CTA Tattler

Penny New Year's Eve rides; girls gone wild

Once again, the CTA is promoting public transit over drunken driving by offering penny rides on buses and trains from 8 pm New Year's Eve Sunday till 6 am Monday, New Year's Day.

I wonder why they don't just offer free rides? I mean, now it's gonna screw up balances on Chicago Cards/Plus. I mean, if you take a round trip without transfer, and your Chicago Card balance is now $10.75, it will be $10.73 after tonight. And you can't add anything less than a nickel to the Chicago Card at the vending machines. That would drive me nuts to have an odd balance like that.

C'est la vie. I'm glad I have a monthly pass. Be safe out there tonight.

Girls gone wild on the CTA

I was just astounded by this story, so I have to share it with you.

Woman And Innocent Bystander Stabbed On CTA Bus

From CBS2: "A group of women boarded a CTA bus near 44th and State streets and when they got inside, they chased a woman who boarded at the same time to the back of the bus, according to a Wentworth Area detective. One woman from the group stabbed the woman they were chasing with a knife, the detective said."

Lovely. Happy New Year.

Best of 2006: March madness, April antics

Continuing with the best Tattler Tales of 2006, here are March and April's finest.

March 2006:

The 120-pound linebacker: Watch out! She'll knock you down for that seat.

Giving up your seat? That's gratitude for ya: We've had heated discussions this year on giving up seats for people -- pregnant, elderly, whatever. In this story, the potential donor gets his head bit off.

In March, I also published The Ten Commandments for CTA riders.

April 2006:

Unearthing the guy underneath all those paper hats: Yes, people DO have fun on CTA trains, thanks to Scotty Iseri.

Hot guy, dumb as a bag of rocks: I love eavesdropping on the CTA, especially catching something like this.

Bizarre results from CTA's Trip Planner: This one sure hit a nerve with many of you who got similar bizarre results.

Best of 2006: January gems, February's finest

Over the next week, as I take break from work and thus the CTA trains and buses, I'll reprise some of the top Tattler Tales of 2006. Today we start with January and February:

January 2006:

Passenger gets nude in Sunday Red Line ruckus: And punched out a train window. And injured three security officers. Just another Sunday on the Red Line.

Cheap haircuts on the CTA: Beware a man bearing scissors and a hair-cutting fetish.

And good things happened too in January -- I got on a clean El train car: Clean with a Capital C!

February 2006:

CTA info screen gone haywire: My pal Tovi shared this strange one, that got a lot of pick up on digg.com.

Really stinking up the Hobo Corner: I just can't get enough Hobo Corner stories. Will, maybe this one actually was a bit too much.

Naked encounter with the railing: And here's a little more Naked-ness on the CTA, though not necessarily what you might think.

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.

Holiday train soothes grumbly commuters

It's been a busy week for all of us, your Tattler man included, which explains the paucity of posts this week.

With Christmas Day fast upon us, I leave you with photos and links from  the CTA's very cool Holiday train. Unfortunately, yesterday was the last day to enjoy the special Santa train on the Yellow Line.

This year, I just happened upon it once on Dec. 18.  It was yet another night of delays and slowdowns. People were grumbling. As we sat at the Fullerton Red Line station, it came gliding in south on the Red Line. And commuters' dispositions changed immediately.

There were lots of oooh's and aaah's and look-at-that! Smiles brightened a train car that only moments before was dark with CTA doom and gloom.

This photo shown here was taken by Ursus Maritimus. You can view the Flickr Holiday train photo set here.

Merry Christmas. Thanks for reading and supporting CTA Tattler. 

Slate: How to survive a subway disaster

After various subway and elevated train derailments and track problems of late, I direct you to a Slate piece a little earlier this year: "How to survive a subway or skyscraper attack".

While the story is focused on New York City, it's certainly universal in asking suck pertinent questions as:

"Why don't subway systems do more to prepare riders for an emergency? They should start with more detailed information about emergency scenarios and procedures."

And perhaps this sounds familiar: "In the New York system, public ignorance is compounded by serious flaws in emergency and even nonemergency communications."

The CTA spin on emergency preparedness

I was poking around the CTA's Web site when I stumbled across a new feature called Connections -- "the Chicago Transit Authority's monthly half-hour television program, [Connections] promotes CTA’s existing bus and rail service and the many initiatives, investments and programs being implemented to deliver service that is on time, clean, safe and friendly.  The program showcases CTA’s regional service and affordable, convenient travel options so existing customers may increase their use of CTA and also to attract new customers to the system."

That's the CTA description of the programs that have been airing on Chicago access channels since August.

This month there's a special edition on Emergency Preparedness. (Quicktime or iTunes software required to view.) I think it's interesting to see the CTA's spin on keeping customers safe.

Delays and cancellations -- just another typical CTA day

Thursday was another typical day on the CTA's train system.

Delays.

Cancellations.

Medical emergencies.

At around 1 pm Thursday, the Red Line was redirected out of the tunnel to go "over the top" on the Loop elevated tracks. We heard about it on our CTA Alerts from our pal Tony. But nothing from the CTA.

No sooner had that situation resolved itself before we had a "medical emergency." It seems a Red Line train struck someone near the Harrison station around 4 pm. This accident snarled train traffic for hours, and sent the Red Line again "over the top." And led to the cancellation of the Purple Line Express.

Good times.

But this time, we can't really blame the CTA. At least not for the "medical emergency."

A drippy, slippy new Rockwell stop

The Reader last week had an interesting story about the newly refurbished Rockwell Brown Line stop. And how there is now less shelter and poor platform drainage.

Lovely.

Read it here.

Embarrassing reading materials

I often see CTA passengers blithely reading books or magazines that I would consider embarrassing and wonder why.

Why, for instance, would you advertise to the whole world that you're a loser by merrily clutching the book "Why Your Life Sucks"? Note in this case I say that the man in his early 40s is clutching, not reading. Perhaps if he were reading it he could understand better and do something about it. But hey, admitting your problem is the first step, right?

A few years back I also saw a 20-something guy furtively reading Penthouse magazine in the single seat at the rear of the train car by the door. Too creepy.