CTA Tattler

Nothing like a battered CTA sign for the living room

Is your living room missing that certain pizazz that only a used CTA sign can muster? Then hightail it quickly over to the Illinois Railway Museum.

Gapers Block reports the CTA donated the signs to museum, which in turn is selling them to raise funds.

I've always wanted one of those signs that say "Way Out." See what's available here.

 

So pretty in pink

While we're busy here today debating whether the Shell Game is bad or whether eating on the train is a ticketable offense, the CTA board was busy naming the newly minted Green/Blue Line amalgam.

The Pink Line.

The color for the new experimental train line was picked from 500 entries that area students submitted.

And I love the last line of the Sun-Times story: "The CTA has not decided exactly what shade of pink the line will be."

(Thanks to Jasmine for the tip.)

CTA snackers as criminals

My post earlier this week about Shutting down the Shell Game elicited some thoughtful and spirited comments.  Some folks didn't think the playing the Shell Game on the train was such a big deal; others said we passengers have to take a stand and report this nonsense.

In defending the idea of shutting down shell games, I commented about there being no laws against eating on the CTA.

Wrong!

A letter writer to the Sun-Times chronicled her friend's Cheeto-eating El excursion that netted him a high-priced citation from Chicago's Finest. The writer even mentioned a post by CTA Carole Brown on the subject.

If I thought there was a large contingent of cops on the CTA enforcing even the smallest rules such as no eating on the CTA, I might not feel so sympathetic.

But I just know that is not true.

An overreaction from the canned announcer?

The Red Line southbound is chugging along between Belmont and Fullerton.

We're moving at a slow but steady speed when the canned announcer proclaims:

"Your attention please. We are experiencing a delay and expect to be moving shortly." Of course, this announcement was repeated twice.

But then the motorman cuts off the last announcement and talks over it:

"Nothing major, nothing major. That was just an overreaction. We're only a minute or two late."

An overreaction? By whom? Very strange.

Shutting down the Shell Game

I'm sitting quietly on the Red Line, heading home on a Friday afternoon after a long work week. Then I hear a commotion behind me, and turn to see a guy sitting with his legs in the aisle, his knees propping up a piece of cardboard covered with a felt, holding three bottle caps.

The Shell Game is on!

Except I wouldn't allow it.

I get up, walking past him saying, "You're not doing that here."

I walk up to the customer assistance button and press it twice. I tell the motorman about the shell game, and give him a description: Tall African-American man in his 50s wearing a red Kangol cap.

As I walk back to my seat I see he's gone, already having moved to the next car.

At Belmont, I see him exit the train and strut down the platform in his red cap. The motorman comes down to the car, and I tell him what happened and reiterated the description. He radios it in, moves back to the lead car, and we proceed to Addison.

I wave good-bye to red Kangol man on the platform as we roll past him.

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org:  "The Conjurer" by Hieronymus Bosch. The painting accurately displays a performer doing the cups and balls routine, which has been practiced since Egyptian times. The shell game does have some origins in this old trick. The real trick of this painting is the pickpocket who is working for the conjurer. The pickpocket is robbing the spectator who is bent over.)

The Ten Commandments for CTA riders

The First Commandment: Thou shalt use no other transit options before the CTA.

The Second Commandment: Thou shalt not make graven images on CTA property, including windows, doors and walls of train cars, buses or stations.

The Third Commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the CTA in vain -- except when trains are late, buses bunched and service reps surly.

The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Hobo Corner and keep it holy.

The Fifth Commandment: Honor thy El motorman and thy bus driver so that your commute will be short.

The Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt not act out on the CTA.

The Seventh Commandment: Thou shalt not have intercourse in the Hobo Corner.

The Eighth Commandment: Thou shalt not pick thy neighbor's pocket.

The Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not bear large backpacks against thy neighbor.

The Tenth Commandment: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's seat.

Talk about making yourself at home!

Yesterday I wrote about the rude seat hog. But this guy takes the cake. Or the seats.

