Chicago’s el system, with its iconic train cars, relatively fast speeds, and occasionally breathtaking views, is the sexier side of the CTA. But the city’s     grid of 130 bus routes is really the meat and potatoes of our transit network, with 274.3 million boardings in 2015 compared to the el’s 241.7 million     trips.



  I started my bus excursion around 5:30 PM on a Tuesday at the 87th Street Red Line stop, which was renovated in 2013 as part of the Red Line South     reconstruction. Eighty-seventh Street’s narrow sidewalks were crowded with CTA customers waiting for buses.



  As we talked, we realized that the bus had been stopped at Wood Street for an inordinately long time for no apparent reason. Almost ten minutes went by     before we finally started moving again. When I asked about the delay, the driver explained that he’d stopped because he was running ahead of schedule and     didn’t want to cause “bus bunching,” the annoying phenomenon in which customers wait an eternity for a ride only to have two or more buses show up at the     same time.



  Fifty-year-old passenger George Adams was on his way home to 87th and Blackstone in Calumet Heights from his job at a phone book distribution company in     Rosemoor. Adams’s commute involves two buses and a train: in the morning he catches the #87 west to the Red Line, rides south to 95th Street, then takes     the #103 bus a mile and a half southeast to his workplace. He said the morning trip only takes about 30 minutes, but evening rush hour traffic stretches     his travel time to 45 minutes.

  • The CTA is tentatively planning to extend the Red Line to 130th Street, but that project could cost more than $2 billion and would require significant land acquisition.

  • A coalition of groups is pushing for the Metra Electric commuter rail line to be operatedon a rapid-transit-style schedule, which could provide fast, frequent service to some of the same communities the Red Line extension would serve.

  • The city is mulling bus rapid transit on Ashland Avenue from 95th to Irving Park Road. The corridor is projected to nearly double current bus speeds, making the trip up Ashland roughly as fast as the el. But the proposal has faced stiff resistance, and is now on hold.

    Let’s hope the city can get its act together and figure out how to put at least one of these measures in place. The far south side deserves as many good mass transit options as the rest of the city. v