Random CTA

[artthouwill]

Weird day today.  Two 34 S Michigan buses were running with the orators unable to get the front doors open.    One was a New Fyer and one was an 8350 series Nova.   While I could get my hand through the back door, I couldn't get it to open.   A 119 showed up with seemingly the same problem.   I suppose he used the doormaster and the rear doors popped open.  Once aboard this new Nova, the front door  started operating normally.

[Sam92]

20 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Weird day today.  Two 34 S Michigan buses were running with the orators unable to get the front doors open.    One was a New Fyer and one was an 8350 series Nova.   While I could get my hand through the back door, I couldn't get it to open.   A 119 showed up with seemingly the same problem.   I suppose he used the doormaster and the rear doors popped open.  Once aboard this new Nova, the front door  started operating normally.

Weird and also a safety hazard (what if a quick evacuation is needed?)

[Busjack]

12 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Weird and also a safety hazard (what if a quick evacuation is needed?)

One would think the cherries would still work, and there are the pop-out windows. It isn't the 1950 streetcar fire.*

But I can't figure out why 3 buses would have the same problem. They' aren't like the GMC RTS-03s, where the doors flopped open.

---------------

*Unlike the 1950 streetcar fire, although I don't know if one can rely on a British narration, including "tram.",

[Shannon tahoeppv]

I know im late to the party but im on the rail said but I see they made 1336 a training bus dam video wont upload

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

Just spotted this this morning..incident happened at western/61st going NB around 7:55am

[artthouwill]

Cook County Sheriff officers are not only stationed in some CTA L stations, but they are actually riding the trains.  

[Busjack]

Tribune: CTA terminated a contract for unarmed private security guards under a "lack of funding" clause, apparently to put more resources into actual police.

[Shannon tahoeppv]

19 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Tribune: CTA terminated a contract for unarmed private security guards under a "lack of funding" clause, apparently to put more resources into actual police.

Nah cta ended that contract with monterey cause of their gaurds especially after the teen who got killed at the Jarvis stop that company workers was a joke my fiance worked for them the gaurds at O'hare uic Washington Addison & other stops they had was leaving early & the Supervisor that use to be overnight them was fucking alot of the gaurds allowing it to happen he got fired after he started mess between 2 girls at uic they fought one got fired & she dropped text messages & pics the new Supervisor they brought in was a crashout but it was too late he was popping mfs for leaving they wasnt suppose to leave post till 5-530 after the Supervisor came at 1130-1230 the gaurds was leaving on the next train out many nights my fiance was the only gaurd down at ohare after 1am thats why cta cut that contract they got tired of their shit 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, Shannon tahoeppv said:

Nah cta ended that contract with monterey cause of their gaurds especially after the teen who got killed at the Jarvis stop that company workers was a joke my fiance worked for them the gaurds at O'hare uic Washington Addison & other stops they had was leaving early & the Supervisor that use to be overnight them was fucking alot of the gaurds allowing it to happen he got fired after he started mess between 2 girls at uic they fought one got fired & she dropped text messages & pics the new Supervisor they brought in was a crashout but it was too late he was popping mfs for leaving they wasnt suppose to leave post till 5-530 after the Supervisor came at 1130-1230 the gaurds was leaving on the next train out many nights my fiance was the only gaurd down at ohare after 1am thats why cta cut that contract they got tired of their shit 

That could be the case, and obviously the ineffectiveness of the private security guards didn't prevent the crimes  and did lead to the feds saying that the preexisting security plan was inadequate. I also doubt that the lack of funds reason is real, but for other reasons. But that, rather than nonperformance, was given as the legal reason, maybe because a claimed breach due to nonperformance could be challenged.

[artthouwill]

Last week there was an incident at Jackson Red Line station platform.  A woman got off of a NB Red Line train.  Apparently she had an argument with someone on the train.  Then she immediately got into it with a Customer Service Agent to the point that she CSA was ready to get physical.   One of the unarmed security guys ( who really loved like K 9 guys) tried calming down the ahent.  The other guy went on his phone and discovered that the woman was on the list of those banned from CTA property.   He told her to leave the station because she could get arrested for being on CTA property.   The woman complied but not before intentionally walking close past the CSA agent.

