WBEZ | train

South Red Line closures just around the corner

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:04:00 -0500

The South branch of the Red Line closes Sunday for five months while it undergoes renovation. Chicago Transit Authority officials say nine stops, also known as the Dan Ryan branch, are in desperate need of repair. The CTA will provide a few backup solutions for the more than 80,000 people who ride each weekday. Other groups like PACE, Metra - even the White Sox franchise - are also lending a hand.

Starting Sunday, service will be shut down between 95th/Dan Ryan and Cermak-Chinatown. According to CTA spokesman Brian Steele, construction crews will rip everything up -- like ties, rails and ballasts - and rebuild the tracks and all but one of the train stations. Steele says the 95th/Dan Ryan stop is scheduled to receive a separate facelift beginning in the first half of 2014.

“Remember that the Red Line South opened in September of 1969, just two months after Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon,” Steele said. “It’s seen, literally, millions of train trips in that time, and has really served the CTA well.

Steele says the Red Line has been patched and fixed over the years, but it’s to the point where the only way to ensure effective operation of the line is to completely rebuild it.

That’s going to take some time - five months, to be exact. Steele says they looked at other options, like closing down only on the weekends, for example, but he says the five-month plan was the most efficient and cost-effective way to complete the project. Steele says once completed, the trackwork will provide faster and more reliable service.

To ease riders’ headaches, the CTA will provide a number of backup options. The CTA website has been upgraded with a trip planner that calculates rerouted directions for commuters. CTA is also offering express buses from four of the closed Red Line stations (95th/Dan Ryan, 87th, 79th and 69th) that will go directly to the Green Line Garfield station. Steele said Green Line service and local bus routes will also provide additional service during peak times.

For riders who think Metra or Pace might be the best option, the three transit agencies are offering a joint fare pass. Riders can buy the cards at stores like CVS or Walgreens. They provide five days of unlimited rides on CTA/Pace and 10 rides on the Metra. The cost of the pass depends on which Metra zone the rider travels to and from.

According to Metra spokesman Michael Gillis, the agency isn’t expecting an influx of riders during the Red Line closures, but says there will certainly be a “settling-in period” as riders figure out which new route works best.

Even the White Sox are chipping in to help potentially disgruntled commuters, as the Sox/35th stop is one of the stops getting a makeover. The team is offering fans discounts on some tickets to the May 20th, 21st and 22nd games against the Boston Red Sox.

Lauren Chooljian is WBEZ’s Morning Producer/Reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian

‘L’ train rides were up in 2012, but some stations’ traffic drops

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:47:00 -0600

The Chicago Transit Authority announced Wednesday that the number of rides on its ‘L’ trains hit a fifty-year high in 2012, going up 4.2 percent from 2011. Across the bus and train system, the CTA saw a modest 2.4 percent increase for a total of 545.6 million rides.

Every train line increased its ridership, with the Yellow Line spiking 18 percent due to a new station opening. The Orange, Pink, and Blue Lines also went up. The Red Line, which experienced multiple station closures and construction projects throughout the year, only had 1.8 percent more riders in 2012 than 2011.

But some rail lines’ stations haven’t fared so well. At the 95th Street stop on the Red Line, 37,000 less people came through in 2012 compared to the previous year. It’s a marginal drop — the station sees nearly 4 million visitors per year — but it’s notable, given that almost all stations in the CTA system increased rides last year. Some saw gains in traffic as high as 7 percent between 2011 and 2012. But all the Red Line stations from Garfield south lost riders.

“This is the worst station in the city,” said Wayne Johnson, who commutes from the city’s Roseland neighborhood to commutes to Evanston. “The Purple Line station, you go on Davis Street downtown. It’s clean. Always somebody sweeping and cleaning up ... Out here, it’s terrible.”

Johnson says racism is behind what he considers to be mediocre service on the South Side. “They don’t care,” he said.

Other people asked by WBEZ suggested that violence is behind the 95th street station’s drop in popularity. Another reason: the Red Line’s slow pace. Currently the line’s south branch is marked by a series of slow zones caused by aging tracks.

“It’s ridiculously slow and we’re very well aware of that,” said a CTA spokesperson.

The agency plans to close all nine South Side Red Line stops from Cermak to 95th for five months, beginning in May. CTA says it will remodel stations and eliminate slow zones by rebuilding the tracks.

Charts by Elliott Ramos.

More people using CTA

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:13:00 -0500

Chicago Transit Authority ridership went up to 530 million boardings last year, reaching its highest ridership level since 1991.

Rail ridership grew by 5.2 percent compared to an increase of 1.4 percent in bus usage. The Blue and Brown Lines saw the greatest share of the increase with nearly 6 million more riders.

