My Freedom Taken

Young suh Lim

My Freedom Taken

           

         

             People around the world have been changing their mind to take trains instead of driving to avoid traffic jams. I am also a part of this new trend taking of trains. Therefore, public transportation is better than taking a train because people can see how others live by observing each other on the train. Unlike a train, driving is private a place that people can only look at either ninety degrees or straight ahead. As the development of transportation technology, most trains have become more comfortable, convenient, faster and safer. However, Chicago Transit Authority (C.T.A) has not perfected its system compared to the system in Korea. Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) has more developed aspects than the C.T.A because the trains are cleaner and faster. The undeveloped Chicago systems make me miss the comfortable transportation of my home country, Korea.

            The first reason that I miss the Korail trains is I could travel everywhere by train. However, it is really hard to travel by train in Chicago. When I was in Korea, I used to travel a lot of times by trains because it made me feel free, and while I was taking a train, there were always nice views where was out the window so that I could enjoy romantic views with my friends. However, the C.T.A routes seem desolate compared to those in Korea. There was nothing to see or enjoy on the C.T.A routes. Since I moved to Chicago, I tried to find places to travel by train. The first time, I took the red line to Skokie, but It was just a suburb. Yet, I did not give up and I kept trying other trains, such as brown, purple, blue, pink, orange, green and I even tried the buses. Those were worse than the redline. Some neighborhood looked destroyed. For example, Houses were very old. Therefore, some house looked like as if they might collapse, and there were not enough lights in the neighborhoods so people possibly get a gun shot without any witnesses. The blue line views were the most depressing landscape I had ever seen. I eventually gave up looking for places to enjoy. Additionally, there are only seven colors of trains in Chicago. Unlike Korail, which operates over twenty various colors of trains. For those reasons, I truly miss Korea for the many interesting ways to spend free time.

            The C.T.A is already disappointing me. However, there is another annoying aspect as well, which is the atmospheres. First, the C.T.A trains and buses are truly dirty. Seats are very uncomfortable and hard also usually cluttered due to food or urine. The smell is hard to take. It is like a garbage can. Moreover, The environment of stations makes me listless. Most light bulbs are yellow, so they made me more tired mentally and physically. On the other hand, it is hard to find any litter or something nasty in Korean transportation because cleaning technology cannot be compared with the C.T.A. Korail has cleaning robots that do the sweeping and mopping. Furthermore, they make the floor shiny. In addition, they use L.E.D light bulbs, which make me feel comfortable and safe. Since I live in Chicago, I have to take trains and buses, yet the above mentioned problems make me want to go back to Korea.

            The most significant reason that I miss Korea is that The C.T.A service quality is lower than Korail. Some people who live in Chicago do not recommend going outside around midnight. However, as I am Korean, I really enjoy drinking until midnight or coming back home with the morning sun, as I did when I was in Korea. The reason why I could stay out until morning was because railroad police officers were at every station in order to prevent crimes. They also woke people up who were sleeping on the train. The police either took their home or brought them the nearest police office and let them sleep. However, The C.T.A employees seem like they are not aware of crime because they do not move from their office, and if someone presses on assistant button, the C.T.A employees act as if they do not want to help. It is not all employees, but I have seen someone react like that. In Korea in contrast, Korail employees are very polite and friendly. Also, they are public servants, so they always try to offer good service doing their best and they have a mission statement that focuses on services, but the C.T.A employees seem like having low responsibility for their job compared to Korail.

            As a result, I felt I lost a big part of my life because I am not able to travel by train, which means I lost my favorite hobby. Also, I have to ride the depressing and smelly trains and buses. Furthermore, I feel I am exposed to crime. Compared to Korea, the C.T.A needs to accept new technologies and learn what service is from Korail. Even though I do not think that it could change in a few years, I wish the C.T.A would become better and better as time goes on, so all customers can be more comfortable and feel safer than now.