How long until proposed Red Line extension turns local tempers all “red?”

It is one of those projects that has been discussed for years – extending the Chicago Transit Authority elevated commuter train lines deeper into the city’s South Side than they already go.
 

Proposed route for Red Line extension

On a certain level, the project makes too much sense. The commuter trains that help city residents get from place to place and are a common fact of everyday life in most of the city only go as far south as 95^th Street.

WHILE CHICAGO ITSELF usually considers 119^th Street to be its southern boundary and there are parts of the city at the southeastern corner where 138^th Street is the end of life as we know it and where suburbia begins.

Now as somebody who actually originates from that part of the city (born in South Chicago and with relatives scattered across the neighborhoods that comprise the 10^th Ward), this is a project that I have long followed.

Because for people in the southeast part of the city, there are a few bus lines that pass through that eventually can take you to a place along the Dan Ryan Expressway where you can catch a Red Line train.

But it can be a slow, plodding trip (what with all those bus stops) and it can result in an hour-and-a-half journey to get downtown. There are parts of Will County or Gary, Ind., that have quicker connections to downtown Chicago via suburban commuter trains.

IT’S NO WONDER that those people who live near a Metra Electric line station in the South Chicago or South Shore neighborhoods, or in the Hegewisch neighborhood where the Indiana-based South Shore commuter line keeps its lone Illinois-based station, prefer to use those suburban-influenced services even though they're very much urban residents.

Which is why the idea of extending that Red Line train that now runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan to 95^th Street would be a life-altering experience for the Far South Side.

 

Metra lines more a daily life reality in Far South Chi

A direct CTA el train extension going to 130^th Street? Actual stations in the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods – instead of having to take a bus to the west to catch a Metra Rock Island line commuter train in the Beverly or Morgan Park neighborhoods.

It sounds like nirvana (and I don’t mean the 90’s era rock band).

EXCEPT TO THOSE people who, while complaining about how isolated their part of Chicago often feels, will also be the first to complain about anything that brings about change.

They’ll be the ones who think of el trains as being something associated with “the ghetto” or artsy-fartsy North Side neighborhoods – and something they’ve managed to do without all these years.

I have heard from some of these people already. Although they have been muted largely because of skepticism that the city will ever get its act together and actually build the extension!

But will they get louder, now that talk is progressing to the point of figuring out where exactly new track would have to be built. City officials this week said they would allocate some $75 million for engineering studies. Which means figuring out what structures would need to be torn down.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS reported Thursday about the project – pointing out that 82 single-family homes and 19 multi-family properties are on a list of things that would need to be torn down to make room for 5.3 miles more of train track for the el extension.

The weekly business newspaper already has some comment from people who admit train service would be nice, but not necessary if it means they have to move.

Personally, I became an el proponent back during the stints I lived in North and Northwest Side neighborhoods, and I often wonder how it is that my home base neighborhood, so to speak, has never been willing to demand such equal service.

May someday no longer be distant southern CTA outpost?

Except that too many people living out in the land where Indiana isn’t an esoteric concept but is the place at the other end of the Chicago Skyway have become too used to their sense of isolation from the rest of Chicago – a concept whose time truly ought to come to an end.

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Waiting for the ‘el’ or a bus, the quintessential Chicago experience

We’ve all endured it, getting drenched by the rain or pelted by snowfall while standing at a street corner waiting for the damned bus that just doesn’t seem to ever want to arrive.

The concept of mass transit in Chicago is a wonderful way to get around the city. It makes it possible to avoid owning an automobile (and dealing with the expense) without being reduced to the life of a shut-in.

BUT WE ALL know how unreliable those Chicago Transit Authority buses and elevated trains are when it comes to showing up on time. The great uncertain is figuring out how much time to allot for the actual commute because you don’t know how long it will take to complete – particularly if a bus or train transfer is involved.

I know I have read those alleged schedules that claim buses on many lines run every 15 minutes, and that there are times of the day when ‘el’ trains are supposed to come along every seven minutes.

It’s supposed to be the endless system where one can just show up at the street corner or ‘el’ station whenever and catch the next train or bus. It is the reason many city residents claim they could never live in the Chicago suburbs, where the trains and buses run on set schedules once an hour (or sometimes even more infrequently).

Yet those suburban Pace buses and Metra trains at least have set schedules, and people know when the train or bus is late. City residents are expected to just cope with the delays, and hope they don’t work for the kind of boss who looks for reasons to rant against his employees.

