Train Tracker Beta Launches

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 9, 2011 3:30PM

Yesterday, CTA launched the beta test of its Train Tracker site, which was first reported last month. Unlike their Bus Tracker feature which uses GPS technology to determine the wait for a bus at a specific stop, Train Tracker uses information gleaned by CTA's QuickTrak system to calculate the wait for a train at a specific station.

CTA webmaster Tony Coppoletta told the Sun-Times early testing of the system, which began last April, showed that arrival times were accurate within one minute of predictions. Later upgrades to the system will include retrofitting GPS systems to some trains; new cars that will be added to the system will include GPS.

We used Train Tracker last night on both the Orange and Red Lines and concur with Coppoletta's opinion. At 7:40 p.m. an Orange line train was predicted to arrive at the station within 3 minutes; it arrived in two. Connecting to the Red Line at Roosevelt at 7:55 p.m., we were told by Train Tracker a northbound train would arrive in six minutes. The train arrived in four. Where Train Tracker failed was in predicting the arrival time of a southbound train at Morse, near the end of the Red Line. We were at the station at 11:13 p.m. and checked Train Tracker, which gave an arrival time of 8 minutes just as the train was pulling into the station.

But it's probably easier for train tracker to be accurate in its arrival times on the weekends, with the lower ridership and number of trains operating on the system. The true test will be tomorrow and during the week, when the ridership and the system is at its busiest and express trains start running.