As a follow up to my post from September 2009 about how
awful the CTA's service had been, I thought I'd write about another sour experience this morning.
I arrived at the Bryn Mawr red line at 8:04. I waited 15 minutes for the first northbound Red Line train to come. I boarded the train and headed toward Howard. One stop before Howard, a Purple Line train passed us.
As we stopped at Howard at 8:25, the Purple Line train that was stopped at Howard started pulling away from the station. Apparently the train couldn't wait another 30 seconds for us to stop and let its passengers make their necessary transfers.
A few frustrated passengers approached the box where someone from the CTA sits. I use the word 'sits' and not 'works' because he was clueless. I think he was sleeping while the whole thing happened. He started talking about circuits and pockets, making it sound like it was technically impossible for the two trains to be at the station at the same time. I asked for him to explain in plain English why the train left the station when it did. He couldn't provide me with anything sensible.
A mother and her daughter approached the box where napping CTA guy sits. They were curious when the next train would arrive. Tired, lack of customer service sense CTA guy looked at the monitor that shows train locations and said the next Purple Line train was just a stop away. Everyone could tell he was lying. We could see the previous station and there was no train in sight.
10 minutes later, the Purple Line train that senseless sleepy CTA guy claimed was "just a stop away" pulled into the station. The frustrated passengers boarded the train. It waited about a minute for a Red Line train to pull into the station so its passengers could make their transfer. What a novel idea!
All told, my Bryn Mawr to Davis CTA commute took nearly 45 minutes. Disgraceful.
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