Tried the 5am bus once to beat traffic, turns out the 6:40 train gets me to Union Station in 22 minutes flat
The bus sat through 14 red lights on Western Ave while the train runs above all of it, so now I want to know which routes in Chicago actually beat the rails on a weekday morning.
The 151 up Sheridan beats the Red Line most mornings if you're headed downtown, less crowded too. Brown Line from Kimball is a crapshoot but the express buses on Irving Park saved me more than once.