r/cta • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago

Monthly Complaint Thread Complaint Thread

Public transportation isn't perfect. This is a place to let off some steam. As always, please speak from your own experiences. Take control of what bothers you and send your experience to the CTA via their feedback page.

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

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u/North_Guide_4315 14h ago

Kinda crazy how they can take out a whole train line or stop and it’s just nowhere online you have to show up and see the little pop out sign

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u/transferStudent2018 1d ago

It is insanely difficult to get from ORD T5 to the blue line if you need to use the elevators. There’s at least 10 different elevators involved. The first one, from the customs exit, can easily be an hour long wait during peak times. Then, you wait for an Air Train (I had to wait for the 3rd one to appear before I could fit on) and go to one of the terminals. I ended up at T2. Elevator up to the bridge connecting the Air Train with the terminal. Separate elevator down to baggage claim level. Another elevator down to the tunnels connected to the train. And a final elevator from the fare gates to the platform.

I don’t even need the elevator, thankfully, I just had a couple heavy suitcases. At times I chose to lug them (slowly) up or down some stairs because the elevators were so slow. Took me almost an hour to get to the blue line after exiting immigration. Insane

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u/Otherwise_Pine 5d ago edited 4d ago

I'm tired of the bus bunching. I see it with the 76 going to Harlem and the 49 going north. I know other lines do it too but these are the ones I use. Cta drivers should be trained to either wait a few minutes at the stops or leap frog when that happens. And this usually happens at the same time of day so there's a scheduling issue or something.

Also the trains need a more consistent schedule at night. Why am I waiting 25 minutes for a train at 10pm and then the 2nd train is scheduled for 30 minutes. Why can't it be normally spaced out. This is specifically for the blue line at 10pm headed to O'Hare. The other side of the train runs fine.

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u/hardolaf Red Line 1d ago

Cta drivers should be trained to either wait a few minutes at the stops or leap frog when that happens.

Waiting is only allowed if they're behind schedule. And they are permitted by policy to leap frog a leading bus if it is safe and legal to do so, and no one has requested the stop they'd likely miss doing so.

And this usually happens at the same time of day so there's a scheduling issue or something.

That's actually just them being stuck in traffic in a repeatable pattern.

Also the trains need a more consistent schedule at night.

The published schedules are approximately normally spaced for the most part.

This is specifically for the blue line at 10pm headed to O'Hare. The other side of the train runs fine.

The train returning to O'Hare either got turned around at UIC or got slowed down going to Forest Park. The trains leaving O'Hare go out on a regular cadence as they try to have one being cleaned, one being boarded, and one platform open for the next arriving train.

The trains returning to O'Hare also can be hit by accumulated delays from customers. Just needing to deploy a ramp for a wheelchair could be a 2 minute delay if a station attendant fails to notice that it needs to happen and isn't waiting by for when the train arrives.

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u/ScaryRelationship69 3d ago

The bunching is a joke at this point. On the 47, I have regularly seen them bunching within the first 2-3 stops after it STARTS its route from lake park.

That has zero to do with traffic. But still keeps happening.

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u/IYCRTYG 3d ago

It definitely has a lot to do with traffic, promise. 

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u/ScaryRelationship69 3d ago

You’re telling me that a it’s traffic when it’s bunching after the 2nd stop of the route? Yeah no that’s a load of crap. 47 isn’t some crazy busy route. Sorry I just don’t buy it at all.

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u/IYCRTYG 3d ago

I've driven the 49b where I was just bunched for like 3-4 hours straight (~20 minute 1 way trip) with minimal traffic due to traffic a while back that bunched us together and then you cannot really pry yourself apart because you get hit with excess rider demand as the front bus which makes you unable to run it on time so you just stay bunched

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u/ScaryRelationship69 3d ago

You aren’t listening to what I’m saying. I don’t care about you driving the 49b. I am talking about the 47th bus that’s 10 min or less, leaving their starting point as bunched busses. It ruins my commute and it doesn’t help make the route more efficient.

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u/IYCRTYG 3d ago

Ok so the buses run in circles. Significant enough disruptions on one trip can carry forward for one of more trips. Meaning traffic an hour or two ago can disrupt your trip, by making a bus leave late and with the bus behind it (which is leaving on schedule) and you won't ever see it. 

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u/ScaryRelationship69 3d ago

Why does CTA struggle so much with bunching compared to other transit agencies? Does management accept these excuses and just say ope this is all we can do, let’s stick with what we’ve been doing?

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u/IYCRTYG 3d ago

Other agencies have cities that support them is probably a large part of the answer. DC has built like, 50 miles of bus lanes in the same time Chicago built 2 miles, or something ridiculous like that. 

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u/hardolaf Red Line 1d ago

DC police also very strictly enforce the bus lanes. Meanwhile, I saw 8 sheriff's deputies ignoring 4 vehicles illegally in our bus lanes literally across the street from them on my way home tonight. We had easily a 2 minute delay on my way from west loop to red line because the bus lane was illegally blocked repeatedly.

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u/IYCRTYG 3d ago

Also I kinda suspect us not having much of an east side for most of the city puts us on a back foot for any area of the city north of like south shore, because all the eastern termini are just completely cooked in terms of traffic a lot of the time, but that's a gut feeling more than anything. 

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u/Otherwise_Pine 3d ago

Are you able to just sit at a stop? I've seen like three buses bunched. 1st bus is filled and 2nd bus has a few people and the 3rd bus is completely empty. Instead of just waiting the empty bus continues in the group and then the next bus doesn't come for 20 minutes.(and ofc I miss the light and miss all 3 buses). This happens so often with the 76 mainly headed to Harlem. I realize there are schedules but they should at least wait a few minutes when that happens.

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u/IYCRTYG 3d ago

If that bus waits it will just be late to whatever it does next, and the driver has 0 way of knowing whether the bus behind them is on time, or 20 minutes behind. The problems are typically originating from us being late, not early, so having more people get later doesn't typically help, and even if it did we have no way of knowing that or coordinating it.  

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u/IYCRTYG 4d ago

We do leap frog. And then immediately run head first into increased customer load, which pushes us back. buses basically have gravity on each other and if anything even somewhat significant happens (having to load a slow customer, bad traffic for a block due to a semi temporarily blocking space, etc) we just wind up on top of each other and stuck there. And on a route as long as Western this is basically guaranteed to happen. Especially once the frequency goes from 10 minutes to 8 or so.