WHICH IS WHY I found it amusing to learn of a new survey by a mass transit app called Moovit that says the amount of time people spend waiting for their bus or train is less in Chicago than it is in other cities.

Thirty-one minutes is supposedly the amount of time we spend each day waiting at the street corner or train platform, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

By comparison, New Yorkers wait an average of 38 minutes a day, 39 minutes a day in Boston and 36 minutes in San Francisco.

Supposedly, Los Angeles residents wait an average of 41 minutes per day. Although my understanding of LA mass transit is that it isn’t as extensive as what other cities try to do, which means many people avoid it and turn to the freeways where they cause those daily traffic backups that can be just as frustrating as getting drenched by rain while waiting for a bus.

I’M SURE CHICAGOANS don’t feel comforted in the least by learning their average commute is less than other U.S. cities – particularly since we all have memories of incidents where we waited at least an hour for the bus to show up.

And whenever there’s a mechanical problem or a heavy weather-related storm, all bets are off in terms of getting to work on time – or even at all if things get particularly bad.

If anything, it is memories like this that make me remember fondly the summer some 30 years ago when I lived in an apartment on Damen Avenue just three doors south of the Brown Line ‘el’ station, which also was a bus stop.

Living in such proximity (I could see the ‘el’ platform out my bedroom window), I developed an inner sense of knowing when the trains and buses would arrive so I could avoid the waits – a sense I haven’t had at any other point in my life and one that I (along with many other Chicagoans) wish I could get back.

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Do we really need to read text messages while riding underground the city?

I'd bet that when the subway tunnels were built in the early 1940s, no one thought they'd ever have to be upgraded for an improved communications network. You want to talk to someone? Use a payphone! Photograph provided by CTA Historical Photo Connection

Perhaps this is a generational issue, and I’m just on the wrong side of the equation. This definitely is a move being contemplated by the Chicago Transit Authority for people not like me in mind.

But I can’t really comprehend the need for an upgrade of the underground wireless network that currently exists in the tunnels that are used by elevated trains for those moments when the track drops down from being an “el” to being a “subway.”

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported Thursday that CTA officials are seeking bids from telecommunications companies to see who could install an improved system the cheapest in the 12 miles of track that run as subway along the Red and Blue lines.

It seems that the current system that has been in place in recent years merely allows for someone to use their cellular telephone or smartphone while underground to actually make a telephone call.

For sending text messages or trying to read something off the Internet, it just isn’t capable of handling such tasks.

Which means people who are in the process of transporting themselves via the “el” from one point to another have to actually wait until the train pops out of the portions where it is subway.

OR, A MORE radical thought; they have to wait until they actually get to their destination and leave the underground stations before they have full access to the many services a smartphone can offer – but which all too often are wasted on such trivial tasks.

CTA officials told the Tribune that people riding an “el” train during its moments of being a subway to refresh Facebook feeds or watch podcasts.

Personally, in those moments when I ride underground on the “el,” I’m more focused on paying attention to the people who happen to be surrounding me on the train. I’d think paying too much attention to one’s little device would be a sure-fire way of making myself a target for someone who might have “robbery” on their mind.

At the very least, I’d think it would be advertising myself as someone who has a smartphone worth stealing. I’d feel more secure reaching into my wallet and waving around whatever dollar bills I happened to have in my possession at that given moment.

EVEN IF THAT weren’t the case, I can’t help but wonder what could be so important that it couldn’t wait a few minutes (because most of the “el” system is above ground, which is why we call it the “el” even when it is underground)!

There are times when I think some of my Facebook friends do little more than put narcissistic thoughts about themselves out there for all to see – although I’m sure some of them probably think I’m posting dreary, dull stuff.

Or maybe they think I’m as full of myself as I think they are of themselves.

The point being that maybe we’d all be a bit better off if there were moments when we weren’t fully accessible at all seconds of the day.

GUESS WHAT? IF you had to wait a few minutes before you could read this particular commentary, it wouldn’t change the overall stance. The point being made would remain the same!

But it seems this is the direction the CTA is headed. The Tribune reported that officials hope to have an improved system in place by next summer.

Although I should admit one potential plus to this trend – the fact that the last time I rode a subway/el (Saturday, I used a train/bus combination to get to the Criminal Courts building and back for the duties I do for a suburban daily newspaper) there were no newspapers or other paper scattered around the train cars.

I’m just not sure that litter-free railcars justify the cost of a communications upgrade.

