CHICAGO — Days after the Chicago Transit Authority suspended its use of X, formerly known as Twitter, some riders have stepped in to fill the gap.
One of them is CJ Black, a software engineer who runs a technology consulting firm. He created a replacement X account, @AlertsCTA, to continue providing real-time transit alerts.
“When I saw [the CTA announcement], I felt as though it’s something that should exist, whether the CTA likes it or not,” Black said. “And so, I thought it would be useful if I made a replacement.”
He created a bot to automatically tweet updates pulled from the CTA’s RSS feed, a tool that automatically delivers updates from websites, like news or alerts, all in one place.
“The RSS feed is processed every five minutes, and anytime it notices a new alert, it just tweets it out,” Black explained. The automated system, hosted via Amazon Web Services, costs him only five cents a month to operate.
The transit agency announced Friday it was deactivating its main account @cta and its service alerts account @ctaalert, saying in a statement that the platform “no longer provides the value it once did” for communicating with riders. Instead, riders should now check the CTA’s website or use an app or a third-party map for real-time transit updates.
Block Club reached out to the CTA, which has no further comment about alternative alert accounts created by riders. Spokesperson Maddie Kilgannon said CTA’s statement about Twitter/X earlier will remain unchanged as the agency still consider the platform failed to provide timely alert to riders.
Fabio Gottlicher, co-founder of Commuters Take Action, a local advocacy group for transit riders, supported the CTA’s decision in a statement on Monday.
“We believe this is potentially the result of the CTA no longer being able to utilize the X API [Application Programming Interface] at no cost to post updates, and we are supportive of the CTA’s decision to not give any money to the platform,” Gottlicher said.
But Black criticized the CTA’s rationale for leaving X. Agency officials also said recent platform changes caused delays and buried posts containing links, making it less effective for real-time alerts.
“Twitter doesn’t delay posts that have links in them,” Black said. “What Twitter will do is they don’t boost posts with links as much as those that don’t have links. But if you follow the account, the post will always show up.”
Black runs his alert account entirely on the free version of X, which limits users to 17 posts every 24 hours and 280 characters per post. According to Black, this limit is sufficient to share nearly all daily alerts. On rare occasions when alerts exceed the cap, his system automatically posts the remaining updates after the 24-hour reset.
He argued that the free platform’s limitations were not a valid reason for the CTA to stop posting alerts on X. Based on his calculations, the CTA’s previous @ctaAlert account averaged 16.8 alerts daily—just under the free limit. Over 642 days of operation, the account posted about 10,800 alerts.
He suggested the CTA manage its service alerts more efficiently.
“For example, they send a separate alert every night for maintenance happening over several nights, when they could just consolidate it into one post,” he said.
Despite his frustrations, Black emphasized his respect for the CTA’s role in the city. He sometimes commutes via the CTA and has a view of the Brown Line and Metra trains from his office.
“The CTA is this really incredible public service the city’s been able, over the course of a century, to put together,” he said. “But seeing them pull back from being more transparent … I found really frustrating.”
Black said many people use X to share experiences of bus and train delays and ghost trains — and rely on the platform to get updates from the agency.
“By making [alerts] only live on a section of the CTA website that no one’s going to remember … they’re failing to communicate with riders effectively,” he said.
For Black, creating the account and automation bot was a quick project—it took him just two hours—but one he finds meaningful. Since its creation last Friday, the alternative account has gained 435 followers and received positive feedback from riders.
“It was fun to make,” he said. “It was something that I specifically had a skill set that allowed me to do something about.”
As riders navigate ongoing service challenges, Black hopes his efforts will encourage the CTA to improve transparency and accountability.
“I think the CTA has a duty to meet riders and taxpayers where they are,” he said.
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