The 5 Stages Of CTA Train Delay Grief
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jan 21, 2016 3:59PM
via John W. Iwanski
Major delays on almost all of the CTA's train lines Thursday morning have some trains sitting on the tracks for 40-plus minutes—and slowly, ploddingly, driving late-for-work riders completely insane.
With little else to do besides vent about their predicaments on Twitter, these unlucky CTA riders are a case study in the stages and cycles of grief that a hapless public transit commuter is likely to go through while watching precious minutes of their life slip away on a frozen L-train platform or, worse, somewhere underground with patchy cell phone service.
1. Denial
@cta standing for 50 minutes counts as a significant delay. Would have been on time had I stayed on the red.
— Don Bora (@dbora) January 21, 2016"we are experiencing a delay and we regret this inconvenience." do you really cta
— Katie Dzwierzynski (@kdzwierzynski) January 20, 2016This @CTA brown line train is crawling but I'm SUPER thankful the conductor reopened the doors at the platform to let me in from the cold.
— tankboy (@tankboy) January 21, 2016I'm not sure what is more annoying right now: the actual brown line delay or how many times this conductor has apologized for it #CTA
— Natasha Janic (@NatashaJanic) January 21, 2016#CTA brown line conductor's constant abject apologizing for our long delay is starting to irritate me more than the delay itself.
— Dan Erdman (@Midnight_Choker) January 21, 20163. Calling (Or Texting) Everyone You Know
The only thing worse than this train delay is listening to this woman call ppl and complain about this train delay #cta #chicagotransit
— Werking_On_It (@canyoujust_not0) January 21, 20164. Resigning To Your Dismal Fate
The train just kicked everyone off and told us to take the bus to wherever we have to go after a 20 minute delay, wtf lol? @cta
— Jose Calvo (@SirBuckCalvo) January 21, 2016Maybe I'll convince everyone in my car to play musical chairs #cta #delay #getmeouttahere
— Julia Wislocka (@JuliaWislocka) January 21, 2016Share your snacks people! #cta #delay #sharingiscaring
— Julia Wislocka (@JuliaWislocka) January 21, 20165. Sweet Fantasies Of Revenge
Hey @cta, I'll be invoicing you for billable hours lost due to your negligent maintenance of the brown line and insufficient delay updates.
— Mike Ponticelli (@MikeCelli) January 21, 2016Did we miss a stage? Tell us how you feel at tips@chicagoist.com. Is #CTApocalypse a thing yet?