Tag: publictransportation

CTA Vintage Car Ride

Yesterday, I received a surprise email from CTA, announcing the vintage L-train ride around the Loop (to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the CTA)

Today, when I spoke to the volunteers on the train, they told me that they purposely announced it at the last minute to avoid the crowds. There was still quite a crowd, as they kept saying, “pre-pandemic ridership level.”

And it was so much fun! The train was almost 100 years old, and it had been in service for fifty years!

Everything in the car was exactly like it looked in the 20s-30s, plus some later advertisements, and the conductor announced the stops using the hand-held radio.

Getting Around In Portland

It was fast and convenient to get to and from the airport. The train stops just outside the terminal, and the ride cost me $2.80, with a total ride duration of about 45 minutes and a nice walk to the hotel.

To be fair, I should say that the Blue Line in Chicago will also take you to the airport from the Loop in about 45-50, so it’s mostly just me living in the wrong place :). On Friday, I left for the airport earlier to try to get there without Uber. I did, and the Red Line worked great, but with the connection and the Blue Line being generally slower, it totaled 1 hour and 50 minutes .

I Taught A CTA Employee How To Take Metra!

Today is Wednesday, which means I have a personal training session over Zoom. My trainer lives in LA, so even though he is an Early Bird, he can’t train me at 5 AM CT. We tried to work it out for several years, and our current arrangement is that on Wednesdays, I go to the office super early and we have a training session in our office gym.

For a while, I was able to take the shower 6 AM Metra train, and be ready just after 6:30, but when the new station opened, the travel time increased, and I opted for taking the Red Line (there are no Metra trains between 5 and 6 AM). I know that in order to be comfortably on time, I need to leave the house at 5:20. Five minutes later is still OK, but tight.

Today, I was ready at 5:22, but I stopped to check whether my flowers needed more watering and lost five minutes. I ran into the CTA station just at the moment when a CTA employee was putting up the sign “Service disruption.” He said he didn’t know what had happened, but something had happened at Thorndale, and the trains were not moving. I sighed and said, “Well, I guess I am going to the Metra station.” Another employee asked: You know how to get there? I said: Absolutely! The train leaves at 6 AM. I will be a little bit late, but not so bad.

I turned around and started walking when I heard her shouting from the station: Could you wait for me? I will go with you!

While we were walking, I learned a lot about her. She lives in Aurora(!!!), and commutes by Amtrak and then CTA every evening. She works night shifts Monday through Friday, and another employee who lives in Waukegan had told her a number of times that she should use Metra, but she was unsure how to get there. We talked about how Jarvis Station was so nice, and such a contrast to Howard, and about the homeless sleeping on the trains, and how it’s scary that Trump wants to put them into some facilities. I told her about my volunteering for the Bight Ministry, and how everyone is anxious, and living one day at a time. She said that the world is a scary place these days, and I must worry about my children and grandchildren. I told her that worrying is not productive, and I am trying to do good things when I can.

She said I inspired her with my active lifestyle, and that my energy was contagious, and that she will see me on the CTA :). I might actually see her when I am returning from the shows!

A Small Miracle

On Wednesday, my neighbor and I saw a play Tiatnique at the Broadway Playhouse. There are many good things I can say about this theater: it is the only one of all of the Broadway in Chicago theaters built recently, so the floor plan is much better, the seats are more comfortable, and the view of the stage is great from any angle. Also, it’s the only one of the Broadway in Chicago theaters that is located outside the Chicago Theater District, close to the Water Tower. With that, getting there and getting home requires some planning, simply because it’s not the usual way we get home.

When we got out of the theater and reached Michigan Avenue, we saw bus 147 approaching the stop, and my neighbor said: Let’s go! (We were going to walk to the Red Line.) I hesitated, because I expected a way longer ride, but I saw that she would prefer the bus, and said – OK. The miracle was that it took us only 27 minutes to get home from the Water Tower, and half of this time was spent on frequent stops closer to our home. I still can’t believe it! It was as fast as a cab ride! If the announced plans to increase service come true in the next couple of months, there will be less than 10-minute intervals between bus services. Fingers crossed!

