In The Glass

Almost everyone has a destination. Work, school, shopping, friends. The game, the airport, another day on the job like the last day like the next day. The mall, the market, the bar, the base. The world slides by smooth on the Light Rail. The doors open and shut. At night you see
yourself vague in the glass. Everyone watches everyone. In the back of your mind are the things you left behind: your car in the lot, your apartment two bus rides away from the station, your babies, someone you love, someone who that day made you cry. Someone who will smile when you come home. A dark house. You travel smooth through the darkness, there and back, barely a ripple, some days so silently it's like you're invisible, like you don't even exist. Your there and back. Those small poles you revolve around.

You think about train tracks, the way one track can meet another. You think about what it would be like to get on someday and not get off. To ride a train to another train. To step from one to the next. To keep going out and out. To follow the tracks until there are no more tracks. How far could you go, how long? Where in the world would you be? Who would you be when you got off?

Vocal Citizenship

Last Wednesday, we attended another one of Metro’s public hearings. We wanted to hear more about challenges and opportunities facing the region’s transit system, and we were interested in the distinct information Metro officials might provide Illinois residents.

The PowerPoint presentation regarding the distribution of funds and services towards transportation lines in both Illinois and Missouri was the same. Since the state of Illinois provides considerable funds for public transportation, bus service would be far less affected on this side. However, reductions in light rail operations in Missouri would necessarily mean changes in service in Illinois as well.

The turnout for the public hearing was small, but that did not prevent the few attendees from participating in a lively Q&A session and offering suggestions. One citizen in particular felt that Metro would benefit greatly by forming alliances with colleges around the region. Another citizen suggested that Metro look to New York and Chicago for models of ideal transportation systems. All in all, it was clear that the attendees had been thinking on these issues quite a bit.

The Metro officials were receptive to the ideas offered by the audience, but there was a sense that they could easily predict the complications involved with many of the suggestions. Of course, those officials have studied the challenges facing public transportation in the region much longer than we have. They are especially knowledgeable about what probable solutions won’t work.

The gap between what transit riders hoped for and what Metro officials knew was unlikely had us wondering about how citizens might become more knowledgeable in order to offer useful, practical solutions.

What information and skill-sets, for instance, would a group of citizens need to gather in order to move beyond unrealistic expectations? In what ways can we become more capable at developing citizen-driven practical yet innovative solutions? And what roles could Metro or any official organizations play in the process?

Image: courtesy of H.R. for Along the Light Rail

Views Along the Light Rail: Track 1

Well, we're still in the process of working out the kinds visual and mixed media compositions we want to do with this project. You know how it is, you compose, revise, and compose again. For now, we've provided an early look at the ideas we've developing.

This short video features a few scenes you might witness while traveling along the light rail here in the Metro East. There's more to come, of course.

And oh, it's "open thread" Friday, so if you have suggestions or links you want to share relating to light rail travel or public transportation, please feel free to place them in the comments section.

Have a good weekend.

Reasons for Our Light Rail Project

Somehow, traveling along the light rail prompts long moments of daydreaming and introspection. During that time, we often return to a particular question: we research literature, so what led us to this project about the light rail?

It’s a question that we have varying or extended responses.

Sometimes, we consider that our interest in select writers led us here. Ralph Ellison, Margaret Atwood, Colson Whitehead, and even Jane Jacobs all focused on cityscapes. They helped nurture our interest in paying close attention to the cultural dynamics of a particular locale.

Sometimes, we feel that it was our students who brought us here. We educate experienced students from Chicago and Carbondale, newly graduated students from East St. Louis, and returning students from Belleville and Collinsville. Their background got us thinking on the various ways in which diverse students travel.

Other times, we believe it was the absence of certain kinds of cross-regional travel writings about the Metro East that inspired us to take up this project. What better and unique way to chart the region than by way of the light rail?

And still at other times, it was our recent interest in politics that inspired this project. The use of public transportation in this area reminds us about the obstacles and portals to progress.

