The weekend is upon us which means it's time to get ready for the disruption of Blue Line service from the Loop to the Division stop, right? Not so fast! According to the CTA Tattler, work on that part of the Blue Line is done. The work now shifts to the Loop and South/West as the CTA continues to replace tracks to eliminate slow zones. The CTA claims that the work on this segment of the Blue Line should be completed by the end of the year and shuttle buses will connect passengers between the Clark & Lake and UIC/Halsted stop, which means no Blue Line in the Loop on weekends, starting tonight at 10:00 p.m. more ›

Dan O'Neil, brother of The CTA Tattler's Kevin O'Neil, keeps us posted on some changes he's making to CTA Tweets, his CTA alert Twitter feed. Check out his assessment of the original project and how he's working on improving it with your help. more ›

We're just two weeks away from the first pitch in this year's edition of the Crosstown Classic, the annual White Sox-Cubs clash, and the CTA has released a new fare card to commemorate this year's series, just as they have every year since 1998. This year's design is by local artist Steve Musgrave who is also the artist of the mural at the Addison Red Line stop. At first glance, it appears to be a generic baseball player but the keen eyes of the CTA Tattler's Kevin O'Neil catch that, "...the artist's work clearly shows a player outfitted in half Cubs blue and half Sox black." It gives the Obama Inauguration D.C. Metro Card a run for its money plus it doesn't involve Ozzie and Lou rapping, so it's okay with us. [via CTA Tattler] more ›

Another weekend, another Blue Line shut down. All this talk of slow zones and construction has those of us who use the Blue Line irritated, especially for those trips to O'Hare. And, besides, didn't they just spend two years working on the slow zones? Lucky for us, CTA Tattler took questions straight to the CTA. more ›

The indispensable blog CTA Tattler brings us a very interesting story about the Guardian Angels and CTA graffiti artists. In particular is a recent incident in which some GA's caught a tagger at the Western/Milwaukee Blue Line stop but the Tattler suggest their "detainment seems to cross the line to assault" territory. (Note - according to the Tattler, the Guardian Angels choose to videotape such detainments to help prevent lawsuits.) more ›

In an effort to keep riders up to date with delays and announcements, the CTA Tattler has initiated CTATweet, an unofficial Twitter site to enable CTA riders to share alerts including reroutes, stoppages, and other CTA-related issues immediately with other riders. Given the CTA's tendency to randomly shutdown or reroute buses without much notice to riders, this sounds good to me. more ›

I recently found myself on a nearly-empty Brown Line car during the early evening, when I realized that a man sitting next to me was masturbating. I kicked him and yelled at him to stop, which he did, and he left the train at the next stop. My immediate reaction was to feel relieved that I had so quickly recognized and taken control of the situation. And although I was grossed out, my prevailing feeling was: Fuck you, man. Nice try. more ›

On Saturday, a select group of CTA Tattlers sat down for coffee with CTA President Ron Huberman to discuss the state of the CTA. This morning, CTA Tattler posted the first report from their meeting with Huberman, covering the various bus initiatives that were discussed on Saturday. During the meeting, Huberman also told the tattlers that the GPS Bus Tracker pilot program will be expanding to 20 new bus routes, which will be announced this morning. more ›

CTA President Ron Huberman, quickly becoming our favorite public official, unveiled an epic improvement plan for the CTA yesterday. Whew! The 75-page .pdf outlines his plan, though questions like "where will this money come from" remain. more ›

Watch us on WTTW's Chicago Tonight tonight at 7, or rebroadcast at 1:30 and 4:30 a.m. for you night owls. We'll be alongside esteemed colleagues Andrew from Gapers Block and Kevin from CTA Tattler. (Think of it as a reunion, except with me instead of Rachelle.) The blogger segment should go on around 7:30, and if at some point Phil Ponce notes that "blog" is short for "web log," everybody drink!... more ›

Looks like CTA President Ron Huberman might be reading Chicagoist. Yesterday he admitted that he made a mistake by dismissing the "L" track shutdown last week as an "inconvenience in the Loop." Said Huberman, "We didn't communicate effectively or give people the reassurances they needed. It was scary. Passenger needs took a back seat. I apologize to our riders." Huberman also introduced measures aimed at ensuring that incidents like last week's are the exception, not... more ›

Take a quick look through Flickr, and you'll see that the CTA is one of the most popular subjects for photographers' lenses. Interesting architecture, intriguing people, and a nice dose of urban decay all beg to be photographed. We were similarly inspired last weekend while waiting for a brown line train at the Belmont "L" stop. After taking a photo of the view toward the end of the platform, and two snapshots of a glimpse... more ›

