CTA By Text By Brian Tucker

Text in the stop you are at and get a text back with the current bus arrival times - no stop id needed!

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Application Screen Shot

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You find yourself standing at a CTA bus stop wondering, yet again, when the next bus is coming. Use this quick and easy time saver shortly before you leave work, home, or the bar. You'll never spend more than a few minutes waiting on a bus again! Instructions: Send route-number stop-name to (757) 75-BUSES, which is (757) 752-8737. Keep in mind, this service works equally well if you send an email instead of a text, in case you find that easier. For that option, send a request to info@ctabytext.com. It should be formatted in the exact same way as the texting option: route-number stop-name. Examples: Text: 50 north & damen Response: Damen & Milwaukee & North Ave.: [N] 26 min, 10 min [S] 16 min, 1 min Text: 49 full Response: Western & Fullerton: [N] 2 min, 18 min [S] No buses Details You don't need to enter the entire bus stop name, just three or four letters of the name of the cross street to uniquely identify it on the bus route. For example, 49 fullerton and 49 full will return the same result because there are no other stops on route 49 with the letters 'full' in them. If your request matches too many stops, the system will inform you that you need to be more specific. In that case, try entering more than one name from the stop, such as 50 north & damen. Or, simply enter the name of the nearest cross street. For instance, 72 north matches 89 stops on route 72. However, 72 damen matches exactly one stop. Some stops have buses that travel in both directions. Make sure you are looking at the correct arrival times for the direction you want to travel in, designated in the response text as [N] [S] [E] [W] for North South East West respectively. Because routes have turns, sometimes the system includes more than one direction. For example, [NE] indicates a bus driving North and East.

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Public Transit

Website (Mobile-Optimized), Website (Desktop/Laptop), Other, SMS

Free

chicago, bus, sms, cta, email

  • Chicago, IL, US