CTA fire marshals

[MRChiCity]

I was at Evanston Police and Fire open house yesterday and learned something interesting. The CTA has fire Marshalls. They act as a liaison between the CTA,CFD,and the suburban FD's for incidents involving CTA buses and L trains. They also coordinate training. They can carry up to four radios, on for the CTA, another for CFD, another for Rosemont , and another for the various suburbs the CTA runs through. Sounds like a very interesting job. I also learned that the response for the CTA Howard yard is CFD, even for the part that's in Evanston.

[strictures]

7 hours ago, MRChiCity said:

I also learned that the response for the CTA Howard yard is CFD, even for the part that's in Evanston.

That finally explains why CFD handled the Swift crash last year, even though it was in the Evanston part of the yard.

[Busjack]

42 minutes ago, strictures said:

That finally explains why CFD handled the Swift crash last year, even though it was in the Evanston part of the yard.

That's actually questionable, as the city line is the west side of the Howard Yard. IIRC, the impact was on the east side of the wall along Chicago Ave..so it was in Chicago (official map).

[strictures]

9 hours ago, Busjack said:

That's actually questionable, as the city line is the west side of the Howard Yard. IIRC, the impact was on the east side of the wall along Chicago Ave..so it was in Chicago (official map).

That is 100% wrong.  Even that map shows the Chicago limits as one track east of the Evanston L extension in the middle of the yard.    All of that area, west of the CTA mainline & north of Howard is, was & will continue to be Evanston.  The entire turn around loop is Evanston.  As a kid, my dad bought lumber at the Hines Mears Yard, which is where the CTA yard section south of the Swift tracks was & was definitely in Evanston.  Mears was directly north of that building that remains at Howard & Chicago in Evanston.  The actual city limits between Chicago & Evanston is between tracks 2 & 3 at Howard & the centerline of Howard St, west of that point.  You can see that dot-dash city limits line on the map.  The reason Evanston de-annexed the section east of the L & north of Howard was due to the expense of bringing water & sewer lines there.  Between the L tracks & Calvary Cemetery it was far too expensive.  So they came to an agreement with Chicago in the early 1900s for Chicago to then take it over, because extending water & sewer lines across Howard was far simpler & cheaper.

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, strictures said:

Even that map shows the Chicago limits as one track east of the Evanston L extension in the middle of the yard.

This map may more clearly support your point.

[strictures]

10 hours ago, Busjack said:

This map may more clearly support your point.

They still need to explain why CFD responds to the Howard Yard & not the Evanston FD, unless CFD just has more equipment & training.  It might be because at the CFD fire station at Glenlake & Clark, there is a short section of rail track there with a third rail for training purposes.

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, strictures said:

They still need to explain why CFD responds to the Howard Yard & not the Evanston FD, unless CFD just has more equipment & training.  It might be because at the CFD fire station at Glenlake & Clark, there is a short section of rail track there with a third rail for training purposes.

Who is "they?" In any event, Evanston doesn't have direct access to the yard, even if CTA built the HoDar project over the city  line, that doesn't mean Evanston has primary responsibility.

For that matter, when someone gets shot in your neighborhood in Rogers Park, why does CFD take them to St.. Francis Hospital, bankrupting it?  Can't Swedish Hospital (in the city) take care of it? "They" need to explain that😵.

[Sam92]

2 hours ago, strictures said:

They still need to explain why CFD responds to the Howard Yard & not the Evanston FD, unless CFD just has more equipment & training.  It might be because at the CFD fire station at Glenlake & Clark, there is a short section of rail track there with a third rail for training purposes.

Considering this is border territory I don't see the need to nitpick over who's jurisdiction it is be grateful an issue that arises gets handled however it does 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, Sam92 said:

Considering this is border territory I don't see the need to nitpick over who's jurisdiction it is be grateful an issue that arises gets handled however it does 

Correct. IIRC, at the Yellow Line accident, there were Evanston ambulances lined up on the Chicago Ave. bridge over the Yellow Line cut to take away  victims who were carried up the berm, but if that's their only mean of access, that isn't adequate. Nonetheless, both cities responded.