Travels

I am on a move again, doing several new things and hoping that the net will be positive.

  • Obviously, I didn’t plan it, but I fell down on the icy stairs last Friday and hurt the bottom badly. I know it will take weeks to get over, and I should be glad it didn’t happen today. By now, I can walk, sleep, sit and work at my desk, and take public transportation, and the only way it hurt is the way you sit on a plane!
  • I am flying with a connection in JFK, which I avoided for years, but when I was looking for tickets for my original trip (planned for the New Year), the price was exceptional, and the connection looked great (no terminal change), so I gave in, also trying to get out of my comfort zone. I guess getting out of your comfort zone is good :).
  • Because of the usual mixup when the flight is “operated by” a different airline, I was unable to select the seats beforehand. By the time I was able to check in, I had literally the worst seat in the Economy Premium without any option to change (all others were already taken). That’s a minus.
  • When it was time to leave, I started ordering Uber. The price of the trip to ORD was $54 for Comfort (and just a couple bucks less for regular), and then they couldn’t find a ride for me for a couple of minutes. Remembering how Boris nearly missed his flight last time and realizing that today was Friday before the long weekend, I switched to a ride to Cumberland. The price went down to $30, the car was available, and the driver smartly navigated through residential streets to avoid the traffic. We made it to Cumberland a little bit later than projected, but I didn’t complain. That’s a plus
  • When I got down to the station platform, the tableau said that the next train to ORD was in 23 minutes! AAAAA!!! But then the train appeared ten minutes later, and not crowded at all, so plus at the end.
  • When the train was pulling into the ORD station, the American Airlines app decided to give me a mobile pass, which is a huge plus, but immediately notified me about a 45-minute delay!
  • I had a three-hour connection, and there was no more delay and the food in the lounge was good, so that was a plus.
  • No terminal change and hence no additional security checks in JFK was a gigantic plus!
  • They do not have a Finnair lounge, but their AA lounge was good.
  • It turned out that there is no position for me to be half-reclined without an acute pain, so I slept for barely an hour tonight, although technically I could have a full night of decent sleep (I skipped the dinner onboard, because I ate in both longes)
  • We are supposedly arriving on time, and if I will manage to compensate my lack of sleep, it would be great!

“When You Do Not Have To Drive”

Two days ago, I stood on the Rogers Park Metra UP-North platform, waiting for the train, and one of the fellow passengers greeted me. It was cold, and the snow just started to fall, sparkling and beautiful. A passenger said: You know, when you do not have to drive, you can enjoy it! It’s beautiful!

Public Transportation News

I didn’t know about it, but there is a way to request new bike racks at specific locations. I learned about it from the newsletter of our new, about-to-open coop, Wild Onion Market, and I requested a bike rack close to our about-to-be-open coop.

Another thing that is on the news: Chicago has had the largest increase in bikers for the past several years compared to any other US city, but bikers’ safety is among the worst. And those who are in Chicago do not need to be reminded about it!

As for other means of public transportation, the Metra line, which I use for my commute (UP-North), has launched a new schedule. First, there is now one extra stop between mine and the next one towards the city. That’s more bad than good news for me because it now takes longer to get to the final destination. There is also some good news, though: several trains were added to the weekday schedule. The one which I really wanted departs Rogers Park Station at 6-30. I took it on Monday, the first day of the new schedule in effect, and there were only four people except for me who got on this train at Rogers Park. I think that there will be more, and I hope that it will offload some people from the 7 AM train.

Speaking of which, I took a 7-15 AM today because I wanted to have a longer bike ride before work and also because I thought that 7-15 would be less crowded. But alas, I still had to stand all the way to the final stop! Tuesdays are impossible! I don’t know who is “not in the office” these days.

