Big John and Ramblin’ Ray comment on what they learned on today’s show with their ‘What did we learn today?’ segment. Asking Executive Producer Tony Lossano, Technical Producer Michael Garay, and Associate Producer Kimberly Kaczmarek what they’ve learned. Today’s show covered an incident that happened between a group of girls on a train and a conductor, a man that decided he wanted to work out at planet fitness naked, and that you should learn Chinese before trying to speak it.
The summer weather results in a late start for Dag and Joe! Janet attends granddaughter Mary’s pre-school graduation! Steve invites the gang over for a pool day! Plus Mike Dahl fills us in on what really happened with the train from yesterdays show!
Connected to Chicago with Bill Cameron guest former Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department Garry McCarthy joins the show to discuss the upcoming mayoral election, and how he could defeat Rahm Emanuel. McCarthy discusses topics including ways to cut down on crime, Improving CPS, and Pension Reform.
In this week’s round table segment, Bill Cameron is joined by Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune, Greg Hinz of Crain’s, and Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times. Topics of discussion include this weeks primary election results, Fritz Kaegi’s win over Joe Berrios, the upcoming Mayoral race, and the recent visit from Amazon Executives to Chicago to see if the city could potentially be the new home for Amazon’s new warehouse.
This week’s community spotlight segment with Joseph L Schofer, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University. He discusses how the City of Chicago is accepting two private companies as finalists to bid on the city’s plan to build an express train between downtown and O’Hare. One of those companies is led by billionaire developer Elon Musk, who uses hi-tech tools to build underground tunnels. His plan could have what he calls hyperloop technology, which reportedly involves propelling people in pods via an underground vacuum-type tube.
(MUNSTER) The federal Surface Transportation Board wants more information about a proposal for a 278-mile rail line from Indiana to Wisconsin aimed at relieving Chicago-area freight congestion.
The Times of Northwest Indiana reports (http://bit.ly/2d8dQQt ) the agency wants to know how many trains would run on the proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad. It also wants more details on its planned connection to the South Shore Freight Railroad.
In letters dated Sept. 9 and Oct. 11, the board’s Office of Environmental Analysis detailed eight additional topics on which it wants more information than was provided in the railroad’s plans, including the average speed at which trains would travel and the average length of trains. The information is needed for a draft environmental impact statement.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(OAK LAWN) Authorities say a suburban Chicago man has died after the SUV he was driving was struck by a Metra SouthWest Service train.
Metra spokesman Tom Miller says the collision occurred about 7:40 a.m. Monday after the SUV was driven around crossing gates at 98th Street and Central Avenue in Oak Lawn. He says all bells and bells and lights at the crossing were functioning.
The SUV driver was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office identified him as 59-year-old Arthur Hornsby of Oak Lawn.
The crash delayed commuters on the line. Miller says all trains began moving again by 9 a.m.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(CHICAGO) A person was fatally struck by a CTA Blue Line train on the Northwest Side during the morning commute Monday.
Paramedics responded to a call of a person struck by a train at 7:04 a.m at the Belmont Station, 3355 W. Belmont Ave., according to Chicago Fire Department Cmdr. Frank Velez.
The person was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the fatality, but did not release additional information.
Trains in both directions were only operating between the O’Hare and Jefferson Park stations; and the Western/Milwaukee and Forest Park stations, the CTA said.
Customers were urged to use the No. 56 Milwaukee bus as an alternative and the CTA was providing shuttle buses to provide connecting service through the affected area.
(CHICAGO) A fire erupted Tuesday at a railroad facility in west suburban Melrose Park and the fallout will cause delays on Metra Union Pacific/West trains through Thursday.
The fire, caused by an electrical shortage in a piece of Union Pacific Railroad equipment, happened at a facility near 25th Avenue in Melrose Park, and caused massive delays for UP/West riders Tuesday morning.
And Metra announced Tuesday afternoon that repairs will delay trains until at least the Thursday afternoon rush hour. The UP facility is described as a “nerve center controlling all the trains in the area.”
All trains on the UP lines in the area, including 60 Metra UP/West lines and freight traffic will have to stop, get permission to proceed and then travel at restricted speeds through a two-mile area until repairs are complete, Metra said.
