CTA Tattler

Diversity in color

There are times when I wish I had the guts to take photos on the El of people I see. Like the young woman I saw last week.

She was a picture of pulchritude in a most colorful manner.

She was about 20 years old of Indian descent. Her dark skin was beautifully offset by her white-white coat with black-black linings.

Her hair was black with blonde-tinged ends jutting out from a ponytail.

In her hand she carried a small, clear glass vase with water holding four perfect red roses and three sprigs of white babies breath.

Wankers, beware of Mimi

We've had a few folks comment here about witnessing masturbators on the train. (Seems like it's always the train, not the bus.)  Thankfully, I've never boarded the Onanism Express, as Mimi Smartypants calls it in the post about her experience.

The guy sat right next to her, so she got very freaked out and very bold in calling him out:

"Oh HELL NO" and then I said "YOU DISGUSTING MOTHERFUCKER. MOVE. NOW." And he scrambled to comply, and went and stood by the door, and exited the train as soon as he could. My only regret was not doing more public shaming -- my past masturbators were all sitting a short distance away, whereas this jerking-off jerkoff was RIGHT NEXT TO MY BODY, and thus I was more concerned with getting out of there than with dispensing justice."

I do love the direct approach.

Via gapersblock.com

CTA gift ideas: Your very own hanging strap

What better way to enjoy the holiday season than with a gift to improve your CTA commute?

Each week through the end of the year I'll feature at least one gift idea for our commuting faithful.

Today's gadget -- the TranStrap -- will work better on buses than trains for now. But when the CTA introduces train cars with the dreaded aisle-facing seats in the 2008, train commuters will need them too.

TranStrap boasts that their "patent-pending TranStrap gives you a clean, comfortable, secure handhold. On and off the bar with one hand, and it doesn't slip! Folds to stow in a purse or pocket. Made in the USA."

And if that cheery ad copy isn't enough to get you to buy one (offered right now at two Gordon's Ace Hardware stores in Chicago), they also try appealing to the fear factor in us:

"What's on those subway bars, anyway? A 2003 New York Daily News survey found the following germs lurking on subways and buses along with some of the diseases they can cause:"

"Staph Aureus: Toxic shock syndrome, food
poisoning, skin and wound infections
Streptococcus viridians: Dental caries
Candida: Yeast infection and thrush
E. Coli: Diarrhea, food poisoning
Enterococcus: Wound, urinary,
and other infections"

Yum.

I have to go wash my hands now.

(Via gapersblock.com)

CTA workers get lost wallet to owner

Here's a heartwarming story from Cec to start our holiday season and to show many CTA workers really do want to help passengers:

CTA deserves some praises after my experience this morning.

I was daydreaming on the Red Line southbound going into Fullerton. I had to transfer to the Brown there as I do every morning. The doors opened and I got startled and bolted up to exit the car. After the doors closed behind me and the train was on its way, I realized I had dropped my wallet in the train as I left my seat. It was fresh with new $20s the ATM gave me yesterday, not to mention the other necessities of life.

I approached the control booth to find the CTA man I always see on the Fullerton platform. He's usually walking around the platform taking a lot of notes about the trains going in and out. I let him know that I had left my wallet on the train that just left.

Over the next 10 minutes, as two Brown Line trains and a Red Line were in and out of Fullerton, he radioed some people, radioed other people, made some calls, and before I knew it, as the second Red Line train approached, he said to get on it, get off at Clark/Division, and the lady at the control booth will have my wallet.

I'm still not sure how they did it. But I am thankful that they pulled it off. I'm wondering if any commuters were involved in giving the wallet to a CTA employee. Nonetheless, I got my wallet back, with all my money still in it (I think there's even a little more). Thanks to the employees at the Fullerton and Clark/Division stops. And thanks to the conductors and/or commuters that saved me a lot of stress and heartache.

Caressing the feather duster

A lumpish 40-year-old man busies himself on the Red Line with some things in his cloth clutch bag.

After futzing around a bit in the bag, he pulls out a long, cylindrical plastic carrier and opens it. He carefully slides a colorful feather duster.

The duster has long, green and yellow feathers sprouting out of a toucan head.

He lays it in his lap and lovingly strokes it all the way from Argyle to Howard.

Sleepus interruptus for mint sucker

It's 10 pm on the Blue Line. The partiers are heading out for the evening while the workers are either heading home or out to work.

I sit next to a tired-looking older woman who appears to be doing the latter -- at least judging from the fact that she's strongly gripping a mop in her left hand, the mop upright in the aisle.

Eventually she nods off to sleep. But her slumber was rudely interrupted when the mint she was sucking popped out of her mouth and skittered down the aisle past the mop.

At least a clean-up device was handy!

Reluctant hosts for the holidays

A 35-year-old woman talks candidly with her friend on her cell:

"Well, his family is coming up here. We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner."

