The Board of Trustees of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) meets at 9 am. Tuesday, Jan. 19, at RTA’s Main Office, 1240 W. Sixth St.

Finance Committee
Michael J. Schipper, Deputy General Manager, Engineering and Project Management, will update Board members on RTA’s progress in spending federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 for major capital improvements.

The Board will continue to discuss the 2010 budget, and results from the recent public hearings.

A regular Board meeting will begin after the Committee meeting adjourns. The Board will consider five resolutions.

NEXT MEETING: Board Committees meet Feb. 9. The whole Board meets Feb. 16

The following areas of the rail system have maintenance scheduled for the dates and times indicated:

Friday, January 15, 8:00pm – Monday, January 18, 4:00am: Red, Green, and Blue Lines between E 34 and E 79

Sunday, January 17 – Friday, January 22, 8:00pm – 3:00am: Red, Green, and Blue Lines between E 34 and E 79

Monday, January 18 – Friday, January 22, 9:30am – 2:30pm: Red Line Between W 117 and Brookpark

Friday, January 22, 8:00pm – Monday, January 25, 4:00am: Red, Green, and Blue Lines between E 34 and E 79

Scheduled maintenance will result in single tracking during the time periods indicated, and may result in delays.

Why does RTA even bother publishing a timetable for the Waterfront Line?

Ever since I started riding on RTA in September I’ve noticed that the Waterfront Line is NEVER on time, especially in the mornings headed from Tower City to South Harbor. On average I’ve found that the Waterfront Line is 3 to 5 minutes late every day. Of course in true RTA fashion – nobody from RTA is around to advise anybody waiting about the delay (maybe they assume we’re used to it?) – and when the trains are running even later than normal – again there’s nobody around (or any announcements) to advise passengers about the delay…

This morning, the Waterfront Line was running at least 10 minutes late and there was no indication of a problem at Tower City… I could have walked to work from Tower City in less time than it took to wait for the Waterfront Line this morning, and I would have if somebody from RTA was around to tell me that there was a problem on the line…

My guess – they were having problems with at least one train this morning which caused multiple delays… The train I was on to South Harbor seemed to have a problem with it’s brakes and worse was struggling to make get up the incline over to the stadium. It actually like for a bit like we were going to be stuck on the incline…

Dear Cleveland RTA,
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!!! Learn how to update your riders already… Lots of transit systems both large and small have figured it out already, so why can’t you!!!!

WKYC is reporting that due to a power outage at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport there is no Red Line service to the airport.

Passengers can take the Red Line as far as the Brookpark Station and then transfer to a shuttle bus for the remainder of the trip to the airport.

Don’t bother checking with the Cleveland’s RTA website about this outage – as usual there’s nothing about it there…

If you can make it – the first of RTA’s hearings on the propsed service cuts are today-

Noon-2 p.m. in Auditorium of the Stokes Tower at the Cleveland Public Library, 325 Superior Ave. at East Sixth Street
5-7 p.m., conference center, East Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 9990 Euclid Ave.
5-7 p.m., Gymnasium, La Sagrada Familia, 7719 Detroit Ave.

RTA CEO & General Manager Joe Calabrese is scheduled to attend all 3 hearings.

Each hearing will include an explanation of route changes by either:
Joel Freilich, Assistant Director of Service Management,
John Palagyi, Manager of Service Planning.

The actual length of each hearing may be longer than two hours. People who register at the meeting before the ending time will be allowed to speak