Comments on: Why Won’t the CTA Brand the Chicago ‘L’?

By: sami m

sami m — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:27:44 +0000

i think Chicago CTA have more serious problems to deal with as of now, the train system is pathetic and outdated, all the cities you have mentioned have a superb modern rail system, what they call it is not relevant… the trains on those cities do not stop 10 times on each trip as the Chicago trains do, they do not make as much noise as Chicago trains do and the rides are not as bumpy as the rides in Chicago.

and just to make my point clearer, Chicago trains are crap comparing to any major city or comparable size city trains.
CTA must update pretty much everything, if they cant do it for some reason than the city of Chicago should intervene and update the people working on CTA first because they are no good for their jobs.

By: CTA’s Holiday Homeless Harassment

CTA’s Holiday Homeless Harassment — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:53:01 +0000

[...] is good customer service? Not that I’d be surprised–it’s not like it would be the first, or second, or third, or even fourth time the agency’s taken a similarly customer-unfriendly [...]

By: Charles McPhate

Charles McPhate — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:16:22 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Mike. I went in search of pictures because I thought I must be going crazy. I found the pictures at the links below. They were all taken (not by me) in 2005.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madopal/30799737/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adg82/43183617/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yacht/48532176/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/prinsphoto/32453972/

By: Mike Doyle

Mike Doyle — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:10:13 +0000

You’re correct, Charles. That rather ugly ‘L’ logo was leftover from a half-hearted, eventually shelved branding effort from the late 1990s. It only ever appeared on strip maps and on some (but not all) station maps. It never received any official support or promotion from the CTA, however, never appeared on paper maps or brochures, and has been completely eliminated on current maps and signage.

By: Charles McPhate

Charles McPhate — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:04:49 +0000

I’m a bit confused. I recall seeing the “L” on previous maps inside the trains – it was removed when new maps were drawn up to include the Pink Line. I’m not imagining this; those signs were how I realized it was spelled “L” instead of “el”. (Being a Southerner, that didn’t make sense to me at the time, but I’ve come to realize Midwesterners butcher language worse than Southerners.)

By: Y

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:18:46 +0000

I’ve thought the same for many years. It should be a no-brainer. The simple T logo in Boston quickly identifies locations of stops. The same practice in Chicago would do a great job of imprinting public transit on people.

By: Jamie Williamson

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:34:39 +0000

While I agree with all of your points I’m sort of glad they haven’t “branded” it to death. Being in the “branding” industry for 20 years myself, I’m a little tired of all the bogus hype heaped on products, manipulated by marketers or people who have become known in the industry as “insights” (consumer insights).

I think it’s refreshing that the people continue to refer to it as the ‘L’ on their own, without having to be told to. I also enjoy the way shoppers, even myself, a relatively new transplant, still refer to Macy’s as Marshal Fields. It’s genuine, real to the bone.