yes those are the new ones. I always opted for the sideways chairs on the old cars since my legs didn't fit in the other seats anyway.

Post/avatar combo, lol.

I'm not incapable of sitting along the sides, but I prefer just plain old forward-facing seats. Aren't the new cars supposed to have a much higher capacity this way, though?

Buy a hatchback and drive everywhere.

you can pack more people in without the row seating. easier entrace/egress with wider aisles.

I live right next to the "garage" where these are stocked, so I see them daily. One of the big features about these trains were the LED destination signs, but the geniuses didn't realize that they needed to be color coded. So while the next batch of trains will color-coded destination signs, they will have to spend money on taking out and installing the signs on the first batch.

I liked when the Pink Line trains were actually pink. Across the board, that'd be too much, but why don't they just nail some colored panels along the sides of the cars? That way, you can easily tell which line a Loop train is on, so that your non-local traveling companion doesn't miss the little destination sign in the front and wander onto a Green Line train to Englewood instead of the intended Brown Line train to Diversey. Not like that's ever happened to me or anyone I know.

you also get the bonus of someone's junk pressed up against your face during rush hour

Has anyone ever seen people going from car to car while the train is in operation? About a month ago I was on the L and a group of 4 or 5 kids opened the door in the back of the car and moved to the next car to join some people they knew. I'm 99% sure that the L doesn't have the enclosed connection from car to car like the Metra does. The stretch of track we were going on wasn't exactly smooth either. It kind of shocked me- I had to make sure with someone I was riding with the next day to confirm that I wasn't imagining things, hallucinating, or dreaming.

I thought it was "EL"?

you can pack more people in without the row seating. easier entrace/egress with wider aisles.

Which lines have them? Red/Blue/Brown? I can't imagine there's a need to pack people in on the Green or Pink, unless you're just going to run fewer cars on them.

I thought it was "EL"?

I thought it was "EL"?

Has anyone ever seen people going from car to car while the train is in operation? About a month ago I was on the L and a group of 4 or 5 kids opened the door in the back of the car and moved to the next car to join some people they knew. I'm 99% sure that the L doesn't have the enclosed connection from car to car like the Metra does. The stretch of track we were going on wasn't exactly smooth either. It kind of shocked me- I had to make sure with someone I was riding with the next day to confirm that I wasn't imagining things, hallucinating, or dreaming.

Thats why Rahmster got em, fit more people in!

Claypool, who joined the CTA as part of the Emanuel administration last year, did not select or approve the center-facing seating, and he did not say whether he would have chosen that design if it were up to him.

"The decisions for the 5000 Series were made nearly 10 years ago, based on extensive engineering and design review," Claypool said. "Without doing the same kind of research and analysis they did 10 years ago, we don't know what factors would guide a decision today."