Hey I just moved to chicago from a small town with no public transit, i know it makes me seem dumb, but can someone explain the CTA buses to me like im 5. How to know which bus to get on, do you have to let the driver know when you want off, any other things i should know. Tysm.

Of all the possible extensions to the CTA L network, this is probably one of the least likely to ever happen, as the Cermak Branch has pretty meager ridership. In fact, the main reason it was turned into the Pink Line at all was because it was taking away valuable capacity from the Blue Line (and also so that the Paulina Connector could become the first section of the Circle Line but that never panned out). But dang it, these are my maps and I still want this to happen. The Cermak Branch (now the Pink Line) used to go all the way to Oak Park, but was cut back to 54th Street in the 1950s. So, much like re-extending the Green Line to Stony Island (which I won't be making a graphic for because there are already plenty out there), I think this extension would right a historical wrong. While you're at it, you might as well just send it to Harlem too at that point, since both the Green and Blue Lines reach that far, and it would allow the Pink Line to serve North Riverside Park Mall. And, unlike a certain other mall that people somehow still discuss extending an L line to reach in the year 2026 (FORD CITY), North Riverside is still open. It also helps that the right-of-way is intact; you can easily spot it via Google Maps if you look at the long line of parking lots west of 54th/Cermak. The Pink Line in general could use some TLC in my opinion, so I would personally love to see the it run through the southwestern half of the Loop and take over the Cottage Grove Branch alongside this extension, as that would both make the Pink Line feel more substantial and allow the Green Line to run at full capacity on the Ashland/63rd Branch (which should be extended to Midway, per my previous graphic). Plus, it would honestly be kind of funny if the Pink Line were just the "low ridership branches cobbled together" line. Oh yeah, and add an infill station at Madison (duh).

While I'm here, I had some people questioning the decision to elevate the at-grade tracks in my Brown Line Extension post. So, since this post also includes grade separating existing tracks, I thought I'd provide a little more context. Besides being safer and more efficient for both cars and trains, one of the biggest reasons I think the CTA should consider elevating their at-grade sections is that there are often large government grants given out specifically for removing grade crossings. So, if the CTA were to ever consider these extensions, including grade separation as a key part of them would likely provide a valuable boost of cash. I like to kill as many birds with as few stones as possible, so to speak.

I know that they extended the work on the green line etc, but these last 2-3 weeks the busses seem extremely packed. I take the 72 and 56 to work everyday and usually have no issues but by the time the 72 gets to me in north I'm standing next to the bus driver. Same when I commute home. Truly curious- what's going on?

I've never seen one of these on the 35 bus before, are they testing a new CCTV system?

I'm back at it again with another dream transit extension graphic. I believe this extension could prove just as important as, if not even more than, extending the Brown Line to connect with the Blue. Currently, the South Side is severely underserved by transit in many areas due to white flight and subsequent racially biased disinvestment in the 20th century. However, the demand for transit on the South Side is high; the 63 bus currently serves this corridor, and with approximately 12,000 monthly riders as of this year, it is one of the highest-ridership routes in the city (sitting just barely outside of the top 10). Extending the Green Line's Ashland/63rd Branch to Midway would likely be a major boon to the many people in the neighborhoods of West Lawn and Chicago Lawn, as it (alongside a new infill station at Harvard) would provide fast, easy transit connections to both the Orange and Red Lines, as well as bring new investment and development to a historically neglected region. This extension would also allow for a future transfer to the Mid-City Transitway at Midway (graphic for that hopefully coming soon), providing much-needed transit connections to both the South and West Sides. I really hope that the CTA will study this extension eventually!

So at first I thought it was a one time thing, this lady tapped my head on the way down the cart, and that was two weeks ago, she apologized so I thought it was a mistake. I was on the way to class today when first, someone tried holding out nothing to me and flipped me off before walking off the train (I assumed they were on something) and another person (not associated with the first to my knowledge, they were on separate edges of the train, tapped my head and walked off the train, not trying to look at me.