"Yeah, I know. Kinda scary."

We can all relate. But have a Happy Thanksgiving regardless.

Do let us know about your CTA Thanksgiving travel, and whether you and that pumpkin pie on your lap make it safely.

CTA response on lack of info on accident

Following is the CTA reply to my email about why no CTA Tattler wireless alerts came from the CTA yesterday on the Red Line accident.  I had also asked in the email why passengers weren't getting good info from motormen or customer service assistants. The CTA didn't respond on that. (Click here for my reply to this response.)

From Cindy Kaitcer at the CTA:

"While we do everything we can to ensure that emergency alerts are posted accurately, occasionally there is a miscommunication. In this case, staff on call thought that the Red Line Sheridan incident was related to an earlier incident that had been resolved.

"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to our customers. As you know, the alerts are a new service that we have been doing on a test basis.  As we learned this week, there are still some bugs we need to work out in terms of our internal procedures.  But we have identified what went wrong and will do our best to not have it happen again.   In the meantime, we are moving ahead with plans to launch an email alert system early next year that will allow subscribers to choose to receive alerts only for those rail lines or bus routes that they use most often.   So we appreciate the patience of those who have received multiple alerts over the past few months for routes that they don't use.  We think that the Tattler system has provided us with a great opportunity to provide valuable information to our customers.

"At that same time, it has helped us refine our own process, so that next year we can have a system in place that will allow subscribers to receive only the alerts that they want to receive."

Thank you.

Cindy Kaitcer
General Manager, Marketing & Advertising
Chicago Transit Authority
567 West Lake Street
Chicago, Illinois 60661

My reply to CTA on lack on information from them

Dear Ms. Kaitcer,

Thank you for your reply, and I appreciate your candor in the explanation for why no alerts were sent yesterday on our wireless alert system.

I believe we all realize the wireless alerts system is still in testing mode, but generally has been very successful.

Still, I think the bigger issue once again is the CTA's failure to adequately communicate to the broader audience of both employees and customers the nature of the problem yesterday and what options may be available for riders.

I've written to Terry Levin in the recent past on this. He responded and I posted his response here:

And my reply to his response is here:

Terry Levin said then: "You can be very confident that strong efforts are under way to implement significantly better announcements when rail service is interrupted."

We riders would like to know what those efforts are. And I think I speak for most riders in hoping that it's not just the email alert system and even CTA Tattler's own wireless alerts system.

Certainly thousands of people already on trains were affected by yesterday's accident. When you're stuck on a train like that, not everyone has access to wireless alert systems.  I think all your customers want is some clear, direct information about what is happening, what the CTA is doing to rectify the situation, and an estimate of how long the delay would be.

We realize that "stuff" does happen. What's important is how people react and communicate after it happens.

Kevin O'Neil

Little info from CTA on morning rush problems

Those stuck on the Red Line this morning after the train uncoupling at Sheridan know that once again there was very little information coming from the CTA about it.

It seems that today the best info was coming from other riders via CTA Tattler's wireless alerts system (read from bottom up):

Nov 17 8:45AM
Fr: bobinchicago
Now moving, pulling out of Sheridan
Nov 17 8:43AM
Fr: bobinchicago
Passengers still being unloaded from disabled train, disabled cars being separated, 6-car train will continue, we will m
Nov 17 8:39AM
Fr: bobinchicago
Conductor says additional crew now @ Sheridan preparing to remove disabled cars
Nov 17 8:36AM
Fr: LeahJ77
Purple keeps flying by. No power on SB red. Standing at Thorn dale and probably up to howard by now. Leah J
Nov 17 8:34AM
Fr: Vana1
Is Purple moving?
Nov 17 8:31AM
Fr: TEKKY
151 busses filling up
Nov 17 8:29AM
Fr: TEKKY
Train separated @ sheridan.
Nov 17 8:26AM
Fr: bobinchicago
Disabled train @ sheridan being unloaded, taken out of service, delays extended
Nov 17 8:20AM
Fr: bobinchicago
Conductor confirms disabled train ahead, says delay will continue
Nov 17 8:20AM
Fr: TEKKY
Doors of sb train @ sheridan not opening.
Nov 17 8:17AM
Fr: bobinchicago
SB Red stopped just N ofSheridan about 10 min, conductor says train ahead is halted, SB Purple is moving, no other info

I've emailed CTA brass and asked them to explain why they weren't providing any information themselves. Up till they been very good at contributing great info for the wireless alerts. I'll let you know if they reply.

And thanks to bobinchicago for his wireless text info. Here's what Leah had to say about the whole situation:

"I just want to say that this morning, the [wireless] text [alerts] kept me much better informed than my conductor. I can only assume that bobinchicago was on the "blessed" train that is the best train--that conductor always informs his train about what is going on. I wanted to ask, but didn't want to ask everyone. Thanks for the great info!"