There is one more extra morning train (8-10), which I believe should ease the morning commute for the second morning wave, and also an outbound 4-50PM. And also, Kenosha finally becomes reachable during the day, which means that we can drop-off/pick-up my granddaughters there. The only remaining issue is how to get to work on Tuesday and have a bike ride before that 🙂

The Series Of Unfortunate Events

It was an ideal morning for a long bike ride. I left the house before dawn with all intentions of having the first long bike ride of the season. I had gloves on and a bag with wipes so that I could fix the chain if it fell off. I was biking and thinking about how well I was prepared, how I had an injury last May that ruined a big chunk of my summer, and how it would not happen again.

And then…. I ran over a small branch on the bike path and got a flat tire! It was so dumb that I could easily avoid it! It was 28 minutes into my ride, which means I was pretty far into it! The closest CTA stop was Thorndale, and I started my walk there. It was not much fun when I needed to walk the bike, and it took me pretty much the same time to reach the station. When I climbed up holding my bike (no elevator), I looked at the train tracker and saw that the next train was in 27 minutes!!! I cursed – but what could I do?! I stood at the platform for the train in my direction and suddenly saw a train approaching from the opposite direction! I thought – well, that looks like there is a problem somewhere on the tracks, I guess I need to wait. Five minutes later, I saw a train in my direction, going on the far track without stopping! I was: what’s going on?! I still waited, the tracker showed 23 min, then, one more train in the wrong direction stopped, and one of the passengers told me: you need to go in that direction and then go back!

It was only then that I opened the CTA web page and read the Red Line alerts: they were doing track repair, and the trains in the North direction didn’t stop “from Thorndale through Jarvis.” I cursed again but now had to wait for the next train South. (And Sunday trains are, to put it mildly, not so frequent). Finally, the train arrived, and having checked the CTA website (Thorndale through Jarvis), I stepped out on the platform and brought my bike down again to switch to the opposite direction, and only when I was down, and I didn’t see others stairs up, I remembered, that Bryn Marw works only in one direction until the new station will be built. So, I had to bring my bike up again and wait for yet another train South. The next stop, Berwyn, is closed until God knows what time for renovation, so I could only exit on Argyle. Then there was one piece of good luck because the train North was standing on the other side, and at least I didn’t have to go down and up again. Only when I was on board and heard the announcement did I realize that “thorough Jarvis” meant that it would not stop at Jarvis! So… I had to go to Howard, and escalator up and stairs down, and wait again, and finally got home, plus one more stairs down.

I returned home two and a half hours after I left in the morning, having biked for less than half an hour!

This post attempts to make lemonade from lemons, so please, no condolences!

In spite of my best efforts, I didn’t miss my train

My trip to an oil boom town in North Dakota started off on a pretty nerve-wrecking note.

I feel like, at this point, “in spite of my best efforts, I managed to make my Amtrak train” has become a running joke. For every time I made it onto the station with plenty of time to spare, there are two times when I caught it pretty close, either because I didn’t leave as early as I could, or there were transit issues, or some combinations of both. But even compared to all that, catching the Empire Builder today felt like miracle.

My plan was to do what I usually do when taking the Hiawatha train to visit my sister. Since I usually head down to Milwaukee on Friday, I take Red Line/Yellow Line/Pace Route 210 combination to the Glenview Amtrak station. It just feels silly to go down to Chicago Union Station only to go back up again on Amtrak when you live in Rogers Park. That’s not an option on the weekend, since none of the Pace bus routes serving Glenview run on weekends, so I just take the train down to Union Station and take Brown/Red line train combination up to Rogers Park.

Continue reading “In spite of my best efforts, I didn’t miss my train” →

:)

On Tuesday, I was on a very crowded train on my way back home (who is still saying people are not back to the office?!). The conductor walked into our car, and walking all the way through the car, he was saying: Take out your phones, open your apps, let’s make it quick. When he reached the other end of the car, he turned back and said: And now, everybody, raise your phones!

Everybody laughed and raised their phones, and he waved: OK, everybody’s fine!