Of course some of our reasons have been re-shaped by our experiences riding and thinking more about the light rail. So as we continue traveling on the routes, we'll keep updating and sharing our growing list.

The Workmen

The workmen get on wherever they are. They're relaxed, laughing. They wear hardhats, sunglasses, toolbelts, workboots, sweatshirts. They chat with the off-conductor, flirt. They peer over the shoulder of the conductor. They're alert. They listen. They watch what you don't see out the window. They sway easily with the movement of the train. They joke about retirement, but you can tell the car feels like home. Midway between two stops, the train slows. Comes to a halt. They tap their hard hats, pull up their belts, make a joke, get off. The doors slide shut. They walk along a stretch of rail you'll never probably see up close, towards some sort of power box you'll never open. When they need a ride, they'll call somebody, get back on the train, ride up the line to the next thing that needs fixing.

Following the Rochester Model

The St. Louis Metropolitan region’s public transportation system, which is known as Metro has been facilitating a series of public hearings entitled “St. Louis Region at a Crossroads: Which Way do We Go?” The hearings are designed to inform the public about the impending budget deficit that public transportation could face in the coming year.

In particular, Metro’s budget problems would mean reduction in bus, park-and-ride, and light rail services—services which we view as vital connectors for people in the region.

During the public hearings, officials from Metro have made PowerPoint presentations on the benefits of the services they offer, the specifics of their operating budget, history behind the financial challenges that they face, and what improvements would be made if they managed to receive funds. They also discuss the crucial November Vote, where St. Louis County residents will decide on a sales tax increase that would be vital for Metro and more importantly the continuation and extension of services for transit riders.

After the presentation portion of the hearing, Metro opens the floor for comments and suggestions. We plan to submit our own list of recommendations, one of which will be based on an article about how “Creativity Helps Rochester’s Transit System Turn a Profit.”

The article describes how transportation officials in Rochester “reached agreements with the local public school district, colleges and private businesses to help subsidize its operations, warning in some cases that certain routes might be cut if ridership did not increase or a local business did not help cover the cost.”

In our view, following the Rochester model would be useful because it could ensure continued, full transportation service for citizens. In addition, the businesses and educational institutions would help prevent the loss of thousands of clients and workers who rely on public transit to get to their venues, which would be important for the companies and colleges.

But even beyond the benefits of continued service, this creative system would highlight a vital collaboration between clients, workers, businesses, and public transportation in the region.

So, we will recommend that Metro consider reaching out to those schools and businesses whose clients and workers rely on public transportation. Do you have any more ideas that we or they might consider?

Journeys and Reflections

From time to time, we will include short fiction and creative non-fiction that relate to light rail travel and public transportation in general. The following piece was submitted by one of our contributors.


"With My Father."

Waiting for a train, I talk to my father about trains. After my father’s parents divorced, my father used to take a street car in to the Loop, the East line from LaGrange. His father would take a street car down from Evanston, where he lived at the Y. They’d meet at a nut shop – imagine, my father says, a whole shop selling cashews, peanuts, almonds, warm in brown bags – and then take the street car back up to Evanston. He used to ride on the left side, looking for the blue “W” flag at Wrigley. A win. Only once did his father not show up.

“What did he say about why he didn’t show up?” I ask. My own kids are in school right now. It’s my week with them. In the back of my mind is a nibble of anxiety that I’m 30 miles away from them.
“All my mother said was, your god damn blankety blank father,” he says. “Maybe something happened. Maybe he got drunk and lost track of time.”
“He never mentioned it?”
“He never said anything about it.”

I think about my father alone, in downtown Chicago, waiting and alone. He would have been about the age my youngest daughter is now.
We have this conversation waiting for a train, and what we don’t talk about is my own pending divorce, my own children who will be waiting for me to pick them up after school. There is so much to cherish in this world. There are so many ways we find to hurt each other.

