CTA will continue investing in the rail car fleet maintenance program. This program is intended to correct critical defects and operational deficiencies discovered during inspections of rail cars. CTA’s scheduled maintenance program consists of planned work to maintain rail car performance. While major overhaul work is performed on a quarterly and mid-life cycle basis, additional focused maintenance work is required at certain intervals of the car’s life, outside of the overhaul cycle. When certain maintenance tasks are needed to repair or replace a component before it reaches its end of useful life and fails with an increased frequency, specific component campaign work is conducted.

The major systems that must be maintained on CTA’s rail cars include the following:
Propulsion, Safety, HVAC, Braking, Battery/Charging, Signage, Doors, Windows, Traction Power, RCA, Lighting, Automatic Train Control, Communication , Suspension, Car body/Structure. CTA’s Rail Terminal Shops are responsible for the maintenance that may result in replacement of a variety of components such as: traction motors, HVAC components and packages, lights, public address system components, trucks, wheels assemblies, hydraulic units, couplers, drawbars, and numerous other mechanical and electrical components. CTA’s Heavy Maintenance Shop is responsible for the rebuild/repair/manufacture of components for the railcar fleet such as wheel assemblies, truck assemblies, traction motors, air comfort units, electronic devices, control units, and associated devices including solid state and microprocessor-controlled units.