[Busjack]

49 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

 He told her to leave the station because she could get arrested for being on CTA property. 

That's at least one obvious difference. A deputy sheriff or off-duty CPD officer has the authority to arrest her. Fortunately, she took off, but if she attacked the CSA or security guard, it would have gotten ugly quick, and all either could have done is call 911.

[Shannon tahoeppv]

On 4/20/2026 at 9:25 PM, Busjack said:

That could be the case, and obviously the ineffectiveness of the private security guards didn't prevent the crimes  and did lead to the feds saying that the preexisting security plan was inadequate. I also doubt that the lack of funds reason is real, but for other reasons. But that, rather than nonperformance, was given as the legal reason, maybe because a claimed breach due to nonperformance could be challenged.

Thats all it is hell I would have ended it too if im paying a 44 mill contract & your guards leaving early or not showing up & you dont get their ass under control 

[chicagomusicfan]

Does anyone have insight on serious issues with westbound 80 busses? It's typical to have delays on Cubs game days, but yesterday and today I had a 50+ minute wait for a westbound 80, yesterday around 7 PM and today around 3:15 PM. Curious what a possible solution could look like to avoid these extremes while still insuring demand is met at Wrigley. 

[MetroShadow]

36 minutes ago, chicagomusicfan said:

Does anyone have insight on serious issues with westbound 80 busses? It's typical to have delays on Cubs game days, but yesterday and today I had a 50+ minute wait for a westbound 80, yesterday around 7 PM and today around 3:15 PM. Curious what a possible solution could look like to avoid these extremes while still insuring demand is met at Wrigley. 

Having lived on the route for a good chunk of my life, it's a combination of congestion (you're only as fast as the Uber in front of you), not enough recovery time in the schedule by the time you're at Broadway, and that stretch between Southport and Ashland. That's before the Wrigley nonsense, and any other High School dwell issues.

[Elkmn]

2 hours ago, chicagomusicfan said:

Does anyone have insight on serious issues with westbound 80 busses? It's typical to have delays on Cubs game days, but yesterday and today I had a 50+ minute wait for a westbound 80, yesterday around 7 PM and today around 3:15 PM. Curious what a possible solution could look like to avoid these extremes while still insuring demand is met at Wrigley. 

the whole road is messed up! i take irving almost daily, and it's a disaster! 

i find that the road design of irving, with the shrink in road size east of ashland, and the mess of intersections in rapid succession from 6 corners, to the kennedy, to both kimball and kedzie, to the river & western and then to the chokepoint at ashland really drive congestion. this leads to bunching, and because of the other traffic stresses from LSD, Wrigley and Lakeview HS (as mentioned by @MetroShadow), there's a perfect storm of bs to clog up the route.

[strictures]

9 hours ago, Elkmn said:

the whole road is messed up! i take irving almost daily, and it's a disaster! 

i find that the road design of irving, with the shrink in road size east of ashland, and the mess of intersections in rapid succession from 6 corners, to the kennedy, to both kimball and kedzie, to the river & western and then to the chokepoint at ashland really drive congestion. this leads to bunching, and because of the other traffic stresses from LSD, Wrigley and Lakeview HS (as mentioned by @MetroShadow), there's a perfect storm of bs to clog up the route.

One of the problems is they station a cop at the corner of Clark/Irving Park after all Cubs games & he plugs a hand controller into the traffic light control box & takes over the traffic lights. He then prioritizes all Northbound traffic on Clark & will cause all other traffic to have to wait as the NB Clark traffic goes north on Clark, east on Irving or most of all west on Irving. I've been there & he will have that traffic going that way for at least 10 minutes straight, before he allows any other traffic to move. And then he only allows the other traffic to go for 30-40 seconds.

That is insanity, multiplied by total stupidity. I was on an EB 80 once that took over half an hour to go from Ravenswood to Clark, a distance of 3/8ths of a mile, all because of this. What was even weirder was, the cop unplugged his hand controller at exactly 6PM & then the regular control box took over & while there were still lots of people still driving away from the Wrigley area after the game, the traffic went perfectly fine without the cop making a mess out of the other streets.

