strictures

I don't think anyone at the CTA has the foggiest idea that people are abandoning it not just because the ride sharing trips are faster, but because the CTA has become so horrendously uncomfortable! The sideways seats are disasters. They're too narrow & leave large gaps at the end of each section, because they should've bought wider seats, but didn't because some fool wanted to keep the inventory simpler. One day I took the L home from the Loop to Loyola & had to get up & stand halfway there, because some rude, huge guy squeezed his body into the half seat between me & another person. It was painful! If the artics on the Lake Shore Drive routes have springs & shock absorbers, it's news to me! The northern part of the 147 on Sheridan Road can knock out tooth fillings! I grew up riding buses that ran out of the old Diversey/Keeler garage & they had the softest ride of any buses, ever. Plus I love your signature line from "Yes, Prime Minister.

I read the article & this line makes no sense: "It estimates the new Metra Electric cars that were purchased in 2005 and 2012 have saved the system roughly $2.2 million in maintenance and fuel costs, because they run on electricity rather than diesel fuel." When did the IC or ME use diesel for regular commuter operations since the IC was forced to switch to electric in the mid 1920s? Obviously, there have been times they had to use a diesel to rescue a dead MU train. What I think this writer meant was that the newer electrified coaches may use less power to run.

If that crook Richie Daley & the CTA had used some foresight 25 years ago, they would've moved the South Side Mainline to the IC Mainline, just like the proposal was supposed to do so when they built the Dan Ryan Line. That was supposed to then go all the way to Kensington, with the IC then closing a lot of local stops. Then they could've used the Air Line to bring CTA trains to Soldier Field & the Field Museum. But Daley used rebuilding the SSML as a way to buy the South Side reverends to support his reelection, even though both sections end in the middle of nowhere. Now that foolish decision of the mid 1990s is going to bite us in taxes bank with having to extend the now Red Line to 130th Street at at an obscene cost!

There was an Old Navy ad last week that used a 2200 kitted out on the inside like a NYC subway car.

I've gotten numerous emails from Metra this afternoon about problems on the UP North Line. They latest ones are blaming the dispatching department. I don't know if that's a new term for PTC problems, which seem to happen at least once a week on the UP North.

Oh, gee, April Fool!

That reminds me of Schreiber Ave. in the 1950s, next to the Devon Carhouse, when all the streetcars lined up & completely blocked the street before both rush hours.

The Peterson/Ridge station is a sick joke! It's not needed, as most of the land around it is either cemetery or high rise senior buildings, who of course don't work or take Metra. It's not going to lessen the load at Ravenswood. The worst thing about it, is that Rogers Park, just 10 blocks north is a dump & common sense says you fix up what you have already before spending $10 million on something new. Plus, the Northwestern closed a station that used to be there around 1960, called Kenmore.

The LA Times has a long article on Albuquerque's mess by buying Chinese electric buses that don't work & wrecking a street by turning it into what the loons wanted to do to Ashland Ave. Albuquerque’s $133-million electric bus system is going nowhere fast

Whatever happened to flywheel buses? Where an electric bus would need at least 30-60 minutes to get a full charge [assuming 480 volt three phase power], a flywheel should be fully spun up in a few minutes.

Go to 5 Below & you can buy a charging pack for $5 & keep it forever, with no added costs other than the electricity to recharge it. I'm sure other stores have them cheap.

I often saw the IC's diesels in the open cut Downtown pulling freights. The IC even had a flyover about where the new McCormick Place building is so the commuter trains could pass over the freight tracks. Now, no freights go north of the connection to the St. Charles Airline, except for Metra MOW equipment. I doubt if the South Shore's Little Joes ever went north of Kensington. They were used for the SS's freight business in Indiana & Hegewisch.

I don't think so, because when the IC had that freight yard east of the Randolph Station, diesels did all the work, not electric locomotives.

The feds are worried that the Chinese rail cars will spy on us. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/could-a-chinese-made-metro-car-spy-on-us-many-experts-say-yes/2019/01/07/00304b2c-03c9-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.8faaaaddf66b

The red brick building on the river is the Reid, Murdoch Building. Originally it was a grocery warehouse. It was also used as a makeshift morgue after the Eastland sank. For decades it was owned by the city & called the Central Office Building, but was known to most people as Traffic Court. Now Brittanica has its name on the clocktower, which is just a front for the water tank. The original C&NW station was where the Merchandise Mart is now.