Return of the CTA Holiday Train
With the holiday season fully descended on Chicago, back again is the much-loved CTA Holiday Train. Despite 2006 being marked with myriad problems for the agency, including major derailments on the Blue Line and Red Line and the closing of a key downtown subway station to construct a highly controversial airport-access station, all of that seems to be forgotten for a moment, judging by the dumbfounded, giddy looks that come across riders faces as the so-called "Santa Express" pulls into the station.
A Chicago tradition for 14 years, the six-car "L" train is wrapped in holiday lights and includes a mid-train flatbed carrying a living (and hanging-on-for-dear-life) Santa and his sleigh. The consist cruises the CTA system in regular service every weekend from Thanksgiving until Christmas. Surprised riders step aboard to equally holiday-themed interiors, with special Santa seat upholstery, ceiling lights replaced with red and green bulbs, holiday carols playing over the P.A. system, and costumed CTA "elves" passing through the aisles with buckets of candy canes.
Although not the most politically correct of municipal holiday markers, the CTA Holiday Train has proven itself so universally popular among Chicagoans that a 2004 budget proposal to cancel the train by CTA president Frank Kruesi led CTA board president Carole Brown to pull rank and order the train be operated no matter the cost.
Photos of this year's train can be found on the Chicago-based photoblog, Looper or via this Flickr search.
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mtd | 12:45 PM |
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