New digital information screens bring peace and quiet to CTA stations

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The new screen shows estimated train arrival times most of the time. If you watch it long enough, you will see weather information. 

A new feature that debuted at the Chicago Transit Authority’s Oakton-Skokie station in April and Morgan station in May gives riders better Train Tracker information without a noisy distraction. The brand new digital information screens provide useful countdown times to the next train “at nearly all times” without the chaff offered by existing screens in the CTA system.

These screens are more informative than the loud and large Titan screens seen at more stations; they also rarely display the number of minutes until the next train. When Grid Chicago asked the CTA about its intentions in using the new screens, spokesperson Brian Steele replied, “They’re consciously designed to focus on real-time customer information, and don’t show ads, agency promotions or PSAs”.

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Clearing up some confusion about the Bloomingdale Trail fundraising process

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Rahm Emanuel at yesterday’s press conference

Monday morning when Steven read the awesome news on the Sun-Times website (apparently the Mayor’s Office offered them the scoop on this) that the city has raised the last $9 million needed to start construction on the Bloomingdale Trail, his first reaction was annoyance. You can find more details about the exciting plans for the trail in most of the other local news outlets, so if you don’t mind today I’ll focus on this somewhat nitpicky issue.

Why was Steven irritated? Because of what he heard at last Thursday’s community meeting at Yates Elementary in Humboldt Park, where citizens were invited to provide input on the preliminary design ideas for the 2.7-mile trail and “linear park.”

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