By Danny YadronThe Daily Northwestern
The Chicago Transit Authority’s ad slogan, “Seeing red?” might take on a whole new meaning this spring.
The CTA plans to close one of the four tracks that run between the Addison and Armitage stops and will reduce the red, brown and purple lines’ rush hour train capacity by up to 25 percent, tentatively starting April 2, the CTA said in a press release last week.
Although most of the changes will be happening in downtown Chicago, the effects will be felt by Evanston commuters and Northwestern students who use the purple line.
“I’m going to have to seriously re-evaluate a lot of things,” said Kate Donalek, an Evanston Women’s Center assistant and Chicago Loop resident. “Right now my commute is an hour. The thought of my commute being longer is nightmarish.”
The CTA gave no estimate about the extent of future delays, but it did say that riders should plan for overcrowded and delayed El rides until the “Countdown to a New Brown” construction project is completed in 2009.
The 25 percent reduction in capacity is the equivalent of 17,400 riders, CTA President Frank Kruesi said in the press release.
Donalek is weighing her options. She said it doesn’t look like she’ll be taking the purple line to work come spring, but other options also have drawbacks.
“(The Metra) station isn’t very convenient,” Donalek said. “That will basically double or triple my cost (of commuting).”
Donalek said another alternative is to buy a car with the extra money she’d spend on Metra fare over the next two years.
Some commuters are a little more optimistic.
“I can take the 22 Clark bus,” Jerusalem Singleton, Chicago resident and Evanston Potbelly Sandwich Works employee, said. “You could take a bus from my house to Howard Street and from Howard Street to downtown Evanston.”
Taking the bus would add a half hour to her usual 15 minute commute, Singleton said, but she is willing to accept the delay if it means a more reliable CTA.
Nevertheless, both Donalek and Singleton said they see the most recent setback as a continuation of recent letdowns from Chicago’s public transportation system.
“Generally, the CTA seems pretty mismanaged,” Donalek said. “I’m pretty skeptical of the CTA right now.”
Weinberg freshman and Lincolnwood resident Bonnie Vu already spends 90 minutes on the red and purple lines to make it to class everyday but said she’ll have to accept any future delays as inevitable.
“I don’t have my driver’s license, so I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Vu said. “There’s no other way for me to get to Evanston.”
The CTA has built more crossover tracks and updated switching signals between the Addison and Armitage stops to make three-track operation easier and safer, but there will be an inevitable delay, Kruesi said.
The CTA recommends exploring blue line, CTA bus and Metra options until renovation is complete.
Reach Danny Yadron at [email protected]. Rebekah Tsadik contributed to this report.
