Ups and downs on the CTA, and the broader implications

Well, technically I left work 30 minutes early on Monday, but the commuting time was still almost exactly like on Friday, so there's at least a possibility that things have actually improved.

But then I got on the platform at Quincy today and saw a huge crowd on my side of the tracks. Never a good sign. A purple line train crawled in as I was making my way through the crowd to the end of the platform, and a lot of anxious brown line riders kept standing on their toes to see what was coming next.

Oddly enough, the brown line train arrived at more or less the same time it usually does, so I wasn't sure if the crowd was due to a delay or if there was a ballgame. Turns out, it was the delay.

We barely made it away from Quincy before we stopped again, watching the train in front of us stuck in the station ahead. Then again. And again. And again, until we finally made our way, slowly, haltingly around the Loop. Every few minutes our driver would announce his apologies, saying there was a problem at Tower 18 -- there is always a problem at Tower 18, the infamous junction at Lake and Wells that caused this commuter to be late for work more than a few time during the winter.

When we got to Clark & Lake, I could see the dozens of CTA workers directing traffic at the intersection and, for all I know, physically moving the switches themselves. As we grinded around the corner toward Merchandise Mart, I couldn't help but wonder if the transit workers in Beijing or Madrid have to get out and move switches by hand and direct train traffic themselves.

I felt the same way I do when I see crumbling concrete on the freeway, or a burst pipe flooding a major street. Not just here in Chicago, but in a lot of cities lately. As everything we built in the last 100 years or so falls quietly apart, is anyone else asking when we're going to start fixing it?

Bizarro CTA world where the trains run on time?

Consider this. A man leaves his job on a Friday afternoon at the same time he usually does, right down to the minute. He doesn't run to the train or walk any faster than he normally would. The train arrives at the station at its usual time, and he gets on.

By the time he gets home, he has a sudden realization. His trip, somehow, some way, took 10 minutes less than usual.

Not five or six. 10.

Could it be a mysterious reverse bermuda triangle has developed in the Loop, in which trains are not lost, but somehow sped through the bottlenecks? Was it just dumb luck? Or could it be, that after nearly a year of track work, construction and delays, the CTA has finally, bit by bit, begun to actually show some results?

We'll see Monday whether this is a permanent change or just a one-time mystery.