CTA Tattler

i agree with you, their best bet is to raise the fares again. i'd welcome that, if the alternative is cutting service. i'd gladly pay a bit extra to ride public transportation - it's worth it to me. i also suspect [along with you] that there will probably be small service cuts, but that the mayor will step in to prevent any drastic cutbacks. shutting down CTA means people can't get to work, and the city suffers. he won't allow it, nor should he. this is one of the greatest mass-transit systems in the world.

No doubt about the increase--what better way to raise money than get it from your customers. The sad thing is that none of the increased revenue will go to making the ride or the stations any more pleasant. I use the Bryn Mawr station on the red line, and can't help but laugh when I see a "wet paint" sign, and see the 4 square foot patch that they've painted with some leftover paint. What, they can't paint a whole wall? Plus, many of the cars could use a good cleaning, i.e, with soap and water, not just brooming out the trash.

As for cutbacks, I also live right on the red line, and late at night, the number of 8 car trains going by with 2 or 3 riders per car is unbelieveable. There's no reason why there can't be some level of cutbacks during the late hours.

If Daley leaves people stranded on bus stops and L platforms this winter, I have two words for him -- Bilandic and snow storm.

Actually the cutbacks couldn't make it any worse then it already is. The buses are already slow and when they do come, it's like 3 of them at the same time.

If they start to lay off the drivers, I will really be pissed -- I won't be able to get my child support.

Actually the cutbacks couldn't make it any worse then it already is. The buses are already slow and when they do come, it's like 3 of them at the same time.

If they start to lay off the drivers, I will really be pissed -- I won't be able to get my child support.

Regarding the L view, we must congratulate the CTA for their wisdom in leaving those of us who board every morning at the Morse station with perhaps the only roof-less CTA platform in the city. After I imagine years of intense planning, the leaky, rotting roof at the Morse station was finally removed to be replaced (when is anybody's guess). Although it was difficult to find a dry path to walk through even why the roof was on, help is apparently on the way. So come prepared if you board on the Morse platform during the upcoming snow and rain. Also be prepared if you exit at the Lunt Ave. revolving gate. Along with waiting for the roof to be replaced, be sure to avoid the SE corner of the CTA building (Lunt/Glenwood corner--the coffee shop) for the huge lamp light dangling by a cord after it's apparently fell off its mounting to the wall. It's been hanging there for awhile, like the roofless platform above. It may be fixed soon, but don't count on it. Just remember "heads up" at the Morse L platform.

If anything, they should revert to the classic "peak/non-peak" fares of the olden days, start incrasing fares by default (but adjust for the later point), and work out the kinks in the system that needs to be adjusted.

After moving onto Pratt BLVD just a few months ago, I have been constantly puzzled by CTA's treatment of this area in the heart of Rogers Park. The dillapidated condition of the Morse el, the sloppy, inconsistent Clark bus service, and the lack of options for Northwest bound commuters leave me scrathing my head and reaching for my car keys.

The 11 bus is going to be discontinued, and that really bums me. I'll have to transfer to go to any of the places I now take it to. That will give the CTA the same extra money they'd get if they just raised the fare 25 cents.

The CTA could make millions if they did just one thing:

Aggressively prosecute people who use CTA property--shelters, platforms, train cars, buses--as their own personal urinals.

Make it a fine of $200 for a public pee--$500, at least, for anything else!--and judging from the current stench, the funding problem would be solved in no time.

I'm not too sure about the effectiveness of raising the fee for pee. The type of individuals who are probably most often guilty of this offense can't afford the fee. They don't have a pot to piss in...

See, I question that hypothesis. Most of the pissers I've observed seem financially stable--they're generally drunk, which at least implies being able to afford the cost of thirty-seven watered-down Wrigleyville beers--and they just don't seem to care that nobody else wants to see/smell their by-products.

There are those who fit the description you provided, of course--but I'll maintain that I've seen a lot of homeless people who take more pride in themselves than many of the drunken louts that ride the El....

What I don't understand is how the CTA can put so much advertising on its trains, they paint entire trains for Christ's sake, and not be making money. Advertising is supposed to be expensive. We're captive audiences. Are they not charging enough?

Don't get me wrong, I hate to look at ads as much as the next gal, but they're already there, I don't see why they aren't making more money.