The week in CTA has started off in typical fashion: sad and disappointing. more ›

"Sun Kissed" via alforque. more ›

Tom Sherman from fledgling Chicago tech site WindyBits filled up Mr. Fusion yesterday and traveled back in time to review nascent versions of your favorite Chicago websites. We're particularly taken with the proto-version of the Tribune (someone got a Flash book for their birthday), and the absolutely hideous, 1998 incarnation of the Sun-Times (image maps rule). more ›

Not to be outdone by a former editor, our own Rachelle "Chicagoist Prime" Bowden, in her non-pixellated form, will share the dais with CTA Tattler's Kevin O'Neill and Gapers Block jefe Andrew Huff on Wednesday's "Chicago Tonight." Phil Ponce will moderate a discussion with the three, asking them about our respective internet fiefdoms, how blogs disseminate information, the stories broken on the respective websites, and if Huff's sideburns have a life of their own.... more ›

Despite a preponderance of stories lately, we swear we’re not trying to become Chicago’s next knitting blog. We swear. However, when we caught sight of these handy mittens on CTA Tattler today, we just had to mention them. Colleen Meagher, a Bostonian who runs the blog, Subway Knitter, developed some knitted mittens with a perfectly sized pocket to hold her Charlie Card (Boston’s equivalent of the Chicago Card/Chicago Card Plus). Ms. Meagher’s mittens are sadly... more ›

"Sunrise-Sears" via bweb04. more ›

Chicagoist was one of a few local blogs to be featured in a recent Chicago Magazine piece. Proclaimed to be arbiters of information, we, along with Gaper's, Metroblogging Chicago, Beachwood Reporter and CTA Tattler, were quizzed on our journalistic bona fides and asked about what makes each of us unique. Obviously, blogs go beyond the idea of traditional journalism, which is why they're attractive to readers. Whether they're discussing topics that don't get as much... more ›

If you're like us (and we bet you are — hell, you're reading the damned site) you surf the net all day. And when you surf the net all day, some pretty neat things come across your desk. We stumbled across this yesterday. It seems that the CTA Tattler scooped your star political writer here at Chicagoist (not that we do any real reporting, anyway), with a piece about 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore's resolution... more ›

We aren't. We thought it was pretty cool when we got on the Milwaukee bus for the first time ever and walked onto a holiday* wonderland of music, lights and decorations galore. We knew there was a holiday train that the CTA pimped out and sent around to different lines throughout the holiday season, but we had no idea that there were holiday buses. more ›

When we heard a CTA official was resigning, we thought we had a winner in our Dead Pool. Turns out that Chicago may be losing exactly the type of transit official we need. more ›

Today’s CTA Tattler discusses this morning’s RedEye article on the oft-heard but rarely understood CTA public address system. The CTA promises that new fiber-optic cables will soon allow you to know exactly how slow the Red Line is moving today. The Tattler also gives another plug for its CTA wireless alerts system and the transit status website run by friend of Chicagoist Tony Coppoletta. The CTA itself plans on evaluating its online CTA Bus Tracker... more ›

After six months of construction, the CTA Brown Line's Kedzie and Rockwell stations should have reopened this morning at 4:45 AM (if they didn't someone tell us). The CTA is still adding a few finishing touches like signage, more fencing, and ooh, a compass rose. The spiffy new stations feature glass station houses, new platforms, better lighting, and those nifty blue rubber edges that remind you to back up lest you get decapitated by a... more ›

And not in a good way. Chicagoist, along with hundreds of other people, were forced to walk home tonight because of a fire on the rear car of a Blue Line train. No trains were running in either direction between Washington in the Loop and Damen Avenue. The alternate route is the #56 bus that runs up Milwaukee Avenue, but that was so packed that the drivers were not even stopping at the stops.... more ›

Brown Line renovation continues to be a pain for riders, and now not just for those who live west of Western. more ›

CTA Tattler posted some fun pictures yesterday that a reader snapped at the revamped Jackson subway station. An information screen went rogue, revealing the software running beneath. From the looks of it, the monitor was just playing a PowerPoint presentation on Windows XP, but someone forgot to lock things down. Riders even got to see a helpful security popup letting them know that the computer wasn't running a firewall. Neat! This is red meat for... more ›

Kevin O'Neil, CTA Tattler more ›

http://www.coudal.com/Shhh.pdf">cards (PDF) to give rude cell phone users were all the rage? Or you may have seen these urban asshole notification cards.. Yesterday, CTA Tattler brought Switchblade Susie's "Don't Be Jack" cards to our attention. more ›