In thirty seconds, the announcer says, our train will pull in.

The November Vote

While the nation anxiously prepares for the presidential election, another vote in November will have important consequences for light rail commuters in the Metro East region. On Election Day, St. Louis county residents will vote for the next president of the U.S., but they will also vote for or against a proposed half-cent increase in the transit sales tax.

If approved, the revenue from the tax increase would go toward Metro operating expenses and future MetroLink expansion. People who support the increase argue for the need and value of investing in a better public transportation system. Opponents charge that the increase would tax large numbers of people who hardly use the MetroLink.

Whatever the case, the need to raise the level of its image going into the election, perhaps influenced officials at MetroLink to recently announce its intention to “double the number of fare inspectors” on the light rail. Commuters have long complained that too many passengers ride the train free because of an “honor system” that many say leads people to ride the light rail without paying.

Having more fare inspectors helps ensure that passengers are actually paying for the service. More importantly though, raising the visibility of more fare inspectors perhaps assists the MetroLink’s public image, a necessity for success on the transit sales tax increase in November.

For now, we’ve been primarily paying attention to the light rail here in southern Illinois. However, it’s worth noting how the political issues in St. Louis County and the objective of MetroLink to add more fare inspectors will likely have effects on the experiences of Illinois light rail travelers as well.

We’ll keep following these developments. You can help us build knowledge on the situation by passing along links to relevant articles or sharing your insight on the topic.

Heading to Shiloh Scott

At 9:30 in the morning, the Light Rail in Illinois is not crowded. He rides backwards out to Scott Air Force Base. The day is blue skies, green fields. Something like kudzu grows out at the treeline near Fairview. The conductor’s voice is crisp through the speakers. At Belleville, peeling old A-frame houses crowd a hill near the station. He likes subway maps, train maps, the straight lines, the blue and red squares. Inbound, outbound.

Almost everyone gets off at the stop for SWIC. Some have backpacks, suitcases on rollers. Some are empty-handed. He likes to think the ones that don’t carry a bag have a pencil tucked into a pocket, a piece of paper folded up somewhere, but maybe not. Maybe they ride the train and get off and walk though parking lots into a classroom and sit and listen for fifty minutes and leave and get back on the train. Taking words back into the day. Ideas. Nobody can stop you from hearing. Nobody can still a voice in your mind. Inbound.

Naps and the Light Rail

Some of us hardly notice the details of the ride. The commute from work to home is better spent napping. Today was a tiring day. Every workday is. So it’s a good thing that the ride along the lightrail is peaceful, fairly smooth…safe.

Seems odd, but this relatively short stretch from work to home might be the longest amount of down time that most of us will get during the day. The stops at each station aren’t a bother, especially for serious workers—those of us who know quality opportunities for naps when we see them. It’s good that this ride is relatively peaceful.

Art On the Ride

...and so it seems that lightrails are the latest venues for viewing art. In "Set In Glass, Artists Ode to Bronx Life is Acclaimed” artist Daniel Hauben is recognized for creating large stained glass pieces for Freeman station, a small subway post located in the Bronx.

By displaying this kind of art in the Bronx, Hauben has given new viewers access to his work. Not only does his work allow those who frequent Freeman station to look at a new type of art, but his work asks those who want to see his stained glass mosaics to travel to an unfamiliar area of the city. We can be certain that his project challenges current notions of of art and public viewership.

Several graffiti artists in the St. Louis area have also decided to transform lightrail passengers into viewing audiences. At various points along the route, the artists have posted their artwork and tags on the sides of buildings. The appearance of the graffiti indicates the existence of groups of artists who are handy with paint-cans and comfortable using concrete as a canvas.

In many respects, the lightrail provides the artists with daily, captive, traveling audiences. The pace of the lightrail ride makes it difficult to discern the graffiti at first glance. But multiple rides along particular routes rewards those who wish to make sense of what the artists are trying to express with their stylized lettering and images.

