CTA Tattler

The CTA Insider returns with bleachy insights

Last year we got some inside info from a person who dubbed himself the CTA Insider. He gave us some insights on various CTA matters for about three months and then dropped out of the picture.

Now he's back after a self-imposed absence.

Last week I posted about a squeaky-clean El car I smelled that was heavy with bleach. The CTA Insider tells me bleach was allowed to be used again on the CTA. Its use apparently was halted for some time after some nimwit mixed bleach and ammonia, which of course is very dangerous (in pdf).

Anyone else have some questions for the Insider?

CTA ridership almost half a billion in 2005

CTA buses and trains provided nearly half a billion rides in 2005 - 492,405,118 to be exact. That's what the CTA reported today.

That total represents a 3.7% increase over 2004 and the highest ridership since 1992. The bus system accounted for 303.2 million of those rides; 186.8 million on the rails. Interestingly, "the most notable growth on the system for 2005 was on Sundays, a 6.7 percent increase compared to 2004," according to the CTA press release.

Another milestone for the CTA in 2005 was making all of its bus fleet accessible to people with disabilities.

Subtle hints of couplehood

Two women in their late 20s board the Red Line north at Chicago. They each take an aisle seat, one right behind the other.

They don't talk to each other, or turn to look at each other. There was nothing obvious between the two of them but I get signals that they are a couple.

Soon it becomes more obvious when the one behind gently kicks the other in the thigh.

Later, the one in front reaches behind with her hand and gently caresses her mate's leg.

They never spoke. It was actually quite sweet.

They left the train at Belmont and clasped hands together walking toward the exit.

Hitting the snooze button too often

Overheard conversation between a couple in their mid-20s. She's bitchy and cute, wearing a cream-colored Republican cloth coat. He just nods his head and listens with that beaten-down look on his face.

Her: "You know, now it usually takes you two snoozes on the alarm clock to get out of bed. And that's when you're not watching "24" at 2 in the morning. Hopefully, you'll go to bed by 1:45 tonight." Harumph.

Meanwhile, in the seat directly behind them, the 30-ish woman next to me uses a yellow highlighter on the book chapter "Make Your Attitudes Your Allies."

Clean with a Capital C!

As I boarded the Red Line on a rainy and dreary morning, my olfactory sense was assaulted by strong, strange smell.

Bleach!

The floor of the train car was Spic n Span clean. It appeared the car had just been cleaned at the Howard yard and then put into service mere moments later.

You could still see swatches left on the floor by the trailing edge of a mop.

A lovely sight indeed!

Masked bandit?

On the northbound Red Line after an uneventful day at work, I look up to see a 30-ish woman calmly sitting with a white crocheted scarf covering her nose and mouth.

I expect her to pull a gun and announce a stickup at any moment.

Instead she just pulls her scarf aside and proceeds to eat a candy bar.

Update on longitudinal seating in train cars

Last week a reader emailed me wondering about the status of longitudinal seating in train cars. So I asked the CTA.

The CTA's Noelle Gaffney replied with a detailed and informative answer. You can read the entire text of her reply to me in the "Continuation" below. But here are the highlights:

• Longitudinal seating is coming, but probably not for at least three years.
• The new cars will run on AC power, cutting maintenance and power costs.
• The number of seats will remain the same. Only the configuration changes as most seats will face the aisle.
• Each car will be equipped with a security camera.

I rode in a test car last summer. There was plenty of room to maneuver. I just didn't like sitting cheek-to-cheek with my neighbors. I thing seating will be a lot tighter.

Click below to read more details from Gaffney's note to me.

Final resting place for El Car No. 1

The CTA's first El car ran the tracks in 1892 from the Loop to the World's Columbian Exposition. It made its last stop Thursday at the Chicago Historical Society.

Swathed in protective shrink wrap and foam, the 46-foot-long, 13-foot-high "L" car was gingerly placed through a second story hole in the museum's wall yeserday. Read the Tribune report.

I'm thinking that train car has lots of Tattler Tales.

CTA system maps for your iPod

Tattler reader Meghan wrote me recently with a great tip (thanks, Meghan!):

The CTA train system map is available to download to you iPod.

Nifty keano!

For a price, you can download lotsa city maps and whatnot to your PDA.

Family affairs

During the winter break for schools, the trains had a different feel, as families took over from ordinary commuters.

Regular commuter traffic was light. Families with children of all ages seemed to proliferate. It was a nice sight.

Even nicer was seeing regular commuters who did work that week giving up their seats to let families sit together.