CTA Tattler

I think we all know the answer before an audit even begins. Better cleaning needs to happen along with enforcement of rules. This was clearly illustrated by the woman standing on a northbound Red Line train this evening, gnawing on pieces of chicken and attempting to put the bones in one of the bags she carried...attempts that were successful only some of the time. People really are at their worst on public transit. It's beyond disgusting, and you can't say anything about it without instantly becoming the target of abuse. Stiff fines for eating and drinking aboard should go hand in hand with more frequent and more effective cleaning.

Like you believe her. She puts out a press release saying she embraces the Auditor General's recommendation for more funding, but ignores the other findings, like about wasteful duplication of service.
The trains need to be swept after every round trip. Sorry if that means that they can't immediately go into the turnback track at Howard.

Scott, did you push the customer assistant button? Did you say anything? Did you take any responsibility? How is the operator going to enforce the rules if they don't know they are being broken? Or do you want 8 conductors on every train?

I just watched a twentysomething guy (dressed fairly chic) on the Pink Line clip his fingernails for about 10 minutes, right on the seat. After he was done he was considerate enough to brush them onto the floor.

I was about to say something to him, but it got me wondering if that was actually acceptable. I mean, fingernails won't attract pests or a foul smell on the car. And not like I'd chide somebody for picking their nose in public. In other words, it's only harming them, if they care.

No, I didn't say anything; I just fumed. I admit that this doesn't help solve the problem, and I should have done something. The train was full, and I was afraid to start a scene, get a load of nasty-talk back from the chicken-eater, and become the center of attention. Gotta get over these fears and take action. And I'm not being sarcastic here...I'm saying you're absolutely right, Vic. I wish I had done something about Miss Trixie's leaving behind her Jamba Juice lid the other night to ooze orange yuck on the seat in front of me. In that case, didn't notice until she was gone. I'd feel better participating in a group action pointing out these violations, but even the people sitting right next to the chicken-bone woman just sat there. I would have been yelling from midtrain...still no excuse. --Scott the Angry but Timid

i can't believe after a scathing audit of RTA, THIS is the topic of concern for CTA. i have been to the last 2 meetings of the 3-track service downgrades starting in april for the belmont fullerton corridor-- where it's clear that we, as riders, are officially screwed if we actually, you know, want to take any sort of public transport in the next 2 years. it's disgusting.

"Easy things, like cleaning a train or cleaning a bus, are things that we should be doing as a matter of course," Brown said after requesting the audit."

So many of the creative suggestions for dealing with the 3-track issue would cost huge amounts of money, with negligble results, or were simply impractical. If solving the 3-track problem was an "easy thing", they would do it.

Cleaning buses and trains is an easy thing. Theoretically, it's suposed to already be getting done. If it's not, then the question is where is the money that was budgeted for it actually going.

It may turn out that management has been low-balling cleaning costs in the budget for years. If that's the case, then getting things clean may not be an "easy thing".

Can they solve the hard problems? Maybe not. Maybe there isn't a solution to the hard problems. But just because you've got a hard problem with no easy solution doesn't mean that you shouldn't solve some easy problems.

I hope this will be an easy problem. I hope they are able to solve it. Because when a train or bus that actually has room for me comes along, I want it to be clean -- especially if I waited forever for it to come in the first place.

The CTA definitely needs to get it's act together with the cleaning but it's patrons are the ones who should really be ashamed.

The other day I saw some grossnick *spit* right on the train floor. What is in the hell is wrong with people? It's the same thing with trying to enjoy a day at the beach in Chicago. Just as you duck down from a nice swim a diaper floats by.

It doesn't help when the drivers are eating also. That happened this morning on a SB 146. And yes, I did call the CTA with the badge number of the driver.

Why are we still talking about this when at any moment a railcar could burst into flames for no reason?

The red line is filthy. As someone else stated in the past on this site, solve the problem by running two red lines. One from Howard to Roosevelt and the other from Roosevelt to 95th.

I saw a ghetto chick eating sunflower seeds on the train, blatantly tossing the shells right on the floor in the middle of the train. Didn't want to say anything due to fear of being attacked by her and her friend. CTA should enable some way to discreetly report things via SMS txting from a cell phone to get immediate response.

you know, janie, you're a genius. but you're not going far enough.

see, people who litter up cars don't only get on south of roosevelt. arguably, there should be howard-roosevelt trains that don't stop at either morse or wilson. for that matter, it's a pretty undesirable sort that uses the howard stop.

or, alternatively, black people can only use the last four cars of any train. perhaps we can make an exception for those in business suits.

