Chicago USA Public transportation
The city of Chicago has several options for public transport, possessing the largest transportation system in the whole country. Downtown provides city guests and its citizens with CTA busses and the train system, known as the “EL”. Bus lines are numbered and EL lines are colored. Some of these EL lines are underground. Most train lines work 24-hour per day with overnight or night owl services taking over until 5 am, but only some of the lines.
It is quite easy to gain an understanding of the system of Chicago’s public transport, as CTA maps are sold at all the train stations, airports, and visitor information centers. You can buy a CTA card at any CTA train station in order to ride on the bus or EL. Bus rides cost $ 1.75 ($ 2 if you pay cash)and subways will cost you $ 2.
Unfortunately, you can not buy fare cards on busses, so it will be indispensable to pay cash if you want to use this type of public transport.
CTA visitors passes are also available for between one and five days. It is really convenient, because it allows you rides on all CTA busses and trains during the certain period of time.
The CTA offers as well an extremely useful and profitable “trip planner” for the guest of the city, which you can find on its website.
Touching the point of the city taxes, there is simply a pile of them within the city of Chicago. You can hail one on each corner of the city. But you should pay attention on the restriction to pick up the passengers at bus stops and in certain restricted areas.
A few of the leading city taxes companies are:
- Yellow Cab
- Flash Cab
- American United Cab Company
During the summer season a Free Trolley System operates in the Downtown, Connecting Chicago’s most stunning cultural attractions, visitor destinations, and shopping areas.
In general, Chicago’s traffic is not as bad as in other major cities, though parking is quite expensive and hard to find. Rush hours exist within the city central parts as well, so it is advisable to use train lines or trolley busses at this very period of the day.