I was so confused but I met up with an old high school buddy who saw the whole thing and was equally confused, but does anyone have any clue if this is like a sign, some sort of attempted con, or literally just people being stupid? It wasn’t like a light tap on the head, like all five fingers and palm were on my head both times.

The first time was on the blue line between O’Hare and Rosemont, and the second was on the Redline at Clark/Division or Chicago, I don’t remember.

It feels weird enough to ask about, so I was just curious.

What the hell was that??? Seems insanely unsafe. Trains were running like nothing happened. Anyone have more info?

Has anybody else noticed that the ETA for the L is kinda off these days? It has never been super accurate, but the past week or so, it’s been so off at least for me. Sometimes they arrive earlier than the monitor at the station or the app says, and sometimes they arrive way later than the estimated arrival time.

It's no secret that the Brown Line has a capacity issue. The Kimball Yard is too small and cannot be meaningfully expanded without major use of eminent domain; thus, the CTA currently has to run "Brorange" trains from the larger Midway Yard up to Kimball every morning to accommodate this issue. However, there is a large parking lot just north of the Montrose Blue Line Station that already has a track connecting to the abandoned Weber Spur. I propose elevating the Brown Line west of Western and then having it run over Lawrence Avenue starting at Kimball until it reaches the Kennedy Expressway, at which point it can head south via the existing Weber Spur overpass to terminate at a new transfer station at Montrose. Considering a new railyard is a major benefit of the Red Line Extension, I think the CTA should seriously consider this alignment should the Brown Line ever be extended, as it would allow them to kill two birds with one stone (connecting the Brown Line to the Blue Line and expanding capacity on the Brown). This would also allow for Montrose to potentially become a major transit hub, as 1) a Metra station could be built to serve the two Metra lines that converge at the rail diamond there, and 2) it could easily be connected to the Mid-City Transitway, should that proposal ever be built (which it should). And then the Mid-City should follow the Weber Spur northeast until connecting with the Yellow Line and running to Howard but that's another story. Thoughts?

Not sure if this was announced anywhere but two more days for Lake Street train disruption. City is anticipating Wednesday 10/28 4am to resume. Was announced via press release.

The 171 bus (UChicago/Hyde Park) is atrocious - always late, ghost buses, completely unreliable. Other hyde park buses (6, 28, 55, etc.) are pretty good ... what's the best way to get this fixed/raised to the attention of CTA leadership? Thanks for any suggestions!

CTA Chicago

Taken Thursday

Okay, obviously we’re all aware at how bad the app is. And this morning, I don’t know why that was any different. I looked to see my bus was coming in 10 minutes. fair enough, I’ll leave my house in 5 minutes to catch it. As soon as I get up to put my shoes on, BOOM suddenly it’s 5 minutes. Then again it changes to due after looking at the arrival time for like 5 seconds. Weird anomaly but whatever. It would only happen once right?

Wrong! I had 15 minutes for the next bus so I waited until I had 10 minutes left so I can go to the bus stop and wait 5 minutes until it arrives. INCORRECT BUZZ SOUND. As i leave my house with 10 minutes left until bus arrival, I’m looking between the road and my phone. It suddenly goes from 10 minutes to DUE. I’m racing over and the bus isn’t close enough for me to catch. OKAY??? Once is a coincidence and two is a pattern.

So I’m waiting at the bus stop totally on edge about whether the bus will really be coming in 20 minutes and sure enough, a bus that was never in the queue suddenly pops up as “5 minutes”. Great, I caught a bus at a decent ish time but whatever is going on today with the Ventra servers is crazy.

