Ghost Bus

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As of October 2024, this site is no longer being updated.
The raw data behind the project is still available for independent analysis.
See this GitHub page for information on how to access the raw data.

What is a Ghost Bus?

You’re waiting to catch your bus. The schedule app says it’ll be there in two minutes. You wait, and no bus comes. Now you’re stranded. Should you spring for an expensive rideshare? Should you start walking?

"If there's one thing most Chicagoans can agree on nowadays, it's that CTA service has become unacceptably unreliable"

-- Streetsblog Chicago, June 22nd, 2022

If you’re a regular rider of the CTA, odds are you’ve been “ghosted” by your bus. While the pandemic put an understandable strain on transit systems, these days Chicago residents have commitments that require travel, and the CTA is struggling to keep up. Most importantly, the CTA's official schedules do not represent this change in service, leading to confusion, delays, and a general sense of distrust in our city’s public transit.

Ghost Bus is a Chi Hack Night project conducted by volunteer data scientists, engineers, and researchers. Our project compares open source real-time bus tracking data to the CTA’s official schedules to identify gaps in service across Chicago’s bus lines.