13 Additional Routes to Provide Customers with Bus Arrival Times; All bus routes to be live within 12 months
Chicago Transit Authority President Ron Huberman today announced that on Monday, April 7, 13 CTA bus routes will be activated on the agency's Bus Tracker web site. Bus Tracker is a web-based program that uses global positioning system (GPS) technology and provides real-time information on bus locations and arrival times.
The addition of the routes is part of the continued effort to improve service reliability and customer satisfaction.
"CTA has received very positive reaction from customers since the Bus Tracker pilot program was implemented along the #20 Madison bus route," said CTA President Ron Huberman. "We are expanding the program to other CTA routes to benefit more customers who use the CTA system for their transit needs. We will add more routes next month and through the end of the year. It is our goal to have arrival time information for all routes in the next 12 months."
The dedicated CTA Bus Tracker web site (www.ctabustracker.com) provides customers with a route map with icons indicating the location and direction of each bus currently in service, an alarm feature that will alert customers when a bus is approaching their selected bus stop, as well as the arrival times at bus stops. In addition to the information currently available on the #20 Madison, the following routes will be available beginning on April 7:
- #35 35th
- #39 Pershing
- #43 43rd
- #49 Western
- # X49 Western Express
- #54B South Cicero
- #55A 55th/Austin
- #55N 55th/Narrangansett
- #62 Archer
- #62H Archer/Harlem
- #63W West 63rd
- #94 South California
- #165 West 65th
For customers to access the arrival times of buses along a route, the CTA Bus Tracker web site is accessible from a computer and web-enabled wireless devices. BlackBerry users must have version 4.1 or higher. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) must have full Internet access capabilities through web browsers that support HyperText Markup Language (HTML) such as Internet Explorer. Customers who use PDAs will be able to access the arrival time display only. Cell phone users should contact their wireless service providers for information on their phone's Internet capabilities.
In addition to the customer benefits, the data gathered through the GPS technologies in Bus Tracker provides both service monitoring and management tools for CTA's Control Center and bus service management. The information is used to better understand and evaluate performance, identify potential service problems, make service adjustments and respond to unexpected incidents on the street that can lead to bus bunching or service disruptions.
"Bus Tracker is allowing CTA to make better scheduling and route decisions and to respond quickly to situations that affect CTA service," said Huberman. "CTA will continue to analyze the data collected through Bus Tracker in conjunction with other bus bunching initiatives the agency is currently testing. We expect that these combined efforts will continue to improve the customer experience by reducing wait time and by making bus service more convenient and reliable."
Throughout this week, CTA will post signs at bus stops along the impacted routes alerting customers that beginning April 7, they can track and access the arrival times of their bus by visiting the Bus Tracker web site.
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