Humanize the Earth!

Metra’s bikes on trains program is a fraud

The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation tells us to … visit the Metra website for details about the program including rules and regulations, [and] blackout dates … which would be fine if Metra would tell the truth. Yesterday, I followed the CBF instructions, and visited the Metra Bikes on Trains page specifically looking for blackout dates. This what I found:

Bicycles are permitted on all weekday trains arriving in Chicago after 9:30 AM and leaving Chicago before 3:00 PM and after 7:00 PM, and on all weekend trains, with the following exceptions:

• Blues Fest (June 7 - 10)
• All days during Taste of Chicago (June 29 - July 8)
• Independence Eve Fireworks (July 3)
• Venetian Night (July 28)
• Air & Water Show (August 18 & 19)
• Jazz Fest (August 30 - September 2)

Great, I thought. August 4th isn’t listed. So I went to Ogilvy Transportation Center and attempted to board a UPN train at 2:35pm. The conductor told me “No Bikes on Trains this weekend.” When I asked why not, he said “Lollapalloza, Cubs game, Bears game.” When I told him that I just checked the Metra website and this weekend wasn’t listed as a blackout weekend he said, “Too bad.”

If I cannot count on the information on the Metra website, why would I ever use this program again? I have places to go and have to be able to count on the means to do so. If there’s a chance there is a stealth blackout, that means I cross Metra off my list of options for getting where I need to go. This program is useless!

Today, I’m going to Wilmette again. Will I try Metra? No way!

Trains scale-up better than planes

Even as a big fan of passenger rail, I never would’ve guessed that this is true. Why do we fly again? The Equivalent of Midway Airport - Right Downtown:

Understanding the potential of Union Station requires thinking on a much larger scale than when thinking about airports.

For example: A 737, the workhorse of domestic flights, holds 130 people.

On the other hand, Amtrak’s smallest trains hold 200 people (with no center seats.)

During busy travel periods, Amtrak’s sleeper trains can exceed the seating capacity of 747s.Many peak-hour Metra trains exceed 1100 seats.

Many French TGV’s also have 1100 seats (no center seats and two bars) – twice the size of the new super-jumbo Airbus A380. They cover the distance of Chicago to Pittsburg or Memphis in just three hoursTrains also come out ahead in space requirements. Union Station’s 15 track south concourse is about same width as just one and a half gates at a major airport.

And since large buildings can be built immediately adjacent to a railroad station, many people can walk or take a quick cab ride to their final destination making huge parking lots unnecessary.

The result is much more intense economic activity at a lower cost.

Praise for Doing Extra

I want to thank Ann, who works at Infection Disease Associates & Travel Medicine in Downers Grove, Illinois. 

I received a Yellow Fever vaccination from them in August of 2000.  Many African countries will not issue an entry visa without proof of Yellow Fever vaccination, so the certification form is quite important.  I’ve lost mine twice since 2000.  This thank you is about this second replacement, which was actually accomplished today, with Ann doing way more than her job requires.

As a result of some personal and personnel issues in their office, they weren’t able to act on the phone messages I’d been leaving intermittantly for the last 3 weeks.  I finally go ahold of Ann yesterday and she agreed to meet me at a train station near her house to hand off the document.  This is really amazing, because their office is quite a bit further outside the city (and not near a train station) and I have no car, so going all the way out there would’ve been a major hardship.  As it was, I was able to ride my bike 3 miles from my house to the Metra, take the bike on the Metra (remembering to bring a rag to wipe it down from the road grime so the conductors would let me on), get off to get the paperwork and ride 3 miles back east to get on the el (our subway system in Chicago), which was necessary because Metra didn’t have another train back inbound for well over an hour.

Anyway, the point of this is: Thanks Ann!

Illinois joins rail compact

Governor’s press release:

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today signed legislation to add Illinois to the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact (MIPRC), a regional association that promotes the development of intercity rail. House Bill 4344 adds Illinois to the number of Midwestern states working to promote and advocate for passenger rail service on a federal, regional and local level. Last year, Gov. Blagojevich doubled funding for state sponsored passenger rail in Illinois’ partnership with Amtrak, more than doubling the number of daily round-trips on downstate routes.

Amtrak tickets on sale for new service across Illinois

Great news in Illinois about passenger rail. The State has doubled it’s financial committment to rail in the State which has resulted in a huge expansion of passenger service. From Midwest High Speed Rail Association:

… Tickets have gone on sale for the new Amtrak Illinois “Lincoln Service” trains on the Chicago –
Springfield – St. Louis corridor. Similar announcements have been made for new service on the Carbondale and Quincy lines.

The new CTA Pink Line begins June 25th

I live near the California Pink Line station and am excited for increased service!

Illinois passenger trains - great news!