i agree steven. janie has a dumb name and dumber outlook on the reality of garbage. most of us are guilty of bringing SOMEthing on the bus or train. personally, as a rule in life i keep my items in my purse or in its bag till I can find a garbage can. i'm no litterbug. and guess what: i get on at jackson and off at north ave. am i a ghetto chick too? did you do any littering on st. pat's day on any CTA line? because i stepped over shit from Walton to Balbo this weekend, and no sign of ghetto chicks anywhere

Although I am from Chicago, I’ve relocated to Toronto. We have a generally clean transit system. (And one that runs on a schedule, and one that has an acceptable rider-capacity, etc). It can’t be chalked up to Canadians simply being nicer than Chicagoans, nor is this an opportunity for tired stereotypes about Canadians in general. Rather, we need to take a look at what Toronto is doing that Chicago doesn’t. First of all, there are signs all over the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) aimed at shaming litterbugs and slobs. My favorite is a picture of a man sitting amid a pile of newspaper, banana peels and coffee cups. A couple look on in horror. The litterbug’s face has been photoshopped into that of a pig. The catch line at the bottom of the sign is “You Are NOT Invisible”. It seems to me that whoever does the signage for the CTA is trying to be too polite. I mean, what is the deal with the toothless and, not to mention, utterly lame “Don’t be Jack, keep the snack in the pack” series, et al? Make the people spitting sunflower seeds on the floor, make the chicken bone gnawers feel embarrassed at their behavior. Don’t worry about offending them, they themselves are doing something offensive. And those endless announcements, that “eating, drinking, gambling, smoking, fornicating, farting, littering, playing radios or other loud devices is prohibited” just go on unheeded, and are a constant irritation (taken with the horrible triple beep of the “waiting for signals” messages is beyond unbearable). Shame is a powerful motivator. Nevertheless, enforcement is key. In Toronto, there is a special division of the police assigned only to the transit system who are quick to write tickets for filthy slobs, annoying drunks, panhandlers and any old sort of obnoxious offender. Now, I don’t think that there are very many of these officers. I rarely see them, but at least people know that if they are caught disgracing the public transit in any way, they will be fined. Too many times have I seen Chicago cops not wishing to be bothered by writing a ticket for, say, littering or smoking. There are also those worthless private security guards in Chicago, who gossip at one end of the station, sometimes eating, other times chatting on their cell-phones, who only on occasion will interrupt their them-time to wave their I-Am-Indeed-Doing-My-Job-Wand at some touchpad at the other end of the station. Cops who are at hand, and willing to ticket and citizens ready to shame, along with signs that convey that littering is not just a question of a legal offence, but a social one should help. All that, and a good sweep and scour every day.

All this talk of food related offenses makes me wonder how many of you are indeed taking the same red line I've been taking for the past few months. Sure, sunflower seeds and chicken bones are pretty disgusting, but I'm finding the smell of urine abundantly more annoying and nausea inducing than a few odorless sunflower seeds laying about. My desire to sit during ever increasing CTA travel times has waned as I begin to think about how much and how many bodily fluids have soaked into the seats and dried.

I'm with you, Brent.

Folks, the spitting and the eating of chicken isn't the cleanliness problem on the train. The cleanliness problem is the urine and feces in the cars from some of the people who use the train as their home (including bathroom). In fact, the train-dwellers themselves are no picnic when they are on the train, which is often.

The CTA or the police need to swallow the short-term political hit of cleaning these people out of the train cars and the stations. The CTA system is not a home for the homeless.

I sometimes get on the ridgeland stop of the greenline to head downtown. Ridgeland is only the 2nd stop from Harlem and I've seen some pretty nasty stuff. My latest was crusted over chunks of vomit that were semi in a corner but enough in plain sight for a janitor/cleaner to have spotted it and mopped it up. The fact that the chunks where completely dry let me know that train probably hasn't been cleaned in a while. Didn't the CTA say that their trains were cleaned daily? I don't think you need to spend more money the CTA doesn't have on an audit to see trains and busses are not cleaned as often as they should be.

I usually take the bus but today I was right by the Belmont Red Line stop so I got on there. When I entered the train some kind of reek smell was there and I didn't see any homeless people on there, so I dont know if someone left something stinky on the floor or what. It sure needed Lysol. Then when I grabbed onto the pole to hang on, someone had previously had hair pomade or greasy fingers because the pole was very greasy.. and Im not exaggerating either. It makes me glad that I dont have to take the El, but can get by Chicago on the bus. Now I now what you all are talking about.

I've seen signs advertising the fact that you can receive a $100 ticket for eating on CTA trains and buses. It seems that if CTA could kill several birds with one stone by putting a few more conductors on trains who would be responsible for:

a) ticketing passengers who eat and/or litter on trains (thereby providing money for a conductor's wages)
b) cleaning up after those who do litter
c) increasing everyones level of public safety