THURS.: C.T.A. To Hold Final Hearing on Troubling Service Changes

The CTA will hold 3 public meetings this week on proposed changes in West side bus & train service (locations and times below).

The CTA is proposing these changes take place this year.

One of these changes is to create a NEW train service: Phase I of the Circle Line, which is a re-route of the existing 54th/Cermak Blue Line Train

The change calls for 54th/Cermak trains to stop going to and from O'Hare, the northwest side, the downtown Dearborn St. subway and the Racine and Halsted Eisenhower train stops. 54th/Cermak Blue Line trains would change their route to go over the Paulina Street Connector to/from Polk St. to/from the Green Line, then go east to downtown, loop around on the elevated and go back to the Paulina Connector and onto Polk St. For anyone who pays sales tax in Chicago, or any of the suburbs: the CTA wants to use $4 million of our sales tax dollars to create the new Circle Line service. It is new because it would disconnect the 54th/Cermak trains and the people who operate them from the present route. Since the CTA will not cut service to and from O'Hare or get any new rail cars until at least 2007 or 2008, this NEW service would take rail cars off of existing rail lines

Either new train operators would be hired or train operators would be taken from other existing rail lines. At the same time the CTA has eliminated cash transfers, hiked fares for all cash customers and those who use the automatic fare card, why would it start a new service, when it has a hard time maintaining service on existing bus and train routes??

If the CTA asked us, its customers, which would we prefer: a new rail service that actually cuts service for most of the people who take that train or improve existing train and bus service throughout the city and suburbs: what do we think the response would be?

Anyone trying to get to any of the present train stations on the present Blue Line route: O'Hare, the northwest side, the downtown Dearborn St. subway and the Racine and Halsted Eisenhower stops would have to transfer at the outdoor Lake & Clark elevated stop, walk or ride the elevator down into the Bl;ue Line subway in the basement of the State of Illinois Building. This includes Forest Park Blue Line riders who take the train to Racine and then transfer to the 54th/Cermak Blue Line going toward Polk St. Anyone who transfers to/from the red line in the Jackson or Washington tunnels would have to get off at State/Lake and walk downstairs outside into the State/Lake Red Line stop

For those who take the Purple, Brown, Green or Orange lines and/or live along the West Lake St. branch of the Green line and think this will be more convenient consider this: 6-10 more trains per hour will be put onto the Green Line between Pauline east to downtown and around the loop. During the rush hour it will be 10 additional trains per hour: one every 6 minutes

* How often have Green, Brown, Orange or Purple Line riders had to sit in stopped trains at the rail crossing of Wells and Lake, waiting for another train to cross over??
* How often have you waited at a station because trains become bunched during rush hour
* Imagine what it will be like with 10 more trains per hour every rush hour??

The Polk St. station is the only station on the west side with an elevator for the disabled.

Disabled Staff, faculty, students, patients and visitors who take either the Red Line, Forest Park Blue Line or the 54th/Cermak Blue from/to O'Hare, the northwest side, the downtown Dearborn St. subway and the Racine and Halsted Eisenhower stops to/from the "world's largest" health science campus will now have to spend at least 30 minutes more negotiating one or two more transfer to get to the Polk St. station elevator

These changes drastically effect workers, students and patients on both the West and East UIC campuses, John H. Stroger Hospital, Rush, West Side VA, Light House for the Blind, Cook County Juvenile Center, Whitney Young High School, the Chicago Police Academy, the multitude of businesses along Halsted St., the largest U.S. Post Office and Union Station at Clinton, thousands who work downtown and thousands more who work on the northwest side, including those who transfer at Jefferson Park, and thousands more who work and travel at O'Hare, as well as people who go to/from Pilsen, North Lawndale, Little Village and Cicero: including Mt. Sinai Hospital, St. Anthony Hospital, and the Cook County Courthouse and jail.

Last year, a coalition of community based organizations, unions, churches, students, businesses and workers stopped this proposed change from happening.

We are counting on your participation in these meetings and afterwards: join with us to raise your voices against changing the 54th/Cermak Blue Line Route

Use the $4 million dollars this new service would cost to reverse the fare hike and improve existing bus and train services!

Format of each of the 3 meetings:

CTA staff will first make presentations of all changes

Then the public will be invited to move to tables with large boards that have drawings for each of the proposed changes.

Each table will be staffed by the CTA where the public can ask questions and make comments

Each of the 3 presentations will have CTA staff who are fluent in Spanish

From the CTA website:
www.transitchicago.com/news/whatsnewA.wu

The Chicago Transit Authority invites area residents to join us for a preview of proposed service improvements for bus routes and rail lines that serve the West Side Corridor.

Meetings are scheduled as follows:

Tuesday, January 10, 2006, 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
University of Illinois – Chicago Campus
Student Center West
828 S. Wolcott Avenue, 2nd Floor
Chicago Rooms A & B
Chicago, IL

Wednesday, January 11, 2006, 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
10th District Police Station
3315 W. Ogden Avenue
Community Room
Chicago, IL

Thursday, January 12, 2006, 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Howard Mohr Community Center
7640 Jackson Boulevard
Forest Park, IL