Chicago Holiday Train Surprises Commuters

You know Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen … but how about an open subway car that pulls Santa Claus and his sleigh through grimy, dark tunnels at 50 mph?

The brave Santa is just one feature of the Holiday Train, which zips through the city’s subway and on top of its elevated tracks, surprising commuters and delighting youngsters.

Holiday music booms over the speakers, the hand poles are wrapped in red and white paper to look like giant candy canes, and jolly ol’ St. Nick – wearing his seat belt, of course – rides on a sleigh placed on an open flatbed car in the middle of the train.

The train, which costs a regular $1.50 fare, alternates trips on six of the city’s seven train lines on weekends and some Mondays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Its last runs of this season will be Monday.

Three of the train’s cars derailed Saturday evening, but no one was injured. The derailment disrupted service on the subway’s Brown line for about six hours but wasn’t expected to change the train’s schedule.

A recent rider, 5-year-old Alexander West, said his favorite part is the candy canes given out by Chicago Transit Authority workers dressed as elves. His mother is more impressed by Kris Kringle.

“I love the fact that Santa rides out in the open car. They go so fast, it must be cold,” Sarah West said. “And it seems like he’s always out there.”

The Holiday Train began in 1992 with a few modest decorations on the outside. This year’s version is draped in garland, wrapped in a special seasonal vinyl covering and twinkles with 50,000 lights inside and out.

Although a schedule is posted on the Internet, many riders end up on the train by chance. Along with excited children whose parents planned the trip, plenty of sour-faced commuters break into silly grins and laughs when they find their normally drab, beige train car turned into a winter wonderland.

“It’s beautiful!” exclaimed Rochelle Sims as she boarded the train last week after work. Sims looked overhead at the red and green bulbs that had replaced the normal fluorescent glare. “This puts me in the Christmas mood. It makes commuting more fun.”

Chicago transit workers know of no other public transit system that decorates a train as extensively.

Dave Kowalski, on board a recent trip as Santa’s “chief elf” (to make sure everything is running smoothly), admits that the Holiday Train gets a “little extra TLC.”

When not donning a red “Santa Express” jacket, Kowalski is a lead manager for rail car appearance for the CTA. He was one of the original workers who hung a lighted sign on the outside of an ‘L’ train in 1992 to deliver food to some charities along one of the routes. Each year, they added something more.

“It got infectious and this is what you get,” he said. “The thing sucks you in.”

This year’s train took about six weeks to decorate. About a week after Christmas, it will be stripped of its decorations and return to the regular fleet – with no sign of the CTA workers dressed in floppy elf costumes who once passed out candy and led commuters in carols.

Frequent CTA rider Henry Enlow, 42, wishes at least the spirit of the Holiday Train could remain year-round.

“There’s music and happiness,” he says, “and everyone seems content.”

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On the Net:

Chicago Transit Authority: http://www.transitchicago.com/