Innovation, Coordination, and Enhancement (ICE) Projects

This project includes operational improvements as follows: #4 - Selected trips to operate to and from 115th/Cottage Grove; #26 - Expanded hours of service and all trips will now begin and end at 103rd/Stony Island; #34 - More frequent midday and evening service; #71 - More frequent midday service with all trips operating to/from 112th/Torrence improving frequency of service south of 73rd Street; #95 - Routes 95E and 95W have been combined into a single route providing more convenient service for customers traveling along 95th Street; #119 - More frequent midday and evening service; and Green Line - More frequent service from Cottage Grove and 63rd/Ashland during AM and PM rush.

The project funds will help ensure critical extra capacity will be provided throughout the CTA network, allowing CTA to address unsafe crowding as ridership continues to recover unevenly throughout the network. CTA will routinely modify/adapt these supplementary services to evolving ridership dynamics and crowding concerns related to the ongoing public health crisis. This project will be used to fund additional frequency of service in areas experiencing excessive crowding. All routes of the CTA bus system will be monitored for excessive crowding and additional service will be added as needed to address issues.

Update of Planning/Scheduling software application used for planning, operations,customer information, and analysis. The Chicago Transit Authority uses Hastus software to optimize the efficiency of bus and rail vehicle schedules and operator assignments system-wide. This software is used for seasonal bus schedule changes, 4x annually, and for rail schedule changes, twice annually. In addition, Hastus is used to generate supplemental schedules associated with school trips and special events. Furthermore, it provides critical reporting for CTA's operations, bidding and budget functions as well as for external stakeholders. Hastus software has been the agency's exclusive transit scheduling tool since 1999.

The scope of work being performed will vary by location, but includes deep clean power washing of all surfaces (all locations), station painting (all locations), lighting upgrades, improved platform amenities, renewal of finishes and fixtures, utility and plumbing line repairs, removal of outdated fixtures and equipment, permanent repair work and updating of old/damaged signage.

Esri will develop an agency-wide GIS Strategic Plan or System of Engagement (SoE) that will provide CTA with a roadmap for future uses of GIS within agency departments. Esri will conduct detailed interviews with business units to establish their GIS needs and identify data, maps and apps that are necessary to achieve their goals. The goal of the SoE is to provide a way for all business units to utilize GIS to improve processes, make work more efficient, retrieve and create authoritative data, effectively utilize applications, provide convenient access to relevant spatial data, and share contributions throughout the agency. The recommended technology with be reusable and the applications will be configurable with little or no custom code.

Learning Management System: The project objective is to implement a cloud based learning management system that provides a unified and comprehensive elearning platform that allows for training registration, approval by management and tracking, with real time reporting.

Esri will develop an agency-wide GIS Strategic Plan or System of Engagement (SoE) that will provide CTA with a roadmap for future uses of GIS within agency departments. Esri will conduct detailed interviews with business units to establish their GIS needs and identify data, maps and apps that arenecessary to achieve their goals. The goal of the SoE is to provide a way for all business units to utilize GIS to improve processes, make work more efficient, retrieve and create authoritative data, effectively utilize applications, provide convenient access to relevant spatial data, and share contributions throughout the agency. The recommended technology with be reusable and the applications will be configurable with little or no custom code.

Purchase and install Rocket Mobile Communications Devices on CTA buses. The CTA bus fleet is currently equipped with Rocket Mobile Communications Devices (“Rockets”). The Rockets power Bus Tracker, Transit Signal Priority, live video feeds, automatic stop announcements, automatic notification of on-bus failures, legal and claims data regarding vehicle location, and the bus arrival sign updates. The Rocket also currently provides GPS (VTRAK) on trains. The Rocket powers GPS tracking and connections to the CTA network (for transmission of both location and operational data) on non-revenue and supervisor vehicles through the use of Toughbooks and tablets.

The project is to enhance CTA’s Safety Management System (SMS) implementation by applying technological innovations to its safety risk management process and collaborating with contracted subject matter experts in transit safety performance and risk reduction.

Professional consulting services for support and development of CTA's Enterprise Application Systems.