Posted Nov. 11 at 12:53 p.m.

Say whaaaa?   An anxious Edgewater rider calling himself "H-Town" e-mailed me from his commute this morning, concerned about a bus operator he contends was sleeping on the job.  Here's his note, entitled "The Dozing Driver," and the details of this harrowing ride.  I am pasting this in verbatim.  He e-mailed me two separate time to finish the story:

"Good morning kkyles this moring i was waiting for the 147 outer drive express bus @ foster/sheridan. I waited five minutes,good. The driver pulls up behind a 151 sheridan bus, as i approached the 147, i noticed the driver had dozed off. I guess the driver hadn't noticed i was at the door. Then the driver woke up let me on. As we continued on the route, the driver would miss lights to cat a snooze. I'm not kidding. A snooze at every stop light. She falls asleep at loyola university, i hop from my seat and ask her  are you ok can u finish this route. She says yes,we continue she was leaving her lane and into the other lane. Sheridan road is busy all day. Cars honking.slowing down to let her pass. We proceed through rogers park same thing happens again, leaving her lane, by this time no field supervisor its 9:53 am."

E-mail No. 2:

"had to continue the rest of this email to u about the sleeping bus driver. I boarded the bus @ foster/sheridan. I noticed the driver had taken a snooze behind the wheel, and the bus was not even in park mode.We proceed up sheridan weaving in out of traffic. We arrive at loyola university the driver does it again. I hop out of my seat, and ask the driver wake up. Can you continue this rouute? The driver says yes and asks me am i all right. Can you believe this? I notice the driver snoozing behind the wheel and i'm asked am i alright. So i call cta. By this time we in rogers park. Weaving in/out of traffic, no field supervisor. We arrive at howard red line. The field supervisor arrives after we exit the bus. I go all the way up stairs,come  back down, find the supervisor. He calls over the driver he askes some questions. One of the questions is are you alright? The driver says yes, now she is. I tell him the driver was sleeping behind the wheel. The driver  says no i wasn't sleeping behind the wheel, right in front of me and the supervisor. He looks at me i look at him. Confusion. for sure on the drivers part. I saw it you did it. The drivers denies the alligation and say thank you  he will take care of it. Why would i make a false statement. Safety is involved here. My question is how did the driver make it from busy downtown streets, lakeshore drive, eastedgewater, through rogers park in this tired condition. Fatige had set in this situation. No driver should driver under these conditions, ever. thanks for listening gotta go."

Yipes, stripes!  Have you ever experienced this during your commute?  What did you do?  Bus operators, tell us, do you guys work such long shifts that this kind of thing is almost inevitable?   

Posted Oct. 10 at 11:08 a.m.

Another CTA spy is blasting the dumpy conditions near an "L" station and sent pictures he hopes proves it.  See one really scuzzy specimen below.  Now, "Going Public" has heard from the CTA that sometimes they don't own the property near the railways that is loaded down with litter. 

So here's hoping they weigh in on what eagle-eye EPA Man is saying:  CTA Blue Line property between Western Ave. and Halsted Street appears to be an Open Dump.  This property is littered with wood, metal, plastic, paper, glass, landscape waste and discarded construction materials such as concrete, brick, dirt, and stones.

Posted Oct. 10 at 8:10 a.m.

Man, oh man, our CTA spies have been busy.  Taking photos of boorish bus riders, lamenting the dumpy appearance of an area near the Blue Line and, in one case, shouting out a mouse sighting in a station.  Yech!  So check out Part One of this week's intel report and then let me know what you've spotted around the CTA.

Double-Oh-Fo' is incredulous about a rider seemingly blocking an entire bus aisle.  He didn't even file a report per se, figuring this picture is worth a thousand words.  Now, moms, don't get mad at the messenger.... Cute baby, though. Stay tuned for part II.

Seat missing on #78 Montrose bus.  Intentional or not, the seat before the exit door was gone. It generated a lot more room.  Next up…getting people to move all the way down the aisle!"

Posted Sept. 22, 2008 at 1:53 p.m.

Welcome aboard! We have three more riders willing to spy on the CTA for us, per my column last week about the new public transit protocol. 

Allow me to introduce Mad Mike, Bames Jond, and joshNarwhal to the network. They are the last spies I'll add for now, and will be contributing to our weekly CTA intel reports.

But first, a little help for a poster who has lost a bag, per a Sept. 17 message.  Please give us a shout under this item if you saw it floating about. And now, a word from our spy sponsors.

Preferred Code Name: Mad Mike

Age: 21

Neighborhood: Des Plaines

Frequent Rider of: 92, 97, Purple Line, Blue Line

What I Loathe About CTA: Buses constantly late

What I Love About CTA: I save money by not driving

Next up is Bames Jond.  Loving the scramble!

And now one last spy with a fancy photo:

Preferred Code Name: joshNarwhal!

Age: 19

Neighborhood: Logan Square

Frequent Rider Of: Blue, Red, And Green Lines (and the fullerton bus)

What I Loathe about CTA: Breaking Down at the WORST times

What I Love About CTA: U-Pass, Chicago Card, and Easy (sometimes) Transportation

Posted Sept. 19 at 8:30 a.m.

