services, travel
For many, many years I have blithely taken the subway and the "L" from the Fullerton station. Downtown to the loop via both the red and the brown lines; the orange and blue lines (eventually) to Midway and O'Hare. The system was pretty darned good. Dumbly, I assumed it would always work.
There was indeed fair warning. Construction was on the horizon to expand the brown line to accommodate 
the ever burgeoning population adjoining those tracks. Two more cars were needed. Fair enough I figured.
BUT, I didn't reckon on the horrific clout and dishonesty of the CTA as well as the very long term construction. I have alternatives (I guess) but what about those who don't?
A number of years ago there was a definite clue in the form of a fake democracy. Community meetings were announced and held. These proved to be nothing but a chance for people to think they had input but mainly it was to let the CTA tell us what they were going to do regardless of what anyone had to say.
The Fullerton station (the one I use most) was going to be expanded to a ridiculous length and breadth: a whole block long and very wide, encroaching on land to the east since it was impossible to build further west. That's because DePaul University had built a parking lot smack up against the existing tracks, despite an agreement they'd had with nearby residents to advise them of any such plans in advance. This seemed an odd coincidence. Is it relevant that Mayor Daley is a DePaul graduate?
Some architects and interested neighbors investigated and discovered that the proposed huge size of the project was not necessary to fulfill the need for handicapped accessibility, as claimed. They took some pains to show this to the CTA. Then they were ignored.
Recently I heard on the radio that there was going to be full tilt construction of the Fullerton station beginning in April and that commuting time would be doubled to one hour from a half hour at that time and continuing on for an indeterminate time. One hour to travel 24 blocks south??? The whole project is scheduled for completion in 2009!
Sneakily the construction already begun was wreaking havoc with commuting well in advance of the announced delays. There were numerous "cracked tracks" somewhere along the route, and "electrical outages" necessitating delays, when such occurrences were almost non-existent previously. Surprise, surprise! Other mysterious problems, causing additional delays grew more frequent.
You can visit the CTA's website at www.transitchicago.com and find out some things. Of course it's the CTA's PR program at work. You can actually discover some existing changes and advance plans which I'll admit does help. Such as the fact that both the Montrose and Addison stations are currently closed and will be for some time.
I love the suggestion to "frequent local businesses" when they're engulfed in scaffolding and construction materials. If those aren't business killers I don't know what is. Solving such a dilemma is a real challenge.
So here's my question. Why all the dishonesty? Sure commuters were going to suffer, but why not be honest about what was going on and why not try to minimize the scope of the project when it was entirely doable? Was there fear of an uprising, a revolt? Why must the CTA be run like a fiefdom?
If anyone has some good answers, lots of people would like to hear them.
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