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Convenient? Or crowded? What about public buses brings out the worst in us?

When it comes to the whole issue of “concealed carry” of firearms, the part that particularly astounds me are the people who have problems with the idea that mass transit is a place where firearms ought to be restricted.

Because while I believe in the concept of mass transit (and particularly like riding the “el” trains, even when they become subways), I’ll be the first to admit the mix of individuals of all sorts can create a volatile situation that is easily triggered.

THE IDEA THAT someone who is of a paranoid-enough nature to think they need that pistol tucked into their waistband (or in a shoulder-holster, if they’re really hard-core and have watched too many cop movies on the late show) in order to feel safe might just as easily be the type who gets provoked into pulling it out at the least little incident.

Just this past weekend, a CTA bus driver wound up having to receive medical treatment for burns to his face. What happened?!?

It seems that a passenger got on the bus at the Jefferson Park transit center, recognized the driver as one who passed him by earlier in the day, then persisted with this feeling of being “wronged” by attacking the driver.

No, the passenger was not armed with a pistol. But he did have a cup of coffee, which he used to toss into the driver’s face!

FORTUNATELY, THE DRIVER wasn’t actually driving at the time. So it wasn’t a moving vehicle that could have harmed many other people.

But it makes me wonder if this person who felt wronged could have been a serious threat if they had somehow been permitted to have a firearm on their person.

Watching old “All In The Family” reruns makes me realize that for all the nonsense spewed by actor Carroll O’Connor’s “Archie Bunker” character, he wasn’t that far off when talking about the odd mix of people he encountered while riding the New York subway.

He’d call them “creeps,” “weirdos,” “preverts” and other sorts of slurs. But it is accurate in that it is a mix that people shouldn’t toy with if they don’t know who they’re dealing with.

BECAUSE, AS THE Chicago Tribune reported, this weekend there was a guy who was all upset about having a bus drive right past him to the point where he felt the need to seek revenge with a scalding cup of coffee.

It didn’t even matter that the person wasn’t at a properly-marked bus stop – which justified the driver’s actions in driving right on by. That was a person who felt wronged, and used what he had on him in order to get back at the CTA.

Throwing ammunition and a weapon capable of discharging it in a lethal manner into the mix is only asking for trouble.

Fortunately, the person in this incident was arrested at the scene. There will be some sort of criminal charges against the individual. Although I’m sure some pundit will try to twist this into one of those incidents in which government runs amok over the rights of the individual.

THEY’LL PROBABLY TRY to claim that the CTA and the police are wrong to seek punishment against a coffee-cup wielding person – as though he were merely someone trying to enjoy a beverage, but couldn’t because of the inept mass transit service.

Actually, we ought to be thankful that all this incident had was a cup of coffee. Because at least the facial burns suffered by the driver were easily treatable.

Throw a pistol in to the mix, along with a self-righteous belief that someone is somehow standing up for their rights, and the incident instantly becomes a national mess.

Something like the early Sunday stabbing of a man at the Red Line’s Belmont Avenue “el” station

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Some people compelled to complain

Soon to be undergoing long-overdue repairs. Photograph provided by LHOON

I write this during the weekend anticipating all the rants and rages we’re going to hear Monday from South Side residents who have to rely on the Chicago Transit Authority’s “Red Line” trains.

That, of course, is the line that was shut down completely beginning Sunday so that crews can work around the clock (instead of in shifts around “el” trains) for the next five months to upgrade the track.

IF IT HAD been done in shifts, it would take years to complete the work. Which would mean years of inconvenience.

By doing an outright shutdown, the work can be completed sooner and the benefits to be derived from upgrading the train that runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway to 95^th Street will be felt sooner.

For what it’s worth, CTA officials claim that improved tracks will allow for the “el” trains to speed through the area faster – possibly reducing as much as 10 minutes off the total commute for anyone who goes from 95^th Street all the way to downtown.

Now as one who has, from time to time in my life, had to rely on commuter trains for transit (and still uses them on occasion), I comprehend that it’s going to be a pain in the behind for those people who are used to relying on the Red Line (which, in a sign that reveals my age, I still think of as the Dan Ryan Line).

THEY’RE GOING TO have to find an alternative. And I’m sure there are some for whom shifting to a Green Line (a.k.a., Englewood/Jackson Park Line) train or using the Metra Electric trains that make stops on the Sout’ Side between Michigan Avenue and Blue Island is not going to be practical.

Some people may have their livelihoods seriously interfered with by this repair work.

