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Avoiding poop cars: A survival guide to riding the CTA in winter

Rachel Brusstar, 24, has only been riding the CTA for two years but she already knows how to sniff out a winter commuting phenomenon: The poop train car.

Brusstar thought she hit the jackpot last year when she caught a Red Line train during rush hour and was able to score a seat because there were few riders in her car. The doors closed on the train—and she realized she wasn’t so lucky. She smelled feces but was determined not to spot the source of stench.

“I tried to not look anywhere, just out the window,” said Brusstar, of Lakeview. “I got trapped for one stop.”

Poop train cars—the result of CTA riders using rail car seats as their personal toilet—tend to rise in the winter as homeless people take shelter from the cold on the Red and Blue lines, which operate 24 hours a day.

Poop trains are just one of the joys of winter commuting in Chicago. There’s also cozying up to strangers under heat lamps on outdoor rail platforms, moving slowly on rail station staircases to prevent slipping on snow, and squeezing into narrow seats on a rail car with aisle-facing seats that don’t seem to be built for puffy coat wearers. And let’s not forget the game of slush-dodging when a bus pulls up to your stop.

Officials at the CTA say the agency is prepared for another polar vortex—an Arctic cold front that brought days of sub-zero temperatures last winter and served as a test of commuting fortitude for brave Chicagoans who ventured outside their home.

On the bus side, the CTA has checked bus heaters, engine thermostats and batteries to make sure they will run smoothly in the cold and secured windows and roof hatches, CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski said.

On the rail side, the agency has stocked up on sand and salt for outdoor rail station platforms, where overhead heat lamps keep riders warm. CTA rail cars also have snowplow blades to remove snow and ice and sleet scrapers to clear the third rail, which supplies CTA trains with electricity.

As for poop trains, Hosinski said the CTA is working with the city and social service agencies to encourage the homeless to go to shelters or use other services.

As you cram into a rail car or bus full of people resembling snowmen with thick scarves, feather-stuffed coats, furry hoods and oversized gloves, it may seem like there are more passengers than usual, but CTA ridership tends to dip in November and December because of school holiday breaks (students tend to take CTA buses to class) and a drop in tourism compared to the summer.

In January, the CTA logged its lowest bus ridership total in recent years—20.2 million rides, down nearly 17 percent from January 2013—which the CTA blamed on the polar vortex. The agency found that riders tend to take trains, not buses, in extreme cold to avoid slow traffic amid slippery road conditions.

Kimberly Britt, 26, said she dreads winter commuting, in part because of a bad experience in January when there was a stretch of sub-zero temperatures.

Britt said she was stuck on the Diversey station platform waiting 20 minutes for a delayed Brown Line train. Though she was bundled up in a big coat and huddled under the heat lamp, she found her body didn’t embrace the below-zero conditions.

“My knees turned purple and it hurt to walk,” said Britt, of Lakeview.

Maggie Cassidy, of Wicker Park, said last winter she experienced delays on the Blue Line, which has some of the CTA’s oldest rail cars, because of problems with train doors closing in the cold.

Nevertheless, she prefers the Blue Line to the Green Line, which she takes to visit her family in Oak Park because the Green Line trains have the 5000-series cars with the aisle-facing seats.

The controversial 5000-series cars operate on the Pink, Red, Purple, Yellow and Green lines. Because of negative feedback from riders complaining about cramped seats and crotch-level views on the 5000-series cars, the CTA said its next rail car design won’t have mostly aisle-facing seats.

Cassidy, 30, said she often chooses to stand in the cars with the aisle-facing seats but will sit down if she can find two seats together. She said she’s more strict about this rule in the winter, when riders are carrying around more physical bulk from coats and other outerwear.

“No matter how big a person is, they get bigger in the winter,” Cassidy said. Still, she said she’s not dissuaded from riding the CTA in the winter, adding, “I would still rather be on a crowded train than sitting in traffic.”

Going Public has a few tips to make your winter commute sunnier.

Stay away from the poop car: As a train approaches the station during rush hour, make sure you are not boarding a car with few or no people. Riders tend to switch cars if the car they are on has a heavy poop stench. Smell before you sit.

Stay upright: Slow down when taking rail station stairs. The CTA salts its rail station platforms and stairways but watch out for slick conditions. Ride, don’t slide.

Stay indoors as long as possible: Use Bus and Train Tracker to avoid long waits for buses and trains in the elements. The CTA offers heat via lamps on outdoor rail station platforms from Nov. 1 to March 31. Most of the CTA’s 11,000 bus stops don’t have heat lamps.

Sharing is caring: If possible, travel light to save space. Clutch your purse or backpack close to you and don’t put it on the seat next to you. You paid for one seat, not three.