Citizens Advisory Board

Many of you may not be aware that there is wonderful group of citizen-customers who regularly engage and advise the CTA. This group is called the Citizens Advisory Board, and its members are regional leaders in government, transportation policy, business development, and community affairs dedicated to transit and CTA’s mission of providing safe, clean, on-time, courteous and efficient public transit for our region’s customers.

CAB members include:

• Greg White (Chairman)
• MarySue Barrett
• Marian Bond
• Jack Catlin
• Jacquelyne Grimshaw
• Hon. Linzey Jones
• Rickey Sain
• Hon. George Van Dusen
• David Weinstein

The Transit Board, CTA staff, and the CAB engage in high-level discourse on legislative affairs (including CAB members advocating on behalf of CTA in Springfield regarding operations and capital funding), day-to-day operations (including monitoring the slow-zone mitigation projects, bus bunching, the planned purchase of new rail cars and other service improvements), and more long-term strategic concerns (such as business improvements and customer service changes). Indeed, the CAB weighed in on many of the service improvements you are now experiencing, and they will continue to work with CTA to identify future areas of need.

The CAB will be having its regularly scheduled public meeting this Wednesday, March 5 at 1PM at CTA’s 567 W. Lake headquarters. CAB Chairman White and I encourage you attend to witness a very informative discussion about CTA’s future direction.

Purple Line and the Sheridan station

I've received a regular question or two on the possibility of Purple Line trains stopping at the Sheridan station during three tracking. Our Vice President for Planning provided me with the following response to the question:

"Only a very, very small portion of the boardings in the AM rush at Belmont and Fullerton (one to two percent) would shift their travel to use the Sheridan stop on the Purple Line--and there would be no significant benefit to customers at the crowded Belmont and Fullerton stations. Additionally, while some riders using the Sheridan stop might benefit by waiting for a Purple Line train, the Purple is running on a 15-minute headway, making it likely that most customers will choose to travel to Belmont to catch either a Brown or the first Purple Line train instead. Finally, a stop at Sheridan would delay the over 5,200 Purple Line through-travelers (who are the vast majority of Purple Line customers) and present them with even longer travel times in an already choked corridor with other inherent delays and slow-zones.

Given that the vast majority of passengers in the Brown Line corridor would not benefit from such a change, and the potential slow down in service for the majority of our customers, I do not recommend that CTA stop Purple Line trains at Sheridan during three track operations."

Sunday, March 30th

Yesterday, the Board took action on the Brown Line construction project that will mean some improvements for customers and some new temporary headaches. We're moving forward on time and on budget and are now at the second phase of the three-track operation at Belmont and Fullerton. Here’s what will happen beginning Sunday, March 30^th:

• Southbound Brown Line trains will be limited to one southbound track at the Belmont and Fullerton stations;
• To ease the temporary congestion resulting from three-tracking, we're adding eight car trains (from the current six car trains) to the Brown Line during morning and evening rush hours almost two years ahead of schedule;
• In order to safely provide eight-car trains, Paulina and Wellington stations will close temporarily because they can only berth six-car trains;
• We'll reopen the Southport station and open a temporary station at Diversey, both of which will be able to accommodate eight car trains (service will reopen at these stations almost three months earlier than originally planned). Work to install elevators and complete the stationhouse at Diversey will continue throughout the spring;
• Ridership capacity on the Red Line will be reduced by twenty percent;
• Current Purple Line service will not change.

I encourage you to read through the press release and visit the three track website (which I link above) so you can be prepared for your commute on March 30th.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we continue to move forward in completing this historic project. For those of you who haven't yet seen the renovated stations, I encourage you to take a ride (not during rush hour, ha) or visit our Brown Line project site for photos and a progress chart of what we've accomplished so far.