Most inbound and outbound trains should depart on time, but may incur delays of up to 30 minutes until the Thursday afternoon rush hour. Departures later in the rush hour could be delayed because of earlier trains.
The fire also has led to the following trains will be canceled Tuesday evening:
Also Thursday evening, the No. 41, departing Ogilvie at 4:11 p.m., and the No. 57, departing Ogilvie at 5:42 p.m. will make extra stops at Melrose Park and Maywood, Metra said. The No. 45, departing Ogilvie at 4:35 p.m., and the No. 61, departing Ogilvie at 6:10 p.m., will make extra stops at Bellwood and Berkeley.
UPDATES WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS
(NAPERVILLE) A Metra train derailed Monday morning on the BNSF Railway near west suburban Naperville, causing extensive delays during the morning commute.
Train No. 1206, scheduled to depart Fairview at 5:45 a.m. and arrive in Chicago at 6:35 a.m., derailed just east of Naperville, according to Metra.
The train did not have any passengers at the time, and no injuries were reported.
Inbound trains No. 1252 and 1370 are operating 45-50 minutes late, according to Metra’s website. Inbound train No. 1260 is delayed about 25 minutes.
All outbound trains to Aurora are delayed 15-20 minutes, according to the transit agency.
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(NAPERVILLE) A Metra train derailed Monday morning on the BNSF Railway near west suburban Naperville, causing extensive delays during the morning commute.
Train No. 1206, scheduled to depart Fairview at 5:45 a.m. and arrive in Chicago at 6:35 a.m., derailed just east of Naperville, according to Metra.
The train did not have any passengers on it at the time.
All outbound trains were scheduled to terminate at Lisle, the transit agency said. Passengers at Naperville, Route 59, and Aurora were told to seek alternate transportation at this time.
Extensive delays were expected.
© Copyright 2016 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
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(NAPERVILLE) A Metra train derailed Monday morning on the BNSF Railway near west suburban Naperville, causing extensive delays during the morning commute.
Train No. 1206, scheduled to depart Fairview at 5:45 a.m. and arrive in Chicago at 6:35 a.m., derailed east of Naperville, according to Metra.
The train did not have any passengers on it.
Extensive delays are expected.
(CHICAGO) The CTA will be providing additional services to accommodate customers going to Riot Fest, the Zac Brown Band concert and the Chicago Bears game this weekend.
Riot Fest at Douglas Park runs Friday through Sunday and is located off the California Pink Line station, about two blocks from the festival’s east entrance.
Longer Pink Line trains will operate during the evenings and begin to run more frequently around 6:30 p.m. until 11 p.m.
Extra bus services will also be available for routes Nos. 18, 16th/18th, 52, Kedzie/California, and No. 49, Western routes beginning about 5 p.m. and concluding around one hour after each night’s festival ends.
Zac Brown Band concert-goers will be provided with additional bus services for routes No. 80, Irving Park and No. 152 Friday night.
The routes will be running from about 5:30 p.m. until one hour after the concert ends at Wrigley Field.
The CTA will operate bus route No. 128 Solider Field Express between Union Station, Ogilvie and Solider Field, for the Chicago Bears 2015 season opener versus the Green Bay Packers Sunday at noon.
Also available Sunday will be an additional bus route, No. 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express.
Additional service will begin around 9 a.m. and continue until one hour after the game concludes.
The CTA urges customers going to and from events this weekend to purchase tickets ahead of time to avoid long lines at rail line and CTA vending machines.
(CHICAGO) South suburban commuters might want to rethink their travel plans as an early Wednesday derailment downtown is causing “extensive” delays for Metra Electric District trains during the Wednesday morning rush.
Train No. 150 derailed at the 11th Street station about 1 a.m., Metra spokesman Tom Miller said. Two cars slipped off the tracks, but remained upright.
The derailed cars are blocking two of three tracks that run through the area, which means all inbound and outbound trains will have to operate on a single track until the derailment is cleared, Miller said. Delays are expected to range from 30 to 60 minutes during the morning rush.
Crews continued to work to clear the tracks as of 4 a.m., although it was not immediately clear how long it would take, according to Miller.
Metra urges riders to listen to platform announcements and monitor its website for updates.