But the simple fact is that all things eventually wear down. Eventually, everything needs serious upgrades in order to keep them in use. Unless we want them to deteriorate to the point where they become unusable – if not downright hazardous!

Now some people want to see a racial angle in this move because of the fact that this repair work is going to impact overwhelmingly African-American neighborhoods – since the reality is that many of the white people who use the southern extension of the Red Line (they think of it as the train that goes north to Howard Street and cuts through the Lincoln Park and Lake View neighborhoods) are off the train by 35^th Street.

WHICH MEANS THE Chicago White Sox may be impacted – although many fans I talk with say they already try to avoid the Red Line crowds and prefer other ways (I’m inclined to try the Metra Rock Island line train with its nearby stop named for one-time state Rep. Lovana Jones) of getting to U.S. Cellular Field.

JONES: No, she didn't play for the Sox

I’m not sure I buy that angle. Although if there is a racial angle to this issue, it may well be that CTA officials were willing to let the southern part of the Red Line deteriorate to its current condition without having done these repairs much earlier.

The Red Line dates back to the 1960s, and there are parts of the track that are now going to be replaced that literally date back to the opening.

Although I suppose compared to how old the Green Line extensions to neighborhoods on the West Side were (just over a century) when CTA officials finally got around to doing upgrades on that track in recent years, the Red Line might be considered in prime condition.

THE POINT BEING that this work is long overdue. We never hear of the elevated train lines running through North or Northwest Side neighborhoods going that long a time period without repairs.

And if it had been done in a more-timely manner, the commuter inconvenience would be long past – a thing of history.

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Are cash-less cards unfair for regular users of mass transit programs?

I remember the days when one actually got a reward at a gas station for using cash INSTEAD OF a credit card to pay for their motor fuel, I also recall the day when one dumped a token into the fare box on board the bus in order to get a ride.

So perhaps it is a sign of my advancing age that I see the new way in which the Chicago Transit Authority wants people to pay their fares for a bus or elevated train ride and can’t help but be repulsed by the change.

FOR IT SEEMS that the CTA is joining the ranks of entities that wants to view cash as a problem – largely because it requires real live employees to handle properly.

Having some sort of card that one scans, or perhaps even just swipes, may soon become the preferred way of paying one’s fare – to the point that the CTA may start penalizing people who pay for their individual rides with cash.

The Chicago Tribune has reported in recent days about the new Ventra system that the CTA wants to implement this year. It would entail purchasing special cards that would have credit pre-loaded onto them. Then, you just swipe your card each time you use the CTA for your transit needs.

You’d have to update your card periodically for more credit. But I’m sure the CTA likes the idea of you just giving them large sums of money – without thinking specifically about how much you’re actually spending.

THE FINANCIAL INCENTIVE to sway people to use this new system (rather than just reject it as some hokey, new-fangled gadget)? CTA officials are considering a plan by which the basic fare for a single bus or el train ride would rise to $3 – up from the $2.25 they currently charge.

Heck, I can remember when bus rides were 90 cents, with an extra dime for the transfer. And I know there is the older generation that can remember when CTA rides were even significantly cheaper than that.

I realize that costs increase with time. Inflation, after all. So I’m not necessarily complaining about the rise in price. Although it makes me thankful that I don’t use mass transit as often these days as I used to. I think I’d be perpetually broke if I were a daily user.

But I can sympathize with those activists who are taking up the cause of lower-income mass transit riders who aren’t going to want to have to shell out so much money at once and are more likely to pay for rides individually.

THEY’RE THE ONES who will wind up having to pay more money so that the rest of us will be able to have a “contactless fare card” with which to pay for those rides we take on those occasions when we’d rather not be bothered with having to park an automobile.

Considering the cost of legal parking in Chicago, they may argue that even a higher-costing CTA ride is still a financial bargain!

But it still is cheesy to hit certain people with a higher fare for not using the new device – whose main purpose like I wrote earlier is to reduce the amount of human staff necessary to process all that cash that would otherwise need to be counted out.

I don’t expect CTA officials to be swayed by any of this.

THE CTA’S BOARD is scheduled to meet Wednesday, and likely will vote on the matter at that time. I expect it will be regarded as a vote for technological progress, and all those activists who bother to show up to complain will be dismissed as somehow wanting to live in the past.

Yet there were some things about the past that were preserving – such as the idea of a bus ride and transfer that one could pay for with just a dollar bill (and not having to worry about juggling all kinds of extra change).

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