“Part of it [the increase] is obviously factors outside our control like rising gas prices,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool. But Claypool also attributes the increase to “improvements we’ve made to provide a safer and more clean and customer friendly experience,” said Claypool.

With increased ridership, Claypool expects there will be a more urgent need for infracstructure improvements. Claypool said there are plans in place to improve stations on the Howard branch of the Red Line and a reconstruction of the tracks along the Dan Ryan Branch. The CTA also plans to begin replacing older series buses this year.

Claypool said the improvements may lead to some delays.

"It may require inconveniences, but in the long run you’ll have faster trains. You’ll have better service overall.” he said.

Residents return home after train derailment

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:50:00 -0500

The remaining residents of a small northern Illinois village are being allowed to return to their homes after a train derailment that forced a mandatory evacuation.

All 800 Tiskilwa residents could come back as of Saturday afternoon.

A freight train loaded with ethanol crashed and exploded near the village's northeast side early Friday. Witnesses said the resulting explosions shook them awake before dawn and sent bright orange flames and plumes of smoke into the sky.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Tim Depaepe said there were no visible flames from the crash Saturday. But he said smoldering may force officials to reissue an evacuation order.

There are no injuries or casualties reported. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Tiskilwa is located about 100 miles west of Chicago.

Union Station train collision sends at least 12 passengers to the hospital

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:09:00 -0500

At least a dozen people suffered injuries and have been taken to area hospitals after two commuter trains collided, with one derailing, at Chicago's Union Station, city emergency officials said Friday morning.

A spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department says one of the trains derailed, but he didn't have any details. Metra spokesman Tom Miller says the collision occurred at about 8:15 a.m. Friday, but that to his knowledge no trains derailed. The crash involved a Burlington Northern commuter train from Aurora and an Amtrak train heading to Carbondale.

Spokesmen for the rail lines and the fire department say the two trains collided as a train on Metra's Burlington Northern line was coming into the station and the Amtrak train was leaving for Carbondale at about 8:15 a.m.

There was initial confusion about the location of the crash, with first responders arriving just north of the crash, which occurred under the Old Chicago Main Post Office on Congress Parkway.

Passengers, some complaining of head and neck injuries, had to evacuate through tunnels spanning almost four blocks. Officials said at least one person may have broken ribs and that there were two pregnant women that were in stable condition.

Metra board member Jack Schaffer was on the scene when a Metra train collided with a truck last month in suburban Mount Prospect. He said, "The train on train accident is unusual. Although I will tell you and I say this with some reluctance, we still are on high alert out for terrorism."

Spokesmen for both lines would not comment on which train caused the collision.

An investigation is underway.

--The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Metra conductor in critical condition after collision

Fri, 13 May 2011 15:08:00 -0500

UPDATED: 2:45 p.m. 5/13/2011

A Metra commuter train heading into Chicago collided with a semitrailer, killing the truck's driver and causing a minor derailment Friday morning.

Metra spokesman Tom Miller said the train's passengers were evacuated after the collision in Mount Prospect. He said he heard there was a fire near the train and that the driver of the semi-truck that was carrying concrete was killed. Witnesses told the Mount Prospect Police Department that the crossing gates were down and the warning lights were operating at the train crossing.

Jackie Kaufmann, the mother of WBEZ Web Editor Justin Kaufmann, said she was a passenger in the second car of the train that was hit.

“The train wobbled all over the place and we thought we might tip over or spin around and looked to the window and the window shot up in flames,” she said in a phone interview Friday.

Jackie Kaufmann said she saw flames outside one of the windows of her train car. A passenger in her car kicked out a window and she and other passengers in the car climbed through the window to escape the train.

She said she was not physically injured.

“It was pretty scary,” Jackie Kaufmann said. “People were very scared.”

The Mount Prospect police department wrote in a statement that 28 Metra passengers were hospitalized. The train conductor is in critical condition at an area hospital.

Miller, the Metra spokesman, said he expects service to the trains going through Mount Prospect will be affected the rest of the day. He said he expects buses to be available for passengers who need to connect from Des Plaines to Arlington Heights.

CTA 'Train Tracker' launching in January

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:39:00 -0600

Rail commuters in Chicago soon will be able to find out estimated arrival times for trains on all eight of the city's rail lines.

The Chicago Transit Authority says a pilot version of the CTA Train Tracker website will be launched in early January. Customers can use the program on computers or cell phones. The train program's debut follows the agency's popular CTA Bus Tracker.

Officials say estimated arrival times will be generated by averaging travel times of the previous five trains to move along a part of rail track. Customers can get the information by choosing their rail line and then their station.

The CTA says it plans on making adjustments to improve accuracy. The agency wants customers to provide feedback to help find ways to enhance the program.