Incumbent Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged that, if re-elected, the CTA will be massively delayed \u201conly some of the time\u201d. As part of the mayor\u2019s re-election announcement, CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. stated that his agency is committed to curtailing transit delays to under four hours by 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the stewards of this city\u2019s transit system, we know how important it is that we listen to the people of Chicago,\u201d Carter said at a press conference. \u201cAnd the people of Chicago are saying, \u2018We\u2019re okay waiting for the Red Line if it only takes three hours and fifty-nine minutes or less.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In an effort to achieve the ambitious new target, Carter said the CTA would resort to previously unthinkable measures such as hiring a couple more bus drivers, elaborating that, \u201cin times like these, it\u2019s some hands on deck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter also said the agency would put an end to \u201cghost buses,\u201d a term that refers to buses that show up on CTA trackers but fail to appear at the stop. \u201cWhile it was, admittedly, pretty fun fucking with people at first, the joke has gotten old by now and we plan on giving it a rest for at least the next few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
CTA riders who spoke with the Dealer said the move would be life-changing. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how much it means to me that only half my waking hours will be spent waiting for the Blue Line to show up,\u201d said Logan Square resident Nick Gomez. \u201cI, for one, am voting for Lightfoot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others were less pleased. \u201cI\u2019m gonna miss the ghost buses if I\u2019m being honest with you,\u201d said Barbara Jones of Hyde Park, who explained they added a \u201cmuch-needed element of spooky fun\u201d to her commute.<\/p>\n
Asked if there were further reforms coming to improve CTA service, Carter told reporters, “Do I look like Santa Claus to you? Or maybe the Tooth Fairy? Do I have fairy wings sprouting out of my back? Do I have a little wand that summons money out of thin air? Do I? Huh? Do I? Do I? Jesus fucking Christ.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CTA riders who spoke with the Dealer said the move would be life-changing. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how much it means to me that only half my waking hours will be spent waiting for the Blue Line to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2089,"featured_media":5982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5983,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5981\/revisions\/5983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}