By email today from Rick Harnish of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association:

Late last week, the Illinois Legislature approved its FY2007 budget. It includes the largest expansion of Amtrak service in the State’s history.

Here is what we expect will result from this budget increase:

1) Chicago - Milwaukee: Remains at 7 daily roundtrips.

2) Chicago - Carbondale: Grows from 2 daily roundtrips to 3. Adds a morning northbound and a morning southbound. (100% increase in state-funded service)

3) Chicago - Quincy: Grows from 1 daily roundtrip to 2. Adds a morning westbound and an evening eastbound. (100% increase in state-funded service)

4) Chicago - St. Louis: Grows from 3 daily roundtrips to 5. Adds a morning express train southbound and a more reasonable morning departure out of St. Louis. Also, adds evening trains in both directions. (200% increase in state-funded service)

The target date for start-up is October 2006.

electricity/train

Anyone know anything more about this? CTA tattler tells us:

Through regeneration, AC propulsion offers power savings. Some of the power used to accelerate the train can be recovered and put back into the power (third) rail when stopping the train. This provides additional power to accelerate other trains and reduces the total amount of energy required to run the system. On trains using DC propulsion systems, the braking energy is dissipated as heat.

Sounds pretty amazing!

Chicago transit on the West Side

Tonight I went to an open house of the Chicago Transit Authority where they presented their plans for transit changes (upgrades, I’d say) in the West Side corridor (Chicago Ave to 26th St). Among the many changes to bus routes (new express buses, extended routes, etc) is a big one to the trains. Currenly trains from O’hare pass through downtown and then split onto two lines as they head west. The plan is to take all of those existing trains onto the Forest Park (the northern spur of the two), basically doubling service on that branch. The Cermak branch, where I live, will go from 4 trains per hour now to 6 trains per hour (a decrease in wait times from 15 minutes to 10) and instead of going by subway to downtown and then O’hare, will use a currently unused piece of track along Paulina to Lake Street and the Green Line tracks, and from there to Clinton, Clark&Lake and around the loop, back to Clinton and our branch (this is similar to what the Brown, Purple and Orange lines currently do, go from their terminal, around the loop and back again. And, during rush hours 2 trains per hour will still go from Cermak branch to the subway and O’hare, so lots more service, in total. Go CTA!

Downside from the event tonight was that the announcements weren’t in Spanish and the initial presentation (only a few minutes long) was also not bi-lingual. They did have a translator there and as soon as they were able to get us spread out around the room looking at posters of the different routes, the shouting stopped. CTA really needs to understand how to reach all it’s populations.

crossposted from http://bikechicago.info/marshallsquare/blog/index.php/2006/01/11/cta-changes-on-west-side/

A train ride across Michigan

A train ride across Michigan MouseMusings, who comments: “Late or not, a departure on Amtrak feels to me as if we are beginning to arrive.”

I love this line: “Trains are wonderful for moving large quantities of people or goods. But they are most perfect as metaphors.”

and “I said something about how we’re not taking advantage of the economy of scale that predominates the operation of a rail system, i.e. the more full trains you have, the better the return on your tax dollars.”

and in one of the comments: The sooner we recognize that passanger (sic) rail is a public service, not a business and that it will never turn a profit, the better off we’ll be.

My thoughts: Streetlights don’t turn a profit. Nor do public parks. Or police or fire service. Public schools don’t turn a profit either. Public transit, like passenger rail service, needs to be funded by the public to make our communities strong. All of these are part of The Commons, owned by us all to benefit us all. Today we also subsidize highways and the aviation system, I suppose figuring both are good for the economy. That may be, but it’s time for equal treatment to be given to the public rails and buses. In Chicago we’ve got it pretty good with buses and trains, at least compared to many other American cities.

And my dream is still that we’d subsidize local transit even further, to the point where it’s free. Imagine how many people would ride the el and the bus if it were free? So many that we’d be able to provide much better bus service on less-congested roads, I’d bet. So many that full lanes on street could be given over to bicycles. More people would bike, knowing that if they get tired or aren’t prepared for the weather, they could always get on a fast, frequent bus for free. Boarding buses and trains would be quicker without have to wait in line to pay, also cheaper for the transit agencies not to have to provide that payment infrastructure.

Amtrak will never be free, but the more people are used to getting around collectively, efficiently, convienently and predictibaly, the more will be willing to travel by intercity trains, and the more trains can be added.

Bonus for this post from the Albany New York Times Union via Rick Harnish: New York state is working on incremental improvements for Amtrak that include more tracks and sidings, and collaboration among the 3 companies that currently each own part of the trackage and operate trains on the Albany/New York City route. This won’t decrease travel times much on the schedule, but it will vastly improve on-time performance, a critcal step for Amtrak’s credibility. After that, funding for high-speed rail will be quite a bit easier.