Parades and Inadequate Transit Service

[Busjack]

This reminds me of day years ago, the first year King Day was a federal holiday. CTA decided to run a Sunday schedule. However, since it was in the middle of the week and even they recognized almost nobody would be off, and at that time there was no Lake Shore Dr express service on the weekends, CTA ran all the express routes as extras. Some drivers made upwards of 40 hours doing a couple of hours work that day. Figure being a "Sunday", a split was continuous pay start to finish, which was over 10 hours, plus time and a half over 8, plus holiday pay, plus time and a half extra for working your day off? No wonder next year CTA made King Day a "floating holiday". (Note that the pay arbitraries have changed since, so it wouldn't be as bad now, but it would still be expensive!)

Again, it gets back to my point that it is probably something in the union contract, not as jajuan posits that somehow the federal employee pay law applies. In factories that run 24/7, like steel mills, you basically got 2.5 time for working a holiday, since you were entitled to holiday pay plus time and a half for overtime for working the holiday. So, based on that standard, one cleaned up, although I think you have it up to 3.5 or 4 time.

[orionbuslover]

I'm going to go with negotiated union contract for why service was reduced the day before the holiday because it fell on day when most of the people on Lake St presumably would already have the day off. Some holidays are stay at home with family (Thanksgiving/Christmas), but the Fourth people like to go out and do things. Service was horrible Friday and most riders were caught by surprise that CTA was on Sunday schedule. If this was some small town in Kansas, it would make sense to reduce service. Being Chicago, with the concerts going, baseball, and people just flocking here to enjoy the sights, the CTA should've ran regular weekday service. I spoke to a part time CA yesterday on the Blue and he got his time and half pay Friday, not Saturday. So I guess the CTA saved payroll in a roundabout fashion by running weekend service three days in row.

[Busjack]

... I spoke to a part time CA yesterday on the Blue and he got his time and half pay Friday, not Saturday. So I guess the CTA saved payroll in a roundabout fashion by running weekend service three days in row.

As you confirmed, it was the time and a half (which, absent a union contract, would have to be paid only if someone actually worked more than 40 hours). CTA's problem there is that if a station is open, it needs a CA, and all stations were open. Heck of a lot of bus drivers to whom it didn't have to pay overtime, though.

[jajuan]

Sorry, buddy, that section has to do with annual leave for Federal Employees. Does not use the word holiday, and since when are CTA and Pace employees Federal? I don't think you even cited the section you intended. Maybe you meant 6103, but that applies to federal employees only, too. That provision is prefaced by "For the purpose of statutes relating to pay and leave of employees, with respect to a legal public holiday and any other day declared to be a holiday by Federal statute or Executive order, the following rules apply:" NOT that Metra has to run a Sunday schedule on Friday, which it did not do, or that Pace and CTA had to.

 

Yes I was referring to 6103. And I know the rule itself applies to federal employees, but somehow during Bush 43's first term, the practice for federal workers got expanded to the private sector and government units at the state and local levels and has pretty much stuck since that time since as a general rule it's accepted that federal holidays can get adopted as state level holidays. Someone mentioned to me for instance that Jewel-Osco's Itasca main offices used the practice for employees working in those offices. UIC's outpatient clinics happened to also be closed on July 3rd in observance of the holiday which is why my next checkup got pushed back a couple of weeks. If I'm not mistake the city libraries also might have been closed on Friday in observance of the holiday. So I'm not just simply misreading the federal holiday rules under the US Code. I'm just relaying that somehow the 6103 practice got expanded to state and local observances under Dubya's watch premised on the accepted rule that states are allowed to adopt federal observances as state holidays. This all started under Dubya, so he's the one you should take to task about it buddy, not me.

Edited July 6, 2015 by jajuan

[Busjack]

,,,I'm just relaying that somehow the 6103 practice got expanded to state and local observances under Dubya's watch premised on the accepted rule that states are allowed to adopt federal observances as state holidays. This all started under Dubya, so he's the one you should take to task about it buddy, not me.

Other than provoking me with the "legal eagle," and somehow thinking that Dubya* has any influence on the CTA, note that 6103(-b)(1)(A) says that applies with respect to federal "employees whose basic workweek is Monday through Friday." CTA doesn't run on a M-F basis, but a 7 day one. So do TSA and Customs.

Apparently the UIC outpatient clinic isn't the UIC emergency room--or they send the people to Stroger.

Either you are saying that CTA and Pace assume that the private sector works on the same schedule they do, or the correct answer is implied above, that the union contracts make it too onerous for them to work on Friday, but not for Metra.

