So on the way home last night, I happened upon an unworking bus. I wasn't too talkative, but I tried to commiserate with the bus driver. She couldn't get the bus in gear. The CTA spent 34 million dollars to equip their buses with electronic data terminals. One can report trouble and delays and whatever from the data terminals. That's in theory anyways. It seems however that no one's listening on the other end. She said that no one has responded to one of her reports in the past six months. And the CTA refuses to pay for cell phone bills (and don't even want to see cell phones), so she indignantly uses their terminals.
That was her third bus yesterday. They all had different problems. Perhaps this is unavoidable with an aging, ailing bus fleet, and an underfunded (or so we are led to believe) CTA. But can't they reliably answer trouble reports?
