Chicagoist: The Holiday Train To Ride Again

Jonathan

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:50:39 -0600

I've lived in Chicago for 3.5 years and every year I hear about the Holiday Train. I've actually only seen it once while driving alongside the Blue Line and thought "Oh, that's cute but I wonder how much that's costing us." Well, just yesterday I was running down to the Lake/State Red Line station and saw it. There it was, in all it's ridiculous glory. Colored lights everywhere, frosted windows, silver poles decorated candy cane style, red and green lights, the Santa flatbed in the middle (takes up the space of 2 cars) and ELVES inside the train handing out candy canes. Lest I not forget the holiday music pumped in through the speakers, the seats covered in Santa fabric, garland on the windows. Again, it was cute, but seriously, who is the CTA trying to appeal to? Suburbanites who never take the train? Tourists who only use Lake/State, Grand, and Chicago stops? If the CTA really wanted to do something nice for those of us that take the L on a regular basis they could focus their monies on real problems: preventing train derailments, fires in the subway, and (oh my god) if I hear "Your attention please. We are being delayed because of an equipment problem on the train. Your operator is off the train to correct the problem." I think I'll scream. My question to the CTA Board is this: if London, Paris, and New York can run a mass transit system as integrated and complex as they are, then why can't we? By comparison our system is not that large or complicated, so what's the problem? Get it together, please.

jackie

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 19:45:44 -0600

it's not just philly that's also getting massive service cuts. pittsburg is losing a fat chunk and indianapolis and atlanta did earilier too, often mixed in with increased fares. being thankful we don't have it at bad as them is a strange way to put it though. we should be scared shitless that this is the trend all across the country. oh yeah, and in every place that service is being cut, massive, incredibly expensive, "improvements" are being made at the same time, like fancy train stations in the richer suburbs or express trains running to the airport. that includes chicago...

Jennifer

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 12:09:57 -0600

I'd rather not see the holiday train in operation, especially if it means more layoffs for CTA employees. Or maybe Kruesi could take a pay cut?