The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), host system for the 2013 APTA Annual Meeting, has scheduled the following technical tours for Tuesday, Oct. 1, and Wednesday, Oct. 2. Attendees can sign up at the host desk in the registration area during the meeting.

Oct. 1 Tours
Chicago DOT Bike Share/­Protected Bike Lanes. The Chicago Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 sets forth a strategy to achieve Mayor Rahm ­Emanuel’s goal of making Chicago the best big city for bicycling in America. Since 2011, Chicago DOT has built more than 60 miles of new bikeways, half of which are protected with barriers or ­buffers. Divvy, a Chicago DOT initiative, is the city’s new bike sharing system, planned to grow to more than 400 planned stations. Participants will get on bikes for this tour.

CTA Control Center Tour. This facility houses the communications equipment CTA uses to interact with and monitor all rail and bus routes. Inside the control center, CTA staff ­coordinates service restoration, emergency response, and day-to-day services.

Amtrak Control Center. Tour Amtrak’s Control Center, where system employees manage and dispatch Amtrak and other rail traffic in the city. Center operations involve interconnections with territories owned by Metra, and the Norfolk Southern, Burlington ­Northern Santa Fe, and Canadian National railways.

Metra 47th Street Rehab Facility. Visitors will see how Metra performs complete gut rehabs on 40-year-old rail cars at this facility.

Historic Chicago El Tour. Explore Chicago’s architecture from the unique perspective of the elevated trains and station platforms. Participants in this evening tour will learn about the history of the famous “L” system and how it has shaped the development of the Loop.

Oct. 2 Tour
Pace Bus on Shoulder. For more than 20 years, Pace Suburban Bus has offered express bus service from the southwest suburbs to downtown via I-55—a ­heavily traveled road with high levels of congestion and slow travel speeds. Pace has operated its buses on the I-55 highway shoulder since November 2011, reporting steady improvement in travel times and increasing ridership.

The technical tour of the CTA Control Center will allow visitors to see the communications equipment the agency uses to interact and monitor all its bus and rail routes.