Never Again

Editor’s note: The horrific burning attack of innocent CTA passenger Bethany Magee the other night by habitual violent felon Lawrence Reed—allowed by judges to roam free after he had already bashed another woman unconscious– prompted many Chicagoans to swear off riding the CTA.

And so, my friend Steve the Pilot, a military veteran and commercial airline pilot who loved Chicago, wrote this for you and for others.

JK

Never Again

By Steve the Pilot

Nov. 26, 2025

It was around four ago now when I swore to myself that I’d stop riding the CTA.

Here’s my story:

I started riding the CTA rails as a young boy growing up on the north side of Chicago.  I was entranced by the whole operation and at the age of eleven, yes eleven, I would leave the house telling my mom I was going out.

For 25 cents during those days, I would jump on the “L” and incredibly be entertained all day going out as far as Jefferson Park, up the “Kosher Cannonball” to Skokie or even down the Lake-Dan Ryan to the south and west sides.

While I was aware some of the areas I was going into were less than safe, my wanderlust overrode that worry.  Plus, back in those days there was a conductor and I always rode the front car because that’s where the engineer was, who may at times leave their door open so you could watch them and more importantly you could always see out the front.  My Uncle Chris who worked for the CTA knew how much I was enthralled with the trains and one day he gave me one of the old route rolls that they had on the sides of the train telling you what line it was and if it was an “A” or “B” train, I was ecstatic.

I remember one time seeing a big fire going on with tons of smoke, which was up on north Clybourn.  I took the train up to the North and Clybourn station and walked to the scene.  That area Cabrini O Green was not necessarily a safe neighborhood at the time.  There was a huge pile of tires on fire with big flames but unfortunately it was also putting out a lot of soot as well and a lot of it landing on my yellowish t-shirt.  That took a little fancy talking when I got home and my mom asked me how it got all dirty.