CTA Announces Train Tracker Launch in January

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 30, 2010 8:40PM

Chicago Now's Tracy Swartz reports that the CTA is set to launch a a beta test dedicated website for tracking arrival times of trains next month, similar to it Bus Tracker site.

According to CTA President Rich Rodriguez, the arrival times for each of the CTA's eight rail lines will be determined through a combination of scheduling information and data collected from their QuickTrak program, which monitors the length of time a train takes to travel a section of track and the rails signaling systems. The estimated arrival times are determined by averaging the travel times of the past five trains that travel a portion of track. If it sounds complicated, that's because CTA's train tracker isn't using GPS, which it does for Bus Tracker. The Bus Tracker system uses GPS technology to let you know how far away the next bus is from your stop.

To augment the rollout, CTA will set up dedicated arrival time screens at ten train stations on the platform or mezzanine levels. Swartz writes that CTA is hoping to improve the accuracy of the Train Tracker system in the upcoming months.