The CTA is betting riders will be nostalgic for the days before Ventra cards and bag checks at busy rail stations.
The agency last month introduced its "Heritage Collection" of T-shirts, coffee mugs and messenger bags with decades-old Chicago transit logos available for purchase on the CTA's shopping site CTAGifts.com, which saw a slight increase in sales last year compared with 2012.
Online merchandise sales are up from $78,535 in 2012 to $81,512 in 2013, CTA spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said. The agency offers more than 100 products at CTAGifts.com and has a gifts vending machine in the lobby of its headquarters at 567 W. Lake St.
The vending machine, which was installed in March 2013, recorded $4,708 in sales last year, Antongiorgi said.
The CTA also makes money from companies that sell CTA gifts in their stores. The agency made $109,710 in those royalties last year, down from $124,903 in 2012, Antongiorgi said.
The CTA is hoping its new Heritage Collection will draw more sales. The collection "is just another way to launch new items and new variety for customers," Antongiorgi said.
Some of the collection's gifts are not easy on the wallet. A plastic iPhone case with a CTA logo from the 1950s retails for $43.95. iPhone cases on Apple's website start at $34.95.
Meanwhile, a T-shirt with a century-old Chicago transit logo retails for $28. The CTA is selling merchandise with CTA logos and the logos of three of its predecessor companies-Chicago Surface Lines, Chicago Elevated Railways and Chicago Rapid Transit. The CTA began operations in 1947 after it purchased Chicago Rapid Transit and Chicago Surface Line property.
The CTA's most popular sellers recently are wooden trains and buses, which retail for $12.95 each.
Though the CTA, the nation's second-largest public transit system, has seen gains in the amount of revenue generated from gift purchases, the numbers still pale in comparison to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest public transportation agency in North America.
The MTA sold $2.9 million of retail merchandise in 2013 through its online gifts site and two storefronts, MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said. The online store alone recorded about $366,000 in sales, Lisberg said.
Holiday Bus and Train Tracker
The holiday "L"-ebrations are underway on the CTA, which is operating its annual Holiday Train and a new Holiday Bus this week.
The CTA Holiday Train will be on the Green Line on Tuesday and on the Orange and Brown lines Wednesday through Saturday.
Also, this year, the CTA is debuting a Holiday Bus adorned with decorations that will begin picking up riders Tuesday. The bus will operate on the No. J-14 Jeffery Jump route Tuesday and Wednesday; the No. 62-Archer route Thursday and Friday and the No. 3-King Drive route Saturday. The bus will generally run between 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.