Sometimes, the CTA can be a singles bar on wheels.

If you're lucky, you'll sit or stand next to a sexy guy or girl whose enticing smell can cancel out the usual bus or "L" odor.

You could bond over common rider gripes, like stretches of slow zones, Chicago Card snags or that obnoxious rider who is bag-blocking a coveted seat. It's easy to strike up a conversation in a crowded car or bus, right?

Well, not so much, at least not according to riders who have written to me about super-cute strangers they wish they'd worked up the nerve to talk to. Perhaps the most memorable was a Colorado visitor who appealed to me to help her find a red-haired sexy stranger she spied on the Blue Line.

She asked me to post her photo and some personal information on the "L"ove connection section of my blog at redeyechicago.com/ctablog. And I was happy to oblige.

But now there's a new way that Chicago singles can make up for such missed connections.

Subwaycrush.com, which launched two months ago with New York-based public transit posts, has added Chicago to its lineup of lovelorn posters, according to Brooklyn-based site creators Mike Bodge and Matt Haggerty. You go to the site, log on with an e-mail address and password, and then you're all set for some public transit hooking up.

You also can check out the posts, by color-coded Line, in order to see if someone is searching for you. Check out this romantic rail call from an Orange Line rider posted on Friday:

"We catch the train between 7:30-7:50 on the Pulaski platform," posts one "girl looking for a guy." "I get off at Quincy and you on Washington. When I catch the train after work it is between 5:30-6:15. I haven't seen you lately and I have to say the day is not the same."

Sizzling sentiment, huh? And that's just the Orange Line. The hottest spot for rail romance is the Red Line, according to Haggerty, 30, who lived in Lakeview and rode the Brown Line before moving to Brooklyn.

But why is it so hard to simply speak to a fellow rider, rather than taking a chance that person might never see your post?

"I don't know," Bodge, 26, said. "But we've all seen someone who caught our eye and were just too chicken."

Haggerty blames iPods and other distractions for the lack of nerve he has witnessed among bus-and-rail Romeos and Juliets. And it's a shame, he said. "On a train you can meet people and interact with someone from a totally different section of life," Haggerty said. "You can meet people that you wouldn't normally get to hang out with, but it's difficult, since this isn't a bar where everyone is hanging around talking."

If you want to score on subway crush or via my own "L"ove connection, prepare your posts well. And if you make a connection, Bodge and Haggerty want to hear about it.

"We'd be thrilled if someone met this way," Bodge said. "We do know people are posting, but no success stories just yet."