The city of Chicago and the ­Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) are delighted to host the 2013 APTA Annual Meeting, and we look forward to welcoming you and your colleagues to our great city.

Our industry faces myriad challenges, from the need to address aging infrastructure within the confines of the current funding environment to finding ways to create a 21st-century transit experience.

But we also have countless opportunities to strengthen the role public transportation plays in our cities and towns, from transit-oriented development to new technologies that can improve daily commutes.

Efficient and affordable public transportation has a direct correlation not only to our economic competitiveness and reduced energy dependence, but to our communities’ quality of life. Our main challenge as transportation professionals is to make a good product even better.

The APTA Annual Meeting provides a great forum. A look at the list of general sessions, meetings, and technical tours shows that the meeting will cover a number of timely and relevant issues. The Annual Meeting is a chance to connect one-on-one with our public transit colleagues to share best practices and hard-learned lessons, to swap stories and to engage in conversations that spark ideas and inspiration.

For those of you visiting Chicago for the first time, we hope you are able to enjoy some of the many attractions for which our city has earned international distinction. From our vibrant, diverse neighborhoods and innovative culinary experiences to our world-class cultural institutions and unparalleled Lake ­Michigan shoreline, Chicago has a great deal to offer.

And of course, we also hope you’ll find time to experience and learn more about public transportation in and around Chicago. Our three regional service boards—the CTA, Metra (commuter rail), and Pace (suburban bus)—carry more than two million passengers on an average weekday, with more than 75 percent carried by CTA trains and buses.

Some of you may arrive downtown via the CTA’s Blue Line from O’Hare International Airport or the Orange Line from Midway Airport. We hope you’ll also experience firsthand the steps CTA is taking, under the leadership of transit-focused Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to modernize and improve Chicago’s public transit, including our fleet of new and refurbished buses, our state-of-the-art 5000-series rail cars, our popular Train Tracker and Bus Tracker screens and mobile apps, and our modern and architecturally significant Morgan Street ‘L’ station and rehabbed/expanded Grand Avenue Red Line subway station. And we invite you to enjoy an iconic Chicago experience: a trip on our historic Loop elevated structure—the ‘L’ made famous in countless movies and TV shows.

I look forward to meeting many of you personally and to a productive and informative 2013 Annual Meeting. See you in September.