Crawl de El de Chicago 1.0 Pink Line

When the day arrived, the alarm clock went off and I wanted to curl under the comforter for another couple of hours. Anyway I managed to get the better of the lazy impulses and got out of the house by around seven thirty. It was around twenty degrees outside and I walked a couple of blocks north to the Racine Blue line station.

My plan was to board a rush hour blue line train towards 54^th and Cermak as the first step of the journey. As usual, Mr. Edward Aloysius Murphy, Jr. scored the first point of the day when I watched one of those rare 54/Cermak blue line trains heading out of the station as I passed the turnstiles. So I ended up waiting for half hour for the next train on the rush hour route. I started feeling a bit hungry and was just watching cars speeding by on either side of the highway median on which the station is located. I marveled at the selection of the median as the train route. The famed Chicago skyline provided a great backdrop to the view and I was pulsing with excitement.

Even before I started the actual ride, I met my first real character of the day. A kid, who could have been in a middle school tried to sell an iPod to me. He wanted 30 bucks for it. Only problem was that he doesn’t have a charger for it and it wouldn’t switch on. At first he claimed that he got it from some girl even though later on his story was altered to the effect that he received the music player two years ago as a Christmas gift from his grandma and since he got a video iPod now, he is forced to sell it. I asked him how anyone would buy it when he cannot even prove that it works. But he was adamant that all it needs is some charging and swore that in case it doesn’t work, he would gladly refund the money and he could be found at the station every day at the same time. Tough sell son, you got to be at school by this time rather than at the rail station peddling dead iPods.

Anyway the train arrives soon and I began the long journey. Just as we ascended to the elevated level, the train was stopped momentarily for signal clearance. A pink line train was crossing over the Paulina connector on its way to the loop. The duration for which the train was stationary was less than 40 seconds. Contrary to the incessant bickering that I hear about the delays, I rarely had to endure long stoppages at any part of the CTA. The train then passed through the Illinois medical district into Pilsen. I could see a semi-industrialized area with neighborhoods with old apartment buildings as well as plenty of churches whose domes were shining in the morning sun.

The journey ended at the 54/Cermak station in twenty one minutes, passing through sparkling new stations with public address systems announcing the arrival of trains. 54/Cermak has a long, space saving design enabling the trains to switch the track quickly. Here I decided to return to the Loop by a pink line train and headed back by the same route and taking the Paulina connector to join the green line east to the loop. Of all the pink line stations, the most unique station in this line was the 18^th, with its vibrant artwork on the walls. I would even rank it in the top 5 among the whole of CTA at least in aesthetic aspect. It took me twenty nine minutes to reach the loop with the train being full with the rush hour commuters.

Once in the loop, the unrelenting call of hunger made me get down at Clark/Lake to go to the JR Thompson Center to have my breakfast of Dunkin Donuts coffee and egg-sausage-hash browns from Sbarro. I was highly satisfied with the progress of the trip and the breakfast gave me fresh energy to take on the protracted journey with a new level of enthusiasm.

Crawl de El de Chicago 0.5 Beta

If the ‘Going Public’ column of Red Eye is to be believed, the CTA is the most unloved entity that is found on either side of the Lake Michigan. Well, apparently a journalist called Kyra Kyles makes a living just by catering to the gripes and whining of Chicagoans about the CTA. I can hear the purists questioning my credentials because of my keeping Red Eye as the source of information and news. Well, I listen to NPR too, occasionally.

As an implant to Chicago, I’ve always been impressed by the CTA. In the first few weeks in Chicago, I used to commute from the Streeterville neighborhood to UIC, by the red and blue lines. In those days I used to speculate where this Howard might be. Well, I had to find out one day. Days of exploring the city ensued forth: by buses, bike, trains and to some extend, by car. Having a CTA U Pass ensured that the trains and buses were used extensively in this quest. And I saw that it was good, as you say in the Old Testament.

But, there were limitations on the breadth of this coverage. The only time that I’ve been to the south side beyond Chinatown except by car was during a Critical Mass bike ride. I had a buffer and protection of a thousand bikers riding down with me. We passed through some grand boulevards and some shady sections too, but would I do that alone? Well no. Call me a coward, but I’m being honest. But there are folks among the Critical Mass riders who drop out as soon as any ride goes south of Roosevelt. Similarly, there were many parts of the city that I never bothered visiting, either due to the lack of need or the lack of interest.

These all reasons led me to a fine idea. I call it “fine” because everybody who heard about this plan declared it as splendid. But it is yet another matter that nobody wanted to have any part of it. Probably ‘splendid’ is a euphemism for eccentric. Anyway, the idea is simple: Ride all the lines of the CTA back to back in a single stretch. It appeared simple in paper, but I had no clue how long it would take or how I should prepare for it. From past trips on many of the lines, I estimated the trip to take over 12 hours. Piece of cake! Little did I know what was in store for me!

I did some online research and found that somebody had already done the same thing with the New York’s subways some time in the sixties and now they even have an Amateur New York Subway Riding Committee to keep track of the records. But I could not find any mention about the same feat attempted with the Chicago El network. I had planned to do this for over a year, always postponing and never actually moving even a finger to implement this plan. But by January 08, I knew my time was running out. I may never have time to do this in the conceivable future or even worse, I may even move from the city. That got me going and the date was finalized. January 17, 2008.

When the ride was over, I ended up with a sore butt, a spreadsheet with accurate times at which I arrived at each station throughout the journey and a lot of notes scribbled on a notebook. I thought of writing everything down in a single article but the experience proved to be too large to be compressed into a piece of writing small enough to keep the readers awake. And hence this bunch of smaller pieces.