 

*Also, the last amendment note to section 6103 is Pub. L. 105–261, div. A, title XI, § 1107,Oct. 17, 1998, 112 Stat. 2142.) My memory seems to be that Bill Clinton was the President then.

[jajuan]

Other than provoking me with the "legal eagle," and somehow thinking that Dubya* has any influence on the CTA, note that 6103(-b)(1)(A) says that applies with respect to federal "employees whose basic workweek is Monday through Friday." CTA doesn't run on a M-F basis, but a 7 day one. So do TSA and Customs.

Apparently the UIC outpatient clinic isn't the UIC emergency room--or they send the people to Stroger.

Either you are saying that CTA and Pace assume that the private sector works on the same schedule they do, or the correct answer is implied above, that the union contracts make it too onerous for them to work on Friday, but not for Metra.

 

*Also, the last amendment note to section 6103 is Pub. L. 105–261, div. A, title XI, § 1107,Oct. 17, 1998, 112 Stat. 2142.) My memory seems to be that Bill Clinton was the President then.

No what I was saying was in some way fashion or form starting during Dubya's first term (because I sure as heck don't remember the federal way of looking at holidays when they're calendar date falls on a Saturday or Sunday being observed locally any time during the 1990s or earlier), the federal standard with its own employees in observances of holidays falling on the weekend got expanded into designating the state holiday observances and thus CTA, Pace, various City of Chicago and so many elements of the private sector locally aligning their observance with the federal observance in that regard. It's moot now anyway since the holiday is done and over with. I just know I remember this particular way of holiday observance on the transit part of things has been going on locally for about 11 years, and that each time CTA or Pace has followed the observance, it's caused confusion with riders whose jobs and/or schools especially not aligned with that pattern of observance getting stuck somewhere in the case of routes that have zero Sunday/holiday service. Either way on CTA and Pace's part now that you mention it, I suppose I am saying there is some assumption that all or most of the local private sector will operate under their holiday observance schedule since (at least with CTA I should more clearly point out here as my first memory of it affecting transit was July 5, 2004 on CTA from having to rearrange my travel to some engagement I was going to on that particular Monday because of one of the routes I would normally use on my more direct travel itinerary being out of service after finding with CTA that Monday was being observed as the holiday when in previous years they ran the Sunday/holiday schedules either that Saturday or Sunday the actual date that holiday coincided that particular day of the week in those kinds of situations) they've been doing this kind of holiday observance during weekends for the above mentioned 11 years.

[Busjack]

Monday off for Sunday makes more sense than this. However, due to a leap year, the problem does not arise in 2016, and the next time we have a Saturday is 2020 and Sunday is 2021 (perpetual calendar).

[jajuan]

Monday off for Sunday makes more sense than this. However, due to a leap year, the problem does not arise in 2016, and the next time we have a Saturday is 2020 and Sunday is 2021 (perpetual calendar).

I never argued it made sense. I just know CTA has been doing both under the pattern of the 6103 regulation holiday observance pattern since about the first half of the previous decade. The City has been doing about the same for about as long if I remember correctly because (I'm only guessing at this) the state holiday observances have been increasingly aligning with the fed's observance pattern for about that long. Besides Saturdays are still somewhat reduced from weekday service anyway either way it goes, just not as much as Sundays.

Back to the topic at hand though, Service on the #12 was horrendous late Sunday night and traffic a nightmare due to the Taylor Swift concert at Soldier Field as part of her 1989 tour. And #9 buses were pretty packed close to the vicinity of Union Park on Saturday and Sunday because of the Pitchfork 2015 Music Fest performances.

[orionbuslover]

Back to the topic at hand though, Service on the #12 was horrendous late Sunday night and traffic a nightmare due to the Taylor Swift concert at Soldier Field as part of her 1989 tour. And #9 buses were pretty packed close to the vicinity of Union Park on Saturday and Sunday because of the Pitchfork 2015 Music Fest performances.

Life in the big city. Taylor Swift set a new record by breaking the record that was just set by Grateful Dead. Since she's the biggest pop star of this generation, I'm assuming most of her fans drove in from the suburbs. CTA had a press releases for both events about additional service. But if people choose the comfort of their own auto, then traffic and any additional service will be horrendous.

[Busjack]

Life in the big city. Taylor Swift set a new record by breaking the record that was just set by Grateful Dead. Since she's the biggest pop star of this generation, I'm assuming most of her fans drove in from the suburbs. CTA had a press releases for both events about additional service. But if people choose the comfort of their own auto, then traffic and any additional service will be horrendous.

Could be, but not necessarily the correct assumption. With all the city does to discourage driving (red light cameras, high parking fees and taxes, choking off streets for bike lanes), Metra may be the alternative. Doesn't really pay to drive unless you have 6 screaming little girls in your crossover (as in the BP commercial).

