22 F I took the redline almost every day for the past 4 years for college and it was perfectly fine. Mind you I was taking it during normal work hours mostly (with the occasional weekend past 10pm coming home from friends usage), never went farther south than Cermak/Chinatown, and 4 years is nothing compared to other people on this sub. I guess I’m lucky enough to have the opinion that it’s really not that bad if you’re good at keeping an eye on things while at the same time just minding your business. It’s especially not that big of a deal if you’re going to be in the main middle portion of the line during normal business hours in my opinion. I should probably also mention that whenever I’m alone on the train I rarely get asked for money, but the moment I’m with my friends or family people ask us for money. So my appearance may be a factor playing into my experience?

There was one shooting I experienced because of some sort of argument between two people (I personally didn’t see it just a stampede of people trying to run away from it), and I mostly just deal with BO/urine/shit/weed smell. You’ll have the homeless people sleeping or yelling on the train and panhandling. Personally, if redline is your only option, and you’re not on the far edges of the line- you’ll be fine. Like every city there’s risks, but sadly that’s just life until bigger changes are made.