145, 148 new routing

[nextstopchicago]

The bus tracker itself carries a message saying the 145 and 148 are being permanently rerouted. The message is near the upper left of the tracker screen, and if you click on it, you get an in-window box with more details. (Note that I've marked these two routes for automatic inclusion when the tracker comes up. You may not get the message if you don't mark one or both of the routes.)

I can't find any other mention of this re-rout. I don't see it among CTA press releases.

The new routing has the northbound going west on Wilson, but turning north on Ravenswood (rather than continuing west to Damen, north to Lawrence, then south on Ravenswood). The bus lays over there, then continues north to Lawrence, east to Ashland and south to Wilson. So they've cut out the loop that took it to the Damen Brown Line station. I don't think this is much of a loss. Northbound, I saw relatively few customers stay on past Paulina, and the change knocks a few minutes off a run, so it should get buses circling faster, or else help them maintain the existing schedule. It also means I can get coffee and a newspaper while walking TO the bus, which is a big change for me.