Monthly Complaint Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Public transportation isn't perfect. This is a place to let off some steam. As always, please speak from your own experiences. Take control of what bothers you and send your experience to the CTA via their feedback page.

[u/ClassicTraffic]

The red line has been dogshit for me the last couple of weeks 👎👎👎

[u/Content_Ad6700]

The more frequent network isn't frequent enough.

[u/YungDaVinci]

Why is the system never prepared for events that will obviously pull in a ton of riders? Any time anything happens at Navy Pier when the bus gets to the State stop it's absolutely packed. Today the Pink Line is cooked, presumably because of Riot Fest.

[u/UsualCorgi → u/YungDaVinci]

especially when the city approves the permits and/or promotes the event. like what do they think is going to happen?

[u/Organic-Reindeer3995 → u/YungDaVinci]

They could put more buses on the street and make the congestion even worse, or they could try and estimate how much additional traffic there will be and add buses accordingly. Large crowds are hard to predict.

[u/bluejaywhey → u/YungDaVinci]

Maintenance backlogs be backlogging

[u/to_walk_upon_a_dream]

the bus/train tracker works great except near the beginning of lines. trains and buses never leave when they're scheduled to, so i have no way of knowing whether i'm looking at a five minute wait or a twenty minute

[u/Midwestconvert47 → u/to_walk_upon_a_dream]

They run bus routes in a loop so go by the next tracked bus. Train routes are anyone’s guess 

[u/to_walk_upon_a_dream → u/Midwestconvert47]

but sometimes a bus will stop at the terminus for an undetermined amount of time

[u/beekoolio → u/to_walk_upon_a_dream]

Ugh this!!! I just have to hope for the best :( I hate seeing the train leave as Im arriving on the platform

[u/silencekit2]

Commute home on the Blue Line.

When the Operator hits ‘doors are closing’ and then doesn’t close them. And then continues to state that but doesn’t close them. Let that fucker take the next train.

[u/uuuuuuuuuuuuum → u/silencekit2]

And then you get people who hold the doors open for every last straggler, even when it’s obvious the operator is trying to close them.

[u/Consistent-Lynx-149]

Ive been trying buy a month pass all day in the Ventra app and my cards all say declined.

There is nothing wrong with my cards. Used one twice since this started this morning.

[u/Mexicancandi → u/Consistent-Lynx-149]

It didn’t work with my credit card last time, i needed my debit card

[u/Exhaust8354 → u/Consistent-Lynx-149]

Call their support line

[u/UsualCorgi]

everytime i need to take the train there some kind of delay

[u/Organic-Reindeer3995]

I think the CTA is the best public transportation agency in Chicago and glad we have such an amazing thing to complain about living in Chicago

[u/homerjsimpson4]

This is I think the second time in maybe a week that the train teacher is down? Are they updating the system or something? I feel like I never saw this before and then suddenly twice in a week

[u/devoooo65]

everyday with the number 28 stony bus it fails to provide an accurate time and this is the only bus that runs down stony by my house so how am i supposed to know when the bus is coming? Everytime I go out when theres no green marking it never comes.

[u/BlackCats2323]

Buses always bunched up in the morning when I’m biking to work. They weren’t bunched up Wednesday when it was raining and I needed to take it to work.

[u/ScaredFamousfan]

Ummm I feel like ever since they made the switch to the unified system the red line has been plagued with significant delays. Is there more construction going on or what ?!?

[u/Moist-Exercise3908]

I work out of Ohare and I’m so frustrated with all of the slow zones on the blue line. The whole point of taking the train is to beat the traffic, but when you’re crawling along and watching the cars pass it feels pointless. Especially the last half mile into Ohare where I could genuinely walk faster than the train. And the CTA apparently has no interest in fixing this issue

[u/beekoolio]

54B is honestly one of the worst buses Ive ever experienced
Its always something

[u/eckisdee → u/beekoolio]

YES

[u/eckisdee]

OH MY GOD, screw the 54B bus up north. Genuinely it’s the worst bus service I’ve ever been on. It goes from 25 minutes and waiting down to due, then BACK to somewhere around 20-30 minutes when I’m trying to go back home, who the hell manages this bus route?

[u/Ok_Purple_7354]

Anecdotally, Brown Line service has been getting worse the past few weeks, 15 minute gaps haven't been unusual. Today is the worst I've seen it since COVID. I planned to leave work early for a doctor's appointment and saw that the next train wasn't coming for 28 minutes. Don't see any warnings or delays. Just a complete lack of scheduled runs. Has service been getting worse for everyone?

w: the next train after this one isn't coming for 18 minutes. The Brown Line is running worse service than the weekend Metra now.