Watchdog group: CTA overstated bus mileage reports for decades

The CTA overstated bus mileage reports as far back as 1982, allowing it to receive up to $150 million of additional federal taxpayer dollars, according to a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group. Cause of Action’s report “A bus tour of Chicago-style fraud” alleges the CTA inflated the annual number of miles reported to the Federal Transit Administration for its in-service buses. The group based its allegation on a 2007 audit in which it says the CTA overreported the miles, allowing it to receive between $1 million and $5 million in extra funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation that year. The …