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Chicago Transit Authority

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For other uses, see Chicago Transit Authority (disambiguation).
Chicago Transit Authority
A Chicago 'L' train
FoundedOctober 1, 1947
HeadquartersChicago Loop
LocaleChicago
Service typeBus and Rapid Transit
RoutesBus: 154, Rail: 8
FleetBus: 2,144, Rail: 1,190
Daily ridershipApproximately 1.7 million (2008 census)
Fuel typeDiesel, Diesel-electric hybrid
OperatorSelf
Chief executiveRichard Rodriguez
Websitehttp://www.transitchicago.com

Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of the suburbs.

The CTA is a municipal corporation that started operations on October 1, 1947 upon the purchase and combination of the transportation assets of the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and the Chicago Surface Lines streetcar system. In 1952, CTA purchased the assets of the Chicago Motor Coach Company, which was under the control of Yellow Cab founder John D. Hertz, resulting in a fully unified system. Today, the CTA is one of the three service boards financially supported by the Regional Transportation Authority.

Operations

The Chicago Transit Authority provides service to Chicago and 40 surrounding suburbs. The CTA provided a total of 521.2 million rides in 2009, a 1 percent decrease (5.1 million fewer rides) over 2008 numbers.[1]

Chicago Transit Authority trains serve as both elevated rapid transit, and as subway trains in parts of the city. Pictured is the Blue Line terminal in O'Hare International Airport.


Chicago Transit Authority also serves Chicago suburbs. Purple Line stations such as Central, pictured above, connect Evanston and Wilmette residents to The Loop.

CTA operates 24 hours each day and on an average weekday provides 1.7 million rides on buses and trains. It has approximately 2,000 buses that operate over 154 routes traveling along 2,273 route miles (3,658 km). Buses provide about one million passenger trips a day and serve more than 12,000 posted bus stops. The Chicago Transit Authority's 1,190 train cars operate over eight routes and 222 miles (357 km) of track. Its trains provide about 650,000 customer trips each day and serve 144 stations in Chicago.[2]

Fare collection

The CTA allows riders to board a bus and pay with cash, transit cards, or Chicago Cards. As for trains riders are only allowed to pay with a transit card or a Chicago Card. There was a time when one could pay $1.75 and receive a transit card on the bus. The card would be worth three bus rides but as of today it is no longer available. Today the card has to be purchased from a local currency exchange (such as Western Union and Checks Cashed), bus terminal, or subway platform.

Paying with cash

Only buses allow riders to pay with cash. The fare is $2.25 (as of January 1, 2009), and cash transfers are not available. Previously, some rail station turnstiles accepted cash but this feature has been removed in an effort to speed up boarding, except during sporting events at nearby 'L' stations, such as the Red Line 'L' station at Addison (near Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs) and the station for the same line at Sox-35th (across the street from U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox).


Paying with transit cards

Transit cards are sold at all rail stations, currency exchanges, CVS, and at the CTA's headquarters. There are two types of transit cards: stored-value and unlimited rides. Regular transit cards can be bought anywhere. The cost of fare for a regular transit card depends on whether a person gets on the train on the bus first. If the person is riding the train first then the bus, then the first amount taken off is $2.25, on the second ride the machine takes .25 off the card, then the third ride is always free. If a person takes the bus first, the machine will take $2.00 off then for the second ride, the machine takes off .25. Unlimited ride cards can be purchased at the CTA headquarters and from vending machines at select CTA Stations (O'Hare on the Blue Line, Midway on the Orange Line, and Chicago on the Red Line), as well as from a variety of retail outlets throughout the Chicago area, such as currency exchanges and select Jewel and Dominick's stores. They are available for one day ($5.75), three days ($14), seven days ($23), and thirty days ($86). There are also reduced fare cards available for senior citizens, people with disabilities, Chicago Public School students, Evanston Public School students, and students of certain area universities as well. Fare card and transit card vending machines were installed at downtown Metra train stations (Union Station, the Ogilvie Transportation Center, and the LaSalle Street Station) in early 2006.

