A group of frustrated transit riders have undertaken a guerrilla campaign of sorts to put pressure on the CTA over long wait times and so-called ghost buses and trains, which show up on digital trackers but fail to arrive in real life.
Olivia Gahan places a sticker with a QR code on a bus stop post in the 900 block of West Belmont Avenue on July 19, 2022. Gahan, 29, one of the transit riders behind Commuters Take Action, helped to put up mock customer-alert signs in CTA stations drawing attention to delays with stickers asking,"Tired of being ghosted by the CTA?"
CTA weekday ridership is hovering at more than half of pre-pandemic levels. As CTA looks to continue drawing back riders, train and bus reliability have taken on heightened urgency. Others continue to rely on public transportation to get to work, school and events. But if a significant number of riders with other options are driven away from CTA, it’s unclear whether enough people will remain on buses and trains to maintain current fare prices and service levels, without changes in how CTA gets funding, Sriraj said.“There is no chance in any universe that I would take a Chicago Transit Authority bus on the weekends,” he said.
Olivia Gahan recalled turning to an Uber to get to a work meeting in mid-February, when her Blue Line train failed to arrive. She and a co-worker were trying to get from the Belmont Blue Line to Merchandise Mart for the midmorning meeting, a trip she estimated should have taken about 30 minutes door-to-door. After waiting 30 minutes for a train to arrive, they called the ride-share.
“There’s a lot we can do to improve the CTA,” she said. “This is a small part of it, but to me it seems the most urgent because we can’t get to everything else until trains are on time.” Carter said the vacancies are a combination of retirements and hiring challenges similar to those companies across the country are experiencing as employees decide they want to do something different. Operating a bus or train is a high-stress job, and it became even more high-stress during the pandemic, he said.
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