I wholeheartedly agree with Laura Washington’s recent column on the state of the CTA. While she highlights the system’s indeed disturbing rates of violent crime, we should remember that safety issues are impacting public transit’s reliability as a whole. It’s increasingly obvious that CTA drivers are probably quitting the agency in droves, leading to widespread delays and service cuts that are rendering the L and bus networks unusable.
I live near the Cottage Grove Green Line terminus, from which Loop-bound trains ostensibly leave every 20 minutes on weekdays. While such infrequent service already requires you to plan your trip in advance, a “ghost train” here kills any chance that you’ll make it anywhere on time. As ghost trains became common in the fall, I had to reroute my commute along the Red Line instead.
