As a daily rider of the ”L” during rush hour, I expect the trains to be somewhat crowded. However, unexplained delays, grossly overcrowded trains and generally unreliable service have become an almost daily occurrence, even in good weather. In your article (”Always on the Go,” by Michael Hirsley, April 24), the management personnel interviewed were very good at giving excuses and shrugging their shoulders, as if there`s simply no hope for improvement with such a complex system. The fact is, they have been operating the same trains on the same routes, day after day, year after year, and by now they should be getting the hang of it. There are far more complicated systems operating in other parts of the world that don`t have nearly as many operating problems as the CTA. I`d like to see what would happen if all CTA upper management were required to use the system during rush hour every day. If they were forced to put up with crushing-room-only trains that only occasionally got them to work on time, I suspect that we`d see a remarkable improvement in service overnight.
SOURCE: James A. Highum.
DATELINE: CHICAGO I`d like to make some comments regarding the article on the Chicago Transit Authority written by Michael Hirsley.
The article touched only briefly on a comment by Darwin Stuart, who suggested that streetcars (or trolleys) be added somewhere in the CTA system and maybe operate from the Merchandise Mart north to the Water Tower area. Where was Mr. Stuart when the CTA got rid of its streetcars in 1958 and its trolley buses in 1973? Why, all of a sudden, is he advocating a return to trolleys? Apparently he forgets that the CTA created its own bus-congestion problem by not having the common sense and foresight to return the streetcars and the trolley buses. And so now does he want taxpayers like me to pay for the correction of a mistake that his fellow CTA bureaucrats made years ago?
But what really made me angry was a comment by George Krambles that the CTA gives riders ”more bang for the buck” than other transit systems. Oh, does it? We have an old and obsolete elevated so-called ”rapid transit”
system. We have transit bureaucrats who don`t care about the public when it comes to major transportation decisions. We have far too many and frequent mechanical breakdowns on elevated subway cars and buses. Our elevated train stations are for the most part ugly, unattractive and outright unsafe, especially at night. And all of this is more bang for the buck? I don`t think so.
No, I`m sorry, but I disagree with Mr. Krambles` assessment of the CTA. The way I see it, Chicago used to have the best transit system in the nation. It now has the worst. Why? Because the transit bureaucrats and the mistakenly termed ”transit experts” who`ve run the CTA for so many years did not have the wisdom and foresight to plan and build the attractive, dependable and efficient systems that San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto did.
SOURCE: Michael J. Curran.
DATELINE: CHICAGO As a lover of public transportation-all over the world-I was fascinated by ”Always on the Go,” especially since I began riding Chicago`s to high school in 1932, at 5 1/2 cents per ride (10 tokens at 55 cents). Even before that, I became an ”experienced” rider from Linden Avenue in Wilmette to Chicago Avenue near my dad`s office. In recent years my husband and I enjoyed the Sunday ”sightseeing” trips-all three-and I had fun adding to the young narrator`s script.
Perhaps those experiences encouraged me to use, and enjoy riding, numerous other systems: the peak tram in Hong Kong; the Pittsburgh incliners; subways in London, Madrid, Mexico City and New York as well as trolleys and buses in those cities plus Tokyo, Dubrovnik, Dublin, Rome, Lisbon, etc. It`s easy after years of using Chicago`s extensive system(s). And much more fun than taxis.
SOURCE: Elizabeth Leslie Kaye-Smith.
DATELINE: WINONA LAKE, IND. Regarding your April 24 Sunday article on the CTA: How can you deal so lightly with crime on the CTA? I`m a regular CTA (subway) rider and have witnessed illegal and antisocial goings-on. Raucous riders, pickpockets, salespeople, proselytizing beggars. Why did you ignore these aspects of riding the CTA? These are the reasons people would rather drive. SOURCE: Barbara Csakai.
DATELINE: OAK PARK Michael Hirsley`s article on the CTA is a very good look at a very serious problem. As a daily rider with some background in the distribution industry (of which public transportation is a part), I often wonder whether the problem can be solved.
The real question is whether the CTA is able to live up to both parts of its stated mission: first, to provide quality service; and second, to positively influence the region`s development.
There seems to be little doubt that the people of the CTA are doing their level best to answer the first part of that mission. The bus drivers I have seen are remarkable for their excellent driving skills and positive, helpful attitudes. Supervisors I have seen are involved and efficient and positively stoic in the face of some grim frustrations. It is easy to believe Hirsley`s portrayal of the rest of the CTA workers, the ones I don`t see, as hard working and effective.
The CTA fails in the second part of the mission, and that may not be its fault. It is not true, as Hirsley says, that the CTA has only rides to sell;
and it is true, as the CTA says, that its job is to influence ”the region`s development.” It is not enough that we have a public transportation system that offers rides. The ride that is offered by the CTA can have a positive influence on our economic health, or it can have a negative one. The question not answered in the article asks whether and how it is possible for the CTA to have a positive influence on our economy.
Measuring the CTA`s economic contribution is not easy, but here are three items that should be on the public transportation agenda and that might serve as examples: (1) street-level speed of buses; (2) level of technology in operations; (3) network planning.