All hail the new arsenal of CTA Spy intel.  Our weekly reports -- provided by my elite team of spies -- will add to our already amazing collection of rider observations in both this blog and my "Going Public" column.  We'll get to the bottom of bus and "L" issues one way or another.

Before I begin with some spy insights from Wrigley Villain, I have a dispatch of my own.  Earlier this week, I ran into a super nice bus operator.  I hopped upon a bus with the wrong Chicago Card.  Just so you follow, I've got two because of a cracking incident some years back.  I like to keep one in the chamber.

Turns out the one I brought along didn't have any value and the only money I had left was a $20 bill and $1.70.  I emptied my purse out searching for 30 more cents to no avail. 

As soon as I realized that, I offered to get off at the next stop, but the kindly operator let me cruise for less than the required $2, thus winning my undying "L"ove.  Big ups to the bus operator, whom I will not identify, as I don't want him to get in trouble for allowing my fare-light excursion. Believe me, I'm no fare-fudger, so this will not happen again.

Moving on:

Now for tales of some scribbling on the CTA's Brown Line-- plus a service observation -- courtesy of the Wrigley Villain.  He even scored us some photos of the graffiti.  Suh-weet!  Writes the Villain:

"This past weekend I noticed graffiti reading "Mex" and "Mexico" on a brown line train floor and window.  The brown trains continue to be slow and infrequent north of the loop and prone to "bus bunching" particularly at peak morning hours, the most inconvenient time.  Hope this is useful!"

Posted Sept. 12, 2008 at 11:09 a.m.

After months of collecting the most elite bus and "L" observers around, it is time to unveil some of the undercover workings of my CTA spies.  Check out this first report, feel free to respond to specific issues and if you ask really, really nicely, I may even add you to the team. More about that team in next week's "Going Public." 

'Til then, our first report.

Spy Name: Bronzeville Blues

Topic: Bus-ted: No.3 King Drive on Blast

Just today at 29th Street, I boarded a No.3- King Drive bus southbound and sat down to realize that my driver was going about 2 mph down King Dr. Finally, before we made it to 35th street, my bus driver preceded to tell us that he was ahead of schedule and would be stopping at 35th street for 10 mins or so. He tried to flag down the bus behind him to pick up passengers that didn't want to wait, but the other bus passed by. Luckily, I was only going to 35th so I wasn't too upset but as I waited for the number 4 to come, I watched the waiting bus driver step off his bus, preceded to light a cigarette and even went to the gas station to buy a paper. I was just wondering what are the actually CTA policies on buses running ahead or behind schedule!I'm sure all chicago riders have been faced with either a bus driver slowing down the bus to a crawl or speeding down the street like a race car driver, so is there any regulation to how the bus drivers handle these "timing" situations or are our lives as riders regulated by how our bus drivers feel like handling situations that day?

Spy Name: DMR

Topic: Bus Bunch Bonanza, No. 8 and No. 22

No.8-Halsted: At the end of March, the #8 switched from the 74th Street Garage to Kedzie Garage. There are two main reasons why this has helped to reduce bus-bunching: When the #8 was based out of 74th Street Garage, the supervisors monitored the buses at the intersection of Halsted and 75th which, being located a half-mile from the route's end, was not a great location to make sure buses were evenly spread over the route. Since the switch occurred, supervisors have been standing at the UIC-Halsted Blue Line station, which is in the middle of the #8's route. Which is a more central location?

Hmmm... Most of the buses at 74th Street Garage are from 1995 and are starting to fall apart. The fleet is plagued by wheelchair-lift failures, and the buses are no longer able to accelerate fast enough to make all the lights and keep schedule. The buses at Kedzie Garage, however, are only as old as 2003, with most being from 2006-2008.

No.22-Clark: Reliability has improved a little. Within the past few months, North Park Garage (the #22's assigned garage) has gotten rid of their 1991 buses and replaced them with brand-new buses. The new buses accelerate faster, board passengers more quickly, and break down less, causing fewer problems for the bus drivers.

Spy Name: Double-Oh-Fo'

Topic: Bathroom Break on 79th Street

The Urinator strikes again! Under the cover of night, or the light of  day, beyond the reach of the CTAs disinfectant, beyond the lights and the camera and the ever watchful security guards, that foe of clean public transportation and despoiler of public space everywhere, the Urinator strikes again, dousing this CTA facility with the foul stench of fresh urine daily. Either that or the CTA has returned to using Pee scented Mr. Clean.

Posted Sept. 5 at 5:54 p.m.

Beetlejuice said he was the ghost with the most, but "Going Public" thinks he may have some competition.  Introducing Ghost Rider, the newest CTA spy.  Below is a photo and a little more about our mass transit agent.  Stay tuned, because this week, we'll post our first full intel report.  If you're not a spy yet, you may want to hurry up and join to participate.  We've got some serious work to do.  And now, introducing:

Preferred Code Name: GhostRider
Age: 25
Neighborhood: Northside
Frequent Rider Of: Purple Line (Linden to Library every day)
What I Loathe about CTA: "Express" trains that run at 6 MPH
What I Love About CTA: I "take it everywhere"!