(SKOKIE) Service on the CTA Yellow Line could be suspended for several days after an embankment gave way near the tracks late Sunday.
The issue was first reported about 10:15 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
An embankment underneath the tracks near McCormick Boulevard began eroding during a construction project that is not being run by the CTA, rendering the tracks unstable, agency spokeswoman Tammy Chase said.
The line, which runs between Chicago and Skokie, has been halted and will likely be suspended for several days, according to village officials.
A portion of McCormick Boulevard is also closed between Oaktown and Howard streets until further notice, the village said.
Passengers can take shuttle buses through the affected area, or use the No. 97 Skokie bus as an alternative, according to the CTA website.
(CHICAGO) The Chicago Transportation Authority on Monday unveiled its new $8.8 million computerized Bus Transit Management System designed to solve the biggest challenges to its bus service: “bunching” and long waits.
The modern system will provide real-time monitoring of all of the CTA’s 1,800 buses, with two-way communications between their drivers and the agency’s main control center, allowing buses to more quickly adapt to changing traffic conditions, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
More than 818,000 riders depend on CTA buses on any given weekday, and most of their 19,000 bus trips go smoothly, but the buses are vulnerable to any manner of incidents that can occur on the city’s busy streets, outgoing CTA President Forrest Claypool said.
“Delays sometimes occur. The culprits include everything from stalled cars and construction work to regular rush-hour congestion, and even police and fire department activity,” said Claypool, who’s heading to City Hall to serve as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s next chief of staff.
“By communicating street conditions to our drivers and taking into account the location of other buses and traffic flows, we can coordinate service centrally in a way we could not do before,” he said. “The result will not be an end to all bus bunching or gapping, but it will produce significant improvements.”
Bunching occurs when more than one bus arrives at the same stop at nearly the exact same time. Gaps — elongated wait times between buses — occur as a result.
With the new system, if the control center detects a source of service delay, it can inform of bus drivers to slow down, skip stops or reroute if necessary, almost instantaneously, to keep the buses running on time.
Currently, when problems develop on bus routes, the agency dispatches its 100 bus service managers by car to communicate with the drivers. The new system has shown success on nine busy South Side bus routes out of the 77th Street and 103rd Street garages — reducing bunching and gapping by 40 percent, according to officials.
About 80 percent of the buses have been equipped with the federally funded monitoring system, and the remaining 20 percent should be equipped by mid-June, officials said.
A February 2015 report on a survey of CTA customer satisfaction by RSG Inc. identified the top three drivers of customer satisfaction: getting to a destination on time; service when a customer needs it; and bus stop or rail station appearance.
“This system is just the latest example of how the CTA has used technology to provide a better customer experience,” Claypool said, pointing to the expansion over the past four years of its bus and train tracker services carrying up-to-the-minute arrival time information to riders, and expansion of its security camera network.
— Chicago Sun-Times
(CHICAGO) The CTA is increasing train service through Saturday for NFL Draft 2015 festivities and the Polish Constitution Day Parade downtown.
More than 100,000 fans are expected to head downtown starting Thursday for the three-day event at the Auditorium Theatre and at the free, interactive Draft Town event in Grant Park, according to the Sun-Times.
The 124th Polish Constitution Day Parade will also draw large crowds Saturday along its route on Dearborn from Lake to Van Buren, according to the organizer’s website. The parade steps off at 11:30 a.m.
Because of these two events, the CTA will operate longer trains on the Blue, Brown, Green and Orange Line trains from 4 p.m. to midnight both Thursday and Friday, the transit agency said in a release. Longer trains will run all day Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Riders should keep in mind that Brown Line trains will be rerouted to the Red Line subway all weekend starting at 8 p.m. Friday because of an ongoing construction project, the CTA said.
Brown Line trains will operate normally between Kimball and Fullerton. Riders affected by the construction should allow extra time to get downtown, the CTA said.
Street closures for this weekend’s events will also affect CTA bus service on 21 different downtown routes.
NFL Draft activities will temporarily close Congress Plaza and relocate or detour buses along Michigan Avenue along Grant Park starting Thursday afternoon, the CTA said. Buses will also be rerouted from Dearborn and near the intersection of State and Wacker for the parade Saturday.
Passengers should check the CTA’s website for detailed travel information on each route. Affected routes include:
