El riders who have been experiencing backups on their way to the Forest Park Blue Line station in the weeks since the CTA nearly doubled the frequency of trains traveling to and from the Loop on the line can rest assured that the problem has been resolved, according to CTA officials.
“The frequency increase required that trains be moved out of the platform faster. During those first couple weeks operating with the new schedule, operations personnel were still adapting to the new frequency,” said CTA spokesperson Robyn Ziegler.
According to Ziegler, CTA employees were having trouble unloading and cleaning trains at the terminal before the next train arrived, causing passengers to have to wait on the tracks. She said that the problem had been resolved without the need for any additional staff.
“Personnel check each rail car for debris or any other situations needing to be dealt with immediately, so that needed to be done quicker – we just had more of the people on duty assist in going through the cars,” she said.
She noted that CTA cannot guarantee that there would no longer be backups at the station, as any number of causes could contribute to a delay, but insisted that this particular group of backups had been entirely eliminated.
The increased frequency of service on the Blue Line was one of several changes approved by the CTA board in February as a result of its West Side Corridor Study, which was initiated in 2003.
The service changes, including the increase in frequency of service for the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line, are in the midst of a 180-day test period that began in June.
At the conclusion of this phase, according to Ziegler, the CTA board will decide whether to adapt the changes permanently, make some alterations and begin another test period, or scrap them altogether.
