CTA Tattler

25-cent fare hike?

At the first public hearing Thursday on the CTA budget, the CTA board asked staff (reg. req.) to go back and look at how a 25-cent fare increase might reduce the need for service cuts.

Personally, I'd pay a quarter more to keep bus lines open and overnight service on the Red and Blue lines. Remember, before last year, the basic fare hadn't been increased for 12 years. New York and Philly riders pay two bucks.

A Tribune editorial also has an intriguing idea for a new way to charge for rides:

"The CTA needs a system that can charge riders according to how far they travel, as the Metra commuter rail does. A ride from O'Hare to the Loop should cost more than a ride downtown from the Near North Side. The CTA should charge more for rush-hour rides than it does for other times, so it captures higher fares from those who can afford them--those who are working--and gives a break to those who have the option to travel at earlier or later times."

Some commenters here have pushed for higher rush hour fares. What do you think?

Life in the "hobo corner"

My daughter likes to tell stories about life in what she calls the "hobo corner" (with apologies to the PC crowd out there). That's the end of the car opposite the driver's cubicle, that provides some modicum of privacy.

Too much privacy, it seems.

First, it usually smells in there, with abandoned food items and other human waste, including vomit and urine.

Various friends, relatives and myself have witnessed people in the "hobo car":

** Smoking, both pot and cigarettes.

** Making out ferociously.

** Having sex, often not too discretely.

** Talking to themselves animatedly.

** Generally having a good time, by crowding five or six friends in that area for rollicking fun.

What have you seen there? Click "Comments" below to share.

Missing the rants of the wooden-hand lady

Today I'm posting a story that one of our readers added here. Thanks Diane!

"This was some time ago when I was living off of the Damen brown line stop, but I still laugh about it so thought I'd share...

"Nearly every day when I took the brown line from Damen to the loop a woman would get on I think somewhere around Irving Park. This was an older lady who had a wooden hand. Nothing funny about that except it was not a "flesh-colored" wood, it was dark and even though it was by no means one of those life-like varieties, she used nail polish to paint where the fingernails might be.

"Right before rounding the curve to pull into the Belmont station, the brown line always slows to a stop to wait its turn at the platform. Without fail the wooden hand lady would start yelling. It started as bitching to herself in too loud of a voice, but would inevitably escalate into a tirade about how the city was responsible for all her problems. A typical rant...

"Why are we stopping!? You know what this is about- the City doesn't want us to get to work on time! Why are we stopped, I can't believe this! I swear I'm gonna start driving because THE CITY is making me late!!! That's what they want you know, they want to take all your money but they can't get you to work on time! WHY AREN'T WE MOVING!"

"I miss this lady. She gave me a daily chuckle."

Cheating pastor faces new Revelations

Overheard on the Grand Avenue bus: Two women in their late 30s talk animatedly and honestly about marriage:

"And he's supposed to be a pastor, a Godly man. I submitted myself to him for 15 years and THIS is how he repays me. I told him, 'You better find another Revelation!' "

The other woman just nods her head. "Mmm hmm, tell it honey."

CTA steps up campaign for more funding

The CTA is keeping the pressure on the state legislature to allocate more bucks for CTA operating expenses, and the RTA and Metra are feeling it.

The Sun-Times reported Friday that CTA chair Carole Brown introduced a resolution to ask legislators to change the funding formula. The Bright One also noted these subsidies to the three transit agencies: Estimated RTA operating subsidies per trip (2003): CTA: 87 cents (in Chicago); Metra (city neighborhoods): $1.32. In suburban Cook, the CTA got $1.55 per trip; Pace, $1.91; and Metra, $2.47. Interesting, eh?

Today, the Trib's Jon Hilkevitch says the CTA funding push "puts Metra on [the] defense." The CTA also has created a new Web site asking passengers to pressure their lawmakers.

Click here to find the schedule for public hearings on all this. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Unresolved CTA family time

A couple and their young child board the Red Line south at Thorndale on a rainy day. They hurriedly put away umbrellas and scramble into their seats.

Dad is a 50-something wizened white guy. Mom is a not-yet-30-year-old Asian woman. Son is about 4, pretending to eat a once-bitten apple.

Mom and son get up to exit at Lawrence. Dad is facing the opposite way from their door, three rows down. He keeps turning around, longing for that last glance, that last au revoir from his family.

It never comes, even as he cranes his neck to see the top of her head descend into the Lawrence station.

"How about my nails?"

A high school boy is standing in the back of a car on the Red Line, painting his nails. His fingers are supported by the grab bar on the door between cars.

A 30-ish woman comes through the door (when was the last time you saw a 30-ish woman do that?) and asked, " Ohhhh, what color?"

The guy gave her a confused look. She said, "You know, your nails!"

Tenn boy gladly splayed out his left hand to reveal his lovely light-blue nails.

"Oh, OK. Just wondering."

Escalator etiquette

People, it's very simple:

Stand on the right, walk up on the left. And if you see some poor, exasperated commuter angling to scooch over and pass someone, let him go ahead of you.

Many riders get very impatient with escalator standees, including yours truly. But really, why? To trim 14 seconds off that escalator ascent? Yep, that's really all the time you save by walking (12 seconds) instead of standing (26 seconds), at least during my test this morning at the Grand Red Line station.

So keep that in mind next time as you silently grumble at the standee in front of you.

The "tweener" season

In the early fall you notice that people desperately want to hang on to summer.

How? By avoiding jackets as long as possible. Yesterday morning on the Red Line, I saw a young guy wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt sitting next to a woman in a heavy parka, her head obscured inside a thick hood. Yesterday, the overnight low was about 45 degrees.

Today, when the out-the-door temperature was about 35 degrees, I saw at least three guys in one train car wearing just an oxford, button-down shirt.

At least the shirts were long-sleeved.

Passenger's relief sickens other riders

Cheryl posted this as a comment here yesterday, but it deserves more notice. Thanks Cheryl (I think):

"This is the story that usually sends the people I tell it to screaming from the room. So you're warned.

"This must have been....15 years ago. I went down to Chinatown to meet some people for lunch. These people worked at Michael Reese, so after lunch they dropped me somewhere near the hospital I could catch the King Drive bus to downtown. I get on the bus, get a seat, and at the next stop this enormous woman--she must have weighed 400 pounds--gets on and sits next to me. And shits her pants. Loudly. She also thanked Jesus for her bowel movement.

"The smell alone made me exit the bus at probably 18th and Michigan--or was it State? I don't know. All I know is 15 years ago I wasn't surrounded with condos in that neighborhood. I didn't care though, a mugging would have been better than staying on that bus.

"I finally got another bus and got downtown to the elevated at Wabash and Adams, got on the Ravenswood, and wondered if I could really still smell that woman or if it was my imagination. It was midday so I didn't have to subject a seat partner to the smell if it was still there. I took a really long, hot shower when I got home."