The Chicago Journal's police blotter this week has a horrific tale of a CTA bus squatter. It's a story they call "A rogue’s guide to riding the CTA with first-class comforts." From the Journal's report:

Kenneth Luches, 37, of 229 N. Laramie Ave., was arrested for assault on March 5 at 9:34 p.m. on the 100 block of West Lake Street. According to police reports, an allegedly intoxicated Luches got on a Chicago Transit Authority train and reportedly placed his coat across two seats, and then removed his gym shoes and placed them on another seat.

After that, he reportedly placed a large plastic bag on another set of two seats, and subsequently removed his socks and threw them to the floor of the train. Luches then reportedly sat across a third set of seats placing his now bare feet against a window.

A CTA employee approached Luches and asked him to gather his items. Luches apparently didn’t like what he heard and reportedly lunged at the CTA employee while waving his arms and stating, "I’m gonna beat your white bleepin’ ass."

Despite the threat, Luches fled the train, but was detained before he could get farther than the platform. While being placed into custody Luches allegedly said that he was drunk and that he likes getting drunk.

(Thanks to Gapers Block for the tip.)

Confronting the rude seat hog

An older man sits in one of the set of facing seats hard by the doors, his backpack filling the adjoining seat. That's what I see when I board at Grand heading north at rush hour with a 60-ish woman, both of us noting his rudeness as we eye the empty seat -- empty but for his backpack.

He sits with his head down, studiously staring at images on his digital camera. The woman stands right by the empty seat, too timid to confront him.

And he ignores her.

Finally I wave my fingers in his  face and ask if she can sit down. He looks up disgustedly at me, and asks her if she wants to sit. She says yes. He slowly makes a big deal about moving his backpack.

She sits. She never thanks me.

I move down the aisle and ask yet another guy if I can sit where his bag is. This guy also has a HUGE wheelie suitcase in the aisle between his legs. But he readily gets up and moves his bag for me to sit down.

Blizzard of CTA news - the good, the bad, the ugly

It seems like the CTA has been all over the news in the past week for lots of things. Here's some.

The Good: Mobile security network. The CTA last week announced the pilot test of a "mobile security network capable of streaming real time video from buses directly to emergency response vehicles, such as Chicago Police Department Public Transportation police cars, CTA vehicles and to the CTA’s Control Center. ... For the pilot, CTA will use 50 buses that operate along the #56 Milwaukee and #62 Archer routes, 16 transit police cars, approximately four CTA first responder vehicles and some rail stations. The test pilot will begin near the end of 2006 once installation of necessary equipment is complete."

The Bad: Red Line stretch shut this weekend. A good hunk of the south end of the Red Line will be closed starting late Friday night for renovation. Service will be shut down in both directions between Cermak/Chinatown and 47 Street station from 10 p.m. Friday till 4 a.m. Monday. The Trib reports: "The CTA is suspending service as part of a $282.6 million project to renovate the line between Cermak/Chinatown and 95th Street. The project will improve power reliability, install new signals and improve seven stations along the route. All stations on that stretch will be handicapped-accessible when the project is completed."

The Ugly: Pace users' smart cards overcharged. The CTA announced that a software glitch caused some Pace user to be overcharged on their Chicago Card Plus -- some more than $100, the Trib reports. The Good News about this Ugly News is that only about 60 customers were affected.

UPDATE: It turns out that lots more folks were wrongly overcharged for using their Chicago Card Plus on Pace buses -- about 5,000, not 60, as the Trib now reports.

Getting the cold shoulder

A couple in their mid-40s sit together on the Red Line headed south in the morning. They have the strong facial features of Eastern Europeans -- perhaps Serbian. They look straight ahead, not talking.

Then the guy puts his arm around his wife's shoulder.

But it was a cold shoulder.

She immediately gives him the ol' "if looks could kill" look, and they start bickering in a foreign language, him loudly, her rather softly berating him.

Finally he gets the message and removes his arm from around her shoulder.

She goes on to read her "Pathway to Prayer" pamphlet.