CTA Tattler

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 redline 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 traincar, a nearly empty Purple line pulled up just as olde' Saint Nick was dissappearing past Tower 18 on his way to the Merchandise Mart.

Sorry we ever lost faith in you, big guy.

Haha, I was also waiting at the same time as you Niles, I remember waiting and waiting for a Purple Line, which is always late, and then seeing this thing coming and thinking I might be able to get on, only to have the flatbed car stop right where I was standing. I think many people wanted to just hop on and ride with Santa, good thing they had security there. I also did not get why the last car was empty, that effectively made it a 4-car train during rush hour. Good thing the empty Purple Line came next. I am all for the Santa train, but they should not send it during rush hours.

Bobby,I think the reason they keep the last car closed on Purple Express (and Brown) is because the Brown Line stations it stops at can't handle what is essentially a seven-car train. They close the last car rather than cut the last two from the train entirely, because at least that way it is a five car train.

Good thing they scheduled another Purple Line train immediately behind the Holiday Train, as you and another poster noted.

Thanks Santa Fan, that makes sense, I had just assumed the flat bed car was attached to a single car.

The Holiday Train has cheered me up more than once after very bad days. I love that it's almost impossible to be frowning on the Holiday Train. Trust me. I've tried.