours.
The Chicago Tribune’s John Hilkevitch reports today that due to the failing economy, the Chicago Transit Authority is now facing a budget crisis so huge that the agency my simply cease operating in 2010 without emergency state funding. So why isn’t this front-page news?
Yesterday, the Chicago Transit Authority opened the long-heralded Polk Street entrance to the Harrison Street Red Line ‘L’ station months ahead of schedule. If you didn’t know that, you’re not alone. Most people probably still have no clue the entrance is open.
Pizzeria Due saved my sanity when I first decamped Atlantic shores for Lake Michigan ones in the early 2000s. That’s why my recent trips to the less-touristed, cheaper Lou Malnati’s have left me riddled with guilt.
The CTA’s current ‘L’ and subway renovation projects are causing travel havoc in the Loop. It would help if the CTA’s own customer service attendants knew enough to help detoured travelers navigate all the changes. But not all of them do.