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Dan Ryan Track Renewal Project


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Back to the topic, it appears CTA is putting up advertising along the red line announcing the return of Hodar Oct 20th. Nice to see hodar again. We haven't seen him in 20 years!!

Do you have any captions of these ads? I would love to see it.

They need to show HoDar & L.E. Jack on the ads more often, like that owl for the nightcars. And maybe a similar Orange Line character, maybe for the twentieth anniversary of the Midway line eleven days later, on Halloween? Just a thought.

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I still have yet to see them in person. I couldn't find any yesterday. It would be nice if they wrapped a #5000 red for the opening, they did that for the pink line dedication. Since they still have #2200's around I wonder if there's a temptation by someone to charter a train for a pre or post opening festivity. #2200's opened the line in 1969. I think it would be kind of nice for them to appear again there for the final time. It would be a poetic end of an era. (we can always dream right) Maybe Krambles would have done that.

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...

They need to show HoDar & L.E. Jack on the ads more often, like that owl for the nightcars. And maybe a similar Orange Line character, maybe for the twentieth anniversary of the Midway line eleven days later, on Halloween? Just a thought.

IIRC, HoDar and L.E.Jack predate when the roll signs went from route descriptions (Howard-Dan Ryan, Lake-Englewood, and Lake-Jackson Park) to destinations, and worked because the lines had branches (which were swapped in 1993 or so). Orange Line doesn't really qualify (Midway is Midway in any event).

However, following your suggestion, they could have a pumpkin carved with the face of Bill Lipinski.

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IIRC, HoDar and L.E.Jack predate when the roll signs went from route descriptions (Howard-Dan Ryan, Lake-Englewood, and Lake-Jackson Park) to destinations, and worked because the lines had branches (which were swapped in 1993 or so). Orange Line doesn't really qualify (Midway is Midway in any event).

However, following your suggestion, they could have a pumpkin carved with the face of Bill Lipinski.

They did, though I think the Green Line signs after the swap were Englewood-Lake and Jackson Pk-Lake which at the time I found to be a little odd.

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They did, though I think the Green Line signs after the swap were Englewood-Lake and Jackson Pk-Lake which at the time I found to be a little odd.

That probably is. I only vaguely remembered such a sign on a car parked in the Linden yard, and it does seem like the branch was over the common segment (sort of like Congress-Milwaukee and Douglas-Milwaukee).

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As mentioned, HoDar is CTA's made up character meant to represent Howard/Dan Ryan, the 1990's alternate name of the Red Line after the February 1993 realignment that saw the Dan Ryan leg connected to the Howard L and the Englewood/Jackson Park leg connected to the Lake Street L. HoDar was part of the advertising campaign CTA did in 1992, starting summer of that year, to promote the realignment. The other cartoon character in that campaign was L.E. Jack for Lake-Englewood/Jackson Park, the Green Line's alternate name after that realignment.

Oh yeah, I remember that HoDar & LeeJack campaign. It seems to me that it was a big fat flop --- and a needless waste of resources. Does anyone actually remember ever hearing a regular rider make a statement like this? "If you wanna get to Uptown, take the HODAR to Wilson Avenue!" No? I didn't think so.

Nicknames are grass-roots, from the streets and sidewalks, from farmyards, factories, bars, and schools. Nicknames do NOT grow legs in corporate boardrooms! They're not anointed and handed down from on high! Anybody remember a '60s and '70s muscle car called the Plymouth Barracuda? Some clueless corporate poobah at Chrysler came up with the bright idea to market it as the 'CUDA! It was patronizing and it didn't fly. The "'Cuda" edition died quickly and mercifully.

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Oh yeah, I remember that HoDar & LeeJack campaign. It seems to me that it was a big fat flop --- and a needless waste of resources. Does anyone actually remember ever hearing a regular rider make a statement like this? "If you wanna get to Uptown, take the HODAR to Wilson Avenue!" No? I didn't think so.

Nicknames are grass-roots, from the streets and sidewalks, from farmyards, factories, bars, and schools. Nicknames do NOT grow legs in corporate boardrooms! They're not anointed and handed down from on high! Anybody remember a '60s and '70s muscle car called the Plymouth Barracuda? Some clueless corporate poobah at Chrysler came up with the bright idea to market it as the 'CUDA! It was patronizing and it didn't fly. The "'Cuda" edition died quickly and mercifully.

I think it was just someone in the advertising department being cute.

The more memorable thing when the Green Line reopened was the map with a sort of 1890s style cover on the cover.

post-14-0-53746600-1381497245_thumb.jpg

There was the "Don't be like Jack" campaign which I found a bit offensive. I'm surprised they don't have "Sparky" or something like that for the current keep off the tracks campaign.

I suppose that to get this back to the topic, the question will be whether there will be a commemorative map next week, but in the internet age, some of us don't care.

BTW, our family did have one of the early CUDAs. My father wanted to buy a used Ford Galaxy, and we said "no way."

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In the realm of the truly bizarre effects of the Internet, the Tribune map of CTA reroutes for the Chicago Marathon also has the notices that the bus routes affected by the Red Line closure are going back to normal. I wondered why, for instance, 59 was on the list.

The end of the R shuttles and the other routes going back to normal are also at the end of the Upcoming Bus Alerts page.

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In the realm of the truly bizarre effects of the Internet, the Tribune map of CTA reroutes for the Chicago Marathon also has the notices that the bus routes affected by the Red Line closure are going back to normal. I wondered why, for instance, 59 was on the list.

The end of the R shuttles and the other routes going back to normal are also at the end of the Upcoming Bus Alerts page.

I saw that too and I'm thinking why is Tribune showing the south side routes rerouted because of the South Red Line project as being back to normal a little over a week early? Their notation that they show reroutes as they come in from the CTA did lead me to find on CTA's site that the upcoming alerts are up for those routes as far as project end is concerned.

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Oh yeah, I remember that HoDar & LeeJack campaign. It seems to me that it was a big fat flop --- and a needless waste of resources. Does anyone actually remember ever hearing a regular rider make a statement like this? "If you wanna get to Uptown, take the HODAR to Wilson Avenue!" No? I didn't think so. Nicknames are grass-roots, from the streets and sidewalks, from farmyards, factories, bars, and schools. Nicknames do NOT grow legs in corporate boardrooms! They're not anointed and handed down from on high! Anybody remember a '60s and '70s muscle car called the Plymouth Barracuda? Some clueless corporate poobah at Chrysler came up with the bright idea to market it as the 'CUDA! It was patronizing and it didn't fly. The "'Cuda" edition died quickly and mercifully.

I think I remember orange line signs similar to the hodar one showing rows of oranges saying that it was coming too. They were big on symbols in '93.

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All The Construction Boards are off 63rd Station & apparently the Elevator is installed with an unattractive roof vent on top. The stations look clean & ready & the tracks look ready for many more decades of service. It'll be quite disappointing to she the R-Shuttles disappear, even if they came as a limited rush hour service with regular fares applied. Garfield can be hailed as the best temporary terminal hub I've seen, overall the project is deemed a success

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@BusHunter Yes, that was to connect with the 1st R55 to Garfield & The last Green Line Train operate through the Southside Elevated (which was seen on the 1st Red Line to Ashland because the Red Line was late due to the 5000 doors malfunction & another one was pulled out the yard 10 minutes later making it run express From Loyola to Belmont). A 5000 should be expected to be the 1st train to 95th/Dan Ryan

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