CTA Tattler

A Christmas miracle: An empty Purple Line appears!

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Or in this case, there IS an empty Purple Line in the Loop. I'm posting this comment by Niles published last week in response to last week's Holiday train soothes grumbly commuters.

Niles wrote: I will agree that the appearance of the Holiday train has brought a few moments of unexpected grins. When you're staring down an empty line of train tracks at Fullerton and hoping for your Red Line train to crest the incline and show its face, the arrival of a festive and cartoonish train is a welcome distraction.

On the other side of the coin, I was on the inner loop track at Washington/Wells the other night waiting for a Purple line train (which is a notoriously inconsistent venture). About three Orange and two Pink lines had passed by without any Purple. The platform was getting crowded with angry and anxious northerners.

Just then, the holiday train shows up running the purple line route. Any excitement at seeing the holidayness of the train or at the arrival of a purple line was quickly extinguished as we all realized that all the train cars were packed to the gills. To add insult to injury, the conductors wouldn't let anyone on the end car, though it was perfectly empty.

I don't think Santa, riding his flatbed car that could have been an available passenger car, had ever experienced such hateful glares. Some guy behind me mumbled to his neighbors "I'm glad he doesn't exist. I'd be waiting by the fireplace to kick his ass if he did" (I massacred the original quote, it came out much funnier than that).

Just then, as if Santa had heard our very pleas for an empty and available train car, a nearly empty Purple line pulled up just as olde Saint Nick was disappearing past Tower 18 on his way to the Merchandise Mart.

Sorry we ever lost faith in you, big guy.