Who would have guessed that the creation of a lightrail could also inspire these displays of art? And how are those who produce the graffiti viewed—as artists or vandals?

First Time Travelers

First time travelers jiggle the nickles and dimes in their pockets while they wander the platforms. First time travelers reek of nerves and insecurity. He questions, am I getting on the right train? She cannot help but wonder, where will I end up? Ending up in a strange place is the worst thing she could ever imagine. She stands on the platform with her father and he points to the arriving train that will take her to the college campus. The other one, the one with her hair tied up in a red durag, doesn't have a father so she stares at the map for far too long and tries to make sense of the multicolored lines.

Riding At Night

We are all more fearful when we ride late at night.

Our fear makes us watchful and we take stock of every person who enters the train. Keeping track of others is easy when they are lit up by the neon lights that stretch from one end of the train and back and back again. Where is that man with the St. Louis baseball cap heading this late? Why haven't those boys with the headphones disembarked yet? They've ridden for an hour already. And how come she does not take that toddler home and put her into a warm bed?

We all ask these questions before determining that we are the only innocent riders on this train.

Open Thread Fridays

Our posts during the earlier parts of the week are typically devoted to particular topics, but sometimes the most meaningful trips occur when we have no final destination. So on Fridays, we’ll regularly offer “open threads” for you to share a broader range of interests or concerns that extend beyond our scheduled posts. We’ll need your help by providing questions, constructive criticism, and useful or intriguing links.

Ideas? Questions? Concerns? We’d love to hear from you.

Why the Lighrail?

It was probably Colson Whitehead who solidified our interest in producing a project concentrating on lightrails. His book The Colossus of New York, filled with multitudes of people and perspectives, allowed us to consider the possibilities of documenting our own region in a similar fashion.

But even before Whitehead's book, Richard Wright's 12 Million Black Voices, Tim O'Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” and Tyehimba Jess's leadbelly, to name a few, had piqued our interest in producing collective narratives.

The lightrail here in southern Illinois seemed like an important focal point--­a mobile focal point in fact­--for us to produce our own project.

As a complement to the creative compositions on Mondays and Tuesdays, we'll use Wednesdays to address issues in straight-forward prose backed by research concerning the significance of the lightrail connecting people in small towns in Illinois to St. Louis, as well as the history and evolving meanings of the lightrail in the region. We hope that exploring these political and social dimensions will further enrich our understanding of this form of public transportation in southern Illinois.

In short, the lightrail takes us to various physical spaces, but we can use the lightrail as a gateway to other destinations as well.

Temporary Travel

The things we carry remind our fellow travelers that our rides on the train are only temporary. We will not ride forever.

He carries a backpack because he will be getting off at the community
college campus. On crowded days the bag sits like armor on his back;
on slower days it sits next to him on the seat. She brings her bicycle
on board and rolls it to that designated area where bikers place the
front wheel for temporary travel.

They carry suitcases, making the long trek to Lambert Airport no
doubt. He carries a basketball and decides not to sit. Just holds the
ball in his arm, stands near the doors, and waits to get off and head
to the game.

She carries an infant and leads a group of small children on board.
She counts them and recounts to make sure everyone's accounted for.
One, two, three, four, and the little one she's holding makes five.
Yep, they're all here. And that older couple over there, they carry
looks of concentration and pockets of cash; they have the hope of
winning big at the Casino Queen tonight.

Only the Lonely

On holidays, travelers avoid the trains. The sunlight seeps in through the windows and casts flickering shadows upon the surface of the vinyl of the empty seats. On holidays, the seats do not get covered in the sticky sweat that is transferred from the backs of the knees of the worker bees Monday through Friday.

On the holidays, only the lonely travel the trains.

She steps on quickly and doesn't look around. She takes her choice of bench, in the back, so she can focus her eyes on the dance floor where the sunlight is performing the Labor Day Waltz. She thinks about being somewhere else, because when the trains are dead, the whole world must be celebrating.