CTA Tattler

"I'll give up my allowance..."

The other day I overheard an 8-year-old boy talking to his mom on the Red Line.

"Mom, I really want to move to a new house. I want my own room, and a yard I can play in."

"I'm sorry honey, we just can't afford it."

"I'll give up my allowance...."

I almost cried.

Two unpopular CTA edicts

The CTA made two decisions Friday that are sure to be unpopular, particularly with Brown Line riders.

First, CTA Chairwoman Carole Brown announced that the long-awaited Brown Line expansion will require closures of some stations. And the Sun-Times says Brown was not at all happy to make that announcement.

I like Brown because she's not a "yes-woman" for staff. She tells it like it is, and seems to take the side of riders more than anything else:

In memory of my Dad, 1926-2005

My Dad died last night after a six-month battle with stomach cancer. He was 78.

He was a character, as you might be able to tell from the picture of him.

I started this blog just before he was diagnosed with cancer. I tried to explain it to him, but I really don't think he got it. He was a journalist himself, like me, but I just don't think he could figure out what the whole blogging thing was about. That's somewhat ironic because my brother Dan and I have created a blog about him.

My Dad crafted some of his last journalistic pieces in the many letters to the editor he wrote and got published. Dan scoured through the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette archives and mined 28 letters to the editor from Dad. We put them up on a blog and annotated them with Google searches. We didn't usually agree with what he wrote, but it didn't matter.

May you rest in peace Dad. And know that your words and ideas live on via the Internet.

Trio of incredible tales

These incredible Tattler Tales comes from CTA Tattler correspondent Jeff.

On a Southbound Red Line at Argyle today (Saturday) at 5:45pm:

Young Girl on her Cell Phone: "I'm so sad.  I'm sad.  Sad, sad, sad.  My
boyfrind broke up with me today because he didn't wanna have a baby with
me. I'm so sad.  (Insert bawling here)    OK!  Call me!"

Moments later:    "John?    It's Tammy.  I'm sad. I'm very sad. UGH!  Hang on,
the train's making an announcement ("This is Sheridan").  OK.  I'm sad.
Call me!"

This went on with other calls all the way to the tunnel portal.

At Fullerton, a 20-something well-dressed and seemingly well-raised
woman seats herself next to me facing the aisle. She's talking to her male
friend.  She starts flicking her long, (bleached) blonde hair back towards
me while running her fingers through it.  several strands of her long
(bleached) blonde hair fall on my black jacket.

I picked them off and handed them back to her while saying "Here.  I think
these belong to you."  She moved to another seat in a huff.

At Grand:  An older black gent rides up the escalator in front of me.
Blows a "farmer's snot" onto the hand rail.

Only food for this beggar

We've all experienced people asking for money on trains and platforms. But this day was different. This woman was aggressively begging for food.

First she saw two teens with backpacks, and sidled over to them. "Do you have any food please? I'm hungry." One girl said, "No, we don't, I'm sorry."

The woman kept pushing: "But I thought I saw something in your backpack. Don't you have anything?" They blew her off again.

Next she saw a guy opening one of those Hostess donuts six-packs. She went to him to ask from some.

He very solicitously told her, "OK, you can have two of my six donuts, but that's all."

Seems that wasn't enough for her though. "Can I have some of your coffee?"

"NO! You can't have any!"

I really felt bad for her because she obviously was hungry. But still, way too aggressive.

LA commuter train crashes into SUV; 9 killed

We saw the news yesterday about the relatively minor CTA derailment.

And now I just read this report about a commuter train crash in Los Angeles that killed nine people.

Dang, I hope these things don't come in threes.

A wretching experience

On the Red Line into the Loop at about 7 am. I notice a faint stench wafting from down the way.

I look up and see some newspapers covering the floor of the aisle ahead. It's kind of obvious that the papers are covering a puke pile, which explains the stench.

Of course, people get on the train along the way, take a whiff, and try to avoid the puke island.

Then one adventurous woman got on board at Addison, wrinkled up her nose, but then went to investigate. She actually lifted up to newspapers to see what lurked below.

And then she started to gag.

By now we were at the Belmont station. The door opened, she staggered toward it, stuck her head out, and puked!

Then she got back on.

Now THAT was strange.

Derailment slows Brown Line; flagger hurt

An early-morning train derailment in the CTA's Northwest Side train yard slowed down the Brown Line today.

The CTA's Web site was reporting that things were back to normal by 8 a.m. The Tribune was still urging commuters to allow extra time. CTA conductors at Belmont warned riders to take the Purple Line or Red Line into the Loop.

The photo here is from the NBC5 Web site. Their story is here. NBC5 also notes that a female flagger was injured early this morning on the southbound Red Line tracks.

Sunflower seeds don't make you a player

Tattler Tale reporter extraordinaire James saw another good one the other day:

Munching on sunflower seeds and being a player on the CTA do not mix.

It was the coldest day of 2005. As I rode the Red Line south about 5 pm, this hip hop player in black baggy jeans and black down coat, all make by Sean John, got on at North and Clybourn. He had his hair in corn rows and had big headphones on, hooked up to a CD player in his coat pocket.

In his hands was a big bag of sunflower seed in the shells. He munched big handfuls of seeds into his mouth, and then spit out the shells into his hand, either dumping them onto the center of the train or slyly dropping them behind his seat.

Folks on the train looked at this piggish display, but no one said a word.

On the other side of this EL car was a young high school age African-American girl in a red parka. Her hood was over her head from being in the cold. She also was listening to her I-Pod while reading a school text book.

Chicago: safer in 2004; CTA: more dangerous

The Sun-Times today has a page one story about how crime on the CTA increased 9.3% in 2004, while citywide, crime was down 4.4%.

It seems that a 10.3% crime jump on El trains "was fueled by 57 more thefts than in 2003."

One bit of good news is that crime on El platforms dropped 1% over 2003.

Another piece of good news from the report: "Since 1999, the number of crimes dropped from 2,464 to 1,700, CTA officials said."