CTA Trains Get Beauty Treatment

By Amy Mikel in News on Jun 10, 2008 5:13PM

Last August, the CTA began testing out new deep-cleaning equipment on Red Line trains, resulting in train cars with brighter, bluer fabric seat covers and floors that were so clean many people thought they were wet. Now, in addition to weekly carwashes and regular deep-cleaning, the CTA plans to send each car in their almost 1200 car fleet in for major detail work at the ‘CTA beauty shop’ at least once a year.

The CTA began the process of regularly detailing rail cars on April 28th of this year, after about $20,000 of cleaning and detailing equipment was installed at a shop in the Linden Rail yard in Wilmette, at the end of the Purple Line. A fifteen-man crew works nightly to strip years of dirt and gunk from every corner of a train car – both inside and outside (big surprise: apparently the Red Line is the worst of the worst). About 12-18 cars can get the scrub down and detail work each night, with an average turnout of about 60 cars a week.

The operation is part of Huberman’s Transforming the CTA plan, unveiled in March, which places cleanliness on par with other customer-facing services like communications and travel efficiencies. The CTA hopes the regular deep-cleaning and detailing will help to offset other costs in the long run, as well. [Trib, image via smussyolay]