Chicago Transit Authority We woke up this morning to another fresh coat of snow on the ground. While we're certainly among the ranks of those who just wished this winter would end already we have to concede that we have lived through worse. When the words "blizzard" and "Chicago" are uttered in the same breath two years immediately come to mind. We weren't born in 1967, but we sure as hell remember 1979 and......

Did you get an e-mail from the CTA a little while ago? Some customers did with a severe weather warning. Dear CTA Customer, This email is to alert you that there is currently severe weather, including heavy rain and high winds, forecasted to reach Chicago during the afternoon and evening rush-hour period today, October 18. It is possible that this severe weather could impact CTA bus and train service. Please take this into account......

Good news. NBC5 reports that with four days left to the forewarned service cuts and fare hikes on the CTA, Governor Blagoevich has stepped up with some help. He now says that he will try and find some money in "state coffers," and offered up a figure of $20 million. We realize that what he's offering is just a quick fix, but sometimes you put a butterfly bandage on a wound until you can......

One person is dead and three others are injured after a collision between a car and a Chicago Transit Authority bus. The car hit the bus at a high rate of speed after midnight. Our second favorite ex-President, Bill Clinton went on the Oprah show (aired on Tuesday) and downplayed his role in the presidential campaign of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. We'd be happy to have him as a first hubby. Walgreen......

Finally, the State Senate voted about a budget for the state of Illinois, even if it did not exactly vote on one. By a margin of 34-19 it adopted a sense-of-the-Senate resolution, spelling out objections to the budget document endorsed by the Illinois House last month. Mayor Daley's stalled plan to put the financial squeeze on parents of young graffiti vandals will be advanced by City Council, but only after the maximum fine is......

Finally, the State Senate voted about a budget for the state of Illinois, even if it did not exactly vote on one. By a margin of 34-19 it adopted a sense-of-the-Senate resolution, spelling out objections to the budget document endorsed by the Illinois House last month. Mayor Daley's stalled plan to put the financial squeeze on parents of young graffiti vandals will be advanced by City Council, but only after the maximum fine is......

Paris in the Springtime in Chicago?...

If you use the Clark/Lake station as a mini-hub to catch the Blue Line to O'Hare or the Orange Line to Midway, you soon will be able to get up-to-the-minute flight information on display boards. Mayor Daley introduced the intergovernmental agreement at Wednesday's City Council meeting — the city has agreed to buy the boards, install them, and maintain them, and the CTA will cover the cost of electricity. Daley wants install similar display......

A plan is in the works to widen the road going into O'Hare and to improve and modernize the People Mover trains inside the airport. Watch out CTA Tattler, CTA Stories is a new blog dedicated to telling stories of Chicago Transit Authority adventures. The difference? Everyone can blog their own stories at CTA Stories. Chicago Professionals for Youth is having a party at Elm Street Liquors on March 3 from 8:30 p.m. -......

The good news: Metra posted a single-year ridership record with approximately 80 million passengers. This was partly due to construction on the Dan Ryan, expanded rail service, and high gas prices. Amtrak also rang in with a 69 percent increase on expanded routes between Chicago and St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy. The Chicago-to-St. Louis line showed a 95 percent increase in riders for last quarter over the same period last year. The news: The Regional......

Well, it's been an interesting couple weeks for CTA watchers. We won't touch another argument about operating budgets with a ten-foot pole, but there really have been a lot of interesting, hilarious, and downright upsetting news regarding the agency lately. Really, the best (and worst) has been the RTA movie snafu. A rather embarassed head of the Regional Transit Authority apologized today for a video that was shown to Metra officials last week that was......

If you’re one of those plan-ahead types of people who get started on holiday shopping long before Black Friday, you may want to consider all of the merchandise our beloved Chicago Transit Authority has to offer. If our gift recommendation has you wondering what in the world we’re talking about, you’re probably not alone. Despite providing more than one million rides a day, the CTA only managed to scrape up $20,000 in merchandise sales, of......

