CTA Tattler

Actually, sounds like a pretty appropriate warning - lots of drunken fratboys, pink-hatted Trixies, lost tourists who will eventually realize that they meant to head south, and perhaps a few suburbanites urinating in the hobo corner to start off their harrowing journey back to the North Shore.

Toss in a few elitist slurs against blue-collar people (remember, anyone who doesn't live in LP/Wrigleyville/Winnetka must automatically be termed "white trash"), and you've got a pretty good idea of the reason I'm not a Cubs fan.

I think that's a pretty fair warning. When I worked at Northwestern Chicago Campus, sometimes I wish they had express trains that ran from Addison down to the loop...At the Chicago stop, the train would be so packed nobody could get on anyway. I always looked out for games that ended during rush hour so I could take a Mich. ave bus south to the loop.

I think it's pretty funny that the (mostly white) Cubs fans are obnoxious when the get on the (mostly white) train on the North Side, but the (mostly white) Sox fans are for the most part quiet and well-behaved when they get on the (mostly black) train on the South Side.

I think all these comments are all way too generalized. I've seen obnoxious Sox fans, I've seen well-mannered Cubs fans. I've seen suburbanites and tourists who know exactly how to get around on public transportation (would you rather have them driving their cars to the game?!?!). And every time I've gone to a Sox game, the fans are mostly white (not black), so I can't agree with the racial generalization. And are people from Winnetka, Glen Ellyn, or St Charles automatically materialistic, commercialized robots? Not at all...most of them are just ordinary people with a little money who want to appreciate a ball game. And you are right, after the game, the trains are packed. But so are the trains after the 3rd of July fireworks (in every direction out of the Loop), after the Air and Water Show, Venetian Night, and pretty much every workday during the morning and afternoon rushes. People need to get around, and it's better that they use public transportation.

This is too funny. I love when conductors have great personalities, like the one who wishes us all a great day when we get off at Merchandise Mart, but sounds like he wants you to do anything but that. As much as I hate the train sometimes, I do mostly love it.

I get off work at 6 and have learned to take alternate routes home when there are night games to avoid standing in the subway, waiting for that 6th or 7th train to pull in the station that actually has room to get on the damn thing. Someone else I work with said it best, "I grew up a Cubs fan, but now, I am a commuter."

I ride the Metra every day, and I hate it when the Cubs fans crowd the train. They are noisy, obnoxious $%^&s and are always drinking beer and generally stinking up the whole car. I wish Metra would ban open liquor on the train (as much as I like to enjoy the occasional cocktail in a plastic Pepsi cup from The Newsroom).

ban open liquor!? um ever hear "No eating drinking or littering on CTA trains". its not a matter of another rule, but enforcing the ones we got, especially where its obviously being broken. also.. what about public intoxication and urination in public (disorderly behavior or something).... hmm.. CTA funding crisis could be fixed by fining all these drunk stupid cubs fans..
peace

Oops, METRA!!. yeah, i ride that too, and yes, everyone except cubs fans after a game are usually quiet, and respectful even on really crowded trains.. i mean, how many times do you have to yell "Man i am sooo wasted" we get it! :)

Anyone ever witness the enforcement of any of the onboard behavior rules? Like no eating, drinking, smoking, soliciting, peeing, whatever? How do they do it...ask for the person's ID and write a ticket? Demand cash on the spot? Take them away in handcuffs?

I agree that the rules should be enforced (I advocate asking for ID and writing an appropriate ticket). I'm sick of encountering people's food-and-drink leavings, or smelling their McDonald's lunch, or watching them stuff their face.

Scott,
I know what you mean about the McDonald's thing on the train. How can anyone actually want to EAT on the train? I want to vomit any time anyone opens up a styrofoam container of pancakes or a Big Mac box and digs in. (God, all my posts today are about my becoming a some sort of germiphobe.) Frankly, I even hate the smell of all that mocha, vanilla, pretentiously-flavored coffee stuff on the train, too, especially in the morning. It's just too much to deal with on top of having to go to work and ride the Red Line at 7 am.

A guy I work with has been ticketed twice for changing cars on a moving train. And then of course there was the guy who got a ticket for sleeping. Why can't they ticket the eaters?

Very intelligent man. I know him personnally.