Two questions

I might have been there when it was disconnected temporarily, I should ride back up there and check it out.

Passenger wrote:Delivered on trucks.

Anybody got pictures?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/5632/13206794443/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/gallery ... a5012d.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zol87/7726154620/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you kindly.

it's amazing that they choose to run 680 trucks down the road across the entire eastern half of the country under high-wide permits (IE - expensive!!!) when you could run them in trains of 50 cars or on flatcars.

It's probably best for both parties to have them trickle in rather than delivered at once. Less yard capacity needed on both ends.

Also, today's class 1 railroads (i.e., those who would interchange with the CTA) aren't very much interested in providing "local" service to new customers, and in the CTA's case, there is no longer a working shop facility at lower 63rd yard, where the last outside connection is. So if cars were delivered via rail, one of two things would need to happen - rebuild some sort of shop you can use to prep the cars for operation at that location, and then they're ready to go, OR connect the drawbars of each pair in the yard, and drag them up to Skokie so they can be activated. Both of these options cost the CTA money, either through the new capital investment of building a shop or increased personnel & delay costs of dragging the new cars to Skokie. In the end, it's probably just cheaper to have them delivered via truck directly to Skokie.

Pretty much all rapid transit equipment everywhere gets truck delivered now. Either way, it can't get shipped rolling on its own wheels so loading and unloading is going to be a production no matter what. I've read that railroads don't like the liabilities and special care for such high valued cargo, so they charge a lot for it. Trucking companies can give it more attention. The shipping cost is probably built in to the sale cost and paid directly by the manufacturer so CTA and others don't have to worry about it.

CTA cars do not have air brakes and thus are not eligible for interchange between/among any railroads in the general rail system.