Yesterday, Crain’s published an editorial begging Mayor Daley to replace CTA President Frank Kruesi and laying the blame for the agency’s numerous problems at his feet, including spending “hundreds of millions on an ill-conceived ‘super station’ at Block 37.” Today, Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch reveals a new scheme for a private firm to develop express train service to the airports from the “super station” (or, as we like to call it, “Kruesi’s Kastle”) in......

After being sent back to the drawing board following its proposed dual-stadium opening ceremonies, the group organizing Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics have unveiled their revised stadium plan. Rather than a temporary stadium immediately south of Soldier Field, the new proposal calls for a stadium to be built in Washington Park, just west of the University of Chicago on the city's South Side. This plan seems to make a lot more sense.......

While out of town this week, Chicagoist wandered into a piano bar. The gent behind the keys asked us where we were from. “Chicago,” we replied. “I love that band,” he said. We cringed a little bit at that. We’re loath to have our city closely identified with a band that is more famous for Prom themes than anything else. But after we thought about it some more, the comparison makes a lot of sense.......

Try as they might to spin things in a positive manner, it has NOT been a good year public relations-wise for the Chicago Transit Authority. Remember in the spring when they proposed so many "doomsday budget" scenarios that they came across like a spoiled child begging for more allowance money while not doing any more work around the house? Those were good times. Or when CTA Board Chair Carole Brown started her own weblog......

Kevin O'Neil, CTA Tattler...

Chicagoist is saying, "It's about friggin' time, already!" this morning. Mayor Daley has finally decided to join the CTA's ongoing, well documented effort to obtain additional transportation funding from state legislators, and last night joined Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton and Oak Park Mayor Joanne Trapani in an earnest supplication. Daley acknowledged the CTA's role in maintaining a healthy economy for the Chicagoland area, and even mentioned those of us (like Chicagoist) that have no car,......

Despite all the talk of cuts or no cuts, the Chicago Transit Authority will once again charge just one-cent for all bus and train rides from 8 p.m. on New Year's Eve to 6 a.m. on New Year's Day. This is great news, especially since Chicagoist lives right next to an el stop, so we plan on grabbing a pocket full of pennies, Kosmo Kramer-style, and riding all night long. Image via National Institutes of......

CTA "Board members are pissed," about the planned elimination of the Holiday Train, says board member Sue Leonis. So, Chicago Transit Authority Board President Carole Brown directed President Frank Kruesi to get the Holiday Train back on track. Kruesi defended his move saying the train costs about $200,000 to run, and he couldn't spend that money in good conscious when 1,250 CTA employees are set to be laid-off on January 2nd. We're glad to see......

The first CTA pink slip has been doled out: Santa Claus and the fabled Holiday Train. The Chicago Transit Authority announced yesterday that they would not be running the twelve year-old Holiday train, which included a sleigh car, and other El cars bedecked with lights and elves. The train would ride the rails of each of the El lines every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The measure was, the CTA claims, part of budget cuts......

Alert reader Prashanth tells us that there's a meeting tonight to discuss the Wilson Yard project. Monday's Tribune column said opposition to the project had "a classist or even racist ring," so expect some people from the Uptown Neighborhood Council to be pretty pissed off. Remember when we said a "loud, angry public hearing almost seems guaranteed"? It looks like that's tonight. According to the Uptown Chicago Commission website, "Alderman Helen Shiller, the Holsten Development......

We talk about Demon Dogs way too freaking much, but it's such a staple of Lincoln Park that it's a hard habit to break. That being said, Demon Dogs is in the news again, after fourteen years of unpaid bills finally came due when the Illinois Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Peter Schivarelli, owner of Demon Dogs, must pay electricity bills the Chicago Transit Authority was somehow picking up. How could this have happened?......

The Chicago Transit Authority officially started raising the alarm yesterday: Yet another fare hike is on the horizon. Just this February riders saw fares increase 25-cents to $1.75 -- the first increase in twelve years. This hike would put certainly put Chicago on the high end, since New York City is now $2.00, Boston is $1.25, and Philadelphia is $1.30 (with a token). Probably the most notable change from last year's rate hike, was that......