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Acting CTA president emphasizes stability, outreach and faster responses to rider complaints including smoking
Summary
Acting CTA President Nora Liersson told the board she will focus on operational stability, outreach and faster, targeted responses to rider complaints, citing the chatbot as a key tool and naming smoking on trains as a prioritized issue.
Nora Liersson, acting president of the Chicago Transit Authority, told the board she intends to focus on operational stability and improved rider experience during a leadership transition. Liersson said she has toured garages and transit sites, is meeting elected officials and plans new outreach to employees; she cited the agency’s chatbot as a growing source of actionable complaints and said CTA will pilot faster, more targeted responses to certain reports.
Liersson identified smoking on trains as a frequent complaint raised by riders and the ADA advisory committee and said the agency is developing a targeted strategy using chatbot data to deploy resources more quickly to problem locations. She described the chatbot’s new features that let riders report railcar or station information and said the agency will coordinate with the control center and security staff to respond in near‑real time where possible.
The ADA advisory committee (chaired by Laura Salsman) and the Citizens Advisory Board (chaired by Tanya Ravey) reported themes that include accessibility walkthroughs before new station openings, sidewalk and station maintenance concerns, ways to improve bus stop accessibility and stronger coordination with city agencies for non‑CTA responsibilities. Both advisory groups emphasized that reliable service and predictable staffing are crucial to accessibility and rider perceptions of safety.
Liersson said the CTA is exploring ways to expand shelter bed capacity available to outreach teams to improve the effectiveness of social‑service referrals and reduce repeat contact with unsheltered people on transit. She also noted an employee communications app launching soon to improve two‑way communication with CTA’s roughly 11,000 employees.
Board members praised the outreach and suggested further coalition building with city agencies, schools and community groups to address perceived safety and to boost ridership. No board votes were taken on these items at the meeting.