Street-level speed is the easiest to talk about and the hardest to deal with. The problem is that buses in the so-called ”super Loop” are too slow. Over distances of five blocks and more, I am often able to walk faster than the buses that serve Michigan Avenue. I can ride the train from the suburbs to Union Station in 25 minutes, but it takes 30 minutes more to bus the last three miles to work. My (unscientific) estimate is that street speeds for buses in the Loop average less than 10 miles an hour. To have a positive influence on the economy, that pace would have to regularly outrun a pedestrian, perhaps increasing to 15 m.p.h. Michael LaVelle says that delays are ”due mostly to street traffic,” and he`s right, as any fool can tell, but solving that problem is beyond the ability of the CTA. In this case, more than any other, it is public policy that shackles the transit system. There are solutions to this problem, but city government has not done what is needed.
Operations technology is far behind what it should be. A rapid-transit controller should not have to ask a train to report its location. Voice communications don`t have to be full of static. Buses shouldn`t have to be out of touch. The picture of the control center looked like it should have been a historical exhibit in the Museum of Science and Industry. When the article says that decision making in operations is imprecise, it is understating the case. That all of these situations were obsolete at least 10 years ago only points up the fact that the efficiency of the system is the result of the unrewarded and unnecessary courage of the operations people.
Finally, there is network planning. Network planning is the science of making distribution systems work most efficiently. It`s hard to believe that the CTA doesn`t have any network planners, but the planning talked about in the article showed little science. Do we talk about surface trains north of the Loop because such expensive and long-term projects are the only things that politics and money will listen to? There are alternatives to alleviating the congestion at the suburban train stations. I have an old CTA map that shows at least 10 sites that could be developed as intersections between the CTA and suburban trains. When have such alternatives been considered? Of course, they would require coordination between the CTA and other elements of the RTA. Of course, these are not really expensive alternatives, just ordinary and useful, not politically attractive.
It is a good thing, I suppose, that CTA management recognizes that management is bad and that the CTA is in trouble. But will the CTA do anything about it? Some of the problems, like technology, could be solved by the CTA alone. The others require the support of government agencies like the City of Chicago, RTA and the State of Illinois.
The problem may never be solved if we who pay for the system are willing to tolerate things as they are. Of course the people who do the real day-to-day work in the CTA deserve the credit, all of it. But their efforts are not good enough if we are to have a transportation system that adds to the economic worth of the city.
SOURCE: Philip Cain.
DATELINE: LA GRANGE PARK
MILWAUKEE AVENUE If Lee Balterman and Diane Schmidt know so much about Milwaukee Avenue
(”Street Level,” April 17), they would certainly know that Tessie the Tiger lives at Animal Kingdom and not at Animal World.
Also, whenever someone does the Milwaukee Avenue stories, they never include the businesses that have stayed and developed the areas, such as Animal Kingdom, Father and Son Pizza, Logan Square Aluminum Supply Co., Jewel/ Osco, White Eagle, etc.
I always enjoy ”Milwaukee Avenue Journeys.” Maybe one SUNDAY will be totally dedicated to Milwaukee Avenue.
SOURCE: Pat Liszka.
DATELINE: CHICAGO
The photo on pages 16-17 was indeed of Animal Kingdom, not Animal World.- Ed. The cover picture of The Chicago Tribune Magazine for today (April 17) brought back many fond memories for me. The flatiron building shown was the old Noel State Bank. I can still remember this once-beautiful building as it looked long ago. My father was vice president of this bank before the Depression. The `20s were a golden age for many of us. Thanks for the memories.
SOURCE: Katherine R. Huck.
DATELINE: MCHENRY I certainly admire the selection of both the copy and illustrations within the confines of their space and allocation.
I grew up on the Northwest Side during the Depression years, and although I traveled the Milwaukee Avenue streetcars hundreds of times, I felt each and every trip was an exciting and rewarding experience. From the start of the streetcar line at the forest preserve at Devon Avenue through the dynamic business centers at Lawrence Avenue, Irving Park Road, Diversey Avenue, Logan Square, Damen Avenue and North, Division and Ashland (Bucktown) and so many more great retail concentrations along this important arterial byway, Milwaukee Avenue contributed so much to the welfare and indeed coexistence of the population of Chicago`s Northwest Side. Generations of our inhabitants have come to depend on this great street.
Thanks so much, once again, for your most interesting ”Street Level”
report. SOURCE: Nick Steder.
DATELINE: VILLA PARK Since relocating to Wisconsin from Illinois in 1946, I have continued making your SUNDAY, Magazine and Travel section a weekly reading must.
My children grew up looking forward to our occasional (due to time and finances!) weekend exploratory trips to the Chicago area for the wealth of social, ethnic, cultural, entertainment and educational opportunities that are so abundant there.
SUNDAY, Magazine`s feature article on the variety of life that exists along Milwaukee Avenue is one of the main reasons we ”outlanders” cherish that section of The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
Understanding ”others,” and their environment, is what the world is all about, more so today than ever. SOURCE: Frank Savino.
DATELINE: SCHOFIELD, WIS.
