Crain’s Chicago political columnist Greg Hinz made some valid points in yesterday’s column about current conditions on the CTA, and the need for improvement if local transit ridership is ever going to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Hinz is a transit fan, but he argues that the system, especially the ‘L’, is “a big, crashing mess at the moment, with the tubes filthy and stained with graffiti, elevators and escalators out of operation, cars converted into rolling homeless shelters, rules about eating and smoking seemingly forgotten, and police presence all but invisible.” He asserts that people aren’t going to return to riding buses and train when workplaces reopen if the CTA is “dirty, dark and scary.”