I think that what jajuan is trying to point out is despite the promises of the new Clever Devices, and despite the extra service, the city does not appear to be able to cope with major events. Another thing pointed out by BusHunter is that an event on the east end of a route screws up the entire route, while an alternative might be short turning some additional service at say Roosevelt-Halsted or Addison-Western.

[jajuan]

Could be, but not necessarily the correct assumption. With all the city does to discourage driving (red light cameras, high parking fees and taxes, choking off streets for bike lanes), Metra may be the alternative. Doesn't really pay to drive unless you have 6 screaming little girls in your crossover (as in the BP commercial).

I think that what jajuan is trying to point out is despite the promises of the new Clever Devices, and despite the extra service, the city does not appear to be able to cope with major events. Another thing pointed out by BusHunter is that an event on the east end of a route screws up the entire route, while an alternative might be short turning some additional service at say Roosevelt-Halsted or Addison-Western.

Yeah that was the gist of it Busjack. Traffic from Museum Campus to State was jammed on Roosevelt. Most car traffic I saw did in fact appear to be taxis. To be a little fair, the 130 and 146 came pretty regularly given conditions, but the 12's service was totally screwed. BusTracker kept saying buses on the 12 should arrive in a few minutes. However the wait time was just over an hour based on times the crowd of folks waiting for that route mentioned they got to that stop off the Red, Green and Orange lines. Speaking of the trains, the Red's Roosevelt platform was moderately heavy, but that was also due to the Brown being in the subway. The elevated platform for Orange and Green were more crammed than the Red, terrifyingly so in fact. Plus those artics on the 130 and 146 were jammed to the gills.

[BusHunter]

They had another blunder last night on the #152 with this Zac Brown concert at Wrigley. So it's 10:00PM and there's no buses going either direction, so I check out transit tracks and guess what they were doing? They were holding the last hour of #152 service at Clark/Wrigley. They usually have the bummer going east around this time, ( I was around the blue line) but there was no bummer tonight eb. In fact there was no service at all eb. So i investigated further, they had 4 Novas down at Wrigley being held and about 5 artics. Usually when they are down to a 20 minutes off peak schedule usually after 7PM at night 5 buses comprise the whole route. I couldn't see any service either all the way wb to the west end. The first pullin must have pulled in or broke down. So the caravan of buses heads my way about 10;45PM, I expected it to be crowded, but it wasn't to my surprise. It had more concessionaires on it than anything.  So why hold the buses? They didn't think 4-5 artics could handle it?

[artthouwill]

Yeah that was the gist of it Busjack. Traffic from Museum Campus to State was jammed on Roosevelt. Most car traffic I saw did in fact appear to be taxis. To be a little fair, the 130 and 146 came pretty regularly given conditions, but the 12's service was totally screwed. BusTracker kept saying buses on the 12 should arrive in a few minutes. However the wait time was just over an hour based on times the crowd of folks waiting for that route mentioned they got to that stop off the Red, Green and Orange lines. Speaking of the trains, the Red's Roosevelt platform was moderately heavy, but that was also due to the Brown being in the subway. The elevated platform for Orange and Green were more crammed than the Red, terrifyingly so in fact. Plus those artics on the 130 and 146 were jammed to the gills.

For special events including Bears games, the 146 gets extra service.  For the last Bears preseason game, some 146s came from the Kedzie garage and those were artics.  I am sure the extras are staged for the end of the game. I watched one EB 12 sit through 2 cycles of lights at Wabash and 3 extra long cycles at Michigan (Roosevelt was given longer greens) yet traffic wasn't moving .  You could walk faster from Roosevelt/State to Soldier Field than by car or bus.

The day I dread most is October 11th, the Bank of America Marathon.  Reroutes north of Pershing and south of (including) Fullerton from the lake to about Damen.  The L is the best bet that day.

[jajuan]

For special events including Bears games, the 146 gets extra service.  For the last Bears preseason game, some 146s came from the Kedzie garage and those were artics.  I am sure the extras are staged for the end of the game. I watched one EB 12 sit through 2 cycles of lights at Wabash and 3 extra long cycles at Michigan (Roosevelt was given longer greens) yet traffic wasn't moving .  You could walk faster from Roosevelt/State to Soldier Field than by car or bus.

The day I dread most is October 11th, the Bank of America Marathon.  Reroutes north of Pershing and south of (including) Fullerton from the lake to about Damen.  The L is the best bet that day.

I make it a point to not need to go anywhere on that day. Because you are right. All those reroutes (and delays from buses simply being held back instead of rerouted as the marathon runners pass that portion of the route) do make transit riding a nightmare if not riding the L when and where possible.