Do You Feel Sufficiently Patronized Yet?
A while back, the CTA created a plan to reroute the Douglas Branch of the Blue Line up to the Green Line and around the Loop. This means that there would be trains between 54/Cermak and The Loop rather than 54/Cermak and O'Hare. The plan was announced without public input and community reactions were fiercely negative. A great deal of noise came from UIC, where students wouldn't be able to use the L as a shuttle between East and West campuses, but even "real" residents of the neighborhood were angry, principally over the lost one-seat ride to O'Hare.
At the time I believed it was a good plan, and I still do, but I was working on other political things with the CTA and saw their poor handling of the Blue Line situation as being a mirror of our experiences with them. They are arrogant, presumptive, and heavy handed. At any rate, the plan fell apart and the CTA had to slink away with its tale between its legs.
[READ MORE] | [Mar 08, 2006] | [transport] | # | G