The problem is the Chicago has the world's worst traffic engineers & then they compound it with with some dimwit assigning cops or the useless traffic aides from OEMC to make it even worse.  The traffic aides they assign to busy corners in the Downtown area do nothing but stand in the middle of the street & block traffic, all while just parroting the traffic lights. Not just useless, but they actually make the traffic worse & are stupid on top of that.  All of them should be fired, it would save the city a couple of million a year!

[Sam92]

13 hours ago, chicagomusicfan said:

Does anyone have insight on serious issues with westbound 80 busses? It's typical to have delays on Cubs game days, but yesterday and today I had a 50+ minute wait for a westbound 80, yesterday around 7 PM and today around 3:15 PM. Curious what a possible solution could look like to avoid these extremes while still insuring demand is met at Wrigley. 

 

13 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Having lived on the route for a good chunk of my life, it's a combination of congestion (you're only as fast as the Uber in front of you), not enough recovery time in the schedule by the time you're at Broadway, and that stretch between Southport and Ashland. That's before the Wrigley nonsense, and any other High School dwell issues.

 

11 hours ago, Elkmn said:

the whole road is messed up! i take irving almost daily, and it's a disaster! 

i find that the road design of irving, with the shrink in road size east of ashland, and the mess of intersections in rapid succession from 6 corners, to the kennedy, to both kimball and kedzie, to the river & western and then to the chokepoint at ashland really drive congestion. this leads to bunching, and because of the other traffic stresses from LSD, Wrigley and Lakeview HS (as mentioned by @MetroShadow), there's a perfect storm of bs to clog up the route.

Either bring back X80 or have some short turns at Pulaski. That way the trouble some parts of the route of some empty buses which should lower dwell times. 

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, strictures said:

One of the problems is they station a cop at the corner of Clark/Irving Park after all Cubs games & he plugs a hand controller into the traffic light control box & takes over the traffic lights. He then prioritizes all Northbound traffic on Clark & will cause all other traffic to have to wait as the NB Clark traffic goes north on Clark, east on Irving or most of all west on Irving. I've been there & he will have that traffic going that way for at least 10 minutes straight, before he allows any other traffic to move. And then he only allows the other traffic to go for 30-40 seconds.

That is insanity, multiplied by total stupidity. I was on an EB 80 once that took over half an hour to go from Ravenswood to Clark, a distance of 3/8ths of a mile, all because of this. What was even weirder was, the cop unplugged his hand controller at exactly 6PM & then the regular control box took over & while there were still lots of people still driving away from the Wrigley area after the game, the traffic went perfectly fine without the cop making a mess out of the other streets.

The problem is the Chicago has the world's worst traffic engineers & then they compound it with with some dimwit assigning cops or the useless traffic aides from OEMC to make it even worse.  The traffic aides they assign to busy corners in the Downtown area do nothing but stand in the middle of the street & block traffic, all while just parroting the traffic lights. Not just useless, but they actually make the traffic worse & are stupid on top of that.  All of them should be fired, it would save the city a couple of million a year!

The city either needs to do sensors like in the burbs or maybe some "smart road" tech that prioritizes light based on current volume vs some generic timing. You could probably program a set of patterns before and after events to help facilitate smoother flow along with the soldier field area. 

[strictures]

44 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

The city either needs to do sensors like in the burbs or maybe some "smart road" tech that prioritizes light based on current volume vs some generic timing. You could probably program a set of patterns before and after events to help facilitate smoother flow along with the soldier field area. 

The city actually does have the loop sensors under the pavement, but refuses to use them!  When they totally reconfigured Clark/Devon/Ashland a number of years ago, they did use the sensors for about a month & then turned them off.

Like I wrote, Chicago has the world's worst & most incompetent traffic engineers & it shows!

[artthouwill]

28 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

The city either needs to do sensors like in the burbs or maybe some "smart road" tech that prioritizes light based on current volume vs some generic timing. You could probably program a set of patterns before and after events to help facilitate smoother flow along with the soldier field area. 

