Seasons Are Changing
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit magazine
This last week we had our first major snowfall in Wisconsin. Thankfully it was about a fifth of what we got last year. Today the temperature dropped down to the single digits and as I chattered my teeth walking into work this morning, I couldn’t help but think about everyone standing waiting for a bus or train this morning.
Those in Chicago got a respite from the cold at 10 bus stops this week, though. As part of a promotion for Stove Top Stuffing, Kraft is heating 10 CTA bus stops for a limited time. Sure it’s just an advertising gimmick, but what a great idea! Why not get a sponsor and heat stops full time? Agencies in warmer climes try to build stops in such a way as to minimize the heat and direct sunlight, how about more steps to minimize the cold?
Sure, that is easier than it sounds, but for all those huddling around a bus stop praying the bus will not be on time, but even a minute or two early, I am sure it sounds like a great idea.
Weather has to be one of, if not the worst problems to overcome in transit. Agencies in cold weather areas have to deal with buses not starting, fuel lines freezing, and snow covering everything. I’ve even heard of catenary lines freezing and snapping.
And those agencies in the more moderate temperatures aren’t without problems. Ice storms can cause even more damage than snow storms, especially in regions that don’t get them that often. And a cold snap for an agency unprepared can cause severe service disruptions.
So as I warm my hands over my hot chocolate this morning I ask everyone reading, what’s the worst weather your system has had to, well, weather?
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December 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
118 plus decree hot, oven heat! Phoenix AZ, where we’ve lots of asphalt, sprawl and concrete…so up that number. A/C at shelter stops is too cost prohibitive, and welcomes many a vagrant. So, design and pad configurations are best options to ‘minimize’ the blaze. <> Have a great weekend, all!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Well, in addition to buses not starting, fuel lines freezing, snow covering everything and catenary lines freezing and snapping, you also have the element of employees not showing up for work.
Perhaps they’re really sick, or maybe their cars didn’t start, or they missed a transit connection trying to get in. No matter. If the players aren’t there, the game suffers. Sure, there’s the extra board…but the extra board will only cover so much before it’s depleted and your support staff (servicers, mechanics, clerks) can stick around for only so long…
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Winter in Chicago proves variable and fickle, but even in mild winters one will experience bouts of cold weather. I think it was a December day in 1983 when the temps stayed below zero and it got worse with the wind chill factor. It was a Saturday. I had a late PM run on the 85 Central line. Service was at it’s worse because there were many runs missing — some due to equipment, some due to manpower. I drove to work that day to find the run I would normally relieve wouldn’t be there. I think the driver got diverted to another route to fill for service restoration. I was invited to pick a bus, any bus out of one of our two yards at Forest Glen Garage.
Pickings were slim. The best suited buses for the job were 20 year old veteran GM buses. They were all over the yard, looking like lost cattle in a pasture. The newer buses were huddled inside the small shop building to keep from freezing. Some of these buses were barely running. Others…well, not so lucky. This was back in the day when the best way we knew to keep the fleet going in the cold was to let them idle while parked. That would never fly now.
I think I checked out several candidadtes. One I almost chose had heat, but no ‘get up and go’. Then, I spied two 55′ M.A.N. artics. These buses were on ‘day loan’ for the seasonal rush on the old 40 O’Harexpress. Unfortunately, none of the drivers at out garage wanted any part of the weird German buses. Call me weird. I has driven them before on a South Side route, and I liked them. I thought I’d go have a look…
There she was, 7123. 310 horsepower all heated up and ready to go. So off we went.
Schedule be damned. There was no scedule. The bus ahead of me was gawd knows where. Buses passing me in the opposite direction were bunched. People were just happy to see a bus…let alone a bus and a half!
Lunch went to hell. I took longer breaks at the end of the line as did the other drivers on the line. No matter, many eateries were closed as water and gas lines froze. Traffic lights failed, so you did what you could with what God gives you. We mantained a semblance of service.
Oddly, the eight hours went by rather fast! I was thinking I could get my second wind and do another trip! Chicago cold can make you delirious…
Pulling into the garage, I was met by a road supervisor. He needed a favor…
The all-night driver on the O’Hare was having problems (deer vs bus). Would I be able to do a trip (or two or three) on the 40? So, we refueled the big bus, and it turned easily into a 16 hour day.
If you are born to have adventure, urban mass transit will rarely dissapoint.
Enjoy your week, everybody!
December 7th, 2008 at 3:12 am
I might add…
For CTA, January 26, 1967 was the worst on record. The blizzard of 1967 hit the Chicago area with little warning. In the end, the city was buried under 23 inches of snow and 50,000 cars and a good chunk of the motorbus and trolleybus fleet were abandoned across the city. An estimated 800 units.
The blanket of white — 23 inches of snow total — fell for 29 hours. It began falling at 5:02 a.m. on January 26 and stopped at 10:10 a.m. on January 27. After the storm passed, Chicago was a ghost town. The roads were impassable and people couldn’t get to work and those at work were stuck there.
With the trolleybuses, there were power outages, and the best one could do was pull the poles and walk away. However, with the motorbus fleet, CTA didn’t use an alchol-glycol coolant. As long as the engines in the buses were running, they were fine, but once they ran out of fuel (and much of the fleet was propane powered) the engine blocks froze and the cracked. Supervisors and superintendants had a hell of a job keping tabs on all of the abandoned buses in any given district. It was likely two weeks after the initial snow that all the dead soldiers were recovered and brought ‘home’.
Rail service wasn’t too badly affected.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:01 am
May I ask if this in Vince Dawson of triple A O whom I did know in the 80ies and who stayed several times in our house in Luxembourg?
January 4th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Guilty as charged.
Look me up through BUSBARN.NET
January 20th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
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