Chicago Transit Authority

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the second-largest public transportation system in the nation. The CTA’s service area is composed of the City of Chicago plus 40 suburbs, and its ridership exceeds 400 million each year.

Challenges

In order to attract new passengers and enhance the online experience of existing ones, the CTA wanted to completely redesign its website and mobile presence as well as create a new train-tracking tool. The CTA wanted train tracking functionality that was web-based, allowing riders to get up-to-date public transportation information without having to download an app. The transit agency came to Americaneagle.com for a robust solution.

Solutions

Using myCloudFare, Americaneagle.com created the CTA Train Tracker. The Train Tracker enables riders to view estimated arrival times for all 144 train stations across 8 rail lines on CTA’s desktop or mobile website. Americaneagle.com worked closely with the CTA to integrate the software that monitors the agency's signal system, allowing CTA Train Tracker to deliver the predicted arrival times of approaching trains to be posted within a 15 minute timeframe. The tool was built to then refresh prediction times every 20-30 seconds, giving riders the most up-to-date information available.

Riders now have a truly personalized experience as they can choose the number of results that appear as well as how they are sorted—whether by track, route, or time. The results have been incredible as the train tracking mobile page has been accessed over 8 million times and there’s been an 840% increase in mobile usage.