Wrigley traffic has to be prioritized.  Every major thoroughfare around Wrigley Field is one lane in each direction other than Ashland.   Irving Park is tge most logical road to get to the Kennedy or Lake Shore Drive it the traffic is coming from all the parking lots along Clark.   That's why Clark is ad should be the main priority.     Maybe CTA and the Cubs could do a better job of encouraging fan to use the Purple Line and the Brown Line in addition to the Red Line . 

 

The city probably neds to close off Irving Park,  Clark,Addison  and maybe Halsted and Broadway in all traffic except CTA buses, team charter buses and maybe taxis.

Baseball and football teams  visiting Chicago etc Cook County Sheriff escorts to the airport from the stadium which can add to the situation.   Baseball teams have two buses while football teams have between 3 ad5 buses, but most use 4.  There's one escort in front of the buses and one behind.   They do move traffic out of their way all the way to the airport. 

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

Wrigley traffic has to be prioritized.  Every major thoroughfare around Wrigley Field is one lane in each direction other than Ashland.   Irving Park is tge most logical road to get to the Kennedy or Lake Shore Drive it the traffic is coming from all the parking lots along Clark.   That's why Clark is ad should be the main priority.     Maybe CTA and the Cubs could do a better job of encouraging fan to use the Purple Line and the Brown Line in addition to the Red Line . 

 

That's what I covered when I mentioned a "set of patterns before/after events". "Before venue" settings would prioritize efficient flow for patrons heading to the games by prioritizing EB traffic on Irving, Addison and Belmont, the reverse afterwards. Clark would do the same but it seems like the traffic controllers over do it from what @stricturessays. Tbh there's some places where I'd even set up a reversible type of thing especially on Sheridan in some spots. It could work as a pressure relief valve for traffic 

[Busjack]

40 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

That's what I covered when I mentioned a "set of patterns before/after events". "Before venue" settings would prioritize efficient flow for patrons heading to the games by prioritizing EB traffic on Irving, Addison and Belmont, the reverse afterwards. Clark would do the same but it seems like the traffic controllers over do it from what @stricturessays. Tbh there's some places where I'd even set up a reversible type of thing especially on Sheridan in some spots. It could work as a pressure relief valve for traffic 

On the signals, the city complained at the time that TSP was put on Ashland, the wiring wwas so old that some grant was needed to pay for it.

On the reversible lanes point, there used to be pop up barriers on North LSD providing 6 lanes in the rush direction and two in the other, and the reversible lane overhead lights were on Hollywood and Ridge up to about Clark. (II don't remember if they were on Sheridan.) Obviously, they were all removed, and with rush hour patterns being disturbed by Covid, would be more problematic now.

There are just some places (especially in Lakeview), where streets are too tight for current auto traffic.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

On the signals, the city complained at the time that TSP was put on Ashland, the wiring wwas so old that some grant was needed to pay for it.

On the reversible lanes point, there used to be pop up barriers on North LSD providing 6 lanes in the rush direction and two in the other, and the reversible lane overhead lights were on Hollywood and Ridge up to about Clark. (II don't remember if they were on Sheridan.) Obviously, they were all removed, and with rush hour patterns being disturbed by Covid, would be more problematic now.

There are just some places (especially in Lakeview), where streets are too tight for current auto traffic.

Yes there used to be reverse  barriers on Sheridan between Hollywood and Devon/Broadway.   

[Busjack]

Saw in a news break, but from ABC7: "CTA bus driver kidnapped at knifepoint on NW Side, escaped on Near North Side."

Essence is that someone pulled a knife on a driver of a 53 bus at Pulaski and Fullerton at 2:40 a.m. , driver hit the silent alarm, bus was tracked to North and Clark where the driver and assailant escaped, but the accused was soon caught.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

Saw in a news break, but from ABC7: "CTA bus driver kidnapped at knifepoint on NW Side, escaped on Near North Side."

Essence is that someone pulled a knife on a driver of a 53 bus at Pulaski and Fullerton at 2:40 a.m. , driver hit the silent alarm, bus was tracked to North and Clark where the driver and assailant escaped, but the accused was soon caught.

Bus involved is #8665.

bus took Belmont, Broadway into Clark, and the crazy encounter ended at Clark & chestnut in gold coast at 3am