Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about CTA

A #50 Damen Avenue bus. Photo: Kevin Monahan

Here’s the CTA’s explanation for the infuriating “ghost” bus and train problem

By John Greenfield | May 26, 2022 | No Comments

Everyone hates the now-common situation where train or bus runs appear the Train Tracker and Bus Tracker, but then disappear before they ever arrive.

View from inside a bus using the center-running lanes on Columbus Avenue in Boston. Photo: John Greenfield

Is this the beginning of prioritizing buses on Chicago’s streets?

By Courtney Cobbs | May 19, 2022 | No Comments

Better Streets for Buses meetings have started, and ELPC calls for five bus rapid transit routes in five years.

The Des Plaines Metra Station and Pace bus terminal. Photo: Igor Studenkov

Pace field-tests leased e-bus, will probably cancel redundant Pace/Metra PlusBus Pass

By Igor Studenkov | May 15, 2022 | No Comments

The suburban bus system is already using a leased electric bus to do some field-testing. It also plans to eliminate the now-superfluous PlusBus Pass, which allows Metra monthly pass holders to ride Pace buses for an extra $30 a month.

The new 95th Street Red Line station. Photo: Jeff Zoline

95th Station shooting by CTA employee shouldn’t lead to more armed security

By Courtney Cobbs | Mar 28, 2022 | No Comments

A violent incident involving a CTA employee should not be used as justification for more armed security on the CTA.

The State/Lake 'L' station and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Photos: John Greenfield

The great motor divide: How our obsession with cars has driven us apart

By Colin Anderson | Mar 22, 2022 | No Comments

Transportation by private car fails the city socially, while transit’s built-in opportunities for contact and cooperation are tools we desperately need to leverage in order to learn how to live together again.

Unarmed CTA security guards on the Jackson Blue Line platform. Photo: John Greenfield

Homeless coalition hopes CTA security plan won’t “criminalize” unhoused people on the ‘L’

By Amber Drea | Mar 14, 2022 | No Comments

"I don't think there's really going to be a decrease in people sleeping on the trains until we have a more systemic solution in place.”

One of the CTA's 12 electric buses operating on Chicago Avenue. Photo: Steven Vance

Nice: CTA gets $118M in operations funds, opportunity to apply for electrification cash

By John Greenfield | Mar 8, 2022 | No Comments

The operations funds will help address service gaps due to labor shortages. Plus federal grant programs were announced that the CTA can apply for to fund plans to electrify its bus fleet by 2040.

Photos, clockwise: Jeff Zoline, Mary Wisniewski, John Greenfield, John Grenfield

Can we humanely improve conditions on the ‘L’? Here’s what’s happening in SF, NYC

By Mary Wisniewski | Feb 25, 2022 | No Comments

Now is not the time for the nation’s second-largest public transit system to go backwards, with conditions that scare people away people from using buses and trains.

A #66 bus charging at Navy Pier last April. Photo: Mia Park

An electric avenue to a no-emissions fleet: CTA unveils plan for electrification by 2040

By John Greenfield | Feb 23, 2022 | No Comments

Transportation advocates note that it will be equally important for the city to implement bus lanes and other strategies to attract riders. "An empty electric bus doesn’t represent progress on climate."

Catching a bus from the 95th/Dan Ryan Red Line station to the Altgeld Gardens housing project. Photo: Jeff Zoline

Advocates: RTA must overcome “bureaucratic anxiety,” prescribe bold action to save transit

By John Greenfield | Feb 22, 2022 | No Comments

"Transformational ideas may be controversial, but that is not an excuse to avoid them," the letter states. "We need serious and specific proposals to maintain the foundational roles transit plays."

A Metra Union Pacific West train and a CTA Green Line train cross paths on Lake Street. Photo: Jeff Zoline

What will it take to achieve transit fare integration in Chicagoland?

By Courtney Cobbs | Feb 11, 2022 | No Comments

The panel explored some of the challenges and opportunities for transit fare integration. Seamless transfers between transit systems is possible, but what are the barriers making it a reality in our region?

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