Paying with the Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus

Main article: Chicago Card

The Chicago Card (along with the Chicago Card Plus) is a contactless smart card, powered by RFID, used by riders of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to electronically pay for bus and train fares. The Chicago card and Chicago Card Plus allows the riders to "tap" the card against a touchpad located in the front of the bus to allow faster and easier boarding.

Connections

The Chicago Transit Authority produces a monthly television show hosted by Jeanne Sparrow. The show is broadcast on City of Chicago public access channels 23, 49 & 25, as well as on Comcast's CN100 in the Chicago media market, including areas of Michigan and Indiana. It features news of the CTA, "Rodeo" winners and outstanding employees of the system, a recurring segment called Jeanne's Journey exploring different neighborhoods and attractions of Chicago. The program can be watched online at http://www.transitchicago.com/news_initiatives/connections.aspx

Equipment history

Downtown bus stop sign

CTA buses were known as the "green limousine" or the "big green" — buses were one or more shades of green from the CTA's establishment through the end of the 1980s. With the delivery of the TMC RTS buses in 1991, a more patriotic color scheme was adopted, and the green scheme was fully phased out by 1996. A notable color scheme was the "Bicentennial" of about 1974 to 1976.[3]

CTA bought very few buses between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1980s. During this time, purchases were only made in 1979 (20 MAN/AM General articulated buses), 1982-83 (200 Flyer D901 buses and 125 additional MAN articulateds), and 1985 (362 MAN Americana standard length buses). Another aspect of this period was that with the exception of the 1979 and 1983 MAN orders, none of those buses had air conditioning, a budget saving move by the CTA. The 1972-76 fleet of New Looks, 1870 total, which were originally air conditioned (although there were problems with the air-conditioning systems, resulting in their eventually being disabled and sliding windows installed in the buses), comprised the majority vehicles in service into the early 1990s.

Today CTA's current fleet of buses is mostly dominated by New Flyer's D40LF, which replaced buses that were built in 1991 and some built in 1995.

The heavy rail orders of the CTA include the last railcar stock built by the Budd Company and one of the few examples of rail cars built by Boeing-Vertol. The next order is from Bombardier.

Active bus fleet

Number Year Model Length Quantity Engine type Headsign Garages Disabled access Comments
6400-6883 2000-2002 NovaBus LFS 40 ft (12 m) 480 Diesel Flip Dot / LED 74th, 77th, Chicago, Forest Glen, North Park
1000-2029 2006-2009 New Flyer D40LF 40 ft (12 m) 1,030 Diesel LED 103rd, 74th, 77th, Chicago, Forest Glen, Kedzie, North Park
500-544 2006-2007 Optima Opus 30 ft (9.1 m) 45 Diesel LED 103rd, 77th, Forest Glen
800-809 2006 New Flyer DE40LF 40 ft (12 m) 10 Diesel Electric LED Kedzie
900-909 2007 New Flyer DE40LF 40 ft (12 m) 10 Diesel Electric LED Kedzie
4000-4207 2008-2009 New Flyer DE60LF 60 ft (18 m) 208 Diesel Electric LED 103rd, Kedzie, North Park According to New Flyer, CTA has also approved a contract for up to 900 more,[4] but the initial order of 140 was deferred.[5]

CTA bus garages

  • Forest Glen Garage, 5419 W. Armstrong Ave. (Elston/Bryn Mawr)
  • North Park Garage, 3112 W. Foster Ave. (Foster/Albany)
  • Chicago Garage, 642 N. Pulaski Road (Chicago/Pulaski)
  • Kedzie Garage, 358 S. Kedzie Ave. (Van Buren/Kedzie)
  • 74th Garage, 1815 W. 74th St. (74th/Wood)
  • 77th Garage, 210 W. 79th St. (79th/Wentworth)
  • 103rd Garage, 1602 E. 103rd St. (103rd/Stony Island)

Active 'L' rolling stock

Class Year Manufacturer Assigned Accessible Quantity Comments
2200 Series 1969-1970 Budd Company Blue ☒N No 142
2400 Series 1976-1978 Boeing-Vertol Green, Purple 194
2600 Series 1981-1987 Budd Company Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow 596
3200 Series 1992-1994 Morrison-Knudsen Orange, Brown, Purple 258

