Taking the blue line out of O’Hare airport and we are immediately being yanked around in every direction. Whereas in Tokyo, the curvature of the track and maximum speed inputted by the driver were linked.
In Tokyo, whenever I saw a long row of cushioned seats I thought to myself we could never have this in Chicago. It wouldn’t last one day before being barfed or pissed upon.
In Tokyo, Metro trains are equipped with multiple TV screens displaying the next station, number of minutes to arrival, and a diagram of optimal exits in relation to your current car number. In Chicago, we have two or three sheets of cardstock, that are occasionally not even lined up correctly. That’s the map.
The worst part is, JR is privatized, and they still manage to provide this high quality of service. How??
I worked in the loop for about 1.5 years 2016-2017, and I swear it turned me against trains. The noise (both on the train and near the tracks), and the vibration were unbearable.
My team was on the 4th floor of the red CNA building, which was the floor that was said to be high enough that it wasn’t specially soundproofed.
We had to interrupt our meetings SEVERAL times every hour because of the noise of passing trains.
4th floor wasn’t soundproofed? Even though sound travels through air very well, even to the 15th floor of some buildings. That’s unfortunate. Soundproofing buildings is an area we really suck at. Especially residential.
Yeah, the difference was VERY noticeable, when we asked our CNA co-workers about it they were like, “yeah, this floor is above the height requirement for soundproofing”. Apparently it was an issue because the corporate data center was on the next floor up and there were issues with vibration sensors going off :-)