Infrastructure update
A lot has happened at CTA in recent weeks, and it has been tough to find time to post here. I’m not really in a position to go beyond what has already been said about various service disruptions, other than to continue to ask for as much specific information (time, location, route and run) about customer announcements. I follow-up on every one of your reports, and I will continue to push for the highest level of customer communications possible.
We’ve also been looking at our capital needs. At the December Board meeting, our new head of construction discussed the current state of our slow zones before the Board’s Capital Construction Committee. As you can see here, we’ve made some progress. As Brad pointed out here in an earlier comment, the written presentation doesn’t cover every issue that has been discussed here, but the oral discussion did address a number of these issues, which I will address here.
The largest section of slow zones is on the Blue Line subway track, specifically between Jefferson Park and O’Hare, which was built for CTA by the City of Chicago in 1983. It turns out that some of the railroad ties in this section are deteriorating much faster than they are supposed to: some of these 23-year-old ties look worse than 40- or 50-year-old ties elsewhere in the system. The expected useful life of a wooden tie is 50 years, but for whatever reason some of this particular batch aren’t lasting that long. We have replaced many of these ties with newer and more durable plastic ties but there are still older ties that should be replaced to maximize speed.
There are also still too many slow zones on the Red Line north. The Brown Line project includes plans to fix slow zones around Clark Junction to help facilitate three-tracking, but -- contrary to what I was told previously -- not for most others between Belmont and Howard. However, CTA has requested this funding as part of its submission to RTA for unfunded capital needs. I am hopeful these needs will be funded as part of state action on the RTA's strategic plan.
CTA did address some of these challenges by reprogramming $35.7 million in its 2007 capital budget (PDF p. 90) to replace many Blue and Red subway ties between downtown and Damen on the Blue Line and Division and North/Clybourn on the Red Line, resulting in a significant reduction in those subway slow zones. This project had been budgeted several years ago but it was delayed when the state capital program expired. A contractor has been selected for this project and work will begin shortly.
One challenge in looking at the remaining slow zones is that not all slow zones are alike. Reduced speed on a high-speed straightaway has far more customer impact than reduced speed on a low-speed curve. There are other places where the existing signal system reduces speed for a greater distance than the underlying slow zone requires. We’re looking for interim ways to fix that before a more costly upgrade to the entire signal system.
While all of these challenges are linked to CTA’s unfunded capital needs, I am going to continue to seek ways to maximize the effectiveness of the funds we have, and to make a strong case for a better investment in the system.
We’ve also been looking at our capital needs. At the December Board meeting, our new head of construction discussed the current state of our slow zones before the Board’s Capital Construction Committee. As you can see here, we’ve made some progress. As Brad pointed out here in an earlier comment, the written presentation doesn’t cover every issue that has been discussed here, but the oral discussion did address a number of these issues, which I will address here.
The largest section of slow zones is on the Blue Line subway track, specifically between Jefferson Park and O’Hare, which was built for CTA by the City of Chicago in 1983. It turns out that some of the railroad ties in this section are deteriorating much faster than they are supposed to: some of these 23-year-old ties look worse than 40- or 50-year-old ties elsewhere in the system. The expected useful life of a wooden tie is 50 years, but for whatever reason some of this particular batch aren’t lasting that long. We have replaced many of these ties with newer and more durable plastic ties but there are still older ties that should be replaced to maximize speed.
There are also still too many slow zones on the Red Line north. The Brown Line project includes plans to fix slow zones around Clark Junction to help facilitate three-tracking, but -- contrary to what I was told previously -- not for most others between Belmont and Howard. However, CTA has requested this funding as part of its submission to RTA for unfunded capital needs. I am hopeful these needs will be funded as part of state action on the RTA's strategic plan.
CTA did address some of these challenges by reprogramming $35.7 million in its 2007 capital budget (PDF p. 90) to replace many Blue and Red subway ties between downtown and Damen on the Blue Line and Division and North/Clybourn on the Red Line, resulting in a significant reduction in those subway slow zones. This project had been budgeted several years ago but it was delayed when the state capital program expired. A contractor has been selected for this project and work will begin shortly.
One challenge in looking at the remaining slow zones is that not all slow zones are alike. Reduced speed on a high-speed straightaway has far more customer impact than reduced speed on a low-speed curve. There are other places where the existing signal system reduces speed for a greater distance than the underlying slow zone requires. We’re looking for interim ways to fix that before a more costly upgrade to the entire signal system.
While all of these challenges are linked to CTA’s unfunded capital needs, I am going to continue to seek ways to maximize the effectiveness of the funds we have, and to make a strong case for a better investment in the system.
posted by Carole Brown | 12/21/2006 05:32:00 PM
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