'L' rolling stock on order

Class Year Manufacturer Accessible Comments
5000 Series 2009-? Bombardier Transportation 10 prototypes were received in 2009, and entered passenger testing in April 2010; the order for the remaining 396 will be finalized after successfully completing those tests.[6]


Schedule for new train cars Red Line (2010 April~May)

Northbound -- Leaving 95th Street

Run Number Scheduled Departure Time
806 7:30 am
813 10:38 am
818 2:19 pm
827 5:20 pm
826 8:48 pm


Southbound - Leaving Howard

Run Number Scheduled Departure Time
806 6:12 am
904 9:01 am
905 12:44 pm
819 3:50 pm
829 7:18 pm

Schedule is from: CTA Tattler

Security and safety

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, CTA announced its "If you See Something, Say Something" campaign.[7] CTA has also installed a security camera network,[8] and a system to send real time images from cameras in buses directly to emergency responders.[9]

CTA has also been actively prosecuting vandals, announcing on several occasions that felony convictions were obtained against persons who spray painted authority vehicles.[10]

See also Chicago 'L' concerning incidents on the rapid transit system.

Technology

The CTA has within the past few years installed GPS Bus Tracker system on all buses to reduce the issue of bunching buses and for riders to be able to determine the location of buses online. It has proved to be very successful so far seeing a bunching decrease of 40% since 2007. The bunching rate has dropped from 3.9% to 2.3% in just two years, according to one report. [11] CTA has also made its Bus Tracker and other developer tools available,[12] and is making Bus Tracker arrival data available through text messaging.[13] One of the first applications of the Bus Tracker Developer Tools involved the installation of monitors showing the information in several businesses in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.[14] Using the developer API published by CTA, some augmented CTA bus tracking applications have been developed for mobile phones.[15]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chicago 'L'.

References

  1. ^ CTA (2010-01-20). "CTA Announces Ridership in 2009". Press Release.
  2. ^ Most recent ridership information is provided in the President's, Budget, and Financial Reports on the Board Presentations page of CTA's website.
  3. ^ "Harry Gershen photograph at busdrawings.com".
  4. ^ "New Flyer Receives Bus Orders Valued at Over US $1 Billion" (Press release). New Flyer Industries. December 11, 2008.
  5. ^ "New Flyer Announces Expected Production Decrease Resulting From Deferral of a Customer Order" (Press release). New Flyer Industries. July 30, 2009. Retrieved August 1, 2009. A CTA spokesperson confirmed the order and delay on August 20, 2009. Jon Hilkevitch (August 20, 2009). "CTA delays purchase of 140 hybrid buses". Chicago Breaking News (Chicago Tribune). Retrieved August 21, 2009.
  6. ^ "CTA to Begin In-Service Testing of New Rail Cars" (Press release). April 15, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-16. {{cite press release}}: Unknown parameter |pubisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "CTA Security & Safety". CTA.
  8. ^ "Mayor Daley, CTA and CPD Officials Test Mobile Security Network" (Press release). CTA. 2006-12-12.
  9. ^ "CTA to Test Mobile Security Network to Enhance Safety on System" (Press release). CTA. 2006-03-16.
  10. ^ "Vandal Sentenced to Prison for Defacing CTA Property" (Press release). CTA. 2008-03-21.
    "CTA Vandal Receives Felony Conviction for Criminal Defacement and Trespass" (Press release). CTA. 2007-12-19.
  11. ^ Ben Meyerson (December 16, 2009). "Bus bunching down 40% since 2007, CTA report says". Chicago Current.
  12. ^ "Developer Center". CTA.
  13. ^ "CTA Bus Tracker Information Now Available On-Demand via New Text Messaging Feature" (Press release). CTA. December 22, 2009.
  14. ^ Steve Bryant (December 14, 2009). "Bus Trackers Installed at Wicker Park Shops". NBC Chicago. Retrieved 12-22-2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  15. ^ "Search Results for 'cta'". Apple.com. Retrieved April 9, 2010.
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