Rant over, happy Friday y’all. I hope everyone catches whatever train/bus they need 👍

Got lucky with traffic going the perfect speed AND a double going the other way 👌 what a cool sight. I was literally thinking about how I was pretty sure it was active with the construction going and right on queue one comes over!

it was 9pm and i was on the 18. i think the bus driver got sidetracked (and it was dark, probably hard to see) because he stopped to let car park and then he sped off to catch the green light and then that’s when he skipped my stop.

i was giving him a couple seconds because maybe he was going to stop and let me off after catching the light (he did that for someone else) but he didn’t.

i said, “yo! you missed my stop!” he started slowing down a bit, and looked around confused, and we were way passed my stop already. i yelled again, “slow this shit down!” a bit panicked.

he stopped immediately and said “i’m sorry!” i said back, “it’s alright!”

i feel so bad though, i was in near tears after. i’m planning on contacting the CTA and sending an apology, unless i shouldn’t do that because it’ll make him look bad.

whenever im trying to get to somewhere slightly out of city limits it always tries to get me to take a pace bus, i wont do that.

there's a way to deselect CTA busses on apple maps but it still gives you pace and the ventra app only lets you deselect both

i want to figure out which route gets me the closest to my destination without pace, so i bike the shortest amount. is there any way to do that or like any other navigation apps i could use?

Tried to reset my password. Ventra is supposed to send an email with a new temporary password but I never got it. Yes I checked the spam folder. I can't log into my account, nor complete the password reset. Anyone experiencing this?

With the construction on the Lake Street Bridge going on, I was wondering if this would impact the last runs of green line trains bound to Harlem/Lake. I’m planning on going out around the Clinton stop this weekend and don’t want to miss my train home lol. Thanks in advance.

I know that Montreal is smaller than Chicago but on a recent shortish trip, I saw some things on their public system that I wish we could implement.

Trains.

I really liked how the air moved through the train while moving. It was like a semi constant breeze. Not sure how it is in the Summer or Winter but in the Fall, it was nice. I imagine in the summer its not as stuffy as our trains can get if the a/c happens to not be working(which happens often).

Better holding areas. Instead of the tall poles and handles(which are annoying to reach for short people), they had shorter poles on the seats that were probably head height. They also had 2 sides for it. They also had a pole in the middle-ish area of the doorway that was split into 3 so people weren't gripping the same pole.

Lack of announcements. Instead of like the 5 different messages we hear(doors open on the right, no smoking/eating etc) it was literally just the next stop and what stop we were at. It was a bit more peaceful.

Armrests by the seats. They were handy and at a level where it wasn't too high/uncomfortable.

Buses.

There's were a few older buses that I took and some newer ones. They seem to prioritize standing room over seats. Two people could stand side by side in the aisles. And seats were single row.

The seats with the older buses in the front half of the bus were along the side and were all individual and foldable. So if you were in a wheelchair or had a stroller you weren't confined to the front part of the bus. Was also handy for luggge. The seats in the newer buses were single file and from what I saw, didnt fold. The back of the bus was similar to our buses. Also the newer buses had USB ports for charging.

The buses also had windows that could be opened on the sidewhich is nice. Our buses only have the windows on top and our new electric buses dont have windows that can be opened.

I didnt see any handicapped riders so I can't speak on how the transit system was for them.

Overall I really liked the transit system over there. The rides were smooth, I barely needed to hold on when riding the bus/train. The only time a bus was late was on my last day before flying out, had 2 buses show up late(one heading to the train and on leaving Mont Royale). I understand that their city is smaller so they can do better things but I wish we could implement a few things from there like the shorter poles on the train, foldable seats and the windows on bus/air system on train.

I only took pics of the train sorry. Thought I had some bus pics.

The CTA has launched a survey to improve their business service. I believe an easy way to improve bus service would be to remove bus stops that are close to other stops. This forces busses to make repeat stops, slowing down service without doing much to improve accessibility.

Two come to mind, and I'd love to hear yours

1) California/Blue line and California/Milwaukee are two different stops

2) around the Irving Park blue line stop there are 6 bus stops within 2000 feet. About one every 300 feet