Fall & Summer 2025 Problem Statements
To date, CTA has kicked off one pilot project from the 2025 Problem Statements.
Mitigating the impact of smoking: CTA is collaborating with Sandbox Carbon on a pilot to install air quality sensors and activated carbon filters on eight 5000 series rail cars on the red line. The sensors will collect data for two months as a baseline before installing the filters. The railcars will operate with filters installed for eight months.
Translation in rail stations: For this problem statement, CTA sought a solution that would allow rail station attendants to welcome and assist riders speaking languages other than English. While several proposals were received to address this challenge, CTA did not advance any projects to the pilot stage. CTA remains committed to identifying solutions to providing multi-lingual support to riders, and continues to explore opportunities to make CTA more welcoming and easier-to-use for all riders, including riders who speak a language other than English.
2024 Problem Statements
To date, CTA has kicked off three pilot projects and completed one project from the 2024 Problem Statements:
Customer Experience: CTA is conducting two pilots with Global Display Solutions and Papercast to provide 10 e-paper screens each (for a total of 20 screens), which were installed at 17 at bus stops across Chicago. These screens display countdowns to upcoming bus arrivals, service alert information, and more. For riders who cannot read the screen, the displays come equipped with text-to-speech buttons to read the information aloud.
Safety: CTA completed a pilot in February 2026 with STV and Derq to implement Camera-based AI detection of Right-of-Way Intrusions at Ashland (Green/Pink) and Cicero (Blue) stations on the ‘L’. The cameras automatically identified people and large objects that entered the right of way.
A second pilot with Sensonic is ongoing to test their Right-of-Way Intrusion Detection solution, which uses fiber optic cables to detect the vibrations associated with people walking on the Right-of-Way. The pilot test area is between Western and the Paulina St bridge on the Forrest Park branch of the Blue Line.
Process: For this problem statement, CTA sought solutions to automatically monitor the conditions of the various assets such a bus stop signs and shelters at bus stops over time and report when conditions change. CTA received several proposals to address this challenge, but will not be moving forward with a pilot.