Pay phones may soon disappear from bus and train stops in Chicago.
An executive with Pacific Telemanagement Services says the Chicago Transit Authority is not renewing its contract with the company.
Mike Rossi says his company currently provides nearly 180 pay phones at CTA stops across the city.
ROSSI: They’re a critical public service to a degree given, they provide 911 access, they provide a lot of toll free usage that is, um, originated from these pay phones.
Rossi says the CTA doesn’t pay anything in fees or maintence for the phones, and his company pays a portion of its phone revenue to the transit agency.
But as more and more people ditch landlines for cell phones, Rossi says calls from payphones have dropped. There were 79,126 calls from CTA station payphones in July of 2008, according to data provided by the company. By July of this year, that number dropped to 33,656.
Rossi says the transit agency simply doesn’t want to bother going through the process of extending its contract with PTS.
In a Sept. 14 letter from the CTA provided to WBEZ by the company, the transit agency says it will begin disconnecting and removing phones on its own.
A CTA spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a request for comment.