CTA Tattler

Found one name that works. Flushing Ave. on the G line smells like sewage.

I wonder how some, like Canal Street, which combines food with vomit, urine, and feces, really smell. On the other hand, really don't want to experience that.

Back to Chicago: Grand and State smelled like urine the last time I used it (in early 2003), and I wonder if the city rebuilding it will take care of that problem.

In the past few weeks, I have visited NYC and Washington, DC and used the public transit in both places. I can say that I didn’t smell anything in NYC that was even close to as bad as the Red Line. And the stations were all much cleaner and less scary than the Grand/State, Clark/Division, North/Clybourn, Monroe, etc. stations on the Red Line.

For DC, it suffices to say that the trains have CARPETING and yet they somehow don’t smell like urine. Miraculous!

What is the deal with the CTA!? The CTA smell map (at least of the Red Line) would need to have a category of “all of the above!”

At least I haven't run across this problem in a while.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/6077464.stm

Really the only smell that matters is the stink of indifference the employees emit.

Damn Skippy, uh...Skippy. =P

My contributions:

Bryn Mawr: combination of urine and oddly, urinal cakes

Belmont: alcohol-tinged vomit

Division: mold/wet smell. I mean, have you ever looked UP at that station? (shudder)

California (Blue Line): in the mornings: breakfast food from Cozy Corner and/or bread from the panaderia across the street. At night: sometimes urine, admittedly so...but more often the cooking smells coming from Pancho's across the street...DIVINE.

Someone poo poo'd on the Red Line this afternoon, at Grand everyone on our car got out and ran to the next car. It's atrocious, and I squarely blame Mayor Daley.

The Jarvis stop on the Red Line smells like pee. HOWEVER, the employees wash it down with bleach twice a day, so I don't think there is any actual urine. The funk appears to seep from the walls when it rains (more rain, more funk).

There's also a whole lotta nasty in the pedway outside Marshall Fields/Macy's, by the Lake stop. There's a kind of airlock function in the many doors in the pedway though, so the stench is pretty localized.

Last week a car on the rush-hour southbound Red Line reeked like someone had (definitely) yakked in it. Kudos to the surprising number of passengers who were able to brave the smell (and possibly the sight) of upchuck. Just an example of how Red Line odors range from stale poo to outright toxic nasal assault.

Twice this week I had to use the Red Line because of the fire which has disrupted the Orange Line. On both occasions someone it was clear that someone had defacated on the train. I feel bad for those of you who have to take it on a daily basis.