Video Shows High-Speed Ride Along CTA Red Line
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- For the first time, the CTA is offering front-seat views of its rail lines.
Shot in HD from the train operator's point of view, the videos take viewers on a ride they have never seen before.
The CTA says it has shot HD videos of all the lines, but the first ones posted on You Tube show the ride along the Red Line in both directions.
The videos are nine minutes long--an actual ride takes about an hour.
Some of the highlights include the train speeding past both Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field.
When the train barrels into the subway, a viewer feels as if they are transported into a science fiction movie or a ride on Disney World's Space Mountain, hurtling through a tube below the city.
The video takes on a NASCAR feel as the train seems to be racing the cars on the Dan Ryan. Those higher speeds were made possible after the tracks between Chinatown and 95th Street were rebuilt.
The CTA has more than 224 miles of railroad tracks across Chicago and surrounding suburbs, serving the agency's eight rail lines.
In an average weekday, the CTA says there are about 2,200 train trips making stops at 145 rail stations.