The CTA will use its share of a $1.5 billion mass transit bailout from Springfield to provide 24-hour service on the Orange Line to Midway Airport and provide more frequent and cleaner bus and rail service, Acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen said Thursday.

“We’re going to look to expand our Orange Line service to 24-hour service overnight. We’ve been looking at that for a long time, hoping to expand our Orange Line service… to reach Midway Airport [at all hours] and continue to make the CTA and Chicago the economic engine that it is,” Leerhsen told the Sun-Times.

Leerhsen’s ambitious plan also would expand — from 20 to 30 routes — the so-called “Frequent Bus Network” that provides service “every ten minutes or better” between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Shorter “headways,” the interval between tr

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