Trains

Trains

I had an interesting thought last night regarding the ‘L.’ I got off a Purple Line Express last night at the Belmont stop and waited for a Brown Line train. Both trains should have gone to the same place, but you never know. Purple Lines appear when you least expect them, and suddenly you are miles off track. So, I go onto a Brown Line and then off at Sedgwick. When I did, my friend Kelly was getting off the train.

Kelly had taken the Red Line from Lawrence, gotten on to the same Purple Line train I was getting off of at Belmont, fearing the same thing I was fearing as to the unpredictability of the Purple Line, she got off at Diversey a and got on the same Brown Line train I was on.

My thought is this, how often do you think that on the CTA do you get off a train that someone you know is getting on?

How often is there someone you know in another car?

How often is there a complete stranger that is taking the same route you are taking and switching from and to the same trains you are?

This city is huge. There are 2.8 Million people who live in the City of Chicago, and there are more than 9.5 Million who live in the Chicagoland area. Approximately 1.7 Million people take CTA trains and busses each Day. According to an advertisement I pass every time I ride the Brown Line there are over 66,000 people who ride the Brown Line every weekday.

66,000 is six times the population of the town I grew up in. It is ten times the size of the high school I went to. 66,000 is larger than the entire staff and student population of the University of Minnesota—the forth largest populated school in the country.

So, the next time you are on the train, think about who you might be missing. It might be a friend or foe, or just that crazy guy eating a tuna fish sandwich…. but it won’t matter if you do not get your head out of the Red Eye.

That is all.