CHICAGORANDY
07-27-2025, 08:22 PM
Worked an extended shift on this last day, 8-4 on good OLD Blue Route. About every 100-150 yards there was some sort of trenching done perhaps decades ago cutting completely across the N/S road in an E/W direction starting at the Vintage corner all the way down to Ultralights. The many trenches were paved over and over tine they have sunk sufficient to rattle the spinal column of all conductors and Tram passengers on Blue at least a half dozen times on the route, each way, countless times each day. We have of course complained every year about the bone-rattling jolts and tram slowing issue over the course of the same decades in the hope that they might be repaved and leveled. No joy.
THANKS EAA FOR NOTHING for creating a large new camping area and a 4000 car parking lot without providing the means to transport the people who DO tend to go along with said camp sites and parked vehicles. The additional burden on the tram service resulted in 100-150 person long lines waiting for a tram that can at best transport 40. No sooner were 40 folks loaded than 50 more showed up to the back of the line. Not exactly "Disney level" customer service IMHO.
NEWS FLASH - many of your tram team volunteers are geezers like me, and even the younger folks who whilst trying to keep from collapsing in the heat by staying well hydrated, then also NEED obvious rest room services. We NEED bays of porta potties at ALL four tram terminals to stop the current practice of just stopping our often full trams at any convenient roadside bay of johns along the routes. It gets kinda embarrassing for us AND them. I refuse to believe that a lousy 12 additional portas (3 at each terminal) is an unacceptable and unreasonable expense addition to the AirVenture budget for EAA. Heck, I'd bet a lot of tram volunteers would chip in a few bucks each for the needed convenience. Shoot, I'll give ya' a $20 without batting an eye.
The South terminal..... whoever designed the Blue tram/Yellow tram/School Bus terminal at Exhibit Hangar B clearly knows how to design as workable way for buses and trams to interact efficiently. PLEASE ask them to do the same magic at the South terminal. Also ask them to correct the obvious flaws at the Red/Yellow terminal using the Blue/Yellow as a fine model.
I honestly feel that these issues CAN (and should) be corrected before Airventure 2026. My spine ain't getting any younger nor my bladder any stronger. I do LUV conducting, been doing it - mostly on double shifts - since 2004, but with each passing year the toll on this old body increases.
THANKS EAA FOR NOTHING for creating a large new camping area and a 4000 car parking lot without providing the means to transport the people who DO tend to go along with said camp sites and parked vehicles. The additional burden on the tram service resulted in 100-150 person long lines waiting for a tram that can at best transport 40. No sooner were 40 folks loaded than 50 more showed up to the back of the line. Not exactly "Disney level" customer service IMHO.
NEWS FLASH - many of your tram team volunteers are geezers like me, and even the younger folks who whilst trying to keep from collapsing in the heat by staying well hydrated, then also NEED obvious rest room services. We NEED bays of porta potties at ALL four tram terminals to stop the current practice of just stopping our often full trams at any convenient roadside bay of johns along the routes. It gets kinda embarrassing for us AND them. I refuse to believe that a lousy 12 additional portas (3 at each terminal) is an unacceptable and unreasonable expense addition to the AirVenture budget for EAA. Heck, I'd bet a lot of tram volunteers would chip in a few bucks each for the needed convenience. Shoot, I'll give ya' a $20 without batting an eye.
The South terminal..... whoever designed the Blue tram/Yellow tram/School Bus terminal at Exhibit Hangar B clearly knows how to design as workable way for buses and trams to interact efficiently. PLEASE ask them to do the same magic at the South terminal. Also ask them to correct the obvious flaws at the Red/Yellow terminal using the Blue/Yellow as a fine model.
I honestly feel that these issues CAN (and should) be corrected before Airventure 2026. My spine ain't getting any younger nor my bladder any stronger. I do LUV conducting, been doing it - mostly on double shifts - since 2004, but with each passing year the toll on this old body increases.