Add your time! Contact us by replying to this post. Times rounded to 59s where no measurement of seconds available. A published recount of the history as of 4/24/12 is here.

Class B (Touch Every Station) - 143 stations (frozen)

• Adham Fisher: 8h56m33s, 4/29/12
• Adham Fisher: 9h06m48s, 4/26/12
• John Greenfield & Daniel Resner: 9h08m03s, 4/29/12
• Robert Bielaski & Ben Downey: 9h08m56s, 4/11/12
• Kevin Oltsa & Scott Presslak: 9h24m05s, 4/6/12
  
• John Greenfield & Daniel Resner: 9h30m59s, 2/3/12
• Adham Fisher: 9h36m33s, 3/18/11
• Andrew Karas, Grace Flaherty, & Ryan Faucher:  9h57m59s, before 7/19/11
• CJ, Trey, Sarah, & Jason: 10h53m59s, before 12/21/09

Class A Variant (Ride All Track In Revenue Service Of, & Touch Every Station On, Every Color Line) 

• Daniel Resner: 14h11m59s, 1/11/12

“L” Stations of the Cross (Exact route unclear, but touch every station and visit churches along system)

• Aiden Gillespie: ~17h, April 2011 and 2012

The Amateur New York Subway Riding Committee (ANYSRC) would call my trip a variant on its “Class A”:

During the run, the contestants making the run must traverse completely at least once each segment of right-of-way of the Transit Authority system. Each segment may be traversed either in one continuous transit or in any number of partial transits between stations on the segment (Regulation XVIII, http://www.gricer.com/anysrc/anysrc.html). 

After a discussion with Grid Chicago blogger Steven Vance and Adham Fisher, I have been persuaded to add: “riders must traverse all track in revenue service in the month preceding the attempt” to the Chicago rules, covering all bases.

This is different from the trips completed by Adham Fisher; Andrew Karas, Grace Flaherty and Ryan Faucher; CJ, Trey, Sarah and Jason; and John and myself in that I covered the full length of every line without departing a train to transfer via foot or bus. The ANYSRC would call the other trips listed “Class B”: touching all stations. I rode every inch of track on each line. But my trip went even further than the textbook Class A. I also visited every station on every line (as opposed to just covering all track in revenue service). This means, for example, that, since six color lines pass through Clark/Lake, I rode through Clark/Lake six times, once on each color. 

• 1. Lake Street – 16
• 2. State Street – 14
• 3. Eisenhower Expressway – 12
• 4. Dan Ryan Expressway – 9
• t5. Congress Parkway – 8
• t5. Milwaukee Avenue – 8
• t7. Kennedy Expressway – 7
• t7. Sheffield Avenue – 7
• t9. 21^st Street – 6
• t9. Broadway – 6
• t9.  Kedzie Avenue – 6

Lake narrowly beats State thanks to the western branch of the Green line, which follows the street from the Loop all the way to Harlem. Lest you think it’s a one-trick pony, it also hosts Clark/Lake, State/Lake, and Lake, making it the only street (I believe) with stations hosting seven different colored trains—every color except yellow. State, which relies on both the northern and southern branches of the Red Line for its numbers, also diversifies well but misses out on the Blue Line. 

If you ride the Blue Line west or northwest out of the Loop, you are used to the sight of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Expressways and the Congress Parkway from the train windows—a dull sight most of the time. Similarly, the Red Line sticks to the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway for much of its southern branch. Often the trains keep pace with the cars they pass, making it possible for CTAers to make eye contact with drivers, but sometimes, thanks to freeway traffic, the train zips by the cars. I wonder if on those days the drivers envy us.

• t1. Kedzie – 5
• t1. Western – 5
• t3. Lake – 4
• t3. Pulaski – 4
• t5. 35^th – 3
• t5. Addison – 3
• t5. Ashland – 3
• t5. California – 3
• t5. Chicago – 3
• t5. Cicero – 3
• t5. Damen – 3
• t5. Halsted – 3
• t5. Harlem – 3
• t5. Wabash – 3

Whoever named the CTA stations must really have liked Kedzie, Western, and Pulaski—you’ll see later why I don’t include Lake on that list. Those three streets account for the names of 14 of the 140+ CTA stations, or a little under 10%. Because the Blue Line features two different Western stops, Kedzie wins the prize for Station Name Featured on Greatest Number of Lines. You can find stations named “Kedzie” on Brown, Green, Blue, Pink, AND Orange line trains. 

The three 35th stops have the most distinct names: 35th-Bronzeville IIT, 35th/Archer, and Sox-35th: two non-streets, including a baseball stadium and a school. Wabash makes this list easily thanks to its three consecutive Loop stops (Randolph/Wabash, Madison/Wabash, and Adams/Wabash), all three of which one can cross in the space of a minute or two. Harlem, I believe, is farther from the Loop than any other of these streets, so its Green and two Blue line stops are a testament to its importance or at least convenience on the far west side. 

“Here’s what we can say about CTA Guy: He lives in Milwaukee and, before starting his voice-over career in 1990, was a sound engineer who played guitar and keyboards in bar bands. He’s in his 40s, of European descent, married with two kids (so much for those speculating on his sexual orientation)” (Lou Carlozo, April 24, 2002 Chicago Tribune, “The Voice That Moves Millions”).

His first name is Lee (Kyra Kyles, July 11, 2006 Chicago Tribune, “The Man Behind the CTA’s ‘Voice’).

Carolyn Hopkins voices platforms—“Attention Customers: An Inbound Train, To The Loop…” (March 4, 2009 Chicago Tribune, “The CTA’s New Voice”).

“The end of the 20th century continued bringing more changes and modernizations to the CTA’s rapid transit system. In 2000, the CTA implemented an automated announcement system called the Operator’s Control Unit (OCU) on their trains to take over calling stations and making announcements from the rapid transit operators (RTOs). The recorded messages are digitized and compressed, then loaded into the memory of an electronic card in the car’s onboard communications equipment. In emergencies, the operator can override